Sticker Fun!

(To view full post, you may need to click blog title and read in your browser.)

I admired some beautiful (but pricey) art stickers in a gift store and thought I'd try making my own. Here's a look at how I started out.

You can buy specialty sticker paper but I was gifted a large quantity of address label sheets and had a try with those, using my own hand-carved stamps. Some I cut with a circle punch and others I hand-cut with scissors trying to leave a neat and consistent white border (which pretty much disappears on a white envelope). These stickers were most like the ones I saw in the gift shop.

If you're using address label paper, a little trick is to cut down a bit below the image, into the label below, and leave a tab of the backing paper. Makes it so much easier to remove the sticker when you come to use it.

Sometimes, like with the circle-punched stickers (or other shaped stickers), you can't leave that tab. Then I keep a pin or needle handy and use it to separate the sticker from the backing paper.

Another way I created stickers, a few years back, was using acrylic ink and water and making random, vaguely landscape-type marks across the label sheet. I also made similar marks with felt pens. Occasionally I added a moon to reinforce the landscape image. Then I cut the label sheet into four strips and peeled off the stickers as I needed them. At the time, I was disappointed in how the stickers turned out. Now I quite like them and think I'll play around with this technique again. 

Also around then, with the simple program that came with my Canon inkjet printer, I ran off a contract sheet of 20 small photos on the address label paper.

These meadow and hillside shots were taken with my old phone in the fall while out on a morning walk. I printed in high quality but they still came out a bit faded and grainy. But I kind of like that vintage look.

The fun thing about using a label sheet is you don't quite know how the photos will be disected when you pull them off to use. I like that! It gave me a fresh perspective on composition.

Inspired, I recently gave this technique another go and ran off a few sheets of flower photos (a group of 20 and one of 30). I picked photos with bright flowers and/or that had high contrast and they came out sharper. 

I've been in flower-themed mode this spring and these photo stickers will go well with the notecards I printed.

Below, you can see how the sunflower image, printed over two address labels, split into two when the backing paper was removed. Happy accident that I still ended up with two good images!

One for the back of the envelope and one for the front.

For years, I've made rectangle stamps with my red gate logo. Or stamped on larger address labels. Or made use of those packets of small round labels (like for the hearts). 

You can also buy rolls of blank round stickers. These are about 1.5 inches (4 cm) wide and I really the kraft ones.

But I really enjoy the look of the cut-out stickers and plan to keep playing around with them - perhaps even carving more detailed stamps specifically for stickers. There's something so satisfying about sending off a card or note with that bit of extra embellishment on the envelope!

If you've made it this far, thank you for following my art adventure! I'll try to not let so much time pass before I post again. Here's to a fabulous June!