Making Stickers For Fun
- Ücil Jean
- Jan 20, 2023
- 3 min read
Do any of you remember scratch and sniff stickers? I can still smell the fruity scents of the stickers stuck to 5 yo me's hot wheels track. Stickers are cool right? You want to make your own? Well I have no idea how to make scratch and sniff stickers, but here are a few techniques for making stickers that I've tried.
1#Hand Drawn Stickers.
You already have drawings to turn into a sticker and you're cool with only making only one sticker at a time. Maybe you want to test out a sketch as a sticker before you design the final design. Basically the technique is to glue your drawing over an existing sticker. I do this to quick drawings I made while waiting on the phone or in a meeting.
1) Find ugly stickers. I collect packing labels or old bumper stickers. I'll reuse shipping defunct shipping labels. Really anything with an adhesive backing.
2)cut drawing to shape
[Pic Cutting our drawing]
3) glue drawing to label. Cut around shape but leave some lip. You may want to color the lip.
[Gluing drawing to shipping label
4)use packing tape to "weather proof" your sticker. The lip on the edge will help keep water out.
[Pics demonstrating covering art.]
5)Cut out sticker. Ta Dah.
2#USPS Shipping Label Stickers
This technique is fun and might get you in trouble. Street taggers like this a lot because they can make the perfect version of their tag and slap it up somewhere faster than they can write.
1) get some labels
Basically USPS gives shipping label stickers out for free. you can even order some online. There are better ways to get sticker paper, but this works in a pinch.
2)draw some art.
It's painfully straight forward.
3)I can't recommend putting stickers in public?
3#Make Lick and Stick Stickers
This is best for small stickers. Like, stamp size... Basically you're mixing up old school stamp glue and pasting it onto the back of your sticker and letting it dry. When I was a kid I used equal parts vinegar and pva glue. I assume you don't want to eat Elmer's glue so I did a quick google search and found this recepe:
4#Printing Sticker Sheets
Honestly if you have access to a printer I'd start here. You can quickly make a few dozen and hand them out to friends. Also a good way to test if your sticker design will be njoyed by a range of people.
1)Buy sticker sheets. Avery makes decent sheets in various shapes.
2)Download the template for your sheet. Most companies have a code on the box you can then use to find the right template from their website.
3)upload art to template and print. Some printers have trouble with the thick sticker sheets. You may need to adjust your printer's paper type settings to ether "thick" or "Label."
I should say not all printers work nice with all sticker sheets. For example my laser printer can print small Avery address stickers easily, but the half sheets it refuses to feed through.
End
So those are the some of the ways I've made stickers. Now if you're planning on selling stickers (or giving away a large amount) you may want to use a sticker printing service. You can ether use a print on demand service, or a bulk print service.
1)Print On Demand services like Redbubble.
If you don't know how many stickers you would sell, but want to make them available you coud try a print on demand service. I feel really proud of the stickers I've designed and uploaded to Redbubble.
2)Use a printing company like:
On the other hand printing a large quantity will allow you the most profit per sticker. If you have a design you feel confident will sell then check out these services:
They can print a large amount for a low unit cost. To me thislooks like the best value for that 50-1K stickers range. Sticker Mule has a lot of style options including transparent sheets.
If you plan to print 2000 or more stickers Avery is cheaper per unit than Sticker Mule. Avery specializes in labels more than stickers so I don't know about their quality.
As always do your own research.
Making stickers is a fun activity that'll put a smile on your face. What will put smiles on more faces is sharing your stickers with your friends. Hopefully this inspires you to be creative. If you make any cool stickers send me pictures! I love seeing what people create.
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