Some time ago I heard a comedian define crafting as when you see something you want, and instead of buying it, you realize, after a lot of time and just a little bit more money you could have a slightly crappier version.
For me, most of my crafting involves scraps and things destined for the trash, so the money isn’t really an issue. But definitely the time factor and slightly wonkier outcome ring true.
Case in point – last week as I was driving home I saw a big SUV with a sticker in the window that said “I hope something good happens to you today.” Great sentiment! I didn’t even bother looking it up online; I already knew I was going to make my own.
Shouldn’t take a minute, I thought, to diy a car window sticker.
Spoiler Alert: It took more than a minute.
I have made a zillion projects with my Silhouette cutting machine, but I do more paper crafts than adhesive vinyl.
Now that I’ve tackled a window sticker, I’d like to share a few things I learned:
The good, the bad & the ugly:
- Don’t do this on a hot day. If you decide to diy a car sticker in your car window, keep in mind you will applying the sticker in the sun or in the stuffy garage or cramped up in the back when you ultimately decide that putting it on inside the window is a better move.
- That measure twice cut once saying? It exists for a reason. Measure the area where the sticker is going. Don’t eyeball it unless you like to weed* the same thing more than once when you realize the first one isn’t actually going to fit.
- You don’t actually need a ruler to measure. In fact, it might be easier without it. If you are going to put a sticker on a curved and oddly shaped surface like a small side window, instead of using a ruler and getting a totally wrong measurement, try using a piece of paper that is torn to fit the area and then measuring that. Trust me – that works much better.
- Reverse cutting is your friend. I did all of the above steps (some more than once) only to realize that the saying had too many small details and was going to come off my back windshield pretty quickly in the weather. I tried to pretend I was happy with that, but in the end, I did it all over again, but this time I reverse cut the words and stuck them to the inside of the window so weather and windshield cleaning will not factor into the longevity.
The good news is it only took me a couple of minutes to whip up a second saying for the other side!
*Weeding is the process where you remove the extra vinyl from a piece of art. It’s either tedious and frustrating or zen like and relaxing depending on your mood and the complexity of the pieces involved.
