How To Make A Vinyl Suncatcher // Cricut Design Space Craft Ideas Class

1. Introduction: Hi, I'm Sarah. I run a vinyl decal business and I love to teach people how to make and sell decals too. Check out my other courses, if you would like to learn how to make decals from scratch or start your own vinyl or SVG business. In this course, I'm gonna be showing you how to make a vinyl suncatcher. You can put these on your window and in direct sunlight they will catch the sun and create a rainbow. They also just look super cute on a window and you can make all sorts of different varieties and designs. Whether you just want to make them for yourself or you want to make them to sell. They are static cling and they don't use any adhesives so they can be removed and reused time and time again. To make vinyl sun catchers you will need a cutting machine such as a Cricut or a cameo. And I will tell you where to get the rest of the materials within the course. I will be demonstrating how to create the design in Cricut design space and cut on a Cricut Air 2. But other design software and other machines can just as easily be used. I will add all of the links you will need in the resources section. So don't forget to download that document. And for your project, you will make your very own vinyl sun catcher. I would love to see a picture of it in the discussion section. Once you're finished. 2. What you need: So to start, let's just go over what you need in order to make your vinyl suncatchers. So first you will need a cutting machine that can cut material that is slightly thicker than vinyl. Because the secret to making these suncatchers is this stuff. It is window privacy film. The stuff that you put up to block people from seeing through. And it's specifically the rainbow type. I will add a link of where you can find it in the resources section. Then as well as that you will also need some vinyl, any type of permanent vinyl will be fine. I will also put a link to a list of vinyl suppliers, in the resources so that you can make sure you're getting the best deal Wherever you are based. Just a note to say that you can also make suncatchers with printable clear. sticker vinyl or sticker paper as well. Or you can just make shapes out of the window film. You don't necessarily need to add a design on top, but if you want to make one like mine and follow along in the course, I'm making it with vinyl. Therefore, you will also need some transfer tape to be able to apply the vinyl as well. Then you'll also need scissors to, then that is really all you need. But there are some other tools that can help you, such as a weeding tool, a vinyl scrap collector and a squeegee. Although these are not requirements, again, I'll add links to everything I use in the document in the resources section. So don't forget to download that. And then we can get on with making the design. 3. Create Your Design: In this lesson, I will show you how to create basic design on cricket design space feel some catch-up. Although you can also do this on silhouette studio, on Procreate or any other design software that you're confident with. And then you can just upload your design into your coding software to cut. The first thing to consider is the size of your design. I tried a few different sizes just as a test. This one was way too small. It wasn't really catching much of the light, so it wasn't making rainbows very well. And then this one just look too big on my window to be honest, it took up to material. So I decided to go with a size kind of in-between those two. But you may want to do a little bit of experimenting yourself to see what works for you. Once you decide on that, then you can either make the design from scratch or upload a ready-made SVG or design. You want a design that has a lot of negative space so that it lets sunlight through. But obviously you don't want anything too intricate either as that will make it difficult to apply onto the window film. I think the more simplistic the design the buret looks. To be honest, you don't really need to go overboard. Again, I have a list of lots of different places you can find SVGs elements and fonts. I will link to that in the document in the resources section. I'm gonna make my own design from scratch using pre bought fonts and elements. So I'll just open up cricket design space. I'm just gonna do a quote with some lines around it. So I'm gonna do let this on China and I'm just using my system funds. I will link to both of the funds. So I'm going to use in the resources section if you want to use those to have that as the center. Do the other bits of wording around it. This is obviously just a really quick design. I'm sure you can come up with something a lot more creative, but it is just a case of playing around with things until you are happy with them, then I'm just going to add some lines. To do that. I usually add a square, unlock it, and then make it thinner. I'm just going to add those as beams around the outside. Just duplicate it a few times until I get a design how I want it and fill up all of the extra space. As I said, you want a design with as much negative space as possible. But obviously you also want to be able to read what it says and have a fun design on there as well. I'm just getting all the sizing right. Donald, make it too small either. It's too intricate to cut there. Once I'm happy with that, I'm gonna select all and touch. Then you want to put a shape around it. You could either do an oval or a square or any other kind of shape. You won't really, that's going to cover the whole design and you think will work. Just move it underneath and change the color to see what that looks like. I do quite like that. I do think it works quite well. But actually, I am going to use the offset feature to do something that is the same shape as that designed. The offset. Just pull it up and tell us all connected, there's no gaps in the shape behind. Once you're happy with the outline, how big it is around the design. And you just press Apply again, change the color so you can see you won't have this feature in the app, unfortunately, you will need to do it on a separate program. You have between the two. I think I liked the offset the best. Assuming though just as the last check, the letters on all joined up. So I will actually need to weld the design now I'm completely happy with it. That's fine. I'll be stuck together. When I did, when I cut it, I'm gonna make it the size it's going to be, which is around four inches wide, I think is a good size. Then I'm gonna press make it, send it to the mat. And it will separate into two maths. 4. Cut And Make Your Suncatcher: Once your designers created, the next step is to cut both your vinyl and your window film. So let me show you how to do that in this lesson, we're just going to start where we left off with the design. I'm going to cut that out of pink holographic vinyl by Tech Craft. I'll leave a link to that in the document. Just using premium vinyl holographic 3D texture to cover. Then I'm going to cut the window film. So I didn't want to waste any, so I just cut the right size that I need. But to waste even less, you probably want to do multiple designs at the same time. And then you can fit them in close together. Minimize the wastage, make sure that it's fully secure on the mat. You want to stick it down with the like a plastic backing on it. So I stick it down with that at the back. And then you're not gonna leave any adhesive off your mat on the window film itself. It'll just be on that cover. Also maybe use a brayer roller to make sure it's fully stocked out if you have one or just press down with a squeegee or your hand. And then to cut this, make sure you're on the right number. To call it, I use medium card stock, the 80 pounds one. I also press more as well just to make sure it definitely goes through. And then set that cutting, make sure it doesn't fold up when it's gone into the rollers and your machine because it is quite thick material. Then peel that off. You want it to have cut all the way through, then take the film off the mat. You may need to peel them out away from the film. If it's sticking a lot, then it's just a case of weeding your final design. Make sure you don't lose any of your little dots or the design around it. And get rid of the in-betweens of the letters. Add some transfer tape. I'm using grid transferred table. It really doesn't need to be graded because you can align it up with the shape behind pillar backing off. Make sure you are sticking it to the right side so you don't want to stick it to the side with the cover on it, stick it on the front. And then it's just a case of lining up. I did have to fold it back a bit to help him Straighten. Lining it up. With the edges of the design. It should be fairly easy if you've used the offset feature because it's the same shape, it's quite easy to line up. And then once you're happy with it, use your squeegee to push down the vinyl onto your window film and then just peel the transfer tape off. It might need to do this really slowly and carefully because it may pull up the vinyl, but this did stick quite well. And it wasn't too much of an issue. There it is. There's your sun catcher done. You just peel the backing off, done with it. Then you can just use a little bit of water, these water sprayer, but some water on the back of it to stick it to your window. And it should just take on really easily like so. And then when the sun shines through directly, you'll get a lovely rainbow pattern like this. Is it done? These will be grateful kids rooms in particular classrooms. Anywhere you wanted to make a bit more colorful, basically. 5. Start selling: Maybe you just want to create these some catches for yourself and for friends and family. However, if you want to sell them and let me just go over a few tips and ideas for you in this lesson. The first is to give your customers store instructions of how to apply their sun catcher. You could either make a video of how to apply them or write out simple step-by-step instructions. They really aren't too difficult to add to a window. So hopefully most customers should be fine this to preempt any questions and will save you so much time. Also make them aware that it won't always create a rainbow. It does need to be somewhere that gets direct sunlight and it won't work when there are clouds. I would make this clear in a few different places on your selling page so that you can try and avoid negative reviews. When pricing your son catches take into account not only the cost of your materials, but also the time it is taken you to layer your sticker, as well as any extra packaging costs. I would recommend these types of plastic packaging bags for items like this with a back-end card in there to maybe your instructions. If you're adding them, have a look at competitors to see what they're charging for there so that you're not undercutting or overpricing. But don't just copy what they're selling those for. When you're creating designs and make sure you're looking for designs that are trending or that customers are actually looking for. Use tools like Google Trends, etsy search or E rank to do this. But avoid anything that is copyrighted. Hopefully that gives you lots of ideas and inspiration and plenty to think about. If you do one to start selling your creations. 6. Congratulations! What's Next?: Congratulations, you have completed the course and have hopefully made a vinyl, suncatcher of your very own. Be sure to add a picture of your creation in the discussion section. I can't wait to see what you've made. Bonus points to anyone who shares a picture of the rainbow it makes in their room as well. If you do want to sell these alongside decals, but you don't already have a business, then you may want to check out my course how to start a vinyl business next. Or if you do already have a business, but you're not quite sure that you are charging the right prices. Then do also check out my how to price your vinyl decals and handmade crafts course as well. If you enjoyed the course, I will be forever grateful if you could leave a review. Please also follow me here on Skillshare as well as on Tiktok on YouTube for even more detail tutorials and inspiration. Thanks so much for watching.