Next month I will visit one of my favorite countries: Japan!
It will be my third visit to this brilliant land. I will meet up with some friends that I haven’t seen in a while. Of course, meeting friends in Japan calls for ‘omiyage’ – souvenirs! I’m already listing what I want to bring over, and aside from the usual delights of my homeland (hummus and bamba) I’d like to bring some handmade goods from my art business.
Since the visit takes place in October, I decided to make a cute Halloween stickers pack.
If you are into sticker-making and have some basic graphic design skills, you can easily create your own DIY sticker pack. Let’s go through the process and see how it was done.
How to make stickers in a cute package – step by step
For this project I used the Hallowen Clipart Set that I recently listed in my Etsy shop:
The clipart set contains all of the graphics in high quality png format with transparent background, as well as vector format that can be scaled up or down to any dimensions.
Everything in this project was done with Adobe Illustrator, but Photoshop or other softwares will work too.
First I arranged all the clipart graphics on A4 pages, with each image scaled to the size I want my sticker to be.
I added a lined contour around each sticker so it’s easier for me to cut them out later.
I also designed a bag topper with some of the graphics from the clipart set.
The stickers will be packed inside a plastic sleeve sized 10X15 cm, so the topper is 10 cm wide. I added a small mark in the middle of the topper where it needs to be folded. Easier to measure on the computer than by hand later.
My files are set, time to print them!
I took the files to a local print shop and asked to have the topper printed on thick paper (300gr chrome paper), and the stickers on white PVC sticker sheets.
At home, I started cutting.
Let me tell you, cutting with scissors is therapeutic. Unless you hate it, then it’s torture.
For me it was therapeutic.
When the therapy session was over, my stickers were all cut out.
I left white margins around each image, just because it was more stickerish and cute.
On to the bag topper. I wanted to cut it very neatly, so I used a ruler and a craft knife.
before folding, I scored the middle of the topper.
To score, simply place the ruler along the center of the topper, and pass the dull side of a butter knife several times to create a soft crease. Once the crease is there it’s easier to fold the paper.
Now to close my sticker bag and seal it with the topper!
I could have used stapler, but I wanted something nicer. Double sided adhesive tape would have worked well, but I didn’t have it. So I used adhesive printer paper which I cut into two small stripes and pasted on the topper’s inner sides.
Then I just had to peal off the protective layer of the adhesive strips and stick the topper to the plastic sleeve.
With the topper attached to the plastic sleeve, my Halloween sticker pack was complete!
Isn’t it adorable?
If you don’t want to design your own bag topper, here are free Halloween printable treat bag toppers you can use:
fan girl’s Halloween whimsies
I made one sticker pack which I dedicated to my favorite Japanese jpop star, KIMERU. Plus I drew him a Happy Halloween image with fan art.
Sending KIMERU odd fan mails is a long time hobby of mine, and when he shares pictures of my gifts on his blog I squeak like a hamster. So here is the next surprise:
After all this Hallowing raving I should probably confess: I never experienced Halloween myself. I never celebrated it, never saw others celebrate it, never ate candy corns. The closest I got to Halloween was when I entered Walmart in the U.S around September and saw decorations for sale. The decorations were beautiful and the illustrations on paper items were gorgeous and I want Halloween too. The end.
Here is another thing you might like:
How to make DIY Thanksgiving card with free printables ↓
