Your one stop guide on how to make stickers at home! I will teach you how to use your Cricut to make stickers! The possibilities are endless!
How To Make Waterproof Stickers At Home: A Guide
The goal of every business owner is to be successful. Success can be measured in soooo many ways (money, followers, engagement, community reach, etc) so whatever "success" looks like to you, run with it!
But with starting really any business, it can be hard to even know where to begin in order to make quality products that people with return time and time again for.
Oftentimes, it just comes down to your workflow and process, as well as the raw material you use. Also, and really unfortunately, what works for one person doesn't always work for everyone!
Have you’ve been using a Cricut and wondering "how on God's green earth do I use this thing???" or "how much money can I recoup from selling this machine? It's too confusing!"
It can make you feel frustrated!! I feel ya.
Today, you’re in luck! I’m going to share a the process of how I make my waterproof stickers that will help you make yours too!! Stickers are amazing for all sorts of business ventures (think: freebies, branding, etc), and once you get the hang of it, I promise you it will be second nature.
I'll cover my exact process of how to make waterproof stickers, how a Cricut works, and how you can get started.
Keep reading for more details!!
What Is A Cricut?
Short and sweet, a Cricut is a personal cutting machine. It allows you to make small batch items in your own home, be in control of production, and provide an outlet for creativity!
A Cricut is NOT a printer! That was something I got confused about early on. Printers and Cricuts are NOT THE SAME! Hopefully the capital letters help that sink it! :)
Do you NEED a Cricut to create stickers? Nope! You can outsource your stickers to a variety of companies. A quick search will link you to probably hundreds of sticker companies. Later on, I'll talk about the pros and cons of using a Cricut and outsourcing to other companies, so sit tight!
What materials do I need to make stickers?
-some sort of sticker paper or sticker vinyl
-some sort of laminate (not thermal- it should be adhesive)
-a scraper of some kind (a credit card could work!)
-a printer (I would recommend a color printer, but you can totally make black and white stickers!)
-a personal cutting machine like a Cricut if you want clean, perfect cuts. You coulddddd use scissors but your stickers may come out uneven and jagged!
What's the step by step process?
**Like I mentioned at the beginning, these steps work for ME! I do not promise these same results to you, you may need to tweak this a lil bit! I also exclusively use a Cricut Maker. I have experience with the Cricut Explore Air 2. I have no experience with other cutting machines.
1.Design the sticker (I do this on the app Procreate, but you can use whatever drawing/graphic program you would like!) Make sure your design has a white background that surrounds it completely (think bubbles around the design)
2. Upload the design to Cricut design space.
3. On the Cricut canvas, insert your sticker image (or images- you can fit quite a few in the 6.5"x9.25" printable area!)
4.Make sure your sticker paper is shiny side DOWN in the paper tray. You want the actual sticky part to be facing down so that way it prints directly on the adhesive side of the page.
5. Before you press that "print" button, check those printer settings. You want the best quality for the best stickers!
6. Print out your stickers (be careful until the page is dry. Some brands have a fast dry time, others are slower. You don't want to smudge anything)
7. Use the scraper of your choice to gently adhere the laminate over the top of your stickers. Start by peeling back the laminate from the short edge and adhering that first. It helps decrease bubbles and wrinkles.
8.Place your sticker page on a mat (I prefer light grip/blue). On the Maker, I use "poster board" setting with "more" pressure. I don't know why this works for me, but it does! Don't be surprised if you have to play around with settings in order to find your perfect one.
9. Follow the directions that pop up on the screen, and your Cricut should start pulling the mat through and cutting automatically! Afterwards, it's just a matter of popping the stickers gently off the mat.
Is that really all there is???
Honestly... maybe. Like I said, you have to play around with settings to make sure your Cricut blade cuts through your paper entirely! But once you have the settings down, it's really a "rinse and repeat" type of situation.