How To Make Stickers With Procreate • Bardot Brush

Have you ever drawn something awesome in Procreate and thought to yourself, this would make such a cool sticker…but how??? Well, stop scratching your head because you’ve arrived at the ultimate resource on how to make stickers with Procreate.

There are many ways to produce stickers, from DIY to professional manufacturing. On this page, I’ll teach you three different methods for making stickers: printing at home and cutting them out by hand, how to make stickers with Procreate and a Cricut machine, and all about ordering professionally printed stickers. I’ll also be giving you tips about setting up sticker sheets, outlines and cutlines, great places to order your stickers, sticker vocabulary, and so much more!

*Some of the links on this page are affiliate links, meaning I get small percentage of the sale if you make a purchase. Not, much, but enough to buy a donut at the place down the street. They are like, super good donuts, so you’d really be making my day like a hundred times better. ‘Cause donuts. 

Jump to a Section

• Sticker Vocabulary
• How to Draw Stickers!
• Method 1: Printing & Hand Cutting Stickers
• Best Inkjet Sticker Paper to Get
• Method 2: Make Stickers using a Cricut
• Method 3: Ordering Professionally Printed Stickers
• Places to Order Stickers
• Which Method Should you Choose?

sticker vocabulary

Dieline/CutlineThe Dieline or Cutline is the line along which a machine will cut a material. Many stickers are set up so that there is a bit of space between the artwork and the cut line, creating a white outline.  Kiss CutA machine cuts through the first layer of the sticker material only while leaving the paper backing intact. In this case, the backing will be larger than the sticker itself. Kiss cut stickers are easier to remove from their backing than Die Cut stickers. Most sticker sheets you’d buy in a store are Kiss Cut.  Die CutThe sticker is cut all the way through the sticker material and paper backing, leaving a standalone, custom-shaped sticker. In this case, the sticker and paper backing are the exact same size and shape.

Learn more about Kiss Cut vs. Die Cut Stickers

Sticker SheetA Sticker Sheet is a layout of many different or duplicated sticker designs on a single page. Sticker Sheets are usually Kiss Cut so that the individual stickers can peel off the paper backing. Sticker Sheets are a great way to print multiple designs at once. When setting up a sticker sheet, be sure to space your designs with enough room for a cutline around each sticker. Full BleedFull bleed is when a graphic or design is printed over the entire surface of the paper with no borders. This can be achieved by printing on a borderless printer or by printing a design slightly larger than it needs to be and then trimming off the excess to achieve the desired print size. It is possible to create full-bleed stickers (no white outlines) by setting up your artwork properly with extra space. Learn more about creating full-bleed stickers.  Material/StockSticker Material or Sticker Stock refers to the characteristics of the material is used to manufacture the stickers. Stickers might be made of paper, kraft paper, white vinyl, clear vinyl, mirrored, glitter, or holographic stock, cling film, etc. Another consideration in the material is the coating or sheen, be it glossy, matte, UV laminate, etc. Different materials will carry ratings for durability. Certain materials are rated for outdoor use, use on floors, cars, etc. Here is a catalog of materials offered by StickerApp. Backing PaperSticker stock, sticker material, or sticker paper is made of two layers. The top layer is where the design is printed and is coated in sticker adhesive. The second layer is a coated paper designed to easily release the sticker when peeled off. One type of backing paper is crack and peel backing in which the backing paper is slit in various spots, making it easier to peel off the sticker.

Vector vs. Raster

RasterA raster-based image is comprised of pixels. The more pixels that are contained in an image, aka the higher the resolution of the image, the better the quality of the image. Digital photos are an excellent example of a raster-based image. When a raster image is enlarged, there is a loss of quality, and the image will become pixelated. A raster image can be very detailed with lots of realistic texture without adding much to the file size. Common raster file formats are .jpg, .gif, .png, .tiff. Procreate is a raster-based drawing and painting app. Adobe Photoshop is a raster-based photo manipulation app. VectorA vector-based image consisits of paths and shapes that are made by mathmatical formula. Vector images are infinitely scalable, meaning you can enlarge them to any size with no change in quality. Vector graphics are not normally intricately detailed or textured; doing this would increase file size substantially.  Common vector file formats are .ai .eps, .svg. Adobe Illustrator and Affinity Designer are vector-based.  Learn more about vector vs. raster in this helpful article.

 

You do not need vector art to make stickers. Raster is best as long as your artwork is high-resolution enough. Use my Resolution Calculator to see how large you can print your raster-based artwork.

Canvas Resolution Calculator

Want to learn how draw cool art that would make great stickers?

Follow along in real-time and draw with me! In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through making some simple drawings using my FREE Kids Make Art! brush set, and then I’ll give you some tips about turning your art into stickers! I’ll show you how to draw cute illustrations like a palm tree, rainbow, dog, cat, ukulele, ice cream cone, dinosaur, pretzel, and more! I’ll also teach you how to create a realistic digital sticker effect in Procreate. Watch the Tutorial

Method 1:

print & cut by hand

The first method is to print your artwork on inkjet-printable sticker paper using your home printer, then cut out your stickers with scissors. This method has the lowest-cost entry point, assuming you already have a printer. There are no cut lines to set up so it’s It’s very straightforward and easy to do if you know your way around a pair of scissors. 

Tools + Materials needed

• iPad + Procreate

• Printer + Ink

• Inkjet-Printable Sticker Paper

• Scissors

Watch the Tutorial

In this video, I will walk you through how I created stickers at home using the print & cut by hand method. I will show you how to get all your artwork onto one page to make a sticker sheet, how to print directly from your iPad, review different inkjet sticker papers, including a durability test, and the pros and cons of this method.

step-by-step

1. Export individual artwork with transparent backgrounds

Gather all the artwork you would like to print as stickers. Open each file and turn off the background layer to create a transparent background. In Gallery View, select all of each of the files, then tap Share, and choose PNG. The PNG file format supports transparent backgrounds while flattening the artwork onto one layer. Save these files to your camera roll. 

2. Create a sticker sheet the size of your sticker paper

Create a new canvas template. Change the unit of measurement to Inches. Set the size to 8.5×11 and set the DPI to 300. Open this new canvas.

3. Import all artwork to one canvas

Open the photos app in split-screen view. Select all the images you just saved, then tap, hold, and drag them onto your Procreate canvas. They will import with each piece on its own layer.

4. Arrange the artwork to make a sticker sheet

Use the transform tool to arrange and resize each sticker so that nothing is overlapping and there is ample space around each sticker for you to cut it out. You can also duplicate layers to print multiple copies of a sticker on one page. 

5. Save the sticker sheet 

When you are happy with the sticker sheet layout, go to the Actions menu, Share, and save as a PNG to your camera roll.

6. Printing directly from your iPad

You can print directly from your iPad using AirPrint. Check to see if your printer is AirPrint compatible using this article from Apple. You can print this way by opening the exported sticker sheet from the photos app. Tap the Share icon, then tap Print. 

If your printer is not AirPrint compatible (like mine), check to see if your printer manufacture has an app you can install to print. My printer is an Epson WF-7820, and I was able to print using the Epson Smart Panel app. It was a little slow and clunky, but it got the job done. Alternatively, you can transfer the sticker sheet to your computer and print it from there. 

See below for my recommendations for printable sticker paper.

7. Print your sticker sheet

I recommend printing a test page on plain paper first to be sure you are happy with the size of your stickers. When you are ready, load the sticker paper into your printer. Be sure to load it with the correct side facing up so that it prints on the sticker side of the paper. Print your sticker sheet at the highest quality setting. 

8. Cut out your stickers!

Grab a good pair of scissors and get to work cutting out each sticker. I left an even border around each sticker.

Pros and Cons of the print & cut-by-hand method

Pros

• Fairly inexpensive

  If you already have a printer, it's a relatively low-cost option. Your cost would be sticker paper + ink.

• Make any size

  You choose exactly what sticker size you want, up to the size of the sticker paper, in this case, 8.5x11".

• Make any quantity

  Produce as many or as few stickers as you want.

• Low setup time

  Great for making stickers on a whim.

• Getting to work with your hands

  Hand-cutting can be therapeutic!

Cons

• Must have access to a printer

  You need a decent quality printer and possibly a computer to print your artwork if you are unable to print directly from your iPad.

• Requires good scissor skills

  There will be small inconsistencies in your stickers as cuts will not be machine-perfect.

• Not ideal for high volume

  If you need a very large number of stickers, hand-cutting would not be time-efficient.

• Material not heavy-duty

  Inkjet printable sticker material is not as thick or heavy-duty as professionally printed stickers.

Printable Sticker papers compared

What to look for in printable sticker paper

When I was shopping for inkjet printable sticker paper, these were the qualities I was looking for:

• inkjet compatible

• waterproof or water resistant

• vinyl material

• lots of good reviews

I tried the four papers below when making my print + cut stickers. They were all surprisingly thin when I pulled them out of their packaging, but I suppose that makes sense in order for them to feed through the pinter. My printer had no problems printing these, no jamming. The printer I use is the Epson WF-7820. I was impressed with the print quality overall, but the glossy material looks far superior to me. The prints on glossy paper were more vibrant and contrasty. I performed a water, scratch, and tear test (see results in the video), and the Zicoto brand performed the best. Also, glossy paper was was more durable than matte overall.

My recommendation is the Zicoto Printable Vinyl Sticker Paper in Glossy.

The Aiva Sticker Paper in glossy is also a good choice. I’ve had stickers made from it on my bottle water for a few weeks and they still look great, even after hand-washing.

 

Method 2:

Using a Cricut

The second method for making stickers is using a home cutting machine like the ones made by brands Cricut and Silhouette. With these machines, you can create many types of stickers such as die-cut stickers, kiss-cut sticker sheets, full-bleed stickers, and more. In my tutorial, I teach you all about using a Cricut to make stickers. For this method, you prepare your artwork and then import it to another software made by the machine manufacturer. This software allows you to set up your cut lines and layout before sending your stickers to print and cut.

Tools + Materials needed

• iPad + Procreate

• Printer + Ink

• Inkjet-Printable Sticker Paper

• Cricut Cutting Machine + Accessories

Watch the Tutorial

In this video, I’ll teach you many different methods and techniques for how to use a Cricut, including getting started with the Cricut, how to make die-cut stickers, how to make kiss-cut stickers, how to add white outlines to stickers in Procreate, how to make full-bleed stickers, how to clean up cut lines, combining many files onto a single sticker sheet, troubleshooting problems with the Cricut, and much more. I’ll also be sharing all my tips for having greater success when using a Cricut, plus my honest opinion about using it, and if the Cricut is really worth it. This video is perfect for Procreate users who might be new to using a Cricut, or anyone who is interested in learning about making stickers.

Quickly find a video segment! Below are time stamps to help you find the information you need in the video above:

1:34 Getting Started with the Cricut3:14 My Quick Cricut Tips3:54 How to Make Die-Cut stickers4:10 How to add white outlines to your artwork10:05 Registration Marks10:34 Printing from Cricut Design Space13:21 What is a Die-Cut sticker?18:17 How to Make Full-Bleed stickers19:13 Cleaning up cut lines23:54 What is bleed?25:25 How to make a Kiss-Cut sticker sheet32:17 How to combine multiple files into a sticker sheet36:30 Hand-cut Stickers vs. Cricut-cut stickers37:06 Pros and Cons of making stickers using a Cricut39:54 Wrap-Up/Is the Cricut worth it?

My Machine: Cricut Maker in Blue

Cricut Standard Grip Mat

 

Papers used in the video:

Cricut Printable Sticker Paper

Cricut Printable Vinyl

Zicoto Vinyl Sticker Paper – Glossy

Aiva Vinyl Sticker Paper – Glossy

Pros and Cons making stickers with a Cricut

Pros

• Professional-looking cuts

  Cuts are much cleaner and the machine is capable of being more detailed and intricate than if you were to cut by hand.

• Software is easy to use

  Cricut Design Space is pretty easy to use, especially if you set up complicated layouts in Procreate first.

• Make any size sticker

  up to 6.75 x 9.25 inches

• Can make a lot of stickers quickly

  It's possible to produce a hefty amount of stickers in not a lot of time, in comparison to cutting by hand or waiting for professional printing turnaround. You can also make stickers anytime you want.

• Great for being experimental

  This method is very conducive to experimentation with stickers. Play around with different sizes, shapes, and artwork. Experiment to your heart's content!

Cons

• It's expensive

  A Cricut machine, plus accessories, paper, and printer ink can cost you hundreds of dollars.

• LOTS of trial and error

  There is a lot to figure out and plenty that can go wrong with inconsistent cuts, calibrating your machine, choosing the proper material settings, etc.

• Extra step of setting up outlines

  If you want white outlines around your sticker artwork, you will need to set that up in Procreate.

• Can take a long time to set up & cut

  From setting up your artwork, laying it out in the design software, printing, and the actual cutting.

• Print size is only 6.75 x 9.25 inches

  Due to registration marks, there is a maximum print area, meaning that there is a lot of extra paper wasted.

• Printer must have AirPrint

  If your printer does not have AirPrint, you must use a computer to print your stickers.

• Not ideal for very high volume

  If you need to make hundreds of stickers, this will take a very long time and there may be a lot of waste due to trial and error or inconsistent cuts.

Method 3:

Professional Printing

The final way to create stickers with your Procreate artwork is by having them professionally printed. ORdering professionally printed stickers is arguably the easiest way to go. By the time you’ve created your artwork, the hard part is done. Depending on the company you choose to print your stickers, all you need to do is upload your artwork, choose the size and add it to your cart. Then wait a week or so and enjoy your beautiful stickers when they come in the mail. You might have a few questions about setting your artwork up to be professionally printed, and I’ll give you a ton of helpful printing information in my final sticker tutorial, all about ordering stickers. 

Tools + Materials needed

• iPad + Procreate

• internet connection and shipping address

Watch the Tutorial

Learn all about what you need to do to order professionally printed stickers using artwork you made in Procreate. I’ll teach you lots of useful printing information like image resolution, RGB vs. CMYK, what you need to do to set up your files, two easy methods to add white outlines to your art (and if you even need to), and what to look for in a sticker vendor, plus some sticker company recommendations, and I’ll walk you though the sticker ordering process with plenty of other helpful tips along the way! I’ll also go over the pros and cons of ordering stickers vs. making them at home. Thank you to StickerApp for sponsoring this video! StickerApp was my top pick for ordering stickers and the stickers I received from them were beautiful. While this video is sponsored, all opinions and recommendations are my own.

Order Stickers with StickerApp

Pros and Cons for Ordering Professionally Printed Stickers

Pros

• Ordering is easy and fast

  you will spend way less of your own time than if you had to print them and cut them by hand or use a cutting machine.

• No need to set up outlines

  Most sticker printers will generate white outlines on your artwork.

• High quality, professional

  The quality of professionally printed stickers to homemade ones is very obvious. Professional stickers will be thicker, more durable, glossier, etc.

• Many types of materials

  beyond matte or glossy, you can make stickers on materials such as holographic, glitter, prismatic and more.

Cons

• Most places have a minimum quantity

  It can be very expensive if not impossible to only order a couple stickers.

• Longer turnaround times

  You will need to wait several days plus shipping times to have your stickers in hand. Rush production can also be very expensive.

• May require additional file setup

  Depending on the company you choose, you may need additional software, such as Adobe Illustrator, to set up cut lines for your stickers, especially if you want to create full-bleed stickers.

Places to order custom stickers

Considerations to make when looking for a company to print your stickers:

• What is the minimum quantity you need to order?
• Is the ordering software or or website easy to use? Do you get to see an instant preview of your sticker?
• What are the turnaround times for production?
• What are the shipping costs?
• What sticker materials are available?

My top pick for a sticker vendor:

In doing my own research about where I wanted to order stickers, StickerApp was a standout. They had a relatively low minimum quantity based on a dollar amount instead of a number of stickers. So it was easy to determine how much money I would be spending. Their website was extremely easy to use, and I didn’t need to do anything special to my artwork files to get them ready to become stickers. They had a wide array of materials with previews of each. Because of all this, StickerApp is my top pick for professionally printed stickers.

I liked StickerApp so much, I reached out to them about sponsoring the tutorial above. Not only was I was really impressed with the quality of their stickers, but they were super friendly as people. I highly recommend!

Below are a few other companies I would try based on my research and recommendations from my community.

Which method should you choose?

So which sticker-making method should you choose? The recommendations below are my opinions only, so be sure to weigh the pros and cons to choose the method that will work best for you.

Print and hand-cut your stickers if…

…you only want to make a very small number of stickers, or you want to experiment. This method is perfect if you want to make a custom sticker to fill that last gap on your water bottle, to give as gifts, or even as prototyping before you order stickers in bulk.

Make your stickers using a Cricut machine if…

…you already own a Cricut, or you plan to purchase one to use for other crafty projects as well. It is possible to establish a workflow for making stickers in bulk with the Cricut, but expect to put in a lot of time setting it all up and for production. This method is great for personal use stickers or for a small business that needs a short run of stickers.

Order professionally printed stickers if…

…you’d rather spend more time making art than making stickers. This is particularly true if you are producing stickers for your business to sell. You can get professionally printed stickers pretty affordably, especially if you order in bulk. Personally, this is the method I would choose, and it was so satisfying to see my artwork on a professional-looking product.

Happy Sticker-Making!

Learn more about Making At Everyday!

Categories: Procreate Tutorial

Joyce Cortes May 15, 2021 at 1:51 pm

Hi, Love your show on how to make stickers with procreate. But I am wondering if Avia’s Sheet has the brand name on the back of the sheet?

Reply Shanel May 23, 2021 at 5:04 am

I use Avia and its blank. I print my logo on the back so customers have my info and it shows I made it vs the ones I have professionally made.

Reply Bonnie May 22, 2021 at 6:20 pm

I soooo appreciate your showing the challenges you confront and how you meet them with persistence and creativity – very inspiring for your fans who feel somewhat intimidated by new hardware and software.

Reply Ayla May 22, 2021 at 8:54 pm

Hi!! This was very helpful. I have a question though, what printer do you use? Do you have any recommendations? I’m trying to get a printer currently but I have no idea what to get!

Reply Rachel May 27, 2021 at 3:00 pm

As usual, this is a great video! Well laid out information for a sticker newbie. I wish I had this when I started! Looking forward to your next video. Keep up the great content.

Reply Liz B June 5, 2021 at 4:56 pm

Thanks for sharing your experience with these tutorials. I definitely prefer professional printing. I had thought of going the route of DIY with a Cricut but realized I’d rather design the art then labor over creating the sticker myself. I use another well known sticker manufacturer. They do an excellent job as well. You did however make me consider trying StickerAPP since they give a lot more options as far as sticker paper. Thanks!

Reply Laura August 23, 2021 at 12:30 am

What resolution would you recommend that we create in if we are making downloadable stickers for GoodNotes?

Reply

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