Planner and journal stickers on a home sticker printer

Who this is for

Planner, bullet-journal and scrapbook users who want their own functional icons, date dots, header strips or small photo stickers instead of buying sticker books. Liene names this use for its 4×7 sticker paper: “Great for planners, gift tags, packaging, and more”, and it suggests the paper for “planner stickers, scrapbooking accessories” (Liene materials guide).

Which machine and paper fit

• Custom shapes (icons, die-cut look): a printer with a cutter. The Cricut StickerPix Print + Cut prints on 4 × 7 in sticker sheets and kiss-cuts custom shapes (Cricut shop (US); Cricut blog). The Liene PixCut S1 prints on 4 × 7 in sticker paper and kiss-cuts around the design after laminating (Liene tech specs; Liene blog). Kiss-cut stickers stay on the backing sheet until you peel them, which suits a sticker book or planner pocket.
• Simple dots, tiles and strips: pre-cut sheets. The StickerPix Print has no cutter; it uses 1.5 in circle, 1 × 2.6 in rectangle and 1.5 in square pre-cut sheets (Cricut blog). The rectangle is a ready-made header or label strip. Placement on pre-cut sheets is handled by Cricut’s own templates, not by a full-sheet PNG (see the pre-cut setup guide).
• Photo paper is not sticker paper. Liene says “Photo paper (4×6″) is for image prints; sticker paper (4×7″) has adhesive backing” (Liene materials guide). For journal photos you would glue or tape a 4×6 print in; for stickers, use the sticker sheets.
• Canon SELPHY CP1500: Canon lists postcard, L, card and square label paper sizes and no cutter (Canon spec sheet), so shapes would have to be trimmed by hand. See PixCut S1 vs SELPHY.

Thickness and repositioning: Liene gives the sticker thickness after removal as 0.1 mm and says its sticker paper “is designed to be removable, allowing you to reattach the stickers to other surfaces” (Liene shop). Cricut says its sticker sheets have “a durable, long-lasting adhesive” (Cricut shop (US) refill); their thickness and whether they reposition are not published. Whether you can write on either laminated glossy finish with a planner pen is not published either.

Sizes, and how many fit on a sheet

Measure the boxes in your own planner first; layouts vary between brands. The table shows what fits on one sheet with the same spacing as our sheet maker. Note that 1.25 in stickers fit no more per 4×7 sheet than 1.5 in ones (both 8), while 1 in fits 18.

Pre-cut sheets (StickerPix Print)

Pre-cut sheets give fewer, larger shapes per sheet than a 1 in custom grid, so each sticker costs more:

Cost per planner sticker

Each print uses a full ribbon panel however much of the sheet you cover (Kerri Crafts It), so fill the sheet. With 18 one-inch icons per 4×7 sheet, supplies come to 3.7¢ per sticker on a StickerPix Print + Cut (about $0.67 per sheet, our calculation: $47.99 ÷ 72) or 3.3¢ on a PixCut S1 (about $0.60 per sheet, our calculation: $42.99 ÷ 72). That is illustrative arithmetic, not a measured cost. Try other sizes in the cost per sheet calculator.

Design and file tips for planner stickers

• Work at 300 DPI. 1 in = 300 px, so a 1 in sticker is 300 px, 1.5 in is 450 px and 2 in is 600 px. A full sheet is 1200 × 2100 px for 4 × 7 in, or 1200 × 1800 px for 4 × 6 in.
• Use transparent PNGs for shaped stickers. Liene says transparent PNGs are especially useful for the PixCut S1’s automatic outline cutting (Liene product page). The sheet maker’s white border then follows the artwork’s outline instead of a rectangle.
• Add a white border and keep gaps. The sheet maker’s default border is 1/16 in, and it keeps 0.125 in between stickers so borders never touch.
• Stay inside the printable area. Liene publishes 3.9 × 6.7 in on its 4 × 7 in paper (Liene tech specs). Cricut has not published one for StickerPix, so the sheet maker’s general preset assumes a 0.15 in margin.
• Keep icons bold. Thin lines and small text are harder to read at 1 in; check them on the test sheet at actual size.
• Print one test sheet first. Liene’s own advice is to “Run a test print and cut before committing to a batch” (Liene materials guide).

Untested: whether Cricut Design Space cuts each sticker on a combined sheet PNG separately, or only around the outer outline, is unknown. We have not been able to test it on a StickerPix yet. See how to upload your own designs.

Questions

More ideas by use

• Laptop and water bottle stickers: What Cricut and Liene actually claim about water, and what they don’t.
• Product labels for a small shop: Round seals, jar labels and batch cost for 50 to 250 labels.
• Reward stickers for kids and classrooms: Cost per 100 reward stickers and the cheapest sheet layouts.

Comparing machines first? See the sticker printer buying guide and cost per sheet calculator.