Learning to make stickers with my Cricut has been a lot of trial and error and testing different things. I am starting to learn what works and what doesn’t so I thought I would share a few of the things I have learned so far.
Paper
I have tried a few different types of paper so far and some definitely work better than others…
Cricut Sticker Paper
I started out with the Cricut paper because it was the easiest to find. I bought mine at Micheals but you can also find it on Amazon. It looks and feels like a thick cardstock. The ink dries right away on this paper which is amazing, but I found the printers had a bit of a hard time pulling it through because it is so thick. A top feeder printer seemed to work better with this paper than a printer with the paper tray on the bottom. I was also not a huge fan of the end product for stickers mostly due to the matte, paper look. Now if you want to print sticky labels or something like that it would be great. If you are expecting something like stickers you would buy in a store it’s not quite the same.
Clear and White Glossy Paper
After not being super happy with the Cricut paper I went searching on Amazon and I found the clear and white glossy paper. I ended up with the Envocolor brand. These two are super thin and therefore easy to get through a printer. They also look and feel like you would expect a sticker to be. The only downfall is the ink isn’t super durable on them. It easily rubs off and if they get wet the ink just washes off. So while the stickers turned out cute they would not last long at all.
Laminating
After a little more research I realized that I could laminate the stickers and solve all my problems. I went to Walmart and bought the Scotch self laminating sheets which worked perfectly, you can also find them on Amazon here. The result was perfect, I ended up with durable, waterproof stickers.
The laminating takes some patience, I definitely wrecked a few sticker sheets while testing it out. I heard that the Cricut would have a hard time cutting if you laminated over the cut lines so at first I was trying to only laminate within that square. After a few mishaps I decided to test that theory and laminated the whole page and have not had a problem since. The Cricut had no problem reading the cutting lines and it was SO much easier to smooth the laminating sheet over the entire sticker sheet.
Another thing to note is that laminating will make the matte Cricut paper glossy which I think looks awesome but it also makes the already thick paper SUPER thick. So instead of a thin, pliable sticker like you would expect a sticker to be it is a stiff sticker the doesn’t really bend at all.
Cutting
Once you laminate the paper you may need to up the blade pressure since the paper is now thicker. Test it out and see how your blade cuts and go from there. Change the pressure in small amounts to avoid cutting your mat or wrecking the blade. I found that about 315 works for me to neatly cut all the way through with no issues with the clear and white papers. The Cricut paper on the other hand is SO thick once you laminate it will need more pressure then that to cut through.
In the end all three types of paper turn out beautifully but for stickers I will be sticking with the glossy white and clear paper. If I want to make sticky labels or something of the sort I will use the Cricut paper because it is super sturdy.
