Heat Transfer Vinyl Plastic Side Up Or Down

When cutting heat transfer vinyl you can cut with or without a cutting mat.

Heat transfer vinyl plastic side up or down.

Get out your craft knife and make a small cut in the corner on the side you think is the vinyl side like this cut only through the vinyl not all the way through. If you use a lot of heat transfer vinyl then you may want to get a heat press or easy press down the road but for today we will just focus on using an iron. Since red is the final color we know to cut on the white side. Heat and pressure both of which we can get using an iron.

Something to transfer your vinyl onto this can be anything. One is facing up and the other is facing down. Start out by cutting your design. For other colors however it is not as easy to tell which side is the final color and which side is not.

To activate the adhesive on the heat transfer vinyl you need two things. Make sure you mirror image your design. Shirts bags aprons you name it. I tried to take a picture of this but my camera couldn.

Now try to peel away the vinyl. The clear plastic side is the carrier sheet and it should always be face down when cutting facing your machine. Take rozzy crafts gold htv for example. The shiny side is a clear plastic carrier sheet that holds the heat transfer vinyl in place.

I usually use a cutting mat because it helps stabilize the vinyl and prevent slipping. It is the adhesive side but only sticks with heat. We don t want to cut on this side. Both of these sheets are red htv.

This is the side we want to cut on make sure to always place the shiny side down onto your cutting mat. Here s a small piece of red siser easyweed heat transfer vinyl and i ve got it shiny side down as i cut out the vinyl on the corner.