How to make custom stickers and decals

Custom stickers can add a personal touch to your belongings and show your style. You can decorate your laptop, water bottle, or planner with them, or even use them to promote your business. Decals refer to unprinted cut vinyl, for example, transfers or lettering and text for multiple uses. You can make your own stickers or decals if you have the right equipment, or you can have your designs printed for you professionally. Either way, you first need to come up with a design.

Create a design.

Devise a design that represents your brand or business. If you already have one, you could use your company logo or slogan. If it’s more personal, try to design something to express your personality. There are lots of sticker templates online that you could use as a starting point. As well as round or square stickers, you can design die-cut stickers, which are cut to the shape of your sticker design. If you don’t have much experience with this kind of thing, you can hire someone to do the work for you. Lots of people happily go for a design for custom stickers by E Stickers.

Choose the size and material.

Be sure that the size and shape of your stickers match their intended use. Most sticker companies will help you to print any size and shape you like. The material you choose should depend on how you plan to use the stickers. Temporary stickers can be printed on paper, but vinyl is the best material if you want your stickers to last. Next, you need to consider the finish. Glossy laminate gives your stickers a sheen, but matte will give them a flat look. Holographic and transparent vinyl are also available if you have something special in mind.

Professional sticker printing.

Using a professional sticker maker will give you the best quality product, and nowadays, ordering stickers is straightforward. Just choose the size, quantity, and material you want and upload your image. Most sticker companies will then be able to enhance your file, add the cut line, and produce your sticker. Sticker companies normally print digitally in full colour. Bigger companies will print stickers onto rolls of vinyl and then cut them into whatever shapes and sizes are required. Commercial cutting equipment like plotters and laser cutters produces highly detailed and accurate cuts.

Printing stickers yourself.

If you decide to print your own stickers, you’ll need a printer that can print on vinyl or paper, sticker sheets, photo editing tools, and maybe also a cutting machine. Next, you can choose your sticker design, size it to your sticker sheet, and print it. Then you can cut the individual stickers using a cutting mat and Cricut design space. Cricut makes the process of adding cut lines to your files straightforward. Be sure to add a small white border onto the printable layer of your design. Maybe making stickers yourself won’t result in the same quality and durability as professionally printed stickers, but they can still be fun to make.

About the author

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Benjamin Noah

Benjamin is a professional blogger and marketer, who frequently writes about custom packaging, technologies, news and health to help businesses understand and adapt new ways to reach and inspire their target audience.