Aligning Vinyl on Keychain

Hello everyone!

On today’s tutorial, I will show you how to align vinyl on keychains. This same method can be used for other media too.

This method is not the most economical when it comes to vinyl use but it is faster than other methods. There is little measuring and pretty much no guess work.

Get the "Coffee Made Me" SVG design used in this tutorial.

 

 

Step 1. Once you have your design and your media, create a digital outline of your media. In my case it is a 3.5”x1.5” keychain. I also created an outline bigger than my media for easy weeding and installation. In Figure 1 the yellow part is the keychain and the blue is the weeding rectangle.

 

Step 2. Set up your design on your digital keychain. Aligning becomes very easy. You can align it to the keychain or to your other elements using your software’s alignment feature. See Figure 2.

Step 3. Subtract your digital keychain (the yellow rectangle) from the weeding outline rectangle (the blue rectangle) see Figure 3. Then merge/weld the weed outline with your design for easy cutting, see Figure 4.

Step 5. Cut off the edges of the vinyl backing so that you see the corners of the keychain outline. See Figure 6.

Step 7. Lift one edge of your design and Peel back the vinyl backing, see Figure 8, left side. Then cut off the vinyl backing (see Figure 8, right side)

Step 8. Hold the edge of your design with one hand and using your squeegee with the other hand stick the design to your keychain in a sliding motion. This method prevents most air bubbles. See Figure 9.

Step 10. Remove the transfer tape by peeling back the tape directly on itself. This is important because it prevents bubbles and prevents the vinyl from lifting with the transfer tape. You will also be removing your weeding/alignment rectangle and the circle that marks the keychain hole. See Figure 11.

And here is the final product! Beautifully aligned and in a matter of minutes! See Figure 12.