Stickers are so much fun! Teachers have been using them for years to encourage their students. Students use them to personalize their binders and notebooks. Young athletes use them to spruce up their helmets. Nurses use them to reward their young patients. And people who keep journals use them in their datebooks to keep themselves organized. Now it’s easier than ever to create your own sticker sheets. Let’s give it a try.
Supplies:
- Cutting Machine (this tutorial is based on using a Cricut Machine)
- Printer
- Light Grip Cutting Mat
- Various clipart (Creative Fabrica has many to choose from)
- Sticker paper (there are many to choose from based on what you need)
Creating your stickers
Open Cricut Design Space.
Start a new project.
Upload a png file. Creative Fabrica has sticker sheets that are already prepped for you to upload, print, and cut. We used this fitness planner set.
Select image type – simple.
Click ‘continue’.
If you’ve uploaded a png file, you don’t need to erase the background because these files have a transparent background already.
Click ‘continue’.
Click on the ‘print then cut’ image on the right. The image on the left shows you where Cricut is going to cut. The image on the right shows the printed image.
Click ‘upload’. This puts your image into your image library in Design Space.
Click on your image then ‘insert image’. This will place your image onto your canvas.
TIP: Sometimes when you upload your image, it is not the correct size. No problem, just resize to the size that you need.
The Print and Cut Feature is a maximum of 6.75” x 9.25”, so make sure that you are within that size. Make sure that your size proportion is locked and start with resizing the width to 6.75”.
You’ll notice that with this particular sticker sheet that the length is still more than 9.25”.
Keep the size proportion locked and now change the length to 9.25”. The width now changes to 6.335” but that’s ok.
Click ‘make it’ and your screen will open to the mat layout.
Click ‘continue’ and load your printer with sticker paper.
Click ‘send to printer’ and your print set up page appears.
If you want a white border around your sticker, make sure that ‘add bleed’ is turned on or green. If you want the printing to extend to the cutting edge, no white border, then turn bleed off or make sure that it’s not green.
Click ‘print’. Your image will be sent to your printer and then printed.
Place your printed sticker sheet onto a light grip cutting mat.
Set your base material at ‘washi sheet’ with ‘less’ pressure.
TIP: If you set your machine to sticker paper with the default pressure setting, your machine may do what mine did and cut all the way through. Then you’ll be peeling each individual sticker off your mat.
Load into your cutting machine and press start.
TIP: To remove your sticker sheets from your cutting mat without the sticker sheet curling, turn the cutting mat over and remove the mat from the sticker sheet by rolling the mat away from the sticker sheet, rather than rolling or pulling the sticker sheet off the mat.
To make your own sticker sheets from clipart
First, you need a clip art image. Download a cute clip art image from Creative Fabrica. The image used for this tutorial is this Cute Kitty Unicorn image.
Go to your Design Space canvas and set up the sticker sheet measurements first. This step is optional, but it does give you an outline and makes it a little easier. Create a rectangle at 6.75” x 9.25”. This is the maximum area that Cricut allows for print and cut designs.
Upload a png file of your clipart image – simple.
Press ‘continue’.
Again, because this is a png image, you won’t need to ‘select and erase’ anything. It already has a transparent background. Press ‘continue’.
Select the ‘print then cut image’ on the right and upload, adding the image to your image library. Insert your image to the canvas.
You can resize your image to whatever size you want your sticker. For this sticker sheet, let’s size it to 1.5” wide.
Align left and top with the rectangle.
Duplicate the image once and align the top and right with the rectangle.
Duplicate the image twice more and align all to the top with the rectangle. Now you need to capture all four images without the rectangle by ‘Ctrl + click’ on each image and under the ‘align’ button at the top, distribute horizontally. This will align all four images evenly across the top. With those same four images collected, click on ‘attach’.
Duplicate these four attached images. Capture the duplicated four images and the rectangle and align left and bottom. Now delete the rectangle. You don’t need it anymore.
Duplicate the top four images twice more and align all the images left then distribute vertically. Your sticker sheet is now uniform and spaced evenly. Double check that your measurements are still 6.75” x 9.25”.
Save your work so that you’ll have it to use in the future. You have now created your own sticker sheet.
Press ‘make it’ and your mat layout opens. Click ‘continue’.
Press ‘send to printer’ and remember, if you want a white border around your sticker, make sure that ‘add bleed’ is on or green. If this tab is not green, you will not have a white border around each sticker. Press ‘print’.
Lay your printed sticker sheet onto the mat. Set your base material at ‘washi sheet’ with ‘less’ pressure. Load into your machine and let Cricut to the cutting. That’s all there is to it.
Now to use your stickers!
There are unlimited ways to use your stickers. From decorating laptops to cell phones, notebooks to planners, picture frames to mirrors, and so much more. You can put stickers on just about anything.
When decorating, place your larger stickers first then fill in around the large stickers with the smaller ones.
Decorate furniture around your home such as your trash can, toaster, bookshelves, filing cabinet, or even your coffee table. Dress up your electronics like your computer tower, laptop, cell phone, and video game console. Place them on paper goods like a clipboard, notebook, journal, or an envelope that you’re mailing. You can put them on your workbench or toolbox. Personalize your car window, your wallet, or your backpack. What about putting them on your MP3 Player, your guitar case, or your speakers? Put them on your suitcase, water bottle, or travel mug. Dress up your bicycle, skateboard, or snowboard. Create a scrapbook of stickers from where you travel.
You can use stickers to brighten up your life in a quick, inexpensive, and easy way. Put them on your lunch box, your schoolbooks, and your pencil tins. Cover your softball, baseball, or bicycle helmet.
Dress up everyday items to create unique gifts. Imagine the face on the mom-to-be when she opens the gift of baby bottles covered in stickers that match the baby décor. Decorate the gift bag with stickers too.
Stickers can even be the gift. What child wouldn’t love a handful of stickers that they can use to personalize their things? Or what adult even, for that matter. Teenagers would love to decorate their school lockers.
Turn your stickers into magnets. Get some magnetic material and stick your stickers to the magnet and trim.
Create a sticker wall with fairy lights; you know, like the ones where they use polaroid prints, just use stickers instead. Decorate your phone charger. Put them on sanitizer bottles. We all love to use cute things so make your sanitizer bottle cute.
If you’re into collecting and saving stickers, you can create a notebook filled with clear plastic sleeves that you can slip your sticker collection into so that they are protected and easily displayed. You can add to your sticker collection by reaching out to your favorite brands and asking if they’ll send you some stickers.
You can use stickers to show off your personality. Has this given you some ideas? What kind of stickers best show who you are? Creative Fabrica has more than 155,000 sticker ideas, be sure to check them out and start your collection today.
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