How to Make Packaging Stickers with Cricut

Custom packaging is something that sets a brand apart and makes the customer feel like they ordered something special. However, it can be very expensive to get custom packaging. A great and affordable alternative is to spruce up your boring packaging by adding cute stickers. This has many benefits such as getting your customer excited about receiving their order and adding a personal touch that they can’t get from large companies. And if you have a Cricut cutting machine, you can even make these packaging stickers yourself!

By creating your own packaging stickers with your Cricut, you have the ability to make a variety of designs and sizes. Some popular packaging sticker ideas include:

• your business logo
• “Thank you” messages
• invite them to share on social media
• ask them to leave a review
• “Fragile” or “Handle with Care” warning stickers
• “Handmade” product stickers
• “Happy Mail” stickers
• and lots more!

In this tutorial, I’m going to walk you through all of the steps in making your own packaging stickers with your Cricut. You can grab my free Happy Mail Sticker Printable at the bottom of this post to follow along with the tutorial. Or, feel free to use your own design instead.

If you are new to Cricut Design Space and need a bit more help learning the basic functions, read this post first.

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Watch the video for How to Make Packaging Stickers with your Cricut here:

What you Need

• A Cricut cutting machine – I used my Cricut Explore Air 2 but you can also use the older Explore Air 1 or newest Cricut Maker*.
• Blue Cricut Cutting Mat (12×12″ or 12×24″) – I used an old green mat that had lost most of its stickiness.
• Coloured Printer (Inkjet or Laser) – Any brand & model will do.
• White labels or sticker paper – 8.5×11″ full sheet labels. I used this Staples brand which is comparable to Avery 8165 for Inket or Avery 5165 for Laser.
• Happy Mail Sticker PNG file – get this free at the bottom of this post

*Note: The Cricut Joy is a smaller machine and does not have the capability to do Print then Cut.

Instructions

Step 1: Download my Free Happy Mail Sticker File

First, download my free Happy Mail Sticker PNG file at the bottom of this post. This is a png photo file of a single sticker. I chose to offer it as a single image so you can easily make the sticker any size you choose.

Now let’s upload it into Cricut Design Space. Start a new project, then select “Upload” > “Upload Image” > “Browse” and select the Sticker file. This will take you to the screen below. Because we are wanting this to remain a single photo for printing and not trying to break it into individual pieces for cutting, the next few steps can be skipped through.

Choose any of the image types on the right and hit continue. On the next page “Select & Erase”, just hit continue to skip through. For “Upload Type”, select Print then Cut Image and then hit upload. This will now bring you back to the Upload Page. Under Recent Uploads, you should see your Happy Mail sticker image. Select that image and then hit Insert Images on the right. Your image should now be added to your canvas.

Step 2: Size your Sticker

The next step is to size your sticker and then create a full sticker sheet. You can make the sticker any size you’d like. For this tutorial, I made my sticker 1.4″ wide. To change the size, select the sticker and at the top menu bar, change the W: to your size. The lock symbol will automatically be turned on, so your height will change as well to keep the image proportioned.

You will see the Operation on the Top Menu is automatically set to “Print Then Cut“, which is what we want. This is because of how we uploaded our image. You don’t have to worry about Flattening your image for this project because I’ve already formatted the sticker as one solid piece. This means Cricut knows just to cut around the outside circle. If you’re creating your own sticker right in Design Space, be sure to flatten your components so Cricut doesn’t try to cut out the individual words, etc.

Step 3: Create a Full Printable Sticker Sheet

Now let’s create a whole sheet of stickers. An important thing to note is that there is a size limit for Print then Cut. You can’t fill an entire 8.5×11″ sheet of paper with images. You are limited to an area of 6.75″ x 9.25″. We’re going to make a template for ourselves on the canvas and fill that up with stickers. To do that, select Shapes on the left menu bar and then choose Square. I changed the colour of mine to a light grey so it was a bit easier to see, but you can leave it dark grey or choose any colour you’d like – this doesn’t matter.

Let’s resize the square to our Print then Cut area. With the square selected, select the lock symbol in the top menu bar to unlock it. Now we can change the width and height separately. Set the width to 6.75″ and the height to 9.25″. You will need to zoom out on the bottom left corner to fit the entire rectangle on your screen. Finally, select Arrange on the top menu and Send to Back. This puts the rectangle behind the sticker, so we can add our stickers on top.

Move your sticker into the top left corner of the rectangle. Select Duplicate in the top right menu bar to make a copy of the sticker. Move the new sticker beside your first one. Repeat until you have a full row of stickers.

I like to line everything up neatly. To do that, just select all of the stickers in your row (first select one, then hold down the shift key and click each of the others) and then hit Align in the top menu. Select Align Vertically to set them all at the same height and then hit Distribute Horizontally to make the space between each sticker even. With all of the stickers still selected, hit Group in the top right menu to group the row together. You can now move that row around as one piece.

The next step is to make more rows to fill in the rectangle. As before, select your row and then hit Duplicate. Move that row underneath your first one. Repeat until your entire rectangle is full. Let’s line these up neatly as well. Select each row then hit Align. Choose to Center Horizontally to line them up across the page and then Distribute Vertically to evenly space them out down the page. Double check that you are happy with the spacing. No stickers should be overlapping each other or the edge of the rectangle.

With all rows selected, hit Attach on the bottom right menu. This will group all of the stickers together on your canvas and on your mat. This means when you go to cut these stickers out, they will be in the same orientation you have now.

Now that we have our full sticker sheet ready to print, let’s save our project. Hit Save in the top right corner and give your project a name.

Step 4: Cut your Sticker Sheet

Your sticker sheet is ready to cut, but we don’t need to cut out our grey rectangle. There are two ways to get rid of it. On your canvas, select the rectangle and hit the Eye symbol on the right menu. That will just hide your rectangle. You could delete it, but I like to keep it available in my project so that if I want to make a new sticker size next time, the template is already there for me. Then you can go ahead and hit the green Make It button in the top right corner.

The second way to get rid of the rectangle is on the next Mat screen. If you didn’t hide the rectangle on your canvas, it will shop up on a separate mat for cutting. You can get rid of it by selecting the rectangle, hitting the three dots on the top left, and choosing Hide Selected. Cricut will now ignore that entire mat and just focus on your Print then Cut image.

Our Print Then Cut sheet is ready to go – it doesn’t need any adjusting. Just hit Continue in the bottom right corner.

Print

Hit Send to Printer to open up the Print Menu. Choose your Printer from the list. Mine is the HP OfficeJet Pro 6968. It’s a couple years old but the newer model is still available: HP OfficeJet Pro 6978. You can use any regular Inkjet or Laser Printer, as long as it prints in coloured ink. Just make sure your labels are compatible with your printer type as some labels are made just for inkjet or just laser printers.

Change the number of copies if you’d like to print off more than one sheet of stickers. You can always print extra sheets now and then come back and cut them later. Turn off bleed and then hit Print to send to your printer.

Note: Make sure you load your label sheet properly into your printer. The sheets will have a a label side and a paper backing. You want to print on the label side. Your printer should have a diagram in/near the paper tray showing you which way to load your sheets: either face up or face down. If you print on the wrong side, it’s not a big deal – just load those sheets back into your printer the other way and reprint.

Set Base Material

You will need to choose your material type or set custom settings to tell Cricut how deep to cut into your project. If you already know what material setting works for your label paper, choose that and skip ahead to Cutting our your stickers. If you’re not sure which settings to use, you should always do a test cut.

To do a test cut, open a new project and add a small circle. Proceed to make the project and add your material onto the mat. Choose the material setting you want to test and proceed to cut out your project. Test if it cut deep enough to peel the sticker from the backing, but not too deep that it cut into/through the paper backing. Adjust the material settings and do another test cut if needed.

Turn the dial on your Cricut to Custom. In Design Space, select Browse Materials to open the full list of Cricut material options. Either scroll through the options or type sticker into the search bar to bring up the sticker paper options. The clear sticker option cuts a bit deeper as the clear sticker material is a bit thicker. The white sticker sheet may be suitable for your project.

My labels are thinner than Cricut’s sticker paper setting so I needed less pressure on my cut. To do this, I created a custom material. Select Material Settings on the bottom left of your screen. This opens a list of all materials and their cut settings. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the list and select Add New Material. Give it a name such as “Label Paper” so you’ll remember what this setting is for.

Change the number to control the cut depth. I set mine to 165. Feel free to do a few test cuts until you get a setting that works for your labels. For reference, the Cricut Printable Sticker Paper (White) setting has a cut depth of 218. Leave the next two columns the same (Off & Fine-Point Blade). Hit Save. Scroll down to the bottom of the list and hit Done. Now find your new material under the Material List and select it. You can hit the star symbol to add it to your favourites.

Load Tools & Material

It’s time to hit the mat! Grab your Blue Cricut light-stick mat and gently apply your sticker sheet to the top left corner. Smooth it down and then load your mat into your machine by pressing the flashing arrow button. Once the Cut button flashes, press that and let your machine get to work. Once it’s done, hit the flashing arrow buttons again to unload your mat.

Note: I actually used an old green mat because it was less sticky than my brand new blue mat.

To peel the sticker sheet off the mat, you should flip the mat over, hold the sheet down flat, and gently roll your mat off of the sticker sheet. If you try to peel the sticker sheet off the mat, it will curl up and may mess up some of your stickers. Place the protective covering back on your mat and that’s it! You now have a full sheet of stickers ready to add to your packaging.

Step 5: Apply Sticker to your Packaging

Whenever you have an order packed up for shipping, just peel off one of your labels and add it onto your box or envelope. I like to print off sheets of stickers and store them in this file organizer along with my order sheets. Then they’re easily accessible when I’m packing up orders.

Questions

If you have any questions about making packaging stickers with your Cricut, please leave a comment below and I’ll do my best to help! You can also check out the full video tutorial on Youtube, which may help guide you through the steps a bit more clearly.

I’d also love to know what tutorials you’d like to see next! Leave a comment below with your suggestions.

If you need help creating your Canada Post shipping labels to send out your orders, check out this post for a step by step tutorial – video to come soon!

MY FREE HAPPY MAIL STICKER PRINTABLE

Grab your free Happy Mail sticker printable by filling out this form. You’ll instantly receive a download link in your email.