I made some cute sticker sheets at home but it cost me my sanity (+ now I am a Cricut hater)

I've made sticker sheets in the past, but both designs in my store were outsourced from Vograce (who... are good for some things? but I have had such inconsistent orders through them whilst WORKING with them... which like... you would think that a company who is providing free product/heavily discounted product to someone for a review would make extra sure that everything looks good????) but it's honestly kind of expensive to get them outsourced. Vograce specifically has their minimum order quantity for sticker sheets be 50 pcs, and for 50 5"x7" sheets it has totaled to a little over $50 USD. considering that's a little over $1/sheet, it isn't a bad price but having to order at LEAST 50 at once plus pay for overseas shipping ends up being kinda pricey. my online store also doesn't get enough traffic and sales to warrant getting such bulk amounts so even though I've wanted to design more sticker sheets, it hasn't been super super realistic for me to do until now!!

I technically knew there was a way to get my cricut to do kiss cut stickers, but sometimes trying new things can be so overwhelming and that prevented me from trying but good god it's,, it's so easy. I have everything formatted in the cricut design space program to both kiss cut out all of the individual stickers on a sheet plus cut the border of the sticker sheet itself, so all in one go I am able to make STICKER SHEETS FROM HOME!! I had a blast designing the two I've made so far, and here they are:

I am SOO so so happy with how the sticker sheets look. I love how all of the art turned out, I love how full the sheets are with stickers (I've seen so many artists make sticker sheets but there's so much unused space on the sheet????) but I sure did NOT love the process of making these. if any of you guys have ever considered/are currently making stickers at home, you've probably come across people stating that while Cricut is the most well-known brand of cutting machine, they're terrible for ANY printed glossy material. there are a bunch of "tricks" online to counter this, but essentially Cricuts desperately struggle to read the registration marks that are needed to know where to cut when you're using glossy paper. even before purchasing my own Cricut (which was in September of 2020), I was well aware that this was a common issue, but I... simply just... really like the way Cricuts look compared to Silhouettes (the only other option back then) so I figured I'd give it a shot and if it didn't work I could return it.

I have been using a Cricut Explore Air 2 for the last four years. in the first three and a half years of using this machine, it had been so kind to me and has had GENERALLY minimal issues. occasionally I've had to fight for my life repeatedly calibrating it, and I've since then entirely given up on bluetooth connecting my Cricut to my PC (this WAS working for me and then it just.. started having so many issues), and probably some other small things I am forgetting -- but as a whole, she was good to me. she is... no longer good to me. not even remotely.

around 6 months ago I tried making stickers for the first time in a while and was horrified that my Cricut was cutting terribly 🤪 I tried several different things, and eventually found out that I needed to do a "glossy paper trick" that is well known to help with Cricuts that are struggling to read registration marks - which is literally just taking scotch tape and covering the registration marks. I was already annoyed in having to do this extra step because I was using the same exact paper as I had in the past, the lighting conditions have not changed (I am in the same exact room and my Cricut HAS been moved, but has successfully cut stickers in this spot before). but whatever works?? I guess?? so I stocked up on scotch tape and accepted that I needed to do this dumb extra step.

and then now. oh,,, my god y'all. this evil goddamn machine has been driving me absolutely insane. I designed the grocery run sticker sheet, was super excited to make them, and then was repeatedly hate crimed by my machine ❤ initially making these stickers was going great. cuts were a tiny but off but it was fine, I learned the cut depth I needed to kiss cut individual stickers and die cut around the sheet. lovely. so little work on my part. I load the printer, I laminate the sticker sheet (something I am now going to be doing with all stickers from here on out!), I put scotch tape on the registration marks, I put the sheet on a cutting mat and load it into the machine.

the thing I am most pissed about is how this WAS working, and within cutting a couple sheets, this stopped working. my cuts got insanely bad, I was fighting for my life and wasting SO much vinyl and laminate. I eventually got around 12 GOOD sticker sheets and called it quits because the off cuts were driving me insane. then I designed another sticker sheet. then,, it all went to hell. this is where I went insane. NONE of the cuts were good.

these are all the ruined sticker sheets I have, mostly printed on vinyl paper AND laminated. my Cricut decided to NOT be able to cut at all. I kept trying different tricks, different lighting, different ANYTHING. finally decided to give up wasting my vinyl and laminate after so many miscuts, printed and cut on matte, cheaper sticker paper and it worked totally fine. at the time I thought it read the registration marks correctly because I had just cleared the cache of Cricut design space but good god I was wrong. after lots of time I realized the issue was that my Cricut would NOT read any registration marks, at ALL, when using glossy paper.

I cannot stress how many different things I tried,, I had to research pretty much anything and everything I could find (almost everything is listed on this Reddit post) but here's a list:

• scotch tape on reg marks

• sharpie THEN scotch tape on reg marks

• scotch tape then sharpie then MORE scotch tape on reg marks

• highlighter on reg marks

• highlighter then scotch tape on reg marks

• covering the reg marks with matte black strips

• covering the entire CORNER of the page needing to be cut with registration marks printed on copy paper

• avoiding laying laminate on reg marks

• cleaning sensor with compressed air

• cleaning sensor with soft brush (as Cricut recommends)

• covering sensor with scotch tape

• clear cache of Cricut design space (Cricut's program)

• uninstalled and reinstalled cricut design space

• rebooted my computer and cricut design space multiple times

• trying every above method in 3 different types of lighting (pitch black room, insanely well lit room, and medium lit room)

• trying every above method with both the hood of the Cricut closed and the hood open

I... truly lost my mind doing this. NOTHING was working and the only glossy paper I had to even attempt this on was my vinyl so I,,, wasted,,, so much..... so, so much vinyl 🥰 this actually had me tweaking for a full 48 hours of me attempting a handful of things, getting so frustrated that I needed to step away, then getting motivated again and repeating the process 💀 the off cuts were also just like... TERRIBLE

I was REALLY adamant about the stickers having zero white border around them, and instead be cut directly to the design. I hand drew on the bleed (extra design space to accommodate for what should be MINIMAL off cutting) but like.. what the hell.

 once I realized how big the stack of misprints was, I knew I needed to just straight up STOP doing what I was doing. I placed an order for matte vinyl (my last desperate hope) and thank GOD for amazon prime overnight shipping so I was able to try it the next morning. my first sheet of matte vinyl with laminate WORKED. I was so happy, I felt so much euphoria, I didn't even care of all the wasted product because at LEAST it was finally working. and then I did a second sheet and it was off cut again

I have since.... mostly... figured out how to successfully get stickers to cut?? it's still not a 100% success rate BUT if I am careful with leaving excess space between where I lay down laminate and where the registration marks are PLUS turn of all lights/close the blinds... I have been getting a 60% success rate. which is like,, really bad. I got enough of each design to comfortably list in my shop when I do my next shop update, but I am TERRIFIED of making more stickers (I am actually about to try to make more so teehee pray for me!!!!)

I would be way less annoyed with this whole thing if this was a consistent issue that I had before/if SOME environmental change happened but my Cricut is literally in the same exact spot and I was using the same materials that I had been using for a LONG time without having troubles. also for it to go so downhill when I was getting successful cuts and then suddenly wasn't?? I,,,,, I hate,,, I hate this god awful cutting machine company. I have loved my Cricut through the small troubles it has given me and I've felt lucky to not have the problems that I've seen SO many others have,, it was finally my time to suffer.

once I can comfortably justify dropping a couple hundred dollars on a new cutting machine, I will 100% be purchasing a different machine from a different brand (I have heard good things about Silhouettes and Siser, if y'all have any recommendations...please send them my way) and now I will be vehemently slandering Cricuts to anyone who will listen ❤

GOOD NEWS is that I actually really like how the matte vinyl feels (it is a lot thicker than the glossy paper I was using, I think it may literally just be the backing paper but STILL it feels fancier) AND I am so excited to be laminating my stickers now -- all future designs sold in my shop will be laminated, which means they're completely waterproof! my older stickers are water resistant, but since they don't have anything sealing them, scratching and excess water removes the ink. so YIPPEE higher quality stickers!!!!

these are the materials I am currently using to make stickers! I have been previously using the PPD glossy vinyl, and now I am switched over to their matte paper instead. here are amazon links for everything in case you guys are interested in any of them:

PPD matte vinyl sheets

Avery laminating sheets

Cricut XL scraper (to press down laminate)

it was definitely a learning curve to manually apply laminate (it is surprisingly hard to not get bubbles or wrinkles) but I am so happy with how the stickers look with lamination!!

so this is what I have been doing for the past couple of weeks,, I,,,... have suffered so much... but I am excited at the thought of designing more sticker sheets :') I've also consistently making lots of art lately that I am excited to share with you guys!! I started watching Naruto again and I am going so deep into the brainrot and I think I'm only like... 40 episodes in (there are over 700) so if you like my Naruto fanart then please get excited with me as I've already done 3 finished pieces ❤

I also cannot believe September is already more than halfway over? I feel personally victimized by how much less sunlight there is every day but I sure do love having the weather be less than 80°F so the trade off is.. okay. I love y'all and if you made it to the end of this post tysm for reading all of my words

♡  Chrissy