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HTVRONT contacted me and asked me to try their new Printable Vinyl Sticker Paper. I agreed and they sent me the Glossy White and the Matte White papers. HTVRONT did not ask me to skew my review in any way; they wanted me to be completely honest in my thoughts.
Making holiday stickers seemed like a great fit for this time of year and the HTVRONT paper so I went ahead and tested their paper quite a bit, printing lots of stickers on both types (glossy and matte) of paper.
I even dunked some of the stickers into a glass of water to test the waterproof-ness and I have to admit, I was very impressed. The ink didn’t run at all and they dried out perfectly.
I go into a lot more detail below as well as showing you how to successfully print and cut stickers from this product using your Cricut machine.
Please check out the video tutorial below or scroll down for instructions with photos:
What Did I Think of the HTVRONT Printable Vinyl Sticker Paper?
This may be the first time ever that I really don’t have anything bad to say about a product. The highlights:
- Stunning color print outs on both types of paper
- Durable, heavy duty vinyl paper
- Very nice packaging makes storage easy
- Laminate sheets are an added bonus and the finish matches the sticker finish (eg. matte sticker paper has matte laminate sheets)
- Waterproof even without the laminate sheets
- Reasonable price
My only very tiny negative, would be that the paper quality is so high that it’s too heavy to use for super delicate or lacy sticker designs that require a lot of small cuts. Since I’m not a professional sticker maker, I’m just assuming that super delicate sticker designs would use a lighter weight paper so this likely wouldn’t be an issue.
Flattening Images in Cricut Design Space Before Printing
I’m not going to go into how to upload images into Cricut Design Space in this tutorial. If you need step-by-step instructions on all of the beginning parts of print-then-cut stickers, please go to this post.
Once you’ve selected the images you’d like to use and put them on to the canvas in Cricut Design Space, you may want to add an Offset to some of them. If you do so, you will need to Flatten the original image and it’s Offset together before going to ‘Make It.’
If you don’t Flatten, the software thinks it is supposed to cut the outside edge of the print then cut image AND the offset and you’ll wind up with a bit of a mess.
I suggest using either Group or Attach to link the image with its Offset before Flattening them. It makes the selection and flattening
process easier.
To flatten an image and it’s Offset after grouping them, select the Group layer in the Layers panel. Then, navigate down to the bottom of the Layers panel and click on Flatten.
You’ll notice that the ‘group’ will change from two layers to just one layer.
Once all such groups have been flattened, make sure all items to be printed are set on ‘Print Then Cut’ and Hide anything (turn off the eye) you don’t intend to print and cut. Then click on Make It in the upper right corner of the screen.
Printer Settings in Cricut Design Space
Now you’ll be in the Mat screen that will show the layout of the stickers within the Print Then Cut box (black outline all the way around the design).
If you’re good with the layout, click Continue in the lower right to go to the Print screen. If you’re not happy, you should click Cancel in the lower right, return to the canvas and rearrange and Attach the sticker designs in a better layout.
After you click Continue, you will be in the Print screen. Click on the Send to Printer button to bring up the Printer window.
On the Print Setup window, you’ll see the layout of your stickers on the left and a few choices on the right. The top box will show the printer selected. You can change that if needed by clicking the dropdown arrow and selecting the correct printer. Next, if all of your stickers will have an Offset border, toggle off ‘Add Bleed.’ Then toggle on ‘Use System Dialog.” Click Print.
The system dialog box for your printer will appear. Check behind the Cricut Design Space window if you don’t see it. Go to Preferences and then change the Media Type to your printer’s version of ‘Photo Paper – Glossy’ if printing on the Glossy Vinyl Paper. Change it to ‘Photo Paper – Matte’ if printing on the Matte Vinyl Paper. Then set the Print Quality to your printer’s version of ‘High’ or ‘Best.’
Once you’ve changed the settings, click on OK and then Print to print the stickers.
NOTE: Make sure you have loaded the vinyl sticker paper into your printer so that you are printing on the glossy or matte front of the paper that has adhesive on the back and not the backing sheet that covers the adhesive. You can easily check which side is which by peeling back a corner of the paper from the backing.
Print Results on the HTVRONT Printable Vinyl Sticker Paper
For me, the print results were fantastic! Both the glossy and matte stickers were vibrant, true to the colors and picked up any and all subtle shading and color variation in the images I used.
Now, I use a Canon Pixma photo printer so that is a printer designed to give a high quality print to begin with. But, the paper also has to be high quality to absorb the inks properly and maintain the colors in such a beautiful way!
When & How to Add the Laminate Sheet to the Sticker Paper
As I mentioned earlier, I dunked some of the matte and glossy stickers into a glass of water getting them fully soaked and the colors didn’t run at all. But, HTVRONT suggests that you use the included laminate sheets on any stickers that will be exposed frequently to water.
They suggest using the laminate on stickers being placed on tumblers or glasses that people will drink out of. I also think you should absolutely use the laminate sheets on any decals you are making that will go outside, like on a car’s back window for example. You need to apply the laminate sheet BEFORE cutting the stickers out.
The included laminate sheets are self adhesive with a gridded paper on the back. You can use the grid to cut the laminate sheet down into smaller pieces if you only need to use laminate on a few stickers or use an entire sheet if you want all of the stickers laminated.
I laminated the entire sheet of glossy stickers by folding back just the top inch of the backing sheet to expose the adhesive on the laminate sheet. I then placed the laminate sheet over the sticker sheet, making sure to line up the edges without pressing down the exposed adhesive. Once I was happy with the placement, I pressed down the exposed adhesive along the top edge.
Then, I used a squeegee/scraper to press the rest of the adhesive on to the sticker paper while slowly peeling off the backing paper.
Once the laminate was fully applied to the sticker sheet, I used my squeegee/scraper to push out any bubbles that may have gotten trapped between the laminate and the sticker sheet.
NOTE: There were a few bubbles I couldn’t remove, but after the stickers were cut, the bubbles had disappeared. I think this happened because the cut edge had gone through the bubbles basically pushing out the air as the stickers were cut. You could always use a pin to pop any bubbles that remain – just make sure and be small and careful because you don’t want to make a big hole in the laminate.
Modifying the Base Material Settings in Cricut Design Space
Before cutting out the stickers, you’ll need to Set the Base Material in Cricut Design Space. From my experiments, I know that cutting twice is the best thing to do to get a clean cut from the printable vinyl sticker paper.
There aren’t a lot of materials that have a 2x multi-cut preset in Cricut Design Space, so I modified the settings for Heavy Cardstock so the machine would cut twice. To do this, go to Browse All Materials. In the bottom left corner of the window that appears, click on Material Settings.
Once in the Material Settings screen, scroll down to Heavy Cardstock. Click on the Edit button to open the settings slider. The pressure for Heavy Cardstock is pre-set at 282 which is good, but the Multi-Cut box right next to the pressure setting is set to Off. To change this, click on the dropdown arrow and select 2x.
Click Save to save the change. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the screen and click Done. This will return you to the Select Base Material screen. Click on Browse All Materials again and scroll down to the Cardstock section and select Heavy Cardstock by clicking on it. A green checkmark will appear next to the name to show it is selected. Click Done in the lower right to return to the Select Base Material screen.
Change the Pressure Setting in Cricut Design Space
Depending on whether you are cutting the sticker paper with laminate on it or not, you will need to change the Pressure setting on the Select Base Material screen.
If cutting a vinyl sheet with laminate applied, change the Pressure to MORE by clicking on the dropdown arrow and choosing More. If cutting a vinyl sheet without any laminate, change the Pressure to LESS.
Once the Base Material and its Pressure are set, move to Step 3 and head on over to the machine.
Cut Out the Stickers with the Cricut Maker
Place the vinyl sticker sheet into the upper left corner of a Standard Grip 12 x 12 mat. Load the mat into the Cricut by placing the mat under the guides, pressing it lightly against the wheels and pressing the flashing Load Mat button on the machine.
Once the mat is loaded and the Cricut button (or Play button if using an Explore Air 3 or Maker 3) begins to flash, press it to start the machine scanning the print box and then cutting.
SENSOR TIP: If your machine can’t read the print box and you get an error message, try shining a bright light (eg. a camera light or from a cell phone app) on to the mat as the carriage moves and tries to read the lines. This works for me almost every time!
Let’s Talk Quality of the Cut Stickers
After the stickers are cut, remove them from the mat by peeling away the extra vinyl paper. then flip the mat over and peel it away from the stickers to prevent the stickers from curling too much. A tweezers can help remove them too if they are small.
Not to sound like a broken record, but I was very impressed by the quality of the finished stickers. The highlights;
- They look beautiful!
- The stickers are really solid and high quality
- The laminate doesn’t detract from the look of the stickers at all. The glossy laminate is virtually invisible, while the matte laminate has a very, very slight texture to it.
- They stick to most surfaces – paper, glass, metal, plastic and more.
Holiday Ideas for the New Stickers
I decided to use my new vinyl sticker decals to make some Christmas items.
I used the larger Merry Christmas seal to make a Christmas card. I created a card base from white cardstock, then layered on some plaid paper, a die cut white rectangle, and some coordinating red, teal and gold card sstock. I stuck the sticker right in the middle as the focal point and added a few gold Nuvo drops for a little holiday sparkle.
I used some of the sayings stickers as well as the gnomes and tree sticker to decorate a simple Christmas package. I wrapped the present in plain kraft paper, added some red and white Baker’s twine and then the stickers. The stickers really holiday-up the present, making it super cute if I do say so myself.
Finally I used some of the laminated stickers to decorate a small glass votive holder. I cut a piece of red ribbon to wrap around the votive and then used two of the stickers to hold the ribbon in place. Adding an LED votive makes it shine. This is an extremely simple idea that you could use for place settings at your holiday table or as added holiday decor in your home. It would be a nice holiday touch in the bathroom!
Questions or Comments?
If you have any questions, please leave me a comment below and I will get back to you soon. Want to just tell me how much you loved this tutorial? Please leave me a comment below – lol!
Suggestions?
I would also appreciate any ideas you may have for topics to cover related to the software for Cricut (Design Space), Silhouette (Studio) or Brother (Canvas Workspace) and any suggestions you may have on projects to create with the Cricut Maker, Cricut Joy, Silhouette Cameo 4 or the Brother Scan N Cut DX. Please leave any requests you have in the comments. I appreciate you taking the time to visit and read my blog. Thanks!
Get to Know HTVRONT!
HTVRONT website: https://www.htvront.com/
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/htvront
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/htvront/
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