Vinyl Cutting Machine: Customizing a Frisbee Golf Disc and other Crafts

My wife recently purchased a Cricut - Explore Air 2 - it's a computer controlled vinyl decal cutter. The decal is designed in the Cricut software with clip art, font text, and freehand artistry. The Cricut cuts the design out of a sheet of vinyl. After some processing the vinyl decal can be transferred to glass, metal, clear coated wood, or plastic. The negative of the design can used as a stick on template for painting on the design. The cutting blade in the Cricut can be replaced with an included marker so the design can also be drawn onto paper.

Craft Potential

In the picture above you can see the custom frisbee golf disc my wife made for me - sweet. She purchased the machine for making crafts for the market. There's a large jewelry store in a bed and breakfast town close by that recently dedicated a large portion of it's store for crafters to sell their crafts. Crafters can rent their section for $100 per month. The store handles all the sales, the crafter goes to the store once a month or so to replenish the stock. Some of her crafts we'll also sell at the farmers market next summer - along with produce.

Below are pictures of my wife's craft booth at the jewelry and crafters store.

In the pictures above you can see many examples of the vinyl decals on glass. Below you can see the vinyl stuck on clear coated wood.

In the first picture below you can see the vinyl decals on metal. The design in the second picture was made with the Cricut marker with the design drawn on paper.

Step by Step: Custom Frisbee Golf Disc with the Cricut

• First the Yeller golf disc label was designed in the Cricut software

• After loading the vinyl sheet and sending the design to the Cricut, it cuts the vinyl design
• After the design is cut, the excess vinyl is peeled back

• The little bits of vinyl that didn't peel off are each removed in a process called weeding
• The vinyl design is then transferred to transfer paper

• The vinyl design on the transfer paper is then transferred to the blank golf disc

After adding a little clear coat to the edges of the vinyl decals - for extra durability - the Yeller golf disc was ready to fly.

I can see how custom vinyl decals could put a nice finishing touch on many projects. @professorbromide pointed out that the vinyl decals could be useful for knife and other metal etching. There's lots of craft potential with this machine.

It's going to be a crafty winter - have a great day!