Are you intimidated by the thought of making stickers? DON'T BE! Even if you are a beginner Cricut crafter - stickers may seem like a hard thing to make but I was SHOCKED by how easy they are. Start making sticker sheets today with your Cricut Maker in only three steps!
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Mobile users turn your phone or watch the YouTube video here.
Materials and Tools Needed:
If you are here, I am assuming you already own a Cricut machine, Silhouette machine or Brother Scan n Cut. We will be focusing mostly on using a Cricut machine today but you can utilize these machines to make your own stickers. The remaining tool needed is just a home printer. I just upgraded my inkjet printer to an Epson eco-tank. Shop around if you can for these, I was able to grab mine on sale for under $175. The color is excellent and the ink will last you such a long time! They are totally worth the investment. Materials: I am using Koala Vinyl Sticker Paper, they also have regular sticker sheets available (shown in my YouTube video above). The biggest difference is the regular sticker paper is not water proof and printable vinyl sticker paper is. HOWEVER, you need to remember that not all ink is waterproof so hence your stickers aren't waterproof just because the paper is.
If you are using a Cricut Joy (not the Joy Xtra), unfortunately, you will not able to make custom stickers - they do not have the print then cut capability.
How to Make Sticker Sheets in Cricut Design Space
This tutorial is going to make you a kiss-cut sticker sheet which is where you have the backing on and it's just cut along the edge of the printable image. There are also die-cut stickers where you cut through the backing sheet to create an individual image. Both stickers are a lot of fun to make and basically utilize the same entire process but for die-cut stickers you would use more pressure to cut through the sticker paper.
The first step is to find your images, there are so many places to find the right images. You can download from sites like Creative Fabrica, use Cricut Access images, or even find images on the internet (for personal use) - I suggest something with a high DPI.
I used the Hulk images (for personal use) and text I had already in my computer from my son's fourth birthday. Since I was testing out how to make stickers I figured, why not make them for him? You can use ANY image you want for stickers because we are using print then cut and not cutting each layer, you can upload as a PNG or JPEG. To see how you can move images you draw on Procreate to your Cricut, check out my YouTube video above.
I stated that these were for personal use only, when making Cricut stickers (or whichever machine you are using) keep in mind that not every image is for a business to use and sell. Home crafters using these for personal use, for example, gifts or for your kids, you will be fine but if you plan on selling stickers, make sure you have access to the right licensing for the images.
To upload your images into the design space library, you will hit upload on the side and find the image on your computer or iPad. You will want to upload as a Print then Cut image, make sure to remove any background or pieces you do not want your sticker image to have. Then hit add to canvas!
Once I had everything uploaded, I added an offset to my stickers using the Cricut Design Space offset tool. I know Silhouette studio also has this feature available. For my offset settings, I kept it super small, around .15. It can be as big or small as you want, and honestly if you want the sticker sheet to just be the image you can skip this step all together and just roll with the image as is. Note: If the image has multiple pieces, like a name, an offset is needed to make the sticker one piece.
After you have the images offset (or not) you will flatten those layers together with the flatten tool in the bottom right hand corner of the Cricut Design Space app. This is going to make the image a print then cut file. You will want to make sure you do each image and offset individually. If you do the offset feature all together, then you will not be able to move the stickers around on the sheet. It will make the offsets a single layer and we don't want that. We need to maximize our sticker material because they are definitely not cheap!
You also want to make the offset a white outline around your image. If you leave the offset in a color, your printer is going to print the color rather than give you a white border. So, I guess technically this is a personal preference but I wanted to mention it!
Now You can duplicate all the stickers you would like and send to your printer. I like to add a rectangle in the back before I send to my printer and here is why - I want to see how many stickers I can fit onto one print and cut page. But don't be fooled! Cricut tells you the max size is 9x6.25 but this isn't correct! You can almost do a full sheet (8x11). So test out moving the stickers around on the print and cut page. Just remember if you put a white offset you won't be able to see it. Since I first made stickers, Cricut has changed the maximum size for your cut image. Not only have they added in bigger sizes like A4 to the list of printable paper but they also have adjusted the black lines of the registration lines making you have a little but more space for Cricut print then cut designs.
For my print settings, I always use the use system dialogue which will pop up an external box to your printer. since I am using the white offset I removed the bleed (this is important if you didn't add an offset. I printed on the highest quality for my printer. Your material settings and printer settings might be different from mine so test out different settings for the best results.
Cricut settings: since I am using the Koala vinyl sticker paper I went with the premium vinyl setting. This gave a beautiful kiss cut to my stickers while maintaining the backing of the sheet. Since the original posting of this blog, there has been the release of the Cricut printable sticker paper and so they have also come up with some basic cut settings for their materials. So, make sure you are choosing the right material when cutting.
Their sticker paper might be thicker or thinner than your sticker paper for the best practice is to test your own materials when making your print then cut stickers. I have even found that even different types of stickers (i.e. vinyl vs regular or holographic etc) are different thickness and will need adjusted settings. ALSO - the Cricut Explore Air machines vs the Cricut Makers have different options for cutting, so there are a lot of factors here.
If making holographic stickers, after printing you will add a laminate sheet (same for water proof stickers) to the top. I have found that for these, to keep the laminate in the black box of the registration lines and do not over lap them. It makes it more difficult for the Cricut to read. The print-then-cut feature can be tricky with Cricut. I do have to say that my print then cut on my Silhouette machines is almost always successful and accurate.
Next we need to load up our Cricut machines. I like to use a standard grip cutting mat but you can also use a light grip. Make sure that the image is facing the right direction and matches up to what you see on Cricut Design Space. You don't want to have your machine cut the image and its upside down. Try to line your printed sheet up so that it is level and even on the mat. Then hit the load in button and then the C to start cutting.
If you are finding that your Cricut is not reading the registration lines, it might be because of the gloss in a lot of sticker papers. The machine can't work with the reflection (this is why it struggles with holographic paper as well). It fix this you can use a white crayon on the registration lines to help make them more mat and 99% of the time this has fixed any print then cut issues that I may have been facing.
My last step after my Cricut machine did all of it's cutting, I manually went around with the slide cutter and cut off the edges to give it a cleaner look. This step is TOTALLY optional. It's just a fun way to make some sticker sheets!
And that's how you make a sticker sheet in Cricut Design Space! Flatten, Print, Cut! It's that simple!
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