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You love your Cricut machine! But some of the Cricut brand accessories and products that you need to create your projects can be a budget buster. Cricut Transfer Tape is one of those items for sure. If you’ve been looking for a Super Affordable Cricut Transfer Tape Alternative, look no further! It’s super cheap and works just the same as the original.
This DIY fabric softener/scent boost was begging for it! I mean, it literally makes your clothes so fresh and so clean. Therefore, it needed a label!
Surely Outkast had laundry rooms in mind when they came up with the lyric!
Mmmmkay…maybe not.
I have only recently discovered the awesomeness of vinyl. I know, I know…I’m super late jumping on the vinyl bandwagon. Better late than never, right?
I’ve had my Cricut machine forever it seems, but I mostly used it for card making and scrapbooking. Once the wood sign bug hit me, the vinyl bug soon followed!
A friend of mine shared this affordable alternative to Cricut transfer tape with me. I was super thrilled because I’m cheap a very frugal gal! And now I’m sharing it with you :).
Cricut products
First, I have to say that I love and recommend Cricut brand products! The purpose of this post is not to dog Cricut. It is to help folks like you and me save a bit of cash.
Let's face it, crafts ain't cheap! Click To Tweet
I’m saving up my money to buy a newer Cricut on Amazon. THIS is the one I want! So pretty!
You can use the online software to create your own designs and still use any Cricut cartridges you already have. No need to purchase more cartridges. It’s not the latest and greatest but it will do everything I need it to do.
Marybeth shared an outstanding and thorough review of the Cricut Explore Air 2 on her blog at babysavers.com. You can check it out here!
On a side note, many people have created successful businesses with a Cricut machine!
Cricut transfer tape is what you use to transfer the vinyl image to whatever surface you’re working with.
Cricut Transfer Tape Alternative Money Savings Breakdown
On Amazon you can purchase a 12in x 4ft roll for $7.99, that’s about $2.00 per foot. Or, you could buy a knock-off version at $14.99 for a 10-foot roll. That’s not much savings, only about $.50 per foot. Big whoop!
The best option, buy an 18 in x 20 ft roll of clear contact shelf paper! You can get it on Amazon for $5.99!
Cha, ching! That’s ONLY $.29 per foot! TWENTY-NINE CENTS! I bought mine at WALMART.COM, a different brand but the price was close to the same.
Oh…by the way, it’s great for all sorts of things!
You can use it to laminate things. I repaired pages of an old 1950’s cookbook that my mother in law gave me when Jeff and I were first married.
So much better, right? The pages were very brittle and thin. I put clear contact paper on every page even if it wasn’t damaged.
I also used it to make this number chart for my 4-year-old to learn her numbers.
Same process
The steps you use to transfer vinyl using the Cricut transfer tape, are exactly the same using this alternative.
After you have weeded your image, you prepare the contact paper and apply it to your vinyl image.
Peel back the paper backing and fold the edge, like this.
Place sticky side down onto the edge of the vinyl cut out.
Pull the paper backing to the right, at the same time smoothing over your Cricut cut design with your fingers.
The Cricut Transfer Tape Alternative is now applied. However, now it needs a bit more smoothing to get rid of bubbles and to be sure the image sticks to the transfer tape.
You can use the Cricut scraper tool which is NOT unreasonably priced at all. But, I use my lodge cast iron skillet scraper! Ha! I bought a two-pack for like $3.00 or so. You can find them on Amazon!
I see the price of these scrapers has gone up since I first posted this. Sometimes WALMART.COM is cheaper, so check HERE first. 🙂
I use one to scrape the gunk off of skillets and the other for crafts!
Smooth, like so.
Ready for transfer
Now we’re ready to transfer our image!
Slowly peel back the clear contact paper. The contact paper will pull the Cricut cut image up from the paper backing. If it doesn’t, stick it back down and do some more smoothing with your handy dandy Lodge pan scraper.
Stick the vinyl decal on whatever surface you’re working with. If you’re using glass, plastic, or stainless steel; clean the surface with rubbing alcohol first.
Finally, give it a good rub down with your fingers and a plastic scraper. Now you’re good to go, you can peel back the clear contact paper. Revealing a beautiful customized vinyl decal.
Do you have any frugal Cricut hacks? I’d love to hear them!
🙂 Leigh Ann
Leigh Ann
Leigh Ann Schooley is the owner and founder of Making My Abode, a blog dedicated to helping homemakers live well and simply on one income. She is a believer, wife, and mother of three with more than sixteen years of homemaking experience. Leigh Ann is the recipient of the Wife of The Year award eighteen years running. She has also won the Mother of The Year award every year for the past sixteen years. She is a Colorado native raised by her dad who taught her almost everything she knows. Leigh Ann lives with her husband and family in Colorado.
