Its probably bes to iron the strips into one sheet first. Do it on a sheet of glass. The monocote wont stick to glass. Then transfer to the plane. Use lots of razor blades. They dull very quickly on monocote.
You can also do a base color on the plane and then add stripes over top. Try to poke a bunch of pin holes in the base coat so the air has somewhere to go when you aply the strips. Less bubbles.

My Ultimate was done with a base of red and then the stripes and checkers were added one at a time afterwards.

Take you time, it will be ok.