July 9, 2020: Name Decals

Products Used

• TeckWrap Craft metallic brushed holographic vinyl
• Frisco Craft transfer tape (12in by 5ft)
• 1/4″ Satin Ribbon

As I look through Instagram each day for inspiration, I see hundred of personalized name decals for cups, laptops, phones, and whatever else people wish to personalize. I’ve been intrigued by these decals for a while, so I decided to try my hand at designing some.

For my first attempt, I stayed simple, using fonts to create the design.The stylized circle around each name is the lowercase e using the font Walkway Bonus from DaFont. This font is free only for personal use when downloaded from DaFont, so unfortunately this design is not one I can eventually sell if I choose to do so. The names are in a script-style font (unfortunately I cannot remember which one).

For the script font, I usually prefer the look of the font when the letters are attached, so I had to put in a little bit of work in Cricut Design Space to get the effect I desired. To get font to connect in DS, there are a few steps to follow:

• Type the word using the text tool. Be sure you have the word/phrase you want, because after this step, you will not be able to edit the text.
• With the text layer selected, ungroup the letters of the word. Each letter will become its own layer.

• Move each letter next to each other, slightly touching. This is where you can move the letters as far or close as you’d like.
• Select all letters of your word, then use the weld tool to link them together into one continuous word. You can now resize it to your preference.

After completing these steps for each name, I resized and slightly tilted each one to fit within the circle. Then all there was left to do was cut, weed, and put on some transfer tape. You may notice that I added a small piece of ribbon to each design underneath the transfer tape. I like to call this the easy pull tab. I don’t know about others, but I like to keep my nails longer and painted, which can sometimes make it hard to peel away things like transfer tape. To help accommodate others with the same preferences, I add the easy pull tab so they don’t have to fight and struggle to pull up the transfer tape with their design.

All in all, I think these decals look quite nice. I even went ahead and affixed one with my own name to a pretty, opalescent cup I found in the Target clearance section last month. Unfortunately for me, a bit of the opalescent coating came off with the transfer tape. I’m not too terribly butt hurt over it though considering the cup only cost $2. It’s still pretty and I’m probably the only one who will ever notice it in person…because I’m crazy picky like that at times (as many who know me would say).