Do you want to get started with creating stickers but the prospect of purchasing in bulk from a sticker company is too much for you at the moment? No problem! Here's how I make my stickers at home.
Materials:
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Silhouette Cameo
- Silhouette Design Studio
- Inkjet Printable Vinyl (I used this type from Expressions Vinyl)
- Clear Laminate (I used this type from from Expressions Vinyl)
- Inkjet Printer (I have a Canon Pixma TR8520)
- Design Program (I used Adobe Illustrator and Procreate for this design)
Instructions:
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Draw your design in the digital illustration program of your choice. I draw the majority of my designs in the Procreate app for iPad.
- Export your design and import it into Silhouette Design Studio. I like to use a .png file with a transparent background.
- Trace your design with the trace tool. I like to offset my cut-lines somewhat to give the sticker a small border so that if it doesn't cut perfectly, it's not messing up the design itself. Once I have these offset lines, I delete the original cut line so it doesn't cut in both places.
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Once you have a design you are satisfied with, you can copy & paste and arrange for as many stickers as desired. Make sure you go to “page setup” and turn on registration marks. Print your sheet.
- Load the printed page onto your cutting mat.
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Apply your laminate. Make sure to cut to match the size of your design - you do not want the laminate to go over the registration marks or the machine won’t be able to read them correctly. The easiest way to apply it is to fold back a corner of the backing and apply a small bit of laminate at a time while smoothing it out.
- Once laminate is applied, load the cutting mat into your machine.
- Adjust cut settings as desired. The recommended settings from Expressions Vinyl for printable vinyl with laminate are Blade 2, Speed 5, Thickness 33. This cuts the stickers as kiss-cut stickers, but does not go all the way through the paper so they are not die-cut. To cut die-cut, I usually use the settings for "card stock" with 2-3 passes.
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Hit “send” and let your machine do the hard part!
- You're done!
For those of you who (like me) benefit more from a visual explanation, here is my YouTube tutorial on creating these stickers:
Let me know if you try this technique!
xx Sam