Welcome everyone! Here is my tutorial for July.

This month I will show you in an easy step by step tutorial of how I created my Sad Panda 3" round stickers that I sell on my shop http://bot10art.blogspot.com

What You Need:

1. Label Paper ( Any full page label paper will do ).

2. A printer or printing service.

3. Self laminating sheets.

4. Photoshop or design software.

5. Packing Bags ( If you are selling the stickers ).

6. A Rolling Pin or lamination machine ( Optional ).

Let's get started!

Step 1: Your Design & Printing

This step is probably the hardest of all! Coming up with something to create can be troublesome but I found that having an idea at the beginning helps a lot!

My design is based on the saying "Sad Panda" so I started doodling and trying to figure out what that would look like. I know it may seem cheesy but I liked the challenge.

So I chose a little panda with a scarf and then sketched it out. I then took a photo of the sketch with my Wacom Companion and drew out all the line art.

Once I was done I brought the design into Photoshop and played around with color. I chose to use 4 different colors and then made a Master PNG file that I used to lay out the stickers on the label paper.

The label paper I used is the Avery 8.5 x 11 full sheet paper. On the template I created I was able to print 9 stickers on each page. I did this with each of the four color giving me 36 stickers.

Once I had the sheets ready I printed them out on my home printer, if you do not own a printer there are online printing services that can easily print these for you!

Step 2: Laminating

Once you are ready to laminate the stickers, make sure you get full sheets of this as well!

I chose Scotch Self Seal sheets, there are 10 sheets per pack. Feel free to shop around as I am sure there are better options out there but I was happy with this brand.

For this part place your sticker sheet on a flat surface and use a small piece of tape on the top and bottom of the page so that it doesn't move on you when you apply the laminate.

Now remove the tab at the top of the laminate and stick it down by starting at the surface where the stickers are, making sure there is laminate on the surface and the sheet. I found that this is useful to keep everything in place.

Any slight movement can ruin your work!

Once your laminate is stuck on the surface and sticker page, flip it back so that the back of the laminate page is facing up, then move the sheet with your hand keeping the laminate flat and even. Left to right or vice versa is up to you.

When the laminate is fully adhered to the sticker page you are ready to move on.

Step 3: Cutting and Laminating and Smoothing

Once you have all your stickers cut it is time to smooth out the laminate.

What happens here is simple, when applying the laminate it is on the paper but there are really small pockets of air that get trapped in between. People either use pasta machines, rolling pins, etc. to remove these pockets.

I have a lamination machine and I chose to use it so that I am able to heat up the adhesive and make a very smooth solid joint between the two materials.

They come out really shinny and hot!

Step 4: Bagging the Product

At this point you are done and ready to share your creations! However if you run a business like me then you can follow these steps.

I created a package label using 100 lbs card stock and printing it at home. This label was the width of the plastic bags I purchased from Michael's, then I folded the label in half and stapled it shut once 4 stickers were in the bag.

After that I placed the item on my online store and that was it!

Of course I had a little fun with the stickers and gave some to my friends and family, I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Feel free to leave me a comment if you have any questions.