We get questions fairly often about how to fix wrinkled Cricut Removable vinyl. Vinyl wrinkles and/or bubbles often appear on the surface when vinyl is tightly rolled.
Important: Rolls of removable vinyl get bubbles wrinkles more often than permanent vinyl because the adhesive isn’t as strong, therefore it puckers up off the backing when rolled. Are you smoothing it out as you apply the vinyl to the surface, this eliminates bubbles. You can also prick the bubbles to remove the air and smooth down flat.
If you roll your removable vinyl to store it – which many Silhouette crafters do for lack of storage and an abundance of vinyl – you may have to figure out how to straighten wrinkled vinyl at some point.
Before you go throwing out a whole sheet of vinyl or part of a roll because it has wrinkles, know there is hope! I’m going to show you how to flatten wrinkled vinyl so you can successfully cut it on your Silhouette and Cricut machine.
What you need:
In this experiment, we choose our own brand of products.
- 12*12inch LinkedGo Standard-Grip Cutting Mat
- Cricut Removable Matte Black Vinyl
Working on the cutting mat will help keep the vinyl from moving around.
Use your scraper and starting at one side of the wrinkle, push through the wrinkle or bubble all the way out to the edge of the vinyl.
Repeat this pushing from one end to the other until you work the air bubble out of the vinyl. You need to push all the way to the edge to release the air that’s trapped between the vinyl and the backing. I would definitely suggest you use your scraper to push in both directions.
I don’t get discourage, when smaller new bubbles or wrinkles form. Just keep using the scraper to flatten the wrinkled vinyl and soon your sheet of vinyl will be wrinkle free!
Once you’ve removed the wrinkles from the vinyl sheet you can cut the vinyl with your Silhouette CAMEO or Cricut.
If the vinyl buckles back up slightly during the cutting process, don’t worry. You should have no problem applying the transfer tape and applying the vinyl to the surface wrinkle free!
Does your vinyl still have bubbles? Here’s my trick on removing bubbles in vinyl!