The BTS Suga movie was released in theaters April 10 and I bought tickets to see it. If you know anything about BTS events, the fandom creates gifts to give out to other fans. I’ve gotten candies, bracelets, photo cards and stickers. It’s a really fun exchange. And no it’s not just young teens doing this. When you go to these BTS events you’ll see a diverse range of ages, from the very young to the retired.
Anyhow, I started to think of what I was going to bring to the movie theater. Previously I brought note cards and a sticker of Taehyung’s dog. But since this movie is about Suga, I wanted to give out something that was about him. So I decided to create a sticker set. I’d seen shorts on Instagram about printing and cutting sticker sheets. It looked like a lot of fun. Why not?
I brainstormed to come up with things I knew about Suga. I knew that he liked tangerines, he’s referred to as a cat. Don’t ask me why. So I came up with a list of items and started to sketch. Once I had a preliminary sketch, I went to Youtube to watch videos. I’d never created sticker sheets before and needed to learn how. They made it look so easy.
Once the sticker images were final, I printed them out on a sheet. Then I used the Silhouette Cameo a do a kiss-cut of the images.
Sounds simple right?
I was about to enter a world of frustration. The cut lines did not align with the images. What did I do wrong? I followed the Youtube videos step by step. Not a single person talked about what to do when things go wrong, so that’s why I’m making this post. I’m going to list the problems I encountered and recommended how to fix it. Hopefully this will help others!
- Registration marks. You need those on your sticker sheet so the Silhouette can “read” the page and determine where to make the cut lines. I printed my sheet, then when I hit “send” I got an error message that it couldn’t read the registration marks. After some research, I learned you can adjust the position of the blade. I moved it closer to the registration marks. It took some trial and error, but I finally got it to read the marks.
- The cut doesn’t align with the images. Even with the registration marks, the cut was wrong. After some research and troubleshooting I found a number of things. One simple error is the direction of the cut mat. I never paid much attention before, I assumed it was a perfect square and it didn’t matter what side I used. I was wrong.
- As I try to point out in the image. The width between the grid to the edge is not the same on each side. It’s best to use the mat in the direction of the arrow.
Let’s say you do everything right. You have your mat in the correction direction, and the silhouette can read the registration remarks. What happens when the cut is still wrong? It could be a number of things. In my case, I have a Cameo 2 which is many years old. So the software may need an update, which I tried. Or it could be that your cutting machine simply doesn’t work. I’d seen a number of reviews online where people complained that after many tries, they still couldn’t get the cuts to align with the images.
After trying all the different things I mentioned above (and going through many sheets of sticker paper), I found a workaround. I wondered, what if I first cut the lines, then print the images last? Basically flipping the process around. So I tried that. I turned off the registration marks, then had the Silhouette kiss-cut the sheet. Then I held the paper against the monitor screen to see how the images lined with up the cuts. I adjusted them to align more with the cut.
Was it going to work? Only one way to find out. I printed the sheet and it was close! So I tweaked the images a bit more, then ran another cut and print. Finally I had success!
Were they perfect cuts? No. If I ever make another sticker sheet, I arrange the stickers to be more forgiving and leave some room for error. I would create a larger offset, or border, around the images. That way if the cut shifts a little, it won’t cut into the image.
Then I’d be more careful about the margins on the edge. At times the printer would cut off the bottom image, which was my name and Instagram handle.
Here are photos of the end result. I was pleased with how they turned out, and ARMY was delighted to receive them. I got many compliments. Seeing them happy made me happy.
Me in my Future’s Gonna Be Ok Shirt (a lyric in Suga’s D-Day song)
A few more things to mention: supplies I used. I recommend these:
- Sticker paper. I ordered from Amazon “Koala Inkjet Vinyl Sticker Paper”. It’s glossy and has a bit of iridescence to it.
- Cellophane flat bags to protect the stickers. Plenty of these on Amazon. If you want something more environmentally friendly, I have also used flat paper bags.
- Printer. I use the Canon Pro-200 Inkjet printer. It’s what I use to print my greeting cards, and they work just as well for stickers. The colors and print quality are always spot on.
Any questions, or comments? Chime down below!
