BEHIND THE SCENE : Process for homemade stickers

I though it would be interesting for you to read about the process for making those. Yay! Story time!  Or "how it took me 3 months to produce stickers from start to end"...

 + THE CONCEPTION PART. 

So 3-4 months ago, I decided I wanted to open a shop and attempt to illustration fairs. As a big sucker for stickers, I wanted to make mine. I wasn't sure on the path to chose to actually print them but I was pretty sure about the design and the size. I wanted sticker sheets small enough to fit in an A5 sketchbook, because this is what I use as a planner and where I put all my stickers. And I think it's convenient to be able to keep them inside. I don't like when your sheet is all folded because the format is a bit to big. What is your preference concerning sheets size, guys ?

So I have this notebook where I wrote down all my projects ideas, I've made a list of which themes I would like to have as stickers. I try to think my products so they can please to everyone but before anything else, to me. I learned the hard way how much it is important to love your own products.

I always paint my illustrations on procreate with watercolor'ish brushes from Georg. Then I import the painting on Photoshop to apply a watercolor texture on it and tweak the colors if needed. 

For stickers, I paint visuals focusing on one theme. I don't really plan my sheet as a composition and sometimes I don't even use all the visuals.

Here are 3 little illustrations I didn't end up using because I didn't liked the final result.

You can also see some process videos on my instagram and twitter, I try to upload one from time to time and there are some from my breakfast sticker sheet illustrations.

Anyway, here is the final result for the three sheets I've made.



 + ATTEMPT ON HOME PRINTING  

As I am starting as a merch seller, I don't really know if all of this is going to work. To be honest, I have this super scary though where no one is interested to buy them. So to prevent this I decided to print them in a very small quantity. And finger-crossed, it is going to work.

The thing is... when you want to print small quantity of something, the price is insane! I tried a lot of different websites to find somewhere to print them without selling any of my organs. But every time, it was really expensive and I can't really afford to buy stickers that price. Plus I don't even know if they are going to sell. 

So I decided to print and cut them myself. And oh boy... that was a big adventure I wasn't prepared for.

It happens that my friend has this big and very good quality printer. And she kindly accepted to let me try to print my stickers on it. So I bought some sticky paper and we've tried. A lot. We've spend literally hours trying to print them with the right contrast balance and colors but in the end the colors where really dull. I still don't know why but it seems the printer has issues with black...

 + PRINTING 2/2  

So I ended up printing them with the usual printing company I work with. They don't make stickers but they can print on sticky paper with some fancy varnish (I chose a glossy varnish but I would love to try the matte one too). And it stays really cheaper compared to actual printed + cut stickers. This is also why it took me so much time to get them. I waited to have enough to print so I could order not only the stickers sheets but also some cards and labels for the shop. 
I've organized my stickers sheet on a A4 size so it's more convenient to cut and there are less paper loss.
And I have to say that the result has exceeded my expectations! The quality is just beautiful and I am so happy with the colors. The only thing is that the paper is a bit bendy due to it's thickness and the varnish.

 + CUTTING THE STICKERS. 

The cutting part was all planned since the beginning. In June, I ordered a Cricut, which is a home cutting machine (mine is mint... so pretty!). I didn't tested it at the time because as the perfectionist that I am, I wanted to wait to have the stickers printed so everything would be immediately perfect. And also, with all the videos I've seen on Youtube, I thought it would be a piece of cake. What a fool I was!

I think the machine is really easy to use if you actually print from it (you can chose to print + cut or just cut). But if you print your visuals elsewhere.. it's a freaking pain in the butt! I had a very hard time trying to align my printed design with the cut file. Plus, my prints are not really perfects. My designs can be 1mm offset and it changes everything. My firsts test were a total mess guys, look a this!

Luckily for me there are some very good tutorial on the internet. Thank to this clever guy, I manage to cut my stickers correctly. But there's always a little part of "no perfection" as you can see here. Some are more aligned than others.

As I said, I am huge perfectionist, and it can be really annoying because this kind of stuff drives me nuts. But I guess I'll have to live with it and... I'll just secretly cry about it.

Another thing with the cricut is that it takes forever to cut. And because of the fact that I use Die Cut + Kiss Cut, I have to switch between both for every A4. The advice that I would give if you want to cut stickers like this is to have more than one mat. While the machine is cutting a sheet, you can prepare another. I ordered just one and I regret it now.

Otherwise, the machine is super pro and the cut is very clean. I was really surprises about that.

 + FINAL PRODUCT. 

Whatever I say... I am super proud of the result. I'm in love with the size of the sheet, and I really like how the stickers turned out. I was super scared because this is a product I really don't want to mess up. I want to keep making more now. Even if the process is really long.

 + THOUGHTS. 

In the end I love the product. Sure, the process is very long but for now I prefer to work more but spend less on it.
Because if I make the maths, the machine + the whole order I've made to my printer, is less expensive than just the stickers all printed and cut out. So if I sell all my stickers stock, I'll have refunded the machine entirely and the stickers will practically cost me nothing to print again.
For now it's a good solution because I am starting and I want to keep a small production but for someone who sells a lot... it may not worth it at all.