How to Put Heat Transfer Vinyl on Wood Ornaments

Did you know you can put heat transfer vinyl on wood ornaments? It’s so easy and is the perfect solution if you don’t have any permanent vinyl on hand.

Use heat transfer vinyl on wood

I typically don’t keep a lot of permanent vinyl or even stencil vinyl in my craft room. Which is sort of awful and I really should have a little bit of everything in case I need it!

But you know what I found out recently? That you can actually use heat transfer vinyl on wood!

It’s such an easy thing to do and I cannot believe I never thought of trying it before.

This is such a game changer.

Use heat transfer vinyl on wood

I’ve been wanting to try making wooden Christmas ornaments with vinyl this year and found the most awesome cut file to do it with!

I found this Christmas bundle on SoFontsy and knew it would be perfect to put the files on wood ornaments!

The first thing I did was head to Hobby Lobby to look for round discs. Originally I wanted ones with holes in them but I couldn’t find them. So I just settled for these instead.

They work just as well but you have to add ribbon or string to hang them. Not a deal breaker but you cannot do double sided ornaments with them!

Use heat transfer vinyl on wood

Once I got them home I went ahead and painted both sides with black chalk paint. Looking back on it I wish I had done fun colors. I don’t know why I picked black, but here we are.

If you don’t have chalk paint you can use acrylic, it really doesn’t matter. But I would let them sit for at least 24 hours before you put the vinyl on them.

You will cut and weed your heat transfer vinyl like normal and then use your Cricut EasyPress to adhere the vinyl to the wood discs.

It really is that simple!

Use heat transfer vinyl on wood

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Commonly asked questions about putting heat transfer vinyl on wood ornaments!

1. What tools and materials do you need to make these wood ornaments?

2. Can you use any type of wood for these ornaments?

Yes! Hobby Lobby sells birch wood discs that are thicker than the laser cut discs that I used and they would work well too!

3. What type of paint should you use on the wood?

Honestly, it doesn’t matter. I bought chalk paint at Hobby Lobby but you could also use acrylic.

But you want to make sure you’re doing a very light layer on your wood discs when you paint. I’m not sure how the vinyl would stick to a thick layer so I went as light as I could with one coat on each side.

Use chalk paint on laser cut wood rounds from Hobby Lobby to make your own Christmas ornaments!

4. Couldn’t you just use permanent vinyl instead of heat transfer vinyl?

Of course! This is what most people would tell you to do honestly.

But I’m not most people and I’m always a little bit extra…so I went with heat transfer vinyl.

Plus I really just wanted to try htv on wood and I thought this would be a fun and easy way to do it!

Using heat transfer vinyl on wood is a good thing to do when you don’t have the right color permanent vinyl on hand. Or if you don’t want to use stencil vinyl.

You are not limited to one type of vinyl when it comes to wood projects.

5. How do you make sure the vinyl design will fit on your wood ornament?

Draw circles in your Silhouette software that are the size of your ornaments so you can get the correct size for your design before you hit cut

I do everything in the Silhouette software beforehand so that I know how the finished product will look once I’m done.

For this, I drew 3.5 inch circles in the software, colored them black, and then sized the design down until I liked what I saw. It was really easy and helped me see the finished product before I even hit cut!

6. Do you need a heat press or could you use an iron?

I love my Cricut EasyPress because it’s bigger and I can get even pressure.

But you don’t need one.

I did not use an iron so I cannot tell you how long you need to press the wood ornaments for, but I’d say at least 90 seconds.

Once you’ve pressed for the full amount of time, pull up the carrier sheet. If the design comes with it then you just put the carrier sheet back down and press in 30 second intervals until it sticks!

7. Why did you use a lightbox for weeding?

I always have a really hard time seeing the lines when weeding white vinyl. And more than once I’ve accidentally weeded the wrong part of a design and messed it up.

So I like to use this lightbox to help me see the weeding lines as I’m going along! It’s not necessary to have one but it definitely is nice!

8. How long do you press the heat transfer vinyl with the Cricut EasyPress?

For wood ornaments with regular iron-on vinyl you press for 40 seconds at 300 degrees.

You can head to the Cricut EasyPress heat guide to look up settings for your EasyPress at any time! I have it bookmarked on my computer so it’s easy to find every time I need it.

9. Do you need to seal your ornaments after you’ve put htv on them?

I didn’t! I typically only find this necessary is if you’re hanging a wood sign (like this Hand Lettered Rudolph Sign) on your wall.

For something like wood ornaments, I don’t think you have to take this extra step.

10. How do you hang these wood discs if there’s no hole in them for ribbon?

Grab your hot glue gun and your favorite ribbon and just glue it to the backside of your ornament.

Easy peasy.

Doing this means you can’t do reversible ornaments but honestly…it’s not that big of a deal! If you want to make them reversible, I think putting patterned vinyl on the back would be fun!

You just can’t do a file from the bundle because the ribbon will cover up part of the words.

Use heat transfer vinyl on wood

MORE CHRISTMAS CRAFTS TO TRY

Use heat transfer vinyl on wood

Heat Transfer Vinyl on Wood Ornaments

Yield: 4
Prep Time: 1 day
Active Time: 10 minutes
Additional Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 1 day 15 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Estimated Cost: Less than $10

Did you know you can put heat transfer vinyl on wood? If you don't have the right color in permanent vinyl use htv. It looks great on these ornaments!

Materials

Tools

Instructions

  1. Paint both sides of your laser cut discs and set them aside. (SEE NOTE #1)
  2. Cut out your heat transfer vinyl and weed it. (SEE NOTE #2)
  3. Heat up your Cricut EasyPress to 300 degrees.
  4. Put your SVG designs on your wood discs and press for 40 seconds. You want to do a warm peel so pull up the carrier sheet while it's still warm. If the design comes up with the carrier sheet, put it back down and press in 15 second intervals until the design is stuck to the wood.
  5. Turn the disc over and cut a piece of ribbon (about 3 inches long).
  6. Fold the ribbon in half and glue it to the back of the ornament. This is how you'll hang the ornament on the tree!

Notes

  1. You can use either chalk or acrylic paint for these! I also wanted mine to sit for a bit so I painted them after I put my child to bed one evening and then put vinyl on them the next day. You probably don't have to wait that long but I like to let my painted projects cure for a bit before adding vinyl to them!
  2. I use a light box to weed light colors. It helps me see the weed lines easier and stops me from accidentally weeding the wrong part of the design. You don't need one for this project but it is nice to have!

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12 Comments

  1. These are beautiful! I just dried using htv on wood but it left a residue around the letters. Do you have any tips? I used my Cricut easy press as well.

    1. Thank you so much!

      Hmm…the only thing I can think of is maybe there was something on your heat press before you pressed it and that’s what left the residue around the letters. I’ve done that before…haha…I know it’s annoying! I would try cleaning off your Easy Press before using it again and see if that solves the problem!

      You can also email me at hello@simplymadefun.com and send pictures so we can troubleshoot it and figure out what happened!

    2. I also had this issue. It was almost like the glue seeped out or something. Did you ever figure out a solution to this?

  2. I am an artist . I want to transfer my painting to wood for Christmas ornaments. Will this heat tea set vinyl method work? I have never used a circuit/ cameo machine but am ready to learn.

    1. Hi! You can transfer an image like that if you use printable heat transfer vinyl and it should work on a wood ornament! You would be able to do that if you have a digital version of your artwork. All you have to do is print it out on printable heat transfer vinyl and then transfer it to your ornament with a heat press.

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