#Sticker Making

[bamsara]

Hello! I was wondering what company you use for your sticker sheets? I bough one from your Ko-Fi shop and really like the quality, and the pricing you were able to sell at is waaaaaay more reasonable compared to any of the companies I've seen and used myself. Is it a POD company, or a mass purchase of them to sell on your own?

Thank you for your time if you're able to respond!

I'm really glad you like the quality, because I actually make them by hand at home! (Please forgive the lighting, my bedroom is my office lmao.)

I don't use a company (and Idk what a POD company is sorry!) but making them at home gives a lot more freedom of stock, just be wary it can be very time consuming depending on how many you need to make.

I've had other people ask before, so here's a rundown of how I make my stickers at home: At most you'll need:

Printer

Sticker paper (this is the type that I use)

Laminator and lamination paper (the lamination paper that I use.) You can also use adhesive non-heat lamination paper if you don't have a laminator, gives you the same result, just be careful of bubbles. You will get double your worth out of a pack because we are splitting the pouches to cover two sticker sheets.

Your choice of a sticker cutting machine or just using scissors.

First, I use Cricut's software to print out the sticker sheet with the guidelines around the corners so the machine can read it. If you do NOT have a Cricut machine, open up your art program, make a canvas of 2550x3300 and fill it up with your sticker design with some cutting space between them. This the 8.5x11 size for the sticker page.

I usually have bleed selected so the cut comes out cleaner. Tip for non-Cricut users below: Increase the border around your sticker design to fake the 'bleed' effect for a cleaner cut.

These are the print settings I use for my printer. I use the 'use system dialogue' to make sure I can adjust the settings otherwise it prints out low quality by default. Make sure if you're using the above paper that you have 'matte' selected, and 'best quality' selected, these aren't usually selected by default.

So you have your sticker sheet printed! Next is the lamination part. I use a hot laminator that was gifted to me, but there is no-heat types of lamination you can peel and stick on yourself if that's not an option.

(This is for protection and makes the colors pop, but if you prefer your stickers matte, you can skip to the cutting process.)

Important for Cricut users or those planning to get a Cricut: You're going to cut the lamination page to cover the stickers while also not covering the guidelines in the corners. First, take your lamination page and lay it over the sheet, take marker/pen and mark were the edges of your stickers are, and cut off the excess:

(I save the scrap to use for smaller stickers or bonuses later on)

After you've cut out your lamination rectangle, separate the two layers and lay one down on your sticker sheet over your stickers with matte side down, shiny side up. (Save the other sheet for another sticker page)

The gloss of the lamination will prevent the machine from reading the guidelines, so be careful not to lay it over them. It also helps to cut the corners afterwards to prevent accidentally interfering with the guidelines.

Now put that bad boy in the laminator! (Or self seal if you are using non-heat adhesive lamination)

Congrats! You now have a laminated page full of stickers.

For non-cricut/folks cutting them out by hand: this is the part where you start going ham on the page with scisscors. Have fun~

Cutting machine: I put the page on a cutting mat and keep it aligned in the corner, and feed it into the machine. For laminated pages I go between 'cardstock' and 'poster board' so that it cuts all the way through without any issues, but for non-laminated pages or thinner pages, I stick for 'vinyl' and 'light card stock'. Kinda test around.

Now I smash that go button:

You have a sticker now!

The pros of making stickers at home is that you save some cost, and you have more control of your stock and how soon you can make new designs. (I can't really afford to factory produce my stickers anyway)

However, this can be a very time consuming, tedious process especially if you have to make a lot of them. There is also a LOT chance for some errors (misprints, miscuts, lamination bubbles, ect) that will leave you with B-grade or otherwise not-so-perfect or damaged stickers. (Little note, if you have page mess up in printing and can't be fed into the cricut machine, you can still laminate it and cut it out by hand too.)

I have to do a lot of sticker cutting by hand, so if you don't have a cricut don't stress too much about it. I have an entire drawer filled to the top of miscuts/misprints. I keep them because I don't want to be wasteful, so maybe one day they'll find another home. Sucks for my hand though.

But yeah! This is how I make my stickers at home! Hope this is helpful to anyone curious

[ufoez]

I made persona 5 stickers!! i’m so happy with how they turned out ^_^ Preorders for them are open on my etsy right now!!

I’m going to make p3 and p4 stickers in this style next! keep an eye for for them :D

[amaruuk]

We made a "making of" video at work of my rainbow borb stickers and I'm just getting around to posting it on Tumblr lol. It is absolutely the coolest shit ever to work in a place where I can also make my own merch!

If you want to get your hands on a borb or three (or one of my other stickers), I sell them in my Ko-fi shop here! If you have sticker designs you want made, please give Rockin' Stickers a try! We're a small business in the PNW and we'd love to print your art on stickers! There's even a promotion going on at the time of this posting for $20 off, and thereafter you can still get in touch with me for my own super secret code. Also, feel free to DM me if you want a free sample pack to see what our materials/prints are like :3

Twitter | Neocities | Twitch | Ko-fi | Commissions

[strawberri-draws]

some Kit Kittredge stickers I want to make at some point :D (Also, if anyone has any advice [check my og tags] I'd appreciate it!!)

[brainless-but-thats-all]

I miss kid icarus

[alex-fictus]

Not a suggestion, more a question - how do you make your stickers? Your art inspired me to make stickers but I don’t know where to start!!

Ooh Tutorial Time! I have a small rundown of my process here. (I’ve got a video here, but I’ve had an update in my materials. Also this got a little away from me, I hope this helps and lemme know if there’s anything I need to elaborate on!)

---  Materials:  Printer - Epson Ecotank 8500 Cutters - Silhouette Cameo 4s (I’ve got 2 at the moment) Paper - Zicoto Glossy Vinyl Laminates - Glossy and Holo Star Laminate (Both Self Adhesive) Misc    Off Brand Sticker Cutter mats     Ruler Squeegee with extra microfiber wrap    Sports glove tack spray or sewing basting spray

Printer - Aim for a photographic printer at the minimum. General print quality, color variety, and paper handling will make sure your prints are the highest possible quality. They’re a little more expensive, but my last printer lasted 4 years with frequent weekly printing. The ecotank is nice, it’s more visual that the ink is actually disappearing than the pre-filled cartridges lol.  Cutter - I’ve only used Silhouette, but I’ve heard to stay clear of Cricut due to general cut unreliability and lack of customer service assistance. I’ve also heard great things about the Siser Juliet cutter from mutuals. In order to use 2 machines at the same time, I had to purchase the Business license ( p sure it was a one time $50 purchase, but I can work twice as fast). If you want to cut by hand, check out what kind of ergonomic scissors you can find. Classic scissors over time can really screw up your hands, especially when you’re making fine cuts. 

Printing and Sizing - The Silhouette Studio resizes your stickers without many issues with quality changes. This does kinda depend on the base size of your files. I always make my stickers on a canvas 3000x2000 pixels and 300 dpi. I wouldn’t go any lower than 100 dpi for print, and no larger than 500 dpi, but you can always test this out.

Paper - I enjoy the luster of the paper I linked above, there’s almost a pearlescent quality to it. If you’d like a different quality, I recommend still sticking with glossy vinyl for your paper. Laminates on matte sticker paper have had a lot of trapped air underneath for me and it tended to be more likely to bleed in contact with water despite being laminated.

Laminate - If you’re just doing paper finish stickers, you can skip this step :)

Laminate them to make them more water and scratch resistant. The laminates I’ve listed are all self adhesive. There are also heat adhesive laminates, which require a heat laminator. I haven’t experimented much with heated laminates. Mine are best rated for hand wash, though they can go through the dishwasher a few times.  When laminating your sticker sheet, be sure to not cover your registration marks. When your cutter tries to read over them and the surface is really reflective, it can cause the machine to read improperly (and it’s worse with the holographics lol). Either precut your laminates like I do in the video I linked above, or you can use matte tape over your laminate to dull the sheen. If you accidentally cover your registration marks, the matte tape is a lifesaver.  Self laminating takes some muscle memory to not get bubbles trapped under the laminate, but a wide squeegee and firm pressure helps make sure you get as few bubbles as possible.  Mats - Your cutter will come with a few, but I find that my off-brand ones are just as good and less expensive. I prefer low-tack, but there comes a time when the tack is absolutely gone, and I have 10+ mats just sitting around. That’s where the Sports Glove spray or Sewing basting spray comes in! After washing them (soap and water, then dry for a few hours), I hit them with a few coats of spray. Right now I’m using Pow’r Tac Grip Spray. It’s just ok, but this leaves less residue on the back of my stickers than the Basting Spray I used to use. I retack every month or so, but that’s more bc I’d prefer the mats to be less sticky than risk ripping my backing sheets. 

----

If there’s anything you’d still like to know, please let me know!! 

[charredtoad]

Critter Stickers!

Made some of my animal stamps into stickers~ 🐯🐸

[softsynthetic]

Fun fact! I made stickers recently, and made a video about it! I hope my little experience could bring some fun background noise for others! <3

[sarahwatchesthings]

Oof. Spent most of my Saturday working on this new sticker design. Still not done, but I reeeeally gotta stop and do other things now. 😅

[owlart18]

Some birthday stickers for my lil sibling and mom!

(Commission info here | MapleStickerShop)

[yuecrafter]

A few new translucent stickers made with silver holographic foil - “It’s Not About Glory”, Polite Menace, La Vie en Rose. I absolutely adore this look, I added an extra layer of clear laminate on top to make sure the foil won’t scratch off.

The only thing about this material is that it is not water-resistant at all 🥲 my test sticker fell off my water bottle soon after I hand-washed it. My other test sticker is looking great on my laptop.

OFMD-inspired translucent stickers on BigCartel: https://yuecrafter.bigcartel.com/product/translucent-pirate-stickers-silver-holographic-foil

[purple-pigeon-art]

Laminating stickersss, did a voiceover too 👀

[babe-a-tron-queenthousand]

for any artists who are thinking about making their art into merch, sticker mule tweeted this. avoid them, don’t give them business.

if anyone finds other alternatives, please put them in the notes and i’ll add them to the post. i’ve heard good things about stickerapp and vograce.

[jeanrainier]

I make stickers! Check em out!

I have a line of Pride flowers, in all the flags for Orientations and Identities. They come in gloss print or a cute holographic with hearts!

[snowpuff79]

Sticker samples .. their are a sizable number

Sticker ninja was very generous with the amount

[alex-fictus]

Whoops 🤦