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Sticker Shock
by Cynthia Coulon
(Mar 31, 2003)
To be honest, in the last couple of years I’ve avoided using stickers on my scrapbook pages. I think I was suffering long-term regret over the way I used stickers in my early days of scrapbooking! (And I don’t think I’m the only one who randomly stuck stickers all over my pages, and, gulp, even ON my photos). So, a few years, and a couple bottles of adhesive remover later, I decided it was time to give stickers another try. And, after seeing the incredible stickers now available, that was not a difficult decision!! Stickers can be fun, quick, and easy page accents. When combined with a little thought and creativity, stickers can be a wonderful part of the unique scrapbook embellishments we create. There may just be as many ways to scrapbook with stickers as there are stickers! STICKERS AND BORDERS The obvious way to use stickers as page borders is to do just that! There are dozens of sticker borders in dozens of themes just ready to be applied to a page. In fact, many paper companies also sell coordinating stickers to serve as borders and page accents.  The only difficulty I’ve experienced with sticker borders is in laying them down straight. My first tip for this is to work slowly and carefully! The second tip I offer is my sticker application default method: first apply stickers to spare cardstock, not directly to the background paper. Then carefully cut around stickers and apply them to the page as you would apply cut-outs. I do this a lot. This method is also great because I can arrange and rearrange the stickers until I’m sure I like their placement! It is also fun to use stickers as elements of borders.  To create this cute daisy border, I cut out three, 2” squares of blue patterned paper. I also cut out two, 1 ½” squares of the same paper. I mounted the larger squares of blue onto 2 ¼” squares of goldenrod cardstock. If you don’t like the sometimes bright and glossy look of stickers, it’s easy to tone them down and give them a shabby chic look. This is achieved with a little sandpaper! In this example I lightly sanded the edges of the cardstock and patterned paper. I also sanded lightly over the tops of the paper and sticker. After sanding, I applied a bit of tan chalk. STICKERS AND TAGS  Another fun way to use stickers is on tags. To make this tag for my layout, I applied two stickers to white cardstock. I then cut the cardstock in a rectangle around the stickers and cut the upper two corners of the cardstock rectangle to create my custom sized tag. I used small letter stickers to form Hollie’s name. I then punched a hole through the tag and added fibers.  With pre-made tags available in so many shapes and sizes, it’s not hard to find tags to fit the stickers you want to use on a page (and vise-versa). Just apply stickers directly to tags to make quick, cute page embellishments!  Doodlebug Design Inc. even makes round alphabet stickers called “alphadots” that fit perfectly inside 1 ¼” circle tags. STICKERS AND TITLES There are lots of fun ways to use letter stickers as page titles. A huge variety of colors, sizes, and styles of alphabet stickers are available. There are also wonderful stickers that are basically pre-made titles. When I want to simply use letter stickers to form a straight, horizontal page title, I lay down a ruler as a guide for placing the letters straight. I hold the ruler in place and carefully smooth the letters down just about the ruler’s edge. I don’t like to draw a guideline with pencil because I find it hard to erase the line around the stickers after they have been placed. Also, many letter stickers have clear edges under which pencil lines will show and cannot be erased.  Letter stickers can be used to make great letter “tiles.” Stick the letters onto cardstock, leaving plenty of room around each letter. Use a square punch in a desired size to punch around each letter. (Hold the punch upside-down so you can see the letter sticker through the punch opening.) Add variety to the “tiles” by carefully using a pen to outline the cardstock edges. Circles, or really any shapes, can be used to punch around letter stickers! Repositionable letter stickers are great for creating fun titles. Lightly stick the letters to cardstock. Then chalk over and around the letters. Remove the letter stickers to reveal the clean cardstock beneath. You can also ink over the letters, remove them, then use embossing powder and a heat gun to create a neat effect. ADDING DIMENSION TO STICKERS Consider “dressing up” stickers to make them unique and to give them added dimension. I added some sparkle and texture to the center of this daisy sticker with microbeads. First, I punched a circle out of double-sided mounting adhesive. I stuck it to the flower center, peeled the baking off the adhesive, and poured on the beads. Then I used my finger to lightly press the beads into the adhesive. I poured the excess beads off, and I was left with a great addition to the sticker! STICKER SHAKER BOX You can put all sorts of things into shaker boxes, even stickers! To make this cute aquarium shaker box, I used cut out sticker fish and some beads as the “shakeable” items in the box.  I mounted the fish stickers paper that matched the background patterned paper of the shaker box. I did this so I could cut loosely around the edges of the stickers; any paper showing under the clear edges of the stickers would blend in with the background. I mounted the seaweed stickers directly to the background paper. For other wonderful ideas on how to use stickers see the Scrap Jazz gallery. Stickers are a featured technique for the month of April 2003! Products used in the examples/ pictures in this article:
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The last time I browsed the sticker section at the local scrapbook store, I was shocked! I was amazed by the new and wonderful variety of stickers available. I saw stickers that look like wooden letter tiles, embossed metallic stickers, great alphabets in all sizes, stickers for borders, titles, poems, tags, and more!
Then I applied a large daisy sticker to the center of each large square. I applied two smaller daisy stickers to the small squares. I set eyelets in the large squares and strung Twistel through. I stuck all the squares to the background cardstock using Popdots.
For example, on this card I used one large sticker on the front. The sticker is certainly cute on its own, but I think it’s even cuter with an added button at the top (covering a flat, printed button on the sticker) and “jewels” as flower centers. It was a quick and simple way to give the sticker dimension.
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