Stick to It

I recently sat down with my young niece to show her how to make her own stickers. We grabbed some old magazines, scissors, clear packing tape, and a bowl of water for this easy project. First I had her find and tear out some images she liked. The magazines had lots of animals, including a favorite of hers, the axolotl. So we cut out the tiny pink animal. I helped her make a smooth, close cut around the image.              

              

                                 

Once we had a nice cut-out, I had her press the image (facing the sticky part) onto a piece of the packing tape, allowing enough room for a border of tape around the image. Next, she dipped the piece of tape with the image attached into water. Once it was submerged, she rubbed the tape until all of the paper rubbed off.   

        

Once the paper was completely rubbed off, we were left with what appeared to be a faint, transparent image. I cut the tape to conform neatly to the image, leaving her with a sticker she could stick wherever she chose. 

           

She was skeptical, because looking at the transparent tape, she couldn't see the image clearly. But she promptly placed her new sticker onto her plastic cup. It was perfect!

        

She was then convinced, and we went on to make several more stickers, both small and large. If you try this, you will need to place several pieces of tape adjacent to each other to create a larger image. 

  

             

If you'd like to see this technique in action, I have a video on my YouTube channel where I demonstrate it. It's a great, easy way to create your own stickers. Just a note: it's only ever worked on glossy magazine or catalog pages for me. Cut out images of food, animals, flowers, letters, words, and more to turn into stickable art. 

Happy creating♡