Ready to level up your vinyl crafting game? Whether you're wrestling with stubborn decals or trying to achieve those perfectly crisp designs, having the right vinyl tools and accessories can make all the difference between frustration and crafting bliss.
Say goodbye to damaged projects and hello to professional results – we're diving into the absolute best adhesive vinyl tools that deserve a spot in your crafting arsenal.
We'll walk you through what each instrument does, why you need it, and how it can transform your vinyl projects.
The Best Adhesive Vinyl Tools and Accessories
Find below a list of all the best vinyl weeding tools you will need if you wish to get started with adhesive vinyl crafts.
1. A Vinyl Cutting Machine
Invest in a decent vinyl cutting machine. These machines can cut vinyl with ease, leaving you with professional designs. They are easy to use and honestly worth every single dollar.
Find our favorite vinyl die cutter on our buyer's guide.
2. Best Vinyl Weeding Tool
Once you have cut your design with your machine, you will need to weed the excess vinyl away.
On our website, we explain what weeding is:
Weeding is a process in which the unnecessary excess vinyl is removed from a design sheet. It can be particularly tricky to remove intricate detailing, especially when working with small designs.
See full post here.
Here is a list of our favorite tools for weeding:
i) The Cricut Tools Basic Set
We love the Cricut Tools Basics as it includes scissors, a scraper, tweezers, a spatula, and a weeder.
• Tweezers to lift and secure delicate material
• Weeder to remove tiny negative cuts
• Micro-tip scissors with a protective blade cover
• Spatula to lift cuts from the mat
• Scraper to burnish material and clean all cutting mats
>>> Click to see pricing for this set on Cricut
ii) Cricut Weeder Tool Set
Another great set of tools by Cricut, this one is for working with vinyl: the Cricut Weeding Tool Set.
This kit has all the essential tools for when you do some beautiful intricate weeding work. It has five pieces: fine tweezers, hook tweezers, the classic weeder, piercing tool, and hook weeder.
These tools allow you to lift, remove, and place the most intricate cuts with speed, ease, and accuracy. The variety of tip styles and angles allow you to work with efficiency.
This is a great additional set, but the basic set above is enough to get started with adhesive vinyl projects.
>>> Click to see pricing for this set on Cricut
iii) Scraping Tool
A scraping tool is pretty much essential and I can guarantee that you will use it every single time you do vinyl projects.
A scraper is used to burnish the tape onto the vinyl backing to ensure that the design will get picked up when you peel the tape away. You will also use it to burnish the design onto the surface.
Fortunately, scraping tools are pretty cheap. I love to have a few scraper tools around, that vary in width.
The Cricut Tools Basic Set has a small scraper in it which is great for small designs, but I also love to have a large-sized scraper around as well. I find this larger Cricut burnishing tool much easier to work with.
>>> Click to see pricing for a nice large scraper
3. Transfer Tape
You can't work with vinyl and not have some good quality transfer tape on hand.
Transfer tape is kinda exactly what it says, it is tape that allows you to transfer your design from the vinyl sheet to the surface that you want to apply it to.
The type of transfer tape that you should buy really depends on the type of vinyl you are using.
Transfer tapes come with varying strength of stickiness. You can also find a clear tape that will help you to see where you are applying your design, others have grids on them to help you keep things straight.
You want to find a tape that is strong enough to pick up your design from your vinyl backing, but that is giving enough to release your design once you apply it to a surface.
You can find a list of the best transfer tape for vinyl here, or if you prefer simply grab some from the popular transfer tape brands below:
i) YRYM HT Clear Transfer Tape
The YRYM HT Transfer Tape is probably the one I reach for 90% of the time. This tape is perfect for temporary vinyl, as well as permanent vinyl.
I would only suggest using this one for your standard types of vinyl. For Glitter, Holographic, Flock, etc. types I would recommend a stronger tape.
It is a fabulous price too. You get 12″ x 50′ so it only works out to around 35c per foot.
I love this tape! And you will love it too.
>>> Click to see pricing for the YRYM Tape
ii) Cricut Transfer Tape
You can choose to purchase either the regular or strong grip tape. You only really need a strong grip for specialty vinyl such as glitter or flock.
Cricut transfer tape is 12 x 48″ and has a grid to help you keep things nice and straight.
The Cricut tape is pretty pricey in comparison to other tapes, so I mostly only buy their StrongGrip tape.
Here is a quick video to show you how to use the Cricut StrongGrip Transfer Tape with glitter vinyl.
>>> Click to see pricing for the Cricut Tape
iii) Angel Crafts Transfer Tape
We love Angel Crafts Tape as you can get them in different sizes. You can also get them in either clear or white or their premium quality means that you will also have a clean transfer.
They also have grids on them to help you keep your designs straight. The tape comes in a 12 x 8″ size, 3 x 25″ or a 6 x 50″ size.
As a tip it is always important to be generous with your transfer tape, make sure you have plenty of excess tape around your design.
>>> Click to see pricing for this brand on Amazon
4. A Light Pad or Table
A light pad is brilliant when you are working on intricate or speciality vinyl designs. The light will help you see the cut lines which will help you pick out all the right bits and pieces as you weed.
We really love the Cricut Bright Pad. The pad is affordable and honesty it just makes weeding easier, which means you can do it quicker. The pad does a brilliant job of illuminating those hard-to-see cut lines.
Here is an interesting post to help you decide if you should buy a light box for weeding vinyl.
>>> Click to see pricing for Bright Pad on Cricut
Conclusion on the Best Vinyl Tools For Vinyl Crafts
While the world of vinyl crafting tools seems endless, sometimes less is truly more.
These essential weeding tools we've covered are your ticket to crisp, professional results without overwhelming your craft space or your creative process.
Sure, there are plenty of other fancy gadgets and accessories you could add to your collection, but why complicate what works?
In my experience, mastering these fundamental tools will serve you better than having a drawer full of specialized equipment you rarely use.
I would love to know though: which tools for vinyl projects do you love most?
