Are looking for an easy marketing idea for your business?  Put your logo on a foldable sun shade and let your car do the advertising for you while it sits in the parking lot!

With your Cricut or Silhouette, you can cut any design (think logo, slogan, Instagram username, hashtag) and screen print it onto these foldable sun shades.

The sun shades collapse and fold up easily for storage while you drive.  Then, just pull it apart and it expands to cover your front window.

Supplies Used for Screen Printing on Car Sun Shades

• Screen Printing Frame (I used the larger 16×20 size for this project)
• Squeegee
• Acrylic Screen Printing Ink (I used white)
• Oracal 651 Vinyl
• Cricut Maker
• Cricut Mat (you might want the larger 12×24 mat depending on the size of your design)
• My Favorite Transfer Tape
• Screen Printing Frame
• Car Foldable Sun Shade Blanks

How to Screen Print with Vinyl

If you are new to screen printing with vinyl, this is a great place for beginners to learn about screen printing with your Cricut or Silhouette.  There is a bit of an art to mastering the squeegee in screen printing, so be sure to practice before you jump into a project like this one.

Once you are comfortable with the screen printing process, printing on foldable sun shades is very similar to printing on cardboard boxes or paper.

Step-by-Step Process

1. Cut your design on Oracal 651 Vinyl.  Be sure to choose the “mirror” option when you cut.
2. Weed the parts of your design where you want ink to go through.  This is the opposite of how you would typically weed a vinyl design.
3. Transfer your vinyl to your screen printing frame using transfer tape.
4. Mask off areas around the vinyl with Screen Printing Frame.
5. Place your screen on top of your foldable sun shade and squeegee a coat of acrylic ink over the screen.
6. Lift your screen to reveal your printed design!
7. Repeat this process until you've screen printed your design on all of your sun shades.
8. Remove the vinyl and wash your screen.  For more details on how to clean your screen printing frame read this article.
9. Allow your sun shades to air dry overnight.  Once the ink is dry, it's permanent (no need to heat set acrylic ink!) and ready to use.

Important things to remember when screen printing with acrylic ink

When you are screen printing with vinyl, the amount of ink that you squeegee over the design will determine how well your print turns out.

If you squeegee too much ink, you will likely see bleeding around the edges.  If you don't use enough ink, your design will be incomplete.  It takes some time to master this balance, so just keep practicing!

With items like these foldable sun shades, I typically only squeegee one coat of ink over the design. This is usually just enough to cover the design.  Remember, these materials don't absorb the ink like a t-shirt does.

When screen printing a t-shirt you will need to squeegee more ink to absorb into all of the fibers.  With acrylic ink, we are just placing a coat of ink on top of the surface.

Screen Printing with Vinyl Video

Here's a look at the screen printing process:

Are you hooked on screen printing?

If you are loving the process but want to learn more, join my Maker's Circle today!  With your membership, you get immediate access to exclusive video tutorials where I walk through projects in real time. Plus, you are joining a community of fellow crafters who are ready to encourage and support you as you grow your crafting business.  Learn more about the Maker's Circle >