Water Bottle Tracker with EasyPSV® on Curved Surfaces with Relief Cuts
In order to stick with my New Year’s resolution of drinking more water, I’m creating some DIY motivation: a customized water bottle to help keep me in line! But decorating curved surfaces can be tricky sometimes, so I’ll make it easy and show you how to use relief cuts with EasyPSV®.
You will need your basic vinyl supplies:
- Vinyl Cutter (Cricut, Silhouette Cameo, Brother ScanNCut, you name it)
- EasyPSV Permanent (I’m using Totally Teal)
- EasyPSV Application Tape
- Your favorite Weeding Tool
- Squeegee
- Scissors
- Dawn dish soap/water mixture or isopropyl alcohol/water mixture
- Lint Free cloth (paper towel not recommended)
- Water Bottle (or any cup/tumbler)
First thing to do is to cut your design out of your vinyl of course. Load your EasyPSV onto your cutting mat (or straight into your vinyl cutter) with the vinyl facing up (liner-side-down). Do not mirror your artwork, this needs to be cut forward-facing just like any normal adhesive vinyl.
Once the cutter is finished doing it’s thing, grab your weeding tool and start plucking away the un-needed PSV, leaving your original artwork on the liner.
Then all you need to do is apply the EasyPSV Application Tape on top of the decal vinyl and give it a good rub-down with your squeegee.
Before we get to relief cuts, make sure your tumbler is clean and free of any dust. Also try to minimize any finger prints once you have the bottle clean. We do not want any dirt or skin oils getting onto that adhesive. Personally, I use Dawn dish soap and a lint-free cloth to clean and prep my surfaces for PSV. You can also use 70% isopropyl alcohol diluted with some water to clean up any finger prints.
If your design is pretty straight up and down, then you may not even need relief cuts.
But if your design has pieces that wrap around the curve, like the tendrils on a dreamcatcher then you’ll likely need to utilize relief cuts. Remove the liner from the EasyPSV to expose the adhesive, then use your scissors to cut little slits around the artwork. Thanks to these little cuts, you can now apply the EasyPSV to your tumbler in sections. I call these “relief” cuts because they “relieve” tension from the application tape while applying to curved surfaces. This tension relief allows you to manipulate individual parts of the decal in order to prevent creases or bubbles that may occur if we just slapped it on in one piece.
Start by tacking down the middle of your design, and draw a line with your finger going down the graphic. Then you can apply each section by pressing it onto your tumbler with your fingers. When the whole graphic is adhered to the tumbler, go back over it with a squeegee before removing the Application Tape.
I told you that would be easy! Let the vinyl sit on the cup for at least 24 hours before enjoying a healthy water beverage. Letting it sit will ensure the EasyPSV has fully bonded to the bottle. Remember, we recommend washing these by hand for a long lasting decal!
Hopefully this new customized tumbler will keep me and my resolution on track….until Spring Break anyway! If you want to make your own water tracker, you can download the free cut file from this post when you click here.
