Hi everyone! I am back with the Window Privacy Screen Cling Film that I worked with 2 years ago (and just finally uploaded the post a couple of weeks ago 😁). I have been wanting to try cutting it on my Silhouette Curio digital cutting machine since then and finally got around to first trying it, and then writing this post. I have one more experiment I need to edit and I may add to this post because I wanted to try try to capture the pros/cons and things I would do differently when using this.
So as I mentioned in the first experiment, I was trying to find a Rice paper that I could use for the translucency but have it be adhesive backed. I thought this product would be it, but it is not true rice paper- it is plastic. It does not absorb water and go translucent. I was bummed until I tried it as stencil material and for that purpose it is fabulous! I used a die cut initially, but cutting in on the Silhouette Curio was just as successful! It cuts like a dream and is not crazy hard to weed. So here are some tips when using this material if you are going to try it yourself…
Designs:
In general this goes for any stencil you will be designing yourself. First of all, anything that has an internal shape are wasted cuts. When you pull the stencil up, those internal shapes are lost. If you truly need the internal shape, you will need to change the design so that the shape (both inside and outside) are not contiguous.
Large contiguous shapes with little bitty piece parts can be tricky to work with, especially on a large stencil pattern. Instead, breaking the shapes into several individual shapes would be a better idea. And space them further apart 😉
Shapes for Stencil This vs That 1-2
Shapes for Stencil This vs That 1-1
Cutting:
When placing the material on the cutting mat, use a roller or even better a scraper, starting from the center and moving outward to get all the possibility of movement and air bubbles out. And use painter’s tape to make sure the material does not move during cutting.
I set up my designs now to be separate colors rather than cutting the whole sheet at once. That way I can cut about 1/4 of the full page at a time and try to catch and correct air bubbles if they happen. But I find using the scraper as above really helps.
I use the frosted vinyl setting on my Silhouette Studio. Just as is- works perfectly. I did run into an issue where I didn’t thing the cut had worked because it was hard to see the cut lines, and when I ran the cut again it cut trough the backing. Once I realized it actually did cut, I just run the cut once and that leaves the backing paper intact.
Weeding:
I have found that lifting and pulling gently from one side to the other really helps to weed out a lot of the shapes initially. If you have air bubbles the cut may be bad and you may need scissors to finish cutting, but in general I have found the cuts to be perfect.
Using:
The window privacy screen cling film seems to stick well to paper and pulls off relatively easily. As long as you do not leave it for too long. So if you are going to use it as a stencil, make sure you remove it as soon as you are done spraying. Even if you place it on plastic it seems like it is hard to pull up.
It does stick to itself, but if you separate it, at least quickly enough, it does seem to come apart well enough.
I have tried it as an embossing material and will either update this post or link to a new one when I review/edit that video footage to make sure I capture the nuances for that usage.
I have not tried it on a Gelli plated yet. I wonder if it would stick too much?
Enjoy!
