Personalized Stickers - How to Make Your Own

Do you use stickers?

Would you use them if you could only find some you really like? Do you have photos, artwork, graphics, or a logo you’d like to be able to add to your hard copies, your letters, your product packaging? Individual stickers that will specifically advertise your product or send personal greetings are fun to make and not expensive. You can put them on thick cards or finished products. Anywhere they will stick!

You can make your own distinctive, original stickers - any size you want - and put them anywhere you want! Bookplates, jelly jar labels, invitations, copywrite labels. Or make a variety of designs to stick on envelopes, business cards, invitations.

Sometimes it’s a good idea to try out a graphic logo on various things before you have thousands of them printed professionally and this is a way do it. Or you may be a scrapbook crafter and want to add some repeating small art to your pages. Its not easy to find just the sticker you want - make your own!

For teachers, scrap bookers, jewelers, bead workers and other craft workers:

Teachers can make their own stickers for homework after it’s been graded to encourage and motivate your young students. Stickers saying GOOD JOB! GREAT! MOST IMPROVED! I may make some like that for myself. You could make your own arty, colorful sticker labels for the sleeves of CDs and DVDs . Or just make them to give to your kids or grandkids.

This would be a good rainy day project to do with kids who are learning how to use a graphics or photo program. Or teach your young scrap booker how to do this to make their projects even more creative and unique.

I made stickers the other day because I needed a quick way to label some earrings and barrettes display cards that were pre-cut, small and couldn’t go through my printer. I needed them fast because I wanted to be sure my work was labeled "Adah's Arts" when I took some work to show a client.

Formatting the artwork, graphic design or logo:

This is how I make mine - you will see that you can easily adapt these instructions to fit your designs and software. I know that with some software it will be even easier than this. I used my own photos for the artwork, you could easily use clip-art, stock photos, pictures of the new baby??

First I photographed several of my beaded rosettes and opened the files one at a time in PhotoImpact Pro. Then any adjustments to design, color and shape were made.

On these round rosette photos use the round select tool in the side tool bar, adjust the size to fit and select the rosette (point on it with the little pointer thing)

Then under Object in the Menu select Extract Object  - a formatting “Extract Object” box will appear to take you through the 4 steps to extract the object which separates it from the background so you can print only the object, minus whatever's in the background. (Or if you pick artwork with a nice, clean white background you might not have to go through this part)

When that is accomplished use the rectangular select tool and size it to cover about a quarter of the background

Then select the background in several square or rectangular sections and

Fill each section

with the bucket fill tool with white or “none” so there will be no color- voila! a white background

Now, when you get done with this part you have the object on a white/clear background. (Some photo or paint programs allow you to select the object and then fill the background without sectioning it off this way, but I couldn’t get mine to work that way. I think there‘s a way to do it by layering, but I‘m not that advanced) 

Now you're ready to add some text to it if you want.

In most photo/graphics programs, you can bend text into a circle - So I did that and placed “Adah’s Arts 2009” around the rosette with (my business name and the year which effectively copywrites my work. Add the copywrite symbol if you want) 

Here’s how to bend the text: select text tool, type the words and edit it to select the font, size, bold and/or italics. Then in the top menu under object there is a text option in PhotoImpact that allows you to bend the text, called “Wrap” and “Bend”. A formatting box opens - set “bending” at “100” and set the other settings to fit your text around the circle. It may need to be repeated 4 or 5 or 6 times to wrap around the circle. (Or ask the Help function on your program for Bend Text for better instructions) This same function will help you bend your text in a half circle or in little hills, or maybe other options.

Be sure to save your file often

!

When you have the image the way you want it on a white/clear background you’re ready to print the first sticker.

The hardest part is now done!

Ready to print

Use the “print multiple” function

- on my program it is located under File- More Print Options.

Then in the print window select the multiple print template for the labels you’re using.

PhotoImpact has thumbnails that show you exactly how the templates are formatted.

(At the bottom of these print side-windows there is a “next” button to use, kinda like a Wizard, for each of the steps you will follow until you get to “print“)

In the large layout, your artwork will show up on each label section - here you can move one around and they all move! Make sure they fit on the label - you can also re-size the image by dragging and pulling the sides of the square.

My labels were made by aligning the sticker art to the left for the first printing. These make very small stickers.

I printed 3 different designs on the same page of labels - each time loading a different photo, adjusting it and printing multiples - it gets easier every time you do it.

align the second image centered

and print again (be sure to put the labels in the printer facing down)

and now load another image, do the formatting, text etc. use the print multiples function la la la! align the third image right and print again -

Here's a couple tips:

Make sure your little images are small enough to fit without overlapping because you won’t be able to see all three designs on the page preview at the same time - you have to guess from the size of the first design you print on the labels. In other words use the rulers in your program and measure them in the print window so they're all the same size and will fit on those labels.

And as you can see from my pic- I didn’t turn the paper the right way the second time I printed! so it printed over one of them = like a double exposure - messed up! Well, if you do this too, you can always salvage the other two! You’ve still got 60 nifty little stickers. But the right way is to look at the arrows and printing on the label sheet and always put it in the printer face down, the same way!

All done! - now you can cut them in strips and use them as you need them.

Another little tip

-If you’re using the clear/transparent labels and you will be using these stickers somewhere they might get wet or need to be cleaned? (I found this out on the jelly jar lids) the printing might rub off - so = spray with some artist’s fixative before you cut them apart and that should solve the problem. Hopefully.

The first time I did this perfectly - I ended up with 90 cute little functional stickers for my beadwork display cards. This time, not so perfect, only 60. But nobody else will ever have my stickers. Nobody.

I also made some nice labels for my jelly jars using Microsoft Works Word Processor, loading the appropriate label template, and using the same clear labels. In order to make them show up I added a color to the background and put a border around them. (see photo of the finished product)

These are really just some ideas for you. If you’re an experienced scrapbook maker you’ve probably been doing all this and more for years, but if not, now you will be able to make all the stickers and labels you want! Well, I was just thrilled when I did this!

You will need to know your way around your photo/graphics program and/or your word processor program. Ifyou’re a beginner, this may be inspiration to use some functions of your software you haven’t used before. Your help instructions will guide you.

Stick-er on!