BEHIND THE SCENE : Beetle process video

BEHIND THE SCENE : Cutting stickers | No Registration Marks | CRICUT EXPLORE AIR 2

Hey folks, here we go again ! Second part of the stickers article and, today, I am talking about my cutting machine which is a Cricut Explore 2. Long story short, I bought it last summer and as a person who doesn't really read instructions, I jumped right onto stickers creation thinking that it would be super easy (ahah how wrong I was). Just to discover not so long ago that there was a proper way to use the machine... Yeah. 

The only thing is that this proper method includes registration marks and makes you loose half of your paper. How sweet ! So... I am not going to talk about this today. The way I cut my stickers is far from perfect, if you want me to be honest, this is completely ratchet and maybe you're going to lose some hairs (because who doesn't with those kind of machines) but it's working for me, and helps me to save ressources. And I am all for it ! Just so you know if you're, like me, a perfectionist, you'll have to accept that sometimes, things cannot be perfect.

Again I am using Photoshop and it's in french, I hope it's ok.

 + PREPARING MY FILE WITH PHOTOSHOP. 

Ok. So. I usually prepare my file for printing and cutting at the same time. It's just a matter of preference, but, this way, my file is all prepare for use.

As I mentioned in the other part, I start with the outline. My designs are all separated from the background so I just have to use the stroke option on Photoshop, like so (by the way, don't hesitate to print some different stroke tests; usually it's easier to see it when printed rather than on the computer). 

Next, I prepare my cutting files. I need two files because I am doing the Kiss Cut and the Die Cut on the machine.

For the Kiss Cut, I duplicate my design with stroke and flatten the layer with a new one, juste to have the whole shape (design+ white stroke) flattened. This way, I can recolor it in a dark grey, so it's easier to select the shape to cut, later, in Design Space. I also put 2 registration marks in the corners which will also be useful in Design Space.

For the Die Cut I just fill a rectangle of the same size as my final sheet in dark grey. And I keep the same registration marks.

I save them both in A4 which is the size of my print, RGB, 300dpi, JPEG.

 

  

 + LET'S JUMP INTO DESIGN SPACE. 

Once design space opened, I create a new project and import my cutting files in the tab "Upload". I follow the instructions and save my files as a Cut Image.

Then I import the files in my project and resize them. My final file is a A4 (210 x 297 mm) so it must be the same on the screen. And I position my files in the top left corner by typing 0 for X and Y axis like so :

I do this for both files. As you can see, I keep them in the same project. My designs cut line on the top layer and my sheets cut line on the bottom layer. 

Once my files are in the right place, I disable the registration on the bottom right because I don't want the machine to cut it. It has just helped me to resize my files perfectly but I don't need it anymore.

For this, I just select the tab Contour in the bottom right of my screen. And then click on the shape that I want to make disappear. 

Last step, I save my project, which is all set up now.

 + PREPARING THE MAT. 

Ok. So for this kind of cutting, you don't use the mat as it's planned. As I am not using the Cricut registration marks for Print and Cut, I can't use the traditional grid. I need to make my own so I can place my paper properly. For that I use a simple removable tape.

And I am basically putting tape all over the sticky part of my mat. Then I am going to cut with the machine a rectangle which is the same size as the paper sheets that I always use. You can even double the tape thickness where the machine is going to cut, so it's even easier to fit your paper sheet in. After that, you just have to peel off the rectangle that you cut.

This way, you know exactly where the machine is calibrate to cut. Even better, you now have a tape frame that helps you to put your paper at the right place very easily. 

I didn't came up with this idea, it comes from this super helpful video.

Here is what it looks like when I put my printed sheet of paper. I secure it with some washi tape because my mat does not stick evenly.

 + THE CUTTING. 

Now that everything is settled, I start the cutting part. I already have 2 custom materials that match my paper, one for Kiss Cut, and one for Die Cut (captain obvious here!). It doesn't show on the picture but I always start by the Kiss Cut because it avoids the paper to bend if the mat doesn't stick enough.

My machine itself is on "Custom" mode.

And this is where my little circles help me a lot. This way I can see if my mat is well placed. You can see here that it's a bit offset, but nothing too crazy. Anyway, the machine doesn't cut evenly. I have stickers that are just perfectly cut and some are not, on the same sheet. I don't think it's really a problem since it's only a question of 0.5 mm most of the time. I just need to put my perfectionist self in the closet for a sec.

And that's it ! Once my Kiss Cut is done, I unload and reload my mat for the Die Cut. Here is the result. 

This method can be rough but the more I do, the more I know the machine and the less time I spend fixing things. I have a very few loss but I am pretty sure it's less reliable than using the Cricut official registration marks. But it's the only solution I've found to use my whole sheets of paper and I am personally ready to close my eyes on some imperfections if it allows me to do less waste and be more Eco friendly.

Anyway, I hope this "guide" was useful for you. Again, feel free to ask me questions and if you have suggestions to improve the method, I am all for it.

Take care ! x x x

BEHIND THE SCENE : Printing stickers at home | CANON Pixma Pro 100-S

Hey folks ! Hope you are doing well on this Saturday. Personally, I made some cappuccino, (which now must be cold AF because of the time I've spent thinking of a title for this post...) and I am ready to tackle this article. Today, I wanted to talk a bit more about the way I'm making my stickers. Knowing that, I've just bought a printer, which allows me to control every part of the process.

It's going to be a bit of a long article, splited in two parts, because I also want to talk about my cutting method with the Cricut Explore Air 2. I also want to say that what you're going to read here is just my personal experience. I am not an expert, I just do my best as an illustrator who wants to print her stuff and I may be wrong on a lot of things. Anyway... Let's begin !

 + WHICH PRINTER TO CHOOSE ? 

I've been thinking about buying a printer for few months now. I really wanted to be able to print whatever and whenever I want, in the quantity that I need. Thought, my needs are not very big, I mostly want to print stickers and illustrations on quality paper. Oh ! I also wanted to be able to print A3. 

I literally know nothing about printing. Man, I was so lost ! But I did some investigations, watched a lot of tests. I was hesitating between an Epson SureColor SC-P600 and a Canon Pixma Pro 10-S. Around 650€ each. Quite a budget I must say.

And I realized that the Canon Pixma Pro 100-S, from the same series, was also a good option considering my needs. So I ordered this one. Again not an expert. At all. But for now this one seems to work perfectly fine, the quality is amazing (and it was a lot cheaper, shhh).

 + HOW I PREPARE MY FILE ? 

Before anything, you need to make sure that your file is ready to be printed. I will use Photoshop here but I guess it's pretty much the same everywhere. Mine is in french by the way, sorry about that, if you have any question, feel free to ask.

So today I am working on a new stickers sheet. I always paint in RGB, it's easier for me but sometimes, it can be tricky because I may work with colors that are not printable. You need to be careful with that. 

Here is my final file, I want my stickers sheet to look like this in the end. It's a 105 x 200 mm, 300 dpi, RGB file. The grey line is just here for you to see how wide is the white outline, it will not be printed. For the outline, I just use the stroke option around my designs, in Photoshop.

And my printing file, where I put two sheets to be more effective. The black circles are here to help me cut (it's a bit of a ratchet method, but it works, I will explain this tomorrow). This final file is 210 x 297 mm, 300 dpi, CMYK profile.

About the ICC profiles. I admit it's something very obscur for me but one thing I know is that you must adapt the profile to the printer AND to the paper. If you don't have any pre-made profile that suits your need, you can ask a professional to make one according to your printer and the paper you want to use. It can be a bit pricey but it will always be cheaper than doing it yourself buying a device to calibrate your printer.

 + CONCERNING PAPER. 

For those stickers I use white glossy sticky paper that I got from OnlineLabels UK at uk.onlinelabels.com. Their paper is thinner than the one that I had before, this is exactly what I was looking for, and the quality is really good ! I am looking forward to test more of their papers.

 + PRINTING. 

Now that everything is settled, I can print. Again, this is the way I print my stickers, but maybe it's not working the same for everything. Few important steps here :

1. Make sure my file has the right ICC profile.
2. Let Photoshop manages colors (in that case, be sure to disable the color management in your printer set up)
3. I select a profile for my printer.
4. I use "relative colorimetric" with Black point compensation. Just because it works better with what I want to print. You can simulate this in View > Proof Setup > Custom...
5. Then I go in my printing set up to make sure that I checked the good type of paper and printing quality. Here " Glossy paper" and "High". 
6. Of course, I don't forget to center the image and make sure the size is the right one.

And that's it ! Here I print a whole page, but usually, I print tiny tests before anything, just to be sure that the colors are correct and not spoil an entire sheet of paper. My assistant is often here to help me with the printing process. What a curious cat !

Here is the final result of my donuts print. 

Tomorrow, I'll post the next article which speaks about the cutting method. If you have any question, feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer. And if you have advices on things I am doing wrong, please, feel also free to tell.

x x x

BEHIND THE SCENE : Working on my online shop

Another behind the scene type of post for this week. I personally really love to read this kind of posts and I hope you enjoy it too. As you may know I am planning to run an online shop. But before anything I have to create and prepare the thing which is, clearly, a big job.

 + THE SHOP.  

I admit, I didn't dug very far on this question, I chose the easy way, Etsy. I wanted to have a shop that would be convenient to use for me and for customers. When it comes to buy online, I feel pretty safe with this kind of platform and I really wanted people to have the same feeling, because I think it is really important. Maybe later I'll change for something more personal but for now it is perfect for what I need. Do you guys have any experience regarding online shop platforms, Etsy or another ?

If you're new to the business, as I am, you should know that building an actual shop is a huuuge work! I would never have thought it would take so long. I should be used to this kind of stuff by now but, weirdly, I always tend to think everything is going to be super quick to do. Ahaha! Nope. Man, it is taking freaking long, and I only sell like 7 products. I quite feel like a potato right now.
But anyway, I guess it's better to take a bit more time to make things properly instead of redoing them later.

 + MATERIAL. 

Appart from the online shop, I also had to prepare all the materials I need to run it and send the orders.

1. Clear Plastic bags:
   Very important when it comes to protect the product against humidity during the shipping. I bought mines at eco-craft.co.uk. They are made from corn starch which means that they are entirely bio-degradable.
2. Envelopes:
   Also very important, right ? I used to bought bubble envelopes but I noticed that postman sometimes fold it in the letters box. Bad postman. So I ordered cardboard envelopes. More rigid and Eco-friendly! I bought them at paysdesenveloppes.fr which is a french supplier.
3. Cardboard sheets:
   Are a freaking nightmare to buy in France. I had to contact a factory in UK and I am still waiting for their answer. But anyway, it's really handy when it comes, again, to the product's safety. I bought them mainly because I still have some bubble envelopes I want to use but I don't want the product to be damaged. The safer = the better.
4. "Please don't bend":
   Speaking of safety. I used to write this by hand but it's quite long actually. I decided to make a sticker of it, so it's a bit more personal and faster. Plus making those kind of labels is really affordable. I made them printed by my usual printer printnet.co. I really love how they turned!







5. A little extra:
   When I was running my first shop, I use to write a "thank you" note with a little drawing. I kinda like those little personal details when it comes to tiny shops. Unfortunately, I know that with all the client work, I will not have time to do that anymore. So I printed a card with an illustration on the front and a note on the back. I only show you the front so maybe, if one day you order from my shop, you'll discover the back.      

         

 + WHAT TO EXPECT. 

Right now, I don't have a lot of products to sell but I am working on it. If everything goes as I planned, finger crossed, the next update will be around end October. Because I really want to make new things for Christmas season.

Also, one of the things I am digging to do is freebies! I am planning to give a sticker for every order made in the shop. And the sticker will change each month and will be exclusive. Let's see if I can manage to make it! Do you have any suggestion concerning those stickers or another kind of gift ?

 THE SHOP WILL OPEN ON SUNDAY 23rd
 AT 7 PM (UTC+2) 

But don't worry I will post here and on social medias! Have a great week-end, see you on Sunday! x x x 

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.