Why wont my transfer tape stick to the vinyl

Q: What to do when vinyl wont stick?

If your vinyl wont stick to your surface Try blowing a haridryer over your decal (not too hot or too close) and that should hopefully help the glue to become more tacky and stick better to your surface. Once your decal is applied properly it should last for a long time, without any need to do anything else to it.

Question

Agree above on darcshadow. You always peel the backing away from the decal, You don't lift the decal from the backing.. I always send those instructions, to my buyers, If you lift the vinyl from the backing, you can actually lift the backing paper stuck right to the decal also. And you don't want backing paper stuck to your decal. Squeegee the front good and peel away. the backing. If it is still too hard to peel away, have you cut the decal too deep and smashed it right down into the backing. If so, back off on the force and recut it.

Table of Contents Show

Prepare your surface
If your decal is not sticking to your transfer tape
If your vinyl won’t stick to your surface
What to do when vinyl won't stick?

Watch my video here for tips on how to pick the right materials, prepare your surface and tricks for when your decal won’t come off the backing paper, or if you’re having issues sticking vinyl to a surface.

Or check out some written tips below…

Prepare your surface

First of all, make sure your surface is ready.

If you’re using wood it needs to be sanded and/or smooth with no rough bits left, and clean the wood of any shavings once it is sanded. The vinyl should still stick if there are some bumps but you won’t get as smooth of a finish. If you have a non-porous wood it may be best to stain or paint it, but do leave some time for it to dry and cure first before applying the decal.

If you want your vinyl to last on your wood a long time, some much more in-depth information on how to achieve this can be found here: https://blog.signwarehouse.com/how-to-apply-vinyl-on-wood/

Perspex, Mirrors, Metal and other flat smooth surfaces are much easier. If they’re brand new and aren’t likely to have had any treatments or cleaning products on them yet then you shouldn’t really need to do anything and can apply straight away.

If you do think they may need a thorough clean then either use a multipurpose or glass cleaning spray, or if you need to get rid of oilier/greasier marks then there is the option of using cleaning alcohol although don’t use that on anything that it may cause damage to.

If your decal is not sticking to your transfer tape

The best technique for getting your transfer tape to stick is flipping over the design and rubbing the back of the paper, and then pulling away gently and slowly, pushing down the letters again if they don’t stick to the tape.

If it’s hot where you are however, the transfer tape can sometimes lose some of its tack and the vinyl won’t come off the backing paper with it - if this is the case, stick the decal in the fridge or a cold place for a while and hopefully that should help.

If your vinyl won’t stick to your surface

So you managed to get the vinyl off the transfer tape, it’s placed on your chosen surface but you now can’t lift the transfer tape without bringing the letters with it.

Sometimes it does just take a bit of patience! But if you’re losing your patience, in opposition to my last tip, heat can actually help with this. Try blowing a haridryer over your decal (not too hot or too close) and that should hopefully help the glue to become more tacky and stick better to your surface.

Once your decal is applied properly it should last for a long time, without any need to do anything else to it. Some people do seal their decals but I haven’t personally done that in the past so would recommend doing further research into that if it is something you want to do.

If you have any other issues with applying vinyl that you would like me to cover, drop a comment below.

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Cricut beginners — this one's for you! Are you struggling with using transfer tape on vinyl? We have ten tips to hopefully help you get successful transfers.

1. When applying transfer tape, start at one end and slowly place it down.

It can be so tempting to just want to throw the transfer tape on carelessly— been there! When you're applying it, I like to start at one end, push down a little and then slowly apply the rest as you make your way down. Slow is key here! This way you will get everything applied evenly. If you don't get it applied evenly, then you're at risk for having kinks in the tape and the vinyl. It also may not apply correctly onto the vinyl and you can potentially risk your project. The end goal here is to get your tape applied evenly on the vinyl so that you can successfully transfer it to your blank.

This tip works for both when you apply the tape on top of the vinyl (as seen above) and also when you're applying it onto your surface.

2. Burnish your tape on the front AND back using a scraper tool.

After you've got your tape on your design, make sure you are burnishing (rubbing) on the front and back of the vinyl/transfer tape combination. This will help will getting the vinyl to stick to the tape.

3. When removing the tape, pull down at a 45-degree angle.

This has helped me SO much! First, pick a corner and remove at a 45-degree angle. You'll obviously start this way since you're starting in a corner but I like to continue using this angle as I'm removing it.

4. Rock your 45-degree angle back and forth (left-to-right/right-to-left) as you go.

As I'm removing the paper that the paper that the vinyl was adhered too, I like to gently rock the 45-degree angle back and forth slowly. I don't really know why this helps to be honest, but I've found it to be extremely helpful!

5. Pull down tightly, keep your paper almost level with your surface.

If I had to pick one tip to share with you today, this would be one of the most important in my book. Do you see how I'm pulling the transfer tape across the chalkboard? Now that we've got our 45-degree angle and we are rocking back and forth slowly, it's also important to pull tightly, almost just dragging it across the surface you are working on. This has helped me a lot! Again, you can use this tip for when you are removing the paper backing from the vinyl and also when you are removing the tape from your surface (as seen above).

6. Save your scrap vinyl to practice!

When I first got started with transfer tape, I was terrible at it and I didn't really understand it either. I have had a Cricut for nearly five years now, so I've had a lot of practice working with transfer tape! I really believe the more you practice, the easier it will become. So all that to say, save your scrap pieces of vinyl and practice, practice, practice! You can apply vinyl on just about anything — maybe keep a cardboard box and practice applying on that. You've got this!

7. Strong Grip vs. Regular

If you didn't know already, Cricut carries two brands of transfer tape— Strong Grip and just regular transfer tape. The Strong Grip is for really thick, heavy duty vinyl that they carry— like glitter vinyl. Sometimes you'll find that the glitter vinyl comes with the transfer tape! If not, you'll need to get Strong Grip. But for basically every other kind of vinyl, use the regular transfer tape! If you apply Strong Grip on top of regular vinyl, you may not be able to get it off. I've definitely done this before and ruined my vinyl.

8. Re-use your transfer tape

Maybe this is common sense but I didn't know this in the beginning and I threw away A LOT of transfer tape. Now I continue to reuse my transfer tape until it's barely sticky anymore!

9. Try different kinds of transfer tape!

To be honest, Cricut transfer tape is all I have been using the past few years. But there are other options and there are other kinds of transfer tape too (some are clear, some have grids, some are more like masking tape, etc). I've also seen people using press-n-seal or contact paper as transfer tape. You just have to find what works for you, so start small (i.e. maybe don't buy a 100 ft roll of transfer tape until you know you like it) and make sure to practice, practice, practice!

10. Slow and steady wins the race

We've talked about this a few other times in the past nine tips, but really I can't emphasize this enough— go slow! This is especially true when you are working with intricate vinyl designs but if you're a beginner, I can't emphasize this enough.

So there you have it! Ten tips for working with vinyl and transfer tape. With these tips, you can use all of them or some of them. Just try it out and see what works for you! I almost always use all of these though in my vinyl projects and they have been a game changer for me.

If you're more of a visual person, here's one of our YouTube videos explaining the differences in Cricut's transfer tape and also showing you how to apply transfer tape. I cover some of the tips in the video too!

Happy crafting, friends!

-Courteney

2 comments

Hello Bella,

It sounds like maybe the heat is a bit too high. I would try lowering the heat just a tad and trying again.

Craft-e-Corner June 15, 2022

I am using vinyl and Cricut transfer tape for t-shirts. I have my Cricut press and am using the proper settings however, the transfer tape is not lifting and leaving the design on the shirt.

Its kind of melting down into the design. And if I try to lift the transfer tape it pulls at the vinyl leaving the vinyl stretched out and or not sticking to the shirt. I need help!

What to do when vinyl won't stick?

If your vinyl won't stick to your surface Try blowing a haridryer over your decal (not too hot or too close) and that should hopefully help the glue to become more tacky and stick better to your surface. Once your decal is applied properly it should last for a long time, without any need to do anything else to it.

wont transfer tape stick vinyl