Reward stickers for kids and classrooms on a home sticker printer

Who this is for

Teachers, tutors and parents who hand out a lot of small stickers: reward charts, “well done” stickers, reading logs, chore charts and name labels for school supplies. Liene suggests its sticker paper for labels on “school supplies” and calls it “ideal for kitchens, bathrooms, and kids’ gear” (Liene materials guide).

Which machine and supply fit

• Most stickers per sheet: a printer with a cutter. On the StickerPix Print + Cut or PixCut S1, a 4×7 sheet takes 18 one-inch stickers with our sheet maker’s spacing, kiss-cut so they stay on the sheet until handed out (Cricut shop (US); Liene blog).
• Simplest setup: pre-cut sheets. The StickerPix Print uses 1.5 in circle and square and 1 × 2.6 in rectangle pre-cut sheets (Cricut shop (US) pre-cut refill), six circles to a sheet (Cricut Help Center). Fewer stickers per sheet means each costs more (table below).
• Name labels: a 2 × 1 in label fits 9 to a 4×7 sheet; the 1 × 2.6 in pre-cut rectangle is another option.

Sizes, and how many fit on a sheet

For reward charts, 1 in is usually enough and gives the most per sheet. Note that 1.25 in fits no more per 4×7 sheet than 1.5 in (both 8).

What 100 reward stickers cost in supplies

Small custom-cut stickers are the cheapest per sticker because more fit on each sheet, and each print uses a full ribbon panel however much you fill (Kerri Crafts It).

Practical notes for use with children

• Age guidance: the Cricut and Liene supply pages we read give no age rating for the stickers. We would have an adult run the printer and peel stickers for very young children.
• Lunch boxes and bottles: Cricut calls its laminated sheets water-resistant (Cricut shop (US) refill) and Liene calls its stickers waterproof (Liene shop); neither says dishwasher-safe. See the bottle sticker guide.
• Pupil photos: follow your school’s photo-consent policy. The sheet maker builds the sheet in your browser and never uploads the images.

Design and file tips for reward 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.
• Use big shapes and short words. “Well done” in bold letters reads at 1 in; a sentence does not.
• 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

• Planner and journal stickers: Icon, header and photo sticker sizes, and what fits on a 4×7 sheet.
• 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.

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