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A few years back, we offered a renowned companies’ sign vinyl to our fellow Happy Crafters, and we thought then: good stuff.

Then, Siser® joined forced with Avery Dennison® (an omnipresent “sticky stuff” powerhouse) and launched EasyPSV® Starling™. 

G-a-m-e C-h-a-n-g-e-r!

At the end of the day, most sign vinyl shares lots of commonalities: color range, special effects (think: matte, glossy, metallic, holographic, glitter, camouflage, iridescence etc.) thickness, tackiness of the adhesive the list goes on.

Step it up a notch and discover sign vinyl that also offers: a grid printed on the back of the paper carrier, which makes it so much easier to line up and hence, reduces waste. Ease of release, meaning is it a struggle to remove the sign vinyl from the backing or does it lift off easily?         

Then there’s the seriously important stuff, you know, the stuff that matters to most of us that’s not always easy to find: Is it certified? That’s important if you think about decorating mugs etc. Is it dishwasher safe? Can it withstand being exposed to saltwater? What about UV resistance? Can it be layered to create even more depth to your design (image of mason jar design)? Is cutting a fine-detailed design possible? And what about the shelf life? How long before the stuff becomes unusable?

EasyPSV Starling checks all the boxes and then some and we decided to test the boundaries of the material (and our patience levels as it turns out ha-ha). We were just about to throw in the coaster (it’ll make sense in a moment) when Stephanie from Siser showed us a trick that we have been itching to share with the world. Two words: blow dryer. Seriously!

The Project: we bought slate (stone, nothing fake here) coasters and chose fine’ish, 3-D’ish designs. Cutting the design: piece of cake. Weeding it: super easy. Lining it up: easy breezy.

Using a squeegee, fingernails, anything really, we could find in the office that resembled anything that might help get the EasyPSV bond with the natural grooves of the slate coasters. You guessed it: not so much.

In comes Stephanie: aiming a blow dryer at the coaster she slowly heated up the EasyPSV Starling that was – at that point - barely attached to the coaster. Once the EasyPSV was warming up, it became pliable. Pressing the material into all the grooves of the slate was sooo easy! Once the sign vinyl cooled off, the EasyPSV stabilized, having bonded with the slate perfectly: this was not going to come off any time soon! Image of casters stacked off-set slightly or arranged in a circle.

Fast forward a few months: a boardgame we wanted to create using an old tray: decorating the wood with EasyPSV Starling. That part was easy, its tic-tac-toe: straight lines. Decorating genuine seashells, we weren’t so sure; deep grooves and all.

Look for yourself: perfect (blow dryer be thanked)!

You have your own sign vinyl trick? Share it with the rest of us and we’ll send you some EasyPSV when we publish your project on one of our channels.