#i want to try glossy sticker paper but i don't know if i can print it with my home printer 🫠

[eggcheeseham-ster]

stickies

I actually printed these out months ago but never posted them except for a few insta stories. First time making my own stickers, used a matte based paper and it turned out decent. I bought laminate sheets but I didn't use them for some reason.

I think I'll move on to keychains and standees next,, if I can't have mfb merch I will make my own.

[mysticgeekzartz]

For those of you who wondered how I made my stickers

So how I made my stickers I did not make them in a website like canva or anything like that or got them printed I actually made them all by myself with a few things that I got off Amazon So first you need to get a good sticker paper or the one that you can afford I spent like $25 for a pack of 100 glossy sheets and it was called printable vinyl sticker paper for inkjet printer

This is the brand I use I think you can use whatever brand but use what is best for you You can use mat you can use glossy I use glossy because I like shiny stickers and it makes them pop when I put sparkles on them

Next you will need to have a printer I have an HP inkjet printer also before you get your sticker paper make sure you know what type of printer you have Because some certain types of printers do not support certain types of sticker paper because it can jam the printer and maybe even break your printer so make sure you check that this print paper works for your printer

This right here is my printer that I normally use Just a basic ink jet but also make sure that your printer also supports colored ink as well because if not you're just going to have a bunch of black and white stickers

Then have a drawing program whether that is procreate, fire alpaca, Adobe, CSP, both Paint tool sai's, ect. Whatever drawing program you like to use Just make sure that you can make it transparent in the background when you are ready So you can export it to a different type of program if you decide to do it that way I don't do it that way I actually print it through my drawing program also another tidbit do not use colors that are overly bright especially for using the type of glossy paper I use I learned from experience overly bright colors will make it look washed out and it will not pop so try to make sure you use medium to darks if you can and add lots of shading also make sure you have your line art dark as well so it can show the image well as well I just know from mistakes I've made in the past It's all trial and error my friends

Next how I do it as I make my stickers waterproof I use mod podge I used to spray on stuff I use the gloss spray on I don't use the mat because I don't like Matte stickers And I bought mine off of Amazon for about 10 bucks but it does last me a while except for the times I had a big sticker order then I used a lot more of it but yeah all you need is like a quick little coat I like to make it as my "save" button So my image does not get scratched up and scuffed up because with my type of sticker paper if I'm not careful the image will get all scuffed up which is why I spray so I can preserve the image.

This is the one I use It's lasted me for a good amount of projects also you only need like one or two coats like light coats don't go too heavy-handed or it can make your paper curl and that's something that you do not want and if it does curl put a heavy book on it for a few minutes and it should straighten up enough for you to put the laminate on also make sure you're in a well ventilated area if you are going to spray I recommend doing it outside but if you have to do it inside open a window make sure it's well ventilated and wear a mask You do not want to be breathing in this

Speaking of laminate That's what I use next I use sparkly laminate after the spray has dried and everything I put laminate on it since I do not have a laminate machine or anything I do everything by hand which is not easy to put laminate by hand laminate sheets are like these sticker sheets I use The ones I use are called Cosrk premium holographic laminate sheets And I bought those on Amazon for about 10 bucks each but it does come with a lot of laminate sheets in different styles in one pack You just choose which styles you prefer also it says this in the description but some people tend to forget you cannot print on these laminate sheets It will jack your printer up these are meant to put over an image not to print on an image there was a lot of reviews that said that it didn't work on their printer and I'm like yeah because you didn't use the product right lol So if you do get this product please make sure that you do not print on it it will really mess up your printer

Here's a brand an example of how the laminate looks like also another tip Make sure you keep it in a cool area If the area is way too warm they will curl up and if they do that make sure you just place a heavy book on it and hopefully it flattens out enough which comes on to putting it on the stickers this is a very delicate process because you can mess it up real easily if you are not careful especially if you do not have a machine to help you put the laminate on So I gently pull the laminate off Make sure there's no air bubbles or anything and if you do get air bubbles there are like tools to help get air bubbles out I don't know what the thing is called I think it's like a scraper I don't have that because I get frustrated with it and plus I learned enough to not get bubbles on my stuff anymore but I know what helps is I quickly gently put it on over it like quickly and gently Don't even press it down and then I quickly put a heavy book on it and usually that has worked for me like for a few minutes I put a heavy book on it and then the laminate is straight it barely has any bubbles and that's just the method it works out for me If you have another method try it out

And now for the final which is to put another coat of spray on there to make sure they're waterproof and protected I recommend putting about two coats like the last time light coats And then let him wait for a few seconds until they're not tacky anymore and then once they're all dried up you just cut them out since I don't have a cutter I cut them by hand which is not the easiest either especially if it's a unique shape but I try to cut him the best as I can I'm hopefully one day I can get a sticker cutter but until that day comes I'm going to do everything by hand lol So I hope that answers some of y'all's questions about how I make stickers If you have any more questions don't be afraid to ask me I will be more than happy to help out as you can only say so much on a blog post lol

Here's some sticker examples of the process lol also a little bit of fan art with those stickers And my graphic design skills

[shinesurge]

your custom cassettes are really really cool! ive been thinking about making custom cassettes for a bit, would you be willing to share what kind of paper you used for the label stickers and j-cards? also where do you get blank cassettes from? ive been looking at cassettecomeback but i was wondering if there was a better option.

Thanks a lot! They're really fun to make hehe

So full disclosure: I run a merch shop for my webcomic and I make most of my stuff myself in my studio. I've been doing this for the better part of ten years and over that time I've accumulated quite a bit of specialized, expensive equipment like the photo printer and cutting machine I use to make my cassette ephemera. THAT SAID mixtapes don't necessarily need all that!! Unless you're running a bootleg business on etsy or somethin I don't think you and your friends gotta run out and spend a ton of money to make these (beyond tracking down a deck and a player, obviously).

Unfortunately most of these items are found on Amazon because I'm a professional artist trying to Live, but if that's something you'd rather avoid buying through I'm listing the brick and mortar places I can find them when I need to for whatever reason!

My j-cards are just the 8x10 glossy photo paper from Pen & Gear, it's usually less than ten bucks a pack at walmart lmao. I use it with an inkjet photo printer! There are plenty of laser printer options out there though, which is probably the type non-artists have access to. Honestly I think the look of black ink on colored copy paper is super cool for handmade tapes, especially between friends.

My sticker paper was a bitch to find and I'm not sure if it would be useful without my specific equipment, but it's this glossy adhesive photo paper from some rando company called LDProducts. Literally just called "Sticker Photo Paper" pf. It's more expensive but I get it in stacks of a hundred because I print tons of stickers for my shop. Again, glossy adhesive paper might not be useful without a big boy printer but MATTE sticker paper is everywhere, that's also pretty common to find at walmart or at the very least at an office supply store; you can print on it or even get out some markers (not sure i'd suggest anything besides ink tho, I'd be worried it could come off and damage the player). I design the labels in clip studio and then load them into cricut so it's super easy to get the right shape every time, but if you're Determined you could get out a measuring tape and an xacto knife and get similar results.

I've only found my tapes on amazon unfortunately, and it's been a while since I bought any because I sort of inherited a bunch of sealed ones when my dad died and i'm still going through them lol. Almost all my custom ones are 90 minute Sony High Fidelity, last I checked you could order them in packs of five or ten but I'm not sure what the prices are like rn. If you REALLY want to get fancy with colored shells/custom lengths i did find this cool site you can order from, Duplication.ca, but the shipping is kinda rough. One of these days I wanna make some cassettes for my webcomic and I'll drop some money on some pretty ones then, but for now the Sonys are treating me fine so I haven't dug too deep.

I hope something in here is useful! I'm always happy to share what I know but again, I'm very fortunate to have access to quite a bit of stuff most people don't and I try to be up front about it alskdjf. Cassettes are best when they're sorta janky and handmade tho, it's kind of the whole point, and if they're just for you or someone you care about then marking them with a sharpie and masking tape is just as cool in my opinion. probably cooler. everybody should put music on physical media and trade it i think.

[lilmistermaya]

okay. lets try to talk thru my anxiety.

business cards 90% mocked up? yes. just need to add shop address to them before I can pint them out.

logo: made. its cute. may print it out on sticker paper and hand cut it out and then get it professionally printed out as stickers when I have regular orders. jimmy says I can get it laser cut on stuff if I want merch later on. wouldn't that be cute on tins?

website: shopify account made. will take pictures of product tomorrow.

product: have about 120 pans poured, most still curing. need to clean up the edges of some of the pans.

shipping material: ordered, waiting on it to come. have some stuff in the meanwhile.

marketing: uh... I have an instagram account, I might see if tumblr blaze will get some orders, maybe ask a few popular accounts if they want to spread the word on tumblr... I don't know what else to do for advertising otherwise.

future plans: curated pallets, matte color sets, nice glossy cards to send with orders, maybe printed water color pages.