Difficult Duck

Click HERE or scroll down to check out the ‘making-of’ process video on YouTube

Products Used

Duckies!! Let’s Celebrate with a Difficult Duck!

We have baby duckies! The pond in our apartment complex is host to many mallard ducks and each spring we see an influx of baby ducklings. The first ducklings of the season were just spotted yesterday and we were super excited. I made this decal to honor the ducklings and their happy parents.

Little did I know that this difficult duck would indeed be quite a difficult duck. I’ve made other designs from FortunaSVG before, most recently the fleur de lis for Mardi Gras and the moon fairy. Knowing that their designs are intended to be for large format, I cut this difficult duck at 11.5 inches wide (the widest Cricut can cut). It was still a difficult duck!

Cut Settings

As always, remember that the specified settings are specific to the Cricut Maker. For a reference guide to cut pressures for each Cricut setting, check out this handy chart:

materials-to-cut.pdf Download

Shimmer glitter black vinyl: holographic sparkle vinyl setting with less pressure
holographic chrome mint green vinyl: holographic sparkle vinyl setting with default pressure

This time for the shimmer glitter vinyl, I went with the holographic sparkle vinyl setting, but chose to use less pressure due to the design’s intricacies. This setting is SOOO close to being perfect! I have a feeling that the default pressure will be the sweet spot for this vinyl. I’ll have to try another project to find out.

Why So Small, Difficult Duck?!

These details! Gah! Even though this difficult duck is 11.5 inches wide, there are still pieces so small that it almost takes a magnifying glass to see clearly. Needless to say, this is one project where I had to crop my head out of the video. A lot. In defense of the design, the seller does put a disclaimer on their designs stating that they are definitely not intended to be cut in small or even medium format. These designs are intended to be large. The intricacies require it, otherwise whatever medium being used for the cut would certainly be destroyed during the cut process.

Thoughts on Cobblestone

This project marks the first where I have used TeckWrap’s new cobblestone vinyl design on a larger scale. The first time ever was only just the other day for the center of the flower design. I don’t really count that one as the first real time using the cobblestone as it was such a minor feature in the grand scheme of the design. This duck, however, truly features the vinyl.

This design is pretty specific and will have to be used very intentionally. But I love that it combines the chrome look with the holographic sparkle. For an under layer, I think this pattern holds more potential that as a stand alone or top layer. I have another animal mandala design planned next where I will try the vinyl as a stand alone layer. Hopefully it will work well and leave me pleasantly surprised.

The Transfer Tape Mishap

Oh. Mah. Gawd!! I’ve made no secret that I reuse my transfer tape when I can. The specific piece of transfer tape used for this project has been used for four other projects so far and is still going. Well…errrr…kind of. The shimmer glitter vinyl always proves to be slightly more difficult to work with when layering, specifically initially sticking to the transfer tape. Most times, I can do it with just a touch of finesse and finagling. This time it did not work out so well for me.

I should have taken these two moments a s a warning for what was to come. In the first screen cap, the vinyl had already started lifting away from the transfer tape as I removed the backing sheet. The second screen cap shows a little piece refusing to even stick in the first place. If I had paid attention to these little warning signs, I could have grabbed a new piece of transfer tape and avoided what came next.

This is where I started trying to lay down the top layer into the bottom layer. You can already see that the beginnings of the actual layering are not going smoothly. Again, this should have been a sign for me to change out the transfer tape. But I kept pushing forward, being stubborn.

THE DUCK CAME OFF THE TRANSFER TAPE MID-APPLICATION!!!! In the first and second picture above, you can see where the majority of the duck design has lifted away from the transfer tape. To say I panicked would be a slight understatement. I really worried that the rest of the design would flop off, adhering down all askew and wonky. I grabbed my parchment paper really quick to help avoid that kind of mishap.

How It Was Fixed

As you can already tell by the final project, I did save the design from utter disaster. Since the parchment paper was already covering the bottom layer of the design, I carefully peeled the black layer away from the transfer tape to lay down on top of the parchment paper. From there, I carefully laid the transfer tape back over the design. I used the squeegee a LOT, burnishing the hell out of it before attempting to continue layering. Fortunately, this technique worked and the rest of it laid down in place.

The transfer tape lifted away from the finished project really easily. LOL I’ll have to make sure to use a newer piece of transfer tape for the next project with a shimmer glitter layer. It still continues to work fine for glossy and matte non-textured vinyls, though. So I won’t be getting rid of it just yet,