#title The Ins And Outs of DIY Sticker Street Art
#author SPASEM
#LISTtitle Ins And Outs of DIY Sticker Street Art
#cat HowTo
#lang en
#pubdate 2024-04-03T09:45:06D
#DELETED DELETED no source, added to wiki and not main website



THE INS AND OUTS OF DIY STICKER STREET-ART

Written by SPASEM

<br>

Table of Contents:

• Uses for Stickers

     - Who uses stickers?

     - What are they good for?

• Where to Get Blank Stickers

     - Paper Stickers

     - Eggshell Stickers

• Making Stickers

     - Content

     - Drawing Stickers by Hand

     - Printing Stickers

     - Spray Painting on Stickers

     - Stenciling on Stickers

• Leaving Your Mark on Society

     - Preparing Stickers for the Street

     - Getting Up!

     - Legality

     - Motivation/Philosophy

• Distributing Stickers

<br>

USES FOR STICKERS

<br>
<strong>Who Uses Stickers?</strong>

Stickers, also known as slaps, are used by many different kinds of people.

These include:

Graffiti Writers,

Shops,

Bands,

Independent Artists,

Street Artists,

Record Labels,

and anyone else trying to get their name, image, or message out into the world.

<br>

<strong>What Are They Good for?</strong>

Stickers are often used for self-promotion.

This could mean drawing the public’s attention towards a movement or cause, advertising a local store, or serving as merch for your band.

They can also be used as a means of artistic expression.

Sometimes the end goal of a sticker is simply for other people to see, enjoy, and/or question the art that resides on it.

This approach is often used by independent artists and street artists.

Stickers can be used to advance an artist’s recognition; when people connect with the art, they’ll often want to know who made it.

<br>

WHERE TO GET BLANK STICKERS

Before you make your adhesive art, you’ll need to get blank stickers to use as your canvas.

<br>
There are 3 main types of stickers: paper, vinyl, and eggshell. This zine does not explain how to make vinyl stickers, simply because I don’t have much experience with them. There is, however, plenty of information on the other types.

<br>
<strong>Paper Stickers</strong>

There are many ways to get blank stickers for free.

If you go to your local USPS post office (in the United States), they’ll have shipping labels that you can take for free.
<br>
If you go on the USPS website, you can order literally thousands of these labels for free and have them dropped off right at your doorstep!

The standard USPS label used by artists is called the 228 label. Keep in mind that this label already has text printed on it, saying things like, “Priority Mail,” and “To: From: ” etc., since its intended purpose is for shipping packages.

The UPS website (Not USPS) also has shipping labels that you can order for free and make into stickers.

The upside to using UPS labels is that, unlike the USPS labels, they’re completely blank.

It should be noted that these mailing labels are paper stickers, which are lower quality then vinyl and eggshell stickers.

The downside to using paper stickers on the street is that they are easy for an art hater to peel off, and the weather can make them wrinkle, fade, bleed, and fall apart. However, there are countermeasures you can take to protect against weather (see “Preparing Your Stickers for the Street” in the “Leaving Your Mark on Society” section.)

Another way you can get blank paper stickers is by buying sticker paper.

You can get this at your regular office supply store.

Sticker paper is made to go through a regular computer printer and get a design printed on it, just like regular paper.

However, sticker paper can be pretty pricey, and free shipping labels can also be printed on with a regular printer.

I personally recommend using shipping labels if you want to use paper stickers.

<br>

<strong>Eggshell Stickers</strong>

<br>
Do you want your stickers to be higher quality? Try Eggshell stickers.

<br>
Eggshell stickers are a brand of blank stickers made to endure the hardships of the streets. You can order them online, or buy them at your local graffiti supply store. They come in many different colors and patterns (some are even see-through!).
<br>

<br>
An Eggshell sticker is extremely difficult to remove; if an art-hater tries to scratch it off of the surface you placed it on, it’ll chip away in tiny pieces, rather peeling right off. Most people will give up before being able to remove a significant amount of your design.

<br>

MAKING STICKERS

<br>
<strong>Content</strong>

<br>
Your stickers can look any way you want.

You can create a work of art, write a political message or slogan, tag your name, write a short poem, or add whatever else you can think of.

Sometimes, a sticker artist will intend for their design to be self-explanatory, while others will try to create mystery. Maybe you want to confuse the person looking at it, or make them wonder what it means, who made it, or if it’s part of something bigger!

Keep in mind that you’re in charge of your art; the only one who can censor you is you! If you’re inspired to make something offensive, bizarre, messy, ugly, or otherwise questionable, DO IT! And have fun with it.

Once you’ve figured out what you want your design to look like, there are a variety of ways you can make it.
<br>


<br>
<strong>Drawing Stickers by Hand</strong>

One popular method is to draw directly onto a blank sticker.
<br>

<br>
If you’re going this route, I’ve got some recommendations for what art supplies to use.

You probably don’t want to use a pencil, since you’ll want your design to be easily visible. Most people use markers. I recommend using paint markers. This is mainly because the ink from sharpies and other regular markers will fade and disappear once it’s been exposed to the sunlight for long enough. Paint, however, will keep its color and boldness outdoors.

But by all means, if you want to use a pencil, or a sharpie, or even a paintbrush, give it a try!

Experiment; there are no rules. Don’t let the man tell you how to do your art!

One idea that I’ve had is to draw part of the design with paint markers and another part with regular markers. That way, the design changes over time as part of it disappears, while the rest stays. Get creative and have fun with it!

<br>

<strong>Printing Stickers</strong>

If you want to get digital, you can make your design on the computer.

All you need to do to print it out is to set the paper size on your computer to the dimensions of your blank slaps, load them into your printer’s paper tray (You might need to adjust the size of the opening to fit them; some printers have plastic boundaries that you can slide till they touch the edges of the sticker), and hit print.

If you know how to do other types of printing, such as block printing, screen printing, etc., then you can apply these skills to sticker-making.

If you used a computer printer, the ink will fade in the sunlight. If you printed them otherwise using a non-waterproof ink, then the ink might wash off in the rain. You can read more about how to prevent this in “Preparing Your Stickers for the Street” in the next chapter.

<br>

<strong>Spray Painting Stickers</strong>

To create a unique, one-of-a-kind background for each sticker, get some spray cans of different colors and spray onto the blank sticker.

You can use different effects. Here are a few:

MIST:

Hold the can far away from the surface you’re painting on and spray towards it. If it’s the right distance, the color will show up as a transparent mist.

SMALL DOTS:

Hold the can far from the surface and press very lightly on the cap. If you’re pressing lightly enough, the paint will show up as small, random dots, instead of one solid line.

FADE:

Paint one color onto the sticker. Then, paint the second color with the can angled so it’s pointing almost parallel to the surface of the sticker. Point it in the direction you want the fade to go. When finished, it will look as if one color is gradually fading into the next, like a gradient.

<br>

<strong>Stenciling on Stickers</strong>

If you can cut small enough stencils, you can use them to mass produce stickers with the same design.

You can add variation by mixing up which color(s) you spray with, or spraying with the stencil flipped over to the other side, to make a reverse image on some of the stickers.

In my opinion, stencil stickers look especially cool with a background (as described in the previous section).

You can even try the spray paint effects mentioned in the previous section while spraying your stencils. A stenciled image that fades from one color to another looks <em>sick!</em>

<br>

LEAVING YOUR MARK ON SOCIETY

<strong>Preparing Stickers for the Street</strong>

Depending on how you made your slaps, they might be vulnerable to water, the weather, and sunlight.
<br>
Eggshell (and vinyl) stickers are already “weatherproof”, meaning they don’t need any extra preparation to stay intact outdoors. With paper stickers, however, you might want to weatherproof them yourself (but if you don’t care how long they last outdoors, you don’t have to take the extra step).

Here’s a list of the different types of stickers mentioned in this zine and their vulnerabilities without any extra weatherproofing done by you:

Paper stickers, printed with an inkjet printer:

- Sticker deteriorates in the rain

- Design fades in the sunlight/rain

Paper stickers, made with printmaking (e.g. block printing, screen printing, etc.):

- Sticker deteriorates in the rain

- Design might or fade in the sunlight/rain depending on what type of printing ink you use

Paper stickers, drawn with paint markers:

- Sticker deteriorates in the rain

- Design does not fade in the sunlight/rain

Paper stickers, made with a stencil (no spray paint background):

- Sticker deteriorates in the rain

- Design does not fade in the sunlight/rain

Paper stickers, with a spray paint background:

- Sticker deteriorates in the rain

- Design might fade in the sunlight/rain depending on what method you used to place the design on top of the background (see the rest of this table).

Eggshell stickers, drawn with paint markers:

- Sticker does not deteriorate in the rain

- Design does not fade in the sunlight/rain

<br>

So how do you weatherproof your slaps? There are 2 common methods:

Laminating:

You can carefully place strips of clear packing tape over the surface of your sticker – just enough to cover the whole thing once –, and then rub a plastic ruler over the tape to remove the air bubbles. This will make your stickers waterproof, but I’m not sure if it protects the design from fading in the sunlight.

Clear-coat:

Clear-coat is basically clear spray paint. Get a can of it from the hardware store and spray the surface of your stickers. You don’t need to drench them, just make sure you cover the whole surface. The clear coat will take a few minutes to finish drying. Once it does, any water that gets on the slap will roll right off! Not all clear-coats will protect against sunlight, so make sure to get a can that says it’s “non-fading”.

Don’t clear-coat your stickers if you made them with spray paint. Clear coat will only make the spray paint wet again, plus spray paint is already weatherproof, so weatherproofing these stickers yourself isn’t necessary.

<br>

<strong>Getting Up!</strong>

In the world of street art and graffiti, the term “getting up” refers to putting your artwork up on the streets.

Most sticker artists will place their stickers on the streets where the public can see them and enjoy the art.

The general consensus in the sticker community is to only put your slaps onto public property, rather than other people’s private property.

Some great places to put your stickers are:

– The backs of traffic signs

– Street poles

– Outdoor trash cans

– Outdoor benches

– Electrical boxes

– Newspaper vending machines/boxes

– The inside of a newspaper vending
<br>
machine/box (where the newspapers go)

– Anywhere else you can imagine

The city is your canvas!

The more foot traffic a spot gets, the better it is for stickering. After all, you want people to see your work, don’t you?

Stickers attract company. When somebody places a sticker somewhere, other sticker artists will be encouraged to place their stickers next to it. Eventually it will grow and grow, until the spot is completely covered!

Here are some tips for getting up:
<br>

<br>
• Act casual.

     - If you look confident and don’t seem nervous about getting into trouble, it sends the message to those around you that everything is okay.

     - Your confidence feeds their confidence.

• It’s okay to take your time.

     - If it takes you more than a few seconds to put up a sticker, don’t panic.

     - This isn’t a stealth operation.

• It’s okay if people see you.

     - There’s no need to wait until night time to go out and put up stickers. Do it in the daytime.

     - Most people who see you put up your sticker won’t mind. I’ve never had trouble with people seeing me put up slaps. Other artists I’ve talked to have mentioned that very rarely, they’ll get a lecture from an old man, and that’s it.

<br>

<strong>Legality</strong>

(I am not a legal expert. Take this section with a grain of salt.)

In the vast majority of areas, putting up stickers isn’t a very serious crime.

Usually, when a police officer catches an artist putting up a sticker, they just have them take it down and tell them not to do it again.

However, I recommend looking up the laws in your area. In some states, putting up stickers isn’t considered vandalism, while in others it is. I recommend looking up your state’s and city’s laws on vandalism and on posting bills. Any laws against putting up stickers will likely be found in one of these categories.

Keep in mind that just because the government says that they could fine you X amount of money for putting up a sticker, doesn’t mean that they will.

<br>

<strong>Motivation/Philosophy</strong>

When you’re new to stickering, the fear of getting into trouble can be a bit discouraging, or at least make you hesitate for a while. Remember that when you’re stickering, you’re not taking too big of a risk.

This section is meant to motivate you to get out there and get up!

Think about this:

The public space belongs to us all.

We’re all members of the public, and we all share the public space, so why don’t we all get to decide what it looks like?

If we want our cities to look pretty, why do we have to go through a long, bureaucratic process to get a mural commissioned, fill out paperwork, and wait a long time just so an elite few people can decide whether or not they want to allow the artwork to go up or if they’ll stop it from happening?

Is it really fair for a few people to make all the decisions regarding something that belongs to us all?

No.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

When you go out and put up your own art on your own accord, you’re taking the power back from the higher-ups and putting it into the hands of the people.

Each sticker you place is a reminder to the public that the city belongs to us – all of us!

And we all can make it beautiful.

<br>
DISTRIBUTING STICKERS

Placing your stickers on the streets is a great way to get your message into the world, but you can also get your art out there by getting it into the hands of other individuals.

One way to do this is to sell your stickers.

You can make an online store to sell art on websites such as Etsy or storenvy.com.

Some websites, such as Redbubble, will print the stickers for you at their warehouse and ship them out to the people who ordered them. Other websites will allow you to make your stickers at home and handle shipping yourself.

You can also sell your stickers in person at zine fests, or other events that have vendors.

Another way to get your stickers to other people is through trades.

You can private message other sticker artists on social media and organize a trade, where you’ll each mail each other a bunch of stickers.
<br>

<br>
A benefit of trading with other artists is that they can put your stickers up in their city, and you can put up their stickers in yours. Even if you’ve never been in each other’s city, your art will still be seen by locals there!

You can also trade stickers in person at the same events I mentioned. You don’t even need to be a vendor; just bring some stickers along when you attend the event, and trade them with the vendors who are selling stickers.

<br>

HAPPY STICKERING!

<br>

<br>
SOME RESOURCES:

Free blank slaps:

[[https://tinyurl.com/228-labels][tinyurl.com]]

Order Eggshell stickers:

(I’m not sponsored by them)

[[https://www.eggshellstickers.com/blanks][www.eggshellstickers.com]]

Get critiques, ask questions, and find other sticker artists:

reddit.com/r/sticker