welcome to the craft hell zone

potions of familiars! because we all know they don't want to be harness trained.

3"x3" acrylic paintings on reclaimed cardboard "canvases"

Left row features a fawny tabby based off my previous cat Rosy, middle row features an orange tabby based off my friend's cat Frumpkin, right row features an inky void based off my current cat Penni

these guys are available for purchase adoption on my ko-fi shop located here!

@samplerbot

DMC Color Key: ■ 3750 Antique Blue Very Dark ■ 3840 Lavender Blue Light ■ 3842 Wedgewood Very Dark

Dimensions: 139 by 79 stitches. Font: 'pepminus10.ttf' by Peplum. Border: Adapted from Elizabeth Holland's sampler, 1737.

holy shit dude i actually did it!! please check out the fruits of my labor, u kno u want to >:3

shop link

Needle Felted Clown Weevil by Little Skrunks

edit: whoops forgot to add a caption lol

stitched this puppy up for Thornhill's Mercia tour in Toronto tonight! It's my second time seeing 156/Silence and I'm positively vibrating with excitement

recently (as in a few months ago rip) finished the battle vest ive been working on for my younger sib for uuuuuh. maybe dont ask actually. im very pleased with it. we have a lot of room to expand as well, so when theyre next in town, we have a date to learn them how to sew patches on on their own

i literally just print them out on sticker paper i got on amazon using my printer from like 2016 and slap a holo vinyl film over top, then cut them out by hand. i dont necessarily recommend it (they are not super waterproof, which i think may be because i got matte sticker paper instead of gloss whoops, and cutting them by hand takes a loooong time) but i have gotten good results for just fucking around with things

i eventually want to pivot to using a manufacturer for stickers so i get a more consistent result (and save my jank hands from scissors), but for now being able to print at home and experiment has been GREAT

that said, i would wager it probably helps that i am using affinity designer to make the images. its a vector program like adobe illustrator (but not god awful expensive -- six month free trial baybee) so the images im making are really crisp, even on my decade old printer

besides the cost of the printer (which i appropriated from an ex when he moved out and left a bunch of shit behind) and the cost of ink for said printer, i put down eeeh $40ish in supplies for the sticker paper and the holo vinyl. i have used maybe 1/3 of it making somewhere around 200+ stickers, including all the stickers ive fucked up mislaying the vinyl or cutting out badly. ive made roughly 2.5x that back from the sales of my stickers, even tho i keep giving them out to people Just Because lmao. again, not the hardiest of stickers, but pretty solid for fucking around

this is the sticker paper i got and these are some of the holo films i got (i got three packs from the same listing iirc). im printing on a cannon mp250 using the settings "matte photo paper" and "high" quality. i DO need to recalibrate my printer to better match the colors of my screen, especially when printing vectors. i also cut the sheets of stickers and vinyl into smaller sections so its easier to smoothly apply the film, and have a track slicey paper cutter for scrap booking i use to do that. i havent done it yet, but i wager this technique with the matte paper could also work really well for hand drawing stickers if you have the Skillz but not a printer

use the glossy sticker paper. i used up the last of my matte sticker paper and bought the glossy of the same brand and the stickers ive been making are A LOT nicer

2. the printer settings matter a lot

use the print command screen to change settings always always always

you get here by clicking the "print/er properties" or "print command" button (or something similar). it should look like an old school windows screen (greige)

use the "photo paper" setting on "glossy photo paper" paper type on "high" quality AND MAKE SURE THE PAPER SIZE IS CORRECT, it'll likely default to 4x6" and you need 8.5x11" (for standard american copy paper size)

this should select borderless printing by default which will make it a lot easier to deal with print margins. if it doesnt, select borderless printing

3. speaking of margins, spread your designs out on your sheet a leeeetol more than you think you should, itll make cutting them out a lot easier

4. i have not made stickers out of like, raster images yet, but i wager its probably reeeaaalll important to know the difference between raster and vector images. tldr raster images are static in that the size they are made at is the size they look best at, and can thus look funky shrunk or blown up too much. vector images can be scaled or resized basically indefinitely without looking weird. doing stickers as vectors is "better" for a lot of things because its a lot easier to tweak sizes and keep it looking nice, but ymmv. i'm not your mom do what you want

5. idk about other art programs, but affinity's grouping function is baller because i can group and group that group with other groups, until i have groups of all of the things on my sticker sheet, and then i can take that whole group and center it on my page for printing

6. the second layer of holo film i feel is very important, folks have said my stickers are remarkably hardy because of it (waterproofness not withstanding). reviews ive read of holo film that you can print directly on say that the image is easy to scratch off, and ive had similar issues of stickers wearing off when printed just on the (glossy) sticker paper. the addition of the holo film is a pain in the ass but worth it

7. speaking of: tips for applying the holo film

work in chunks. cut your sticker sheet at least in half (hamburger style) tho depending on the size of the sticker i sometimes do down to quarter sheets. this makes the application of the holo film a lot easier and a lot less stressful, cos if you fuck up, you fuck up with fewer stickers, and you WILL fuck up

obvs, cut the holo film in size to match your sticker sheet. i try to do a smidge bigger, especially if i've trimmed down the margins/blank space

also, highly recommend a slicey paper cutter for this part. also highly recommend wiping down both the cut down stickers and the holo film with a dry cloth (or your pant leg) because there WILL be paper dust all over and you dont want that trapped under the holo film

go one cut down section at a time. peel one short edge back about an inch, gently bending the backing paper under. take the holo film by each exposed corner and bend it up just a little bit so the whole thing looks kind of like the aries symbol. line the holo film up with your stickers and attach the exposed end. gently press down as you also gently pull the backing paper away, going bit by bit very slow (VERY SLOW). press as you go, rubbing back and forth, until the backing paper is fully removed and the sticker paper is applied, you should be pressing the backing paper off, if that makes sense

if you have small bubbles, you can usually work them down by rubbing the holo vinyl with your fingers. youlll probably need to apply a fair bit of pressure, but, ykno, be gentle so you dont scratch it

if you have BIG bubbles, sometimes they can be fixed when you cut the stickers out. not always, but sometimes

if the holo vinyl wrinkles, your s-o-l. this is why i recommend cutting the sheets down to apply and to go slowly. TRUST ME and my box of fucked up wrinkly stickers

if you fuck up, people love free stuff. i just let people pick from my box of janky things when they buy at my booths, basically no one ever says no

7. for cutting things out, use sharp scissors and go slow. its a practice thing mostly but!

for curves: turn the sticker, not the scissors