Bling Your Band

It is almost summer camp time! And it is past time to create your personalized summer camp trunk with one of our many decal designs! This step-by-step decal application guide will show you how to go from bland to awesome in just a few steps! The truck below was decorated in a few hours and was a very fun experience for mom and daughter working together.

Plain Jane summer camp trunk

Personalized summer camp trunk

The vinyl decals are shipped to you in a roll, with transfer tape on the top. Transfer tape looks like masking tape, but is not as sticky. The usefulness of this tape feature will become apparent later.

Step 1 - use scissors and cut the decals into separate pieces. You can cut close to the edges of the decals, but on at least one side leave some space between the decal and the cut edge. This helps get the tape separated from the backing.

Cut the decals into parts

Step 2 - We recommend you start with a small decal for which you have extras. The decals are easy to apply, and if you mess one up, it is likely to be the first one you start with.

To apply the decal, peal the transfer tape from the backing. Make sure the decal sticks to the transfer tape, and not the backing. If the decal is sticking to the backing as you lift the transfer tape, stick the transfer tape back down and rub it firmly. The decal should want to stick to the transfer tape more than to the backing.

Practice with a small decal before starting with a big one

Apply the decal by starting from one edge and laying it down without allowing a crease or bubble to get in it. After the decal is down, and before you remove the transfer tape, use a credit card or squeegee to firmly tack down the decals. A credit card does work, but the blue 3M squeegee is easier to hold and slides better. Credit cards can have a sharp edge that wants to dig in, and do not slide or bend as well.

Should you get a bubble or crease, work it out from the vinyl center to the edge.

Use a credit card or squeegee to tack down the decal firmly

One the decal is down firmly, remove the transfer tape by starting with an edge, and pulling the tape straight back. Don't pull it up, or it may lift the decal back up.

Step 3 - Once you feel confident with applying a couple of smaller decals, we recommend placing the biggest decals, and then fit the smaller decals around the bigger ones. The biggest decal you have is likely the personalization. Getting the decal and transfer tape separated from the backing may be a two person job as shown below. Pull the two sides apart slowly, making sure the decals stay with the transfer tape.

Getting the biggest decals separated from the backing can be a two person job

Sticking it down works just like the smaller decals you started with. Start with the edge of the name, and slowly stick it down without allowing a bubble or crease to get in. On trunks like this one, the power coated paint might have small high points that look like little bubbles - they don't rub out and you won't notice them on the finished product.

After patting it down by hand, don't forget to squeegee or credit card it down tight.

Place the biggest decals first. Apply them from one edge and carefully stick it down without allowing a crease or bubble.

Just like the small decals, remove the transfer tape by pulling it straight back as demonstrated here. Be careful as the transfer tape pulls back from the leading edge of each letter, as that is the time a decal might want to lift up.

Peel the transfer tape off by pulling it straight back - don't pull it up!

With the personalized name in place, lay out the smaller elements around the big element to make an attractive design. It is just fine to lay vinyl on top of vinyl, so keep that option open.

With the personalized name placed, now lay out the smaller elements as you like

Most of our designs have lots of elements, more than you could really use. But keep in mind as you place elements on the top to not forget the front and sides need love too.

Don't forget to leave elements for the trunk front

This trunk end is ready to go!

This trunk end is ready to go!

These trunks belong to cousins. Cousin Berkeley added soccer balls to her design to reflect her passion for the game and it looks great mixed in.

Make matching personalized summer camp trunk sets!

Landry lovers her personalized camp trunk, and had a great time decorating it with her mom and aunt, and cousin!

This happy camper is all ready for camp!

I generally print and ship Monday - Friday.  Typically first thing each workday morning I look for printing approvals and start printing.  I process and ship the vinyl and respond to emails through the afternoon.  I generally send proofs in the late afternoon or evening.

I generally do not work Friday afternoon, but pick back up at some point on Sunday and get prepared to be printing first time Monday morning.

Please keep in mind that I am one person.  So while I generally always send a proof of your order within one business day, and print and ship within one business day of your approval, it may take one business day to respond to emails.  Please do not post a negative review just because I don't respond inside of a day or over a weekend.

It may take slightly longer to respond to custom artwork questions.  Often I have to spend time researching possibilities before responding.

I generally do not work postal holidays, and occasionally take vacations.  I will post a banner on my website if responding to emails or sending proofs will take longer than one business day.

Our basic shipping rates:

USA and Canada
Almost all items (including ALL decals) ship for $6.75 flat rate.

Inside the USA (lower 48 states) Express Shipping
We offer USPS Express shipping.  This typically cuts shipping times down to 1-2 days, but they don't guarantee this, and so neither can we.  This option is only valid inside the lower 48 states.

All other countries and locations:
Most items (including ALL decals) ship for $9.99 flat rate.  Heavy items may be more. If the shipping charge is significantly more, we will give you the option to pay the exact amount, or cancel the order.   If you don't like the amount, you are free to cancel your order and walk away.

We only charge exact postage in these extra-postage situations.

We recommend you check out with PayPal on international orders.  You don't need a PayPal account, and you can pay with a credit card.  To weed out fraud, all credit card companies check billing and shipping addresses.  PayPal is much better with overseas addresses than our USA based credit card processor.

Using PayPal won't hurt you or cost you more, but it possibly will save you aggravation in checking out!

An unusually long delivery time!

It is not common, but it does happen that the post office takes an unusually long time to deliver a package.  I don't know what issue the post office experienced, but in this last week I have had about six customers ask where their package is.  This is one of the first two tracking numbers reported to me.

It took 11 days for the post office to deliver this package.  It is one of the more extreme cases we have seen, and due to the number of folks reporting delay, we think perhaps there was an accident.

This is frustrating for us and the customer alike.  I don't want to ship a replacement, and then find out the package was delivered later the same day.  But I don't want to make the customer wait any longer than necessary if the package is lost in the system.

I want to take a moment to share what shipping information we have access to.  When customers inquire as to where their package is, we turn to the USPS tracking page.  We don't have access to any tracking information other than this tracking page.

Another source of frustration for folks is the Post Office will list the Expected Delivery Date.  That delivery date is not specific to your package.  They did not study the logistics of getting your package from Point A to point B this week, and based on that give a delivery date.

The post office has a customer service number.  For me it is (972) 393-6755.  If I call inquiring about a package, I will spend an hour on hold.  When they answer, they will take the tracking number and initiate an 'Investigation' and they say to expect a reply two weeks later.  On the phone, they don't have any different tracking information their their own website.

So we don't generally call because we will have shipped a replacement by then.  Although we ship tens of thousands of packages a year, we have no special access with the post office.

The post office claims that first class and priority mail typically takes 2-3 days to arrive.  In our experience, yes at least 51% of packages are delivered in 2-3 days.  But 10%-20% arrive more like 6-7 days.  And 0.1% arrive in 11 days.

We don't generally call the post office for delayed packages because investigations take two weeks or more and the package will have arrived or we will have shipped a replacement by that point.

Please be aware that while I greatly prefer folks to approve the proofs for personalization, color, and size before I print, if I send a proof to you and hear nothing back for 7-10 days, I will go ahead and print and ship.  Here is why.

I used to only print on approval.  But several times a week I would get very unhappy customers that thought they already approved the proof, or didn't see the proof for some reason, or didn't realize I was waiting for approval to print.  They would ask where their order is, and I would say it is not even printed yet.  Enter the irate customer!

I want to avoid irate customers, so I have changed the process.  After about 6 days after sending the initial proof, I try to follow up asking if we are ready to print.  After 7-10 days, I print and ship.

Since having moved to this, it is very rare to hear from unhappy customers, but there are a few people surprised to see the the shipping notice when they didn't approve the proof.

Please know, if I shipped your order but you didn't approve the proof, I will still make changes as needed and ship you new decals at no cost to you.

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The Viking baby helmet design is a little more complex to install than many other of our decals.  Some fantastic customers did a step by step photo blog on how they applied the decals to their son's cranial band in exchange for the first set of Viking helmet decals I created.

Hunter in his plain, white DOC band

First, they cut up the decals which ship in two separate sheets.

Cut the decals into separate parts

We suggest taping the decals in place to check the fit.  The grommets need to cover the seams.  If the helmet has a large diameter, two rows of grommets can be used to help make up the space.

Getting the parts in place to check the fit	Getting the parts in place to check the fit
Getting the parts in place to check the fit	Getting the parts in place to check the fit

Once the parts all fit together to make design work, tape them together in the order they should go.

The design is mocked up in place

And the pieces taped in the order they should go

Mark on the helmet with a pencil where the panels should go.

Mark on the helmet where the panels go

They considered their application of the panels to be very ham-handed, but that it all worked out in the end.

Then decal application started

Carefully smooth and stretch the vinyl

The biggest problem they had was a little failure to plan far enough ahead.  The horns should have gone in the gap on the left hand side but the initial placement was off, so they had to move them back.  If they had planned ahead, the side grommets would have gone over the side burn grommets.

Adding each part of the design	Adding each part of the design
Adding each part of the design	Adding each part of the design

Hunter in his Viking Helmet

Hunter in his Viking Helmet

These pictures are all pre-Mod Podge.  The Mod Podge smoothed out the patch-work lines very nicely.

Hunter in his Viking Helmet

The following are notes quoted exactly from the folks who did all the work above and took the pictures:

"This is SO CUTE!!!  I’ve gotten MANY compliments on this helmet.  I think the decision to leave white was a good one, it looks more helmet-y.  The vinyl did stretch, and I had to do some patch work.  Maybe the 3 main helmet pieces could be a little bigger.  (I eventually put a second line of grommets down the front)  I used bronze colored Sharpie to make the cracks less noticeable (lent to the look of a forged helmet… very cool)

There were Plenty of Grommet strips.  I had 3 whole strips leftover.  If I could have sewn on a horn over the Velcro strip, that would have rocked.

Overall, I love the look of this and had A LOT of fun putting it on.  Hunter only has 2 weeks to go (he’s getting out early!!!) so I’m going to switch over to R2D2.  I’d have loved to see the Tron strips, but frankly, by the time they’re ready, Hunter will be out of his helmet.  J

Thank you so much for this experience, I think this will be a good seller, you could Viking and knight (silver) versions.

So bullet points:

-          Plenty of Grommet Strips, maybe suggest use of 2-3 rows between triangle “panels.”

-         Triangle “panels” could be a bit bigger at the base.  But don’t have to be very tall, as the tops of DOC Bands ™ are typically open.

-         Possible sideburn panels?  But the Grommet Strips worked well

Thank you,

El Wood"