Handmade Art Stickers

Oh snap! I went on a crazy sticker making spree!

I'm super excited to finally reveal my new series of hand made art stickers.
I have ramped up my experiments with making my own stickers ever since I created the Trollface sticker packets a while back.  Trolls are cool and stuff, but they aren't my original creations... I seriously needed a way to show off my own art, too.

So, I went back to my previous body of work, everything I've done over the past 10 years that was ever interesting or good, and dusted off an eclectic selection from my artistic career.  Most of these pieces have been hiding on my ancient DeviantART account, back when I used to use that thing religiously.  I soon discovered that some of these drawings were just made to be stickers. I hope that you guys agree! If you don't, then I'll have a lot of excess stickers on my hands.

Stickers come in four different sizes, Extra small to Large (shown here for scale.) Some stickers are not readily available in certain sizes, but if you contact me I can gladly make up some customized sizes just for you. 

The Stickers

"Creepy Girl" sticker

This strange looking girl was drawn with Oekaki. I really like her lips for some reason. She was originally going to be normal looking, but at the last minute I decided that it would be much more awesome if she looked like a possessed demon instead. Ain't she just the dickens?

Sizes Available

Medium $0.75 USD

 

"Obese Pikachu" sticker

  I have to admit that drawing morbidly obese characters is a secret talent of mine.  This is an oldie but goodie, drawn in late 2004 on a group board (you can read more about these here.) I collaborated with another artist to create this image... I drew the obese Pikachu and they drew the rocket. Because nothing's better than a morbidly obese Pikachu strapped to a rocket being blasted into space. I wish I could give the collaborator more credit, but I can't read their signature!

 

Sizes Available

Medium $0.75 USD X-Small $0.25 USD

"Smiling Woman" Sticker

 Speaking of groupboards, this was a drawing I did on one roughly two years after "Obese Pikachu." As an artist, I really like being able to see my improvements in my technique over time. Both Pikachu and Smiling Woman are really cool as stickers in their own ways, but with this drawing I can definitely tell that there was an improvement in my drawing skills! Horray!

Sizes Available

Small $0.50 USD X-Small $0.25 USD

"Death's Designer Shoes Skeleton" Sticker

 Ahh, the infamous "Death's Designer Shoes" artwork has finally been made it into sticker form! Many will recall the tale of the original piece, it was stolen from me at a high school "open house." Well, the joke's on them because I still got a picture of it, and now it's going to be stuck to the side of trashcans by trendy vagrants everywhere.

Sizes Available

Large $1.00 USD Small $0.50 USD

"On My Two Feet" Sticker

 Another one of my more serious works that has been converted into sticker form. Why suffer the stink of real feet when you can have one of these adhesive-backed art prints instead? If you're curious about learning more about this particular art work, I covered it exclusively in this blog post.

Sizes Available

Medium $0.75 USD

"Tweak the Neko" Sticker

I just always thought this little Oekaki drawing was kinda cute. I was also obsessed with the Burberry brand at the time, thus the very trendy hat. For some reason I was really into drawing nekos, too. Oh well... my loss is your gain.

Sizes Available

X-Small $0.25 USD

"The Phoenix" Sticker

  

 They made my cousin throw away the original of this drawing once he was transferred, but this feathery legend still lives on. I think it will make my cousin very happy to hear that his Phoenix is still flying around out there, raising all sorts of hell, fire bird style.

Sizes Available

Medium $0.75 USD Small $0.50 USD

"Needle Dog" and "Pug Ugly" stickers

Can you tell that I'm a dog person? These are some digital painintgs that used real (famous) photographs as references. Well, they are mostly real. The needles may have been added in after the fact, but who can really tell these days?

Sizes Available

Medium "Needle Dog" $0.75 USD X-Small "Needle Dog" $0.25 USD X-Small "Pug Ugly" $0.25 USD

"Horny Deer" Sticker

This is one of my newer works, some of you will recognize it from my "make your own canvases" tutorial. The sticker versions of this drawing look just like the original, except they're adorably miniature versions. Who doesn't need a tiny horny deer in their life?

Sizes Available

Small $0.50 USD

"Andy" Stickers

This sticker is a throwback to one of my favorite illustrative artists of all time, Tessa Stone.  I admire her style greatly, and inevitably it showed up in some of my work. Why is his name "Andy" you may ask? Who is this person? Well, whoever he is, his name conveniently fills up that blank corner of the drawing.

Sizes Available

Small $0.50 USD

"Teeth on Fire" Sticker

I have no idea where the original is, but somehow I still have photographic evidence of this weird little artwork's existence. It was a mix of watercolor, printing inks, and charcoal. RIP missing art work, you'll live forever in sticky form now!

 

Sizes Available

Small $0.50 USD

"All Smiles" Sticker

Look familiar? That chatter mouth thing really knows how to get around. This was a more serious piece, a still life.  You can tell I was over-eager to go "all out" for this life drawing because of my use of that nightmarishly plaid fabric for the background. Why must I always make things so hard for myself?

Sizes Available

Medium $0.75 USD Small $0.50 USD

"Eskimos Resting"

These Eskimos have definitely seen things. This design was one of the first I used to make stickers, way back when, even before my Trollface Stickers.  I think I like these little guys solely based on the huge eyebrows of the 'Mo on the left. I bet they keep his face very warm during winter time.

Sizes Available

Small $0.50 USD

"Rose Colored Glasses" Sticker

Now, you can take my teenaged angst with you wherever you go. This classic self portrait just oozes "tortured artist" realness. By the way, the tear means I've killed a man.

Sizes Available

Small $0.50 USD

"Sincerely, Me" Sticker

 I originally drew this space woman for a contest by Tessa Stone circa 2009. The assignment was to illustrate a song from a list of Tessa's choosing. I chose the song "Sincerely Me" by Better than Ezra. It was about a guy that was writing to a girl that had left him for a far away land.... in this case, she went all the way into outer space just to avoid him.

Sizes Available

Large $1.00 USD

"Space Ghost" Sticker

Space Ghost looks like he is having a bad day. Or perhaps his stomach hurts because he took such a huge bite out of his note card. I made this drawing into a sticker because I adore Space Ghost Coast to Coast... that show brings back so many good nostalgic childhood memories for me!

Sizes Available

Small $0.50 USD

Studio Art Stickers- "Seis Face" and "Ten Chins"

Who knew that you could translate fiber art into sticker form? These two artworks were originally a part of my AP Studio Art portfolio in high school (you can read all about it, here.) I really like how colorful these guys turned out, you can definitely taste the rainbow.

Sizes Available

Large- "Ten Chins" $1.00 USD Medium- "Ten Chins" $0.75 USD X-Small- "Seis Face" $0.25 USD

"Genitalia Face" Sticker

Show me your genitals! This creepy drawing is a gift that keeps on giving... There are so many lovely mini pictures hidden inside this art to keep you guessing. If you're creative enough, you might spot a couple of them...

Sizes Available

Small $0.50 USD

"You Only Live Once (YOLO)" Sticker

I was totally into YOLO-ing before it was cool. This is a self portrait I did around 2009... here I am sailing the seven seas in my cardboard box of imagination. Don't I look so happy? I don't do this style very often, but I am kind of digging it. Reminds me of illustrations for a story book or something.

Sizes Available

Large $1.00 USD Medium $0.75 USD

All of these stickers were painstakingly hand made by me. I didn't print them out on adhesive paper, I personally added industrial strength double stick tape to the back of each and every sticker instead. This took me forever to do, but it was worth it. In my opinion, I think that using this special tape adds a lot of value to my customized stickers. They're seriously serious about sticking to things! 

Some artists believe that "you are only as good as your latest work," and I agree with this to an extent. But on the other hand, there have been so many pieces that I've done in the past which have truly been sheltered from the world. Is it still considered old work if it's new to everyone else? My answer is, I don't care cuz I'm gonna do it anyways. 





By the way, I have some new envelopes in the works for these stickers, similar to the ones for my Trollface packets. If you buy in bulk you'll definitely be getting your stickers in an awesome pocket keepsake. More pics to come soon... stay tuned!

Recycled Gift Boxes Tutorial

Happy holidays everyone! 'Tis the season for craft shows. I caught a re-run of She's Crafty the other day and saw the cutest recycled "gift box" idea that I couldn't help but add my own spin to. It's a super easy and quick project that can involve almost 100% recycled materials. Check it out..

1. Gather the Supplies

How to make simple recycled gift boxes.

To start out, you'll need to collect a few paper towel rolls. She's Crafty suggests you use toilet paper rolls but, I don't know...personally I wouldn't want candy dispensed from a cardboard tube that's been stewing in a bathroom for a week. So, I chose just to use paper towel rolls and cut them to size (I also had a ton of these lying around, not as many toilet paper rolls.) Since it's the holidays, I challenge you to use a nearly spent roll of wrapping paper to make some boxes as well! Not only will the cardboard tube inside yield tons of sturdy boxes, but the remaining wrapping paper will be more than enough to cover all of them, too.

You will also need some double stick tape. I think that double stick tape is a lot better for paper crafts that would otherwise warp if they were slathered with any kind of liquid glues. However, if you're in a money crunch or can't find any double stick tape (try Wal-Mart or a craft store like Michaels) a glue stick would probably work okay.

•  PRO TIP: Cutting paper towel rolls down to size

Use a pen and mark the rolls off so that you will get three even sized boxes. You can make then any length you want, if you even decide to cut the paper towel rolls at all. It all depends on your personal taste. However, more boxes does mean more gifts!

Just a side note- this may seem like a small detail, but it made things a lot easier when it came to cutting out these paper towel rolls. Your first reaction may be to use scissors to cut out your paper towel rolls, like mine was. But don't do it. As I quickly discovered, your cut will come out all jagged and lame. Instead, try this..

Definitely use your X-acto blade (or box cutter) to chop up your paper towel rolls. Not only will the process be faster and easier, but the cut will come out much neater.

My x-acto blade laying triumphantly beside all those cut up paper towel rolls. You go girl!

2. "Wrapping" the gift boxes

 In this tutorial, I decided to use Christmas wrapping paper to decorate my boxes. However, what type of paper you choose is completely up to you. If you want to take out the holiday look of the boxes, choose a more neutral paper. If you're really adventurous you could even try using fabric or vinyl to cover the rolls.




The amount of paper you'll need to cover your paper towel rolls can be approximate. Obviously, the idea is to have enough to completely cover the cardboard with a little bit extra for the edges. Lay your paper flat out and cut it slightly longer than the length of your boxes. Then, roll the tube up in the decorative paper to get the length you'll need to cover it completely.
 Once you get a good paper size, use it as a template to cut out more of that same shape.

At this point, you'll need to start putting double stick tape on the back of your papers. Luckily, you won't need to cover the entire paper with tape. A single strip on all four sides will hold it down good enough. Pull off the sticker backs and carefully roll the cardboard tube around your paper. The tighter and smoother you can get the paper to adhere to the roll, the better your gift boxes will look.

This awesome two sided paper is left over from some presents I got to open up early! This is a great use for all that left over wrapping paper after Christmas. Try cutting up a few pieces and using them for a gift box wrapper. Don't worry if the paper is a little crunched up...The wrinkles do not show up hardly at all once the paper is applied to the cardboard tube.

• PRO TIP- Folding over the edges

You will most likely have some "extra" paper hanging over the edge of your cardboard tubes. You can either trim off this excess, or you can be fancy and fold the excess over the edges for a slightly more refined look. If you put your double stick tape close enough to the edges, you should be able to simply fold them neatly over the side of the paper towel roll.

3. Closing the ends

Folding the ends is quite simple. Start by flattening the paper roll somewhat, squashing it down so that there are two sides to your "box." Then, fold these edges inward towards each other and they will naturally create a concave shape as your gift box's closure.

4. Decorating your gift boxes

This is the fun part! There are tons of different ways you can go about decorating your gift boxes, depending on the occasion. On She's Crafty, they put some rubber stamp designs on the boxes so that they would each have a unique print. I decided to go slightly bolder with my embellishments.

I chose to add some cute ribbon to my gift boxes to spruce them up. I think the bows turned out to be a nice, simple finishing touch.

...But don't forget a candy cane on top! Alternatively, you could also a name tag, a gift card or any other little trinkets your loved ones would enjoy.

5. The Finished Results

These gift boxes are stuffed full of delicious chocolates. This is a fool proof present idea.. You just can't go wrong with candy!

These little guys will be perfect mini presents for all my co workers, as well as thoughtful handmade additions to the gifts I was already going to give to my friends and family this year.

And yes, you may have noticed the Christmas-y theme of these gift boxes, but I have to note that they can be made for any holiday or occasion. It all depends on what kind of paper and designs you chose to decorate them with. The sky is the limit.... try them for Valentine's day, birthdays, Easter, anniversaries, or just because. People love "just because" gifts! (Especially me.. send me a gift, too.)

With all my tutorials, I invite you to share your results if you make this project yourself. I want to hear all the juicy details.. How did your friends and family enjoy their recycled gifts? The biggest compliment is when they can't tell that you made it yourself. Happy Crafting!