How to make custom pet stickers - Katherine Learns Stuff!

I’m a dog person if you didn’t know. And I love my puppers. I love him so much, that I have even created a YouTube Channel for him (you can find that here). And since I love him so much, I often make crafts with pictures of him. And this time, I have decided to learn how to make custom pet stickers using my dog (and a friend’s cat), because, let’s be honest, we need custom stickers of our pets!

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Supplies Need to make Custom Pet Stickers

Okay, so we need a few things to make this project work:

An iPhone or an iPad – if you don’t have one, keep reading below as I have a trick for you.
A Cricut – I use my Cricut Explore Air 2, but any of the Explore series or Makers will work.
Access to Cricut Design Space.
A printer – I use my Epson ET-2850.
Sticker Paper – I use Koala Mat Sticker paper for stickers, but the Cricut Brand also works. You can read a comparison of the two types here if you are on the fence about that.

And that’s all we need to get this project started!

If you don’t have an iPad or an iPhone, no worries! I have created a cheat sheet to show you several of other programs (Free and paid) where you can remove the backgrounds from pictures and get the same results!

Let’s make some custom pet stickers!

So, the first thing you need to do is take some pictures of your pet. Or, if you are like me, you probably have a million already in your camera roll. So, find a picture or two or ten that you love, and let’s start making pet stickers!

How to make Custom Pet stickers on your iPhone

This is a super cool feature that i-products have, and I love it. When I first learned about it, I was in awe, but now it is my go-to for making stickers!

Pull up the pictures that you like.

Now, place your finger on the image. Hold your finger on the image of your pet. Your screen will have a white line, almost like lightning appear, and float over the item you are holding.

Make sure you are selecting the pet. Not something else around it. Also, this works best with just your pet in the image, because if someone is in the picture, they will also be included.

Then, select the Share… option that shows up on your screen. A drop-down menu will open. Select Save Image. Now, the image is saved in your pictures folder.

There is no background, nothing. Just the image that you selected. Repeat these above steps on as many pet images as your heart desires.

Upload your Pet Sticker Images to Cricut Design Space on a Desktop

You can use Cricut Design Space on your Desktop, iPhone or iPad. First, I’m going to walk you through uploading on your desktop.

You either need to email your files to yourself, get them from your iCloud, or connect yourself to your computer to transfer the files.

So, let’s upload it to Cricut Design Space. On a new canvas select:

Select the Upload Icon
Select Upload Image
Select the Browse button to upload the image you want to upload from your computer.
The picture will appear on your Upload Image Screen. Click Continue
Next, your picture will be brought to a Background Remover Page. You do not need to do anything on this page as we have already removed the background on our iPhone/iPad. Click the Apply & Continue Button at the bottom right side of your screen.
The following screen will be labelled Convert Upload to. Here you will select the Flat Graphic, and then the Continue button.
On the Image Details Page, you will want to fill in the Image Name, Optional Tags and Add to a Collection.
Hit the Upload button.
The file will now be in your Cricut Design Space and should appear on your Canvas.

Your Pet Picture is now in Design Space!

Repeat the steps above to upload as many stickers as your heart desires.

Upload your Pet Sticker Images to Cricut Design Space on iPad

So, Cricut Design Space has been making numerous changes recently and now the upload process on the iPad and desktop is much different, so I’m going to do a quick walk-through on your iPad as well.

So, let’s upload it to Cricut Design Space. On a new canvas select:

Select the Upload Icon located at the bottom of your screen.
Select the Select from Photo Library
Scroll through your pictures to find the images we edited above.
(If you do not have Cricut Access, you may be asked to try the Background remover, you do not need this, just hit the X in the top right corner of the pop-up box.
Your image does not require any modifications at this point. If you want to delete bits of stuff that got caught from the original picture, you can do that now. Once happy with the details, hit the Apply Button
The following screen will be labelled Convert Upload to. Here you will select the Flat Graphic, and then select the Next button.
On the Image Details Page, you will want to fill in the Image Name.
Hit the Upload button.
The file will now be in your Cricut Design Space and should appear on your Canvas.

Now your Pet Picture is in Design Space!

Repeat the steps above to upload as many stickers as your heart desires.

Making Pet Stickers In Cricut Design Space

Now that the images of your pet are in Cricut Design Space, we have a few things we can do. We can Print Then Cut them as they are or add an outline. So, let’s walk through those steps

Add an outline to your Pet stickers

I like to have a white outline around my stickers. Maybe this is old school, but it’s just me. I think the main reason I like this is that when cutting the files out, if something is misaligned, the whole sticker will still be cut out, and only the outline will be messed up.

So, let’s add an outline to our stickers.

Select the image that you have uploaded to Design Space.

Select Offset. Adjust the slider to the right or left to increase or decrease the outline around your pet. I like to have a nice edge around it, so about 0.05″.

Once happy with the offset distance and appearance on your screen, hit the Apply button to accept the changes.

Your offset may be set to white, but it may be a different color. Let’s quickly select the Offset and change the color to white or any color you prefer.

If you have moved the offset off the image of your pet, select both items, select the Align menu, and select the Center option. This will center the offset to the pet image both vertically and horizontally.

Next, we need to select both the pet picture and offset, select the Attach and then the Flatten Buttons. This will join the two elements together for Print Then Cut. If you do not hit the Attach button the sticker and offset don’t always stay together, so I do it just to be certain.

Now, adjust the size of your pet image to fit your desired dimensions. I like to make them around the 1.5″-2″ size, but you can make them bigger or smaller.

Once happy with your layout, repeat the above steps on all the other pet images on your canvas.

When all your pet images are ready for print and cutting, hit Make it.

Review your pet images and their locations on the Print Then Cut sheet. Ensure your images are connected (aka Flattened) to their offset. If they are not all connected, there will be offsets floating around by themselves. Should this be the case, hit Cancel and go back to your canvas to make changes. If you do not like the locations, move items around to save as much sticker paper as possible. Once happy, hit Continue.

If you want to save sticker paper, read this article on how to maximize your Print then Cut Space.

Now, it’s time to set up the print on your printer. As this is the same for Print Then Cut for both with and without offsets, I’ll talk about this in a moment, below.

Print Then Cut Custom Pet Stickers without an Outline

If you want your custom pet stickers to be printed without an outline or an offset as it’s called in Cricut Design Space, there are only a few items that we need to do, so let’s get started.

Check out the size of your images. Go to your dimensions, and adjust the size to be what you want, I like to have my stickers about 1.5″-2″ in size. You can make them bigger or smaller, and you can even change the proportions to make your pet look a bit silly. Once happy with the size, hit Make it.

Review your pet stickers and their locations on the Print Then Cut sheet. If you do not like the locations, move items around to save as much sticker paper as possible. Once happy, hit Continue.

If you want to save sticker paper, read this article on how to maximize your Print then Cut Space.

Now it’s time to set up our print on the printer.

Print Then Cut your Custom Pet Stickers

Now that our custom pet stickers are arranged on the print and cut mat, it is time to send them to the printer. Some important points to note while doing this:

Your printer must be set up on your computer, iPad or iPhone. If you are working on your iPad and have never done a Print Then Cut on your iPad, you need to calibrate your printer and Cricut. The same goes for your laptop. If you have calibrated for one, it does not mean it will work for the other. Read How to Calibrate your Cricut for Print Then Cut Using a Computer HERE
Make sure you know which way to load your sticker paper. Not all printers are the same! I like to do a test print on a regular piece of paper to make sure.
Select Send to Printer – this will bring up a printer menu. Select the printer you want to use.

Once your pet images have been printed, it is time to place them on the cutting mat. Make sure to press the paper down onto the mat firmly. I like to use my scraper tool to push it down. But just in case the ink is still a bit wet, I will place my cutting mat protective sheet over the sticker paper and press down on it through the protective cover.

Set your Cricut Dial to Cardstock. I have found that this setting works for sticker paper when you want to have individual stickers cut out.

Now, select the flashing arrow button on your Cricut and feed the cutting mat into the machine.

The Cricut may take a while to cut out your sticker, depending on how intricate and how many you have.

And that’s it! You’re Done! Your Custom Pet Stickers are complete!

Things I learned while making Custom Pet Stickers

So, for this project, I have learned a LOT of cool things. So, let’s review what I have learned from making Custom Pet Stickers.

I love the background remover/sticker feature on iPhones and iPads. I use this far too often for a large variety of silly projects.
The best stickers come from things that you are purposefully isolating. So, when I was taking these pet pictures for example, if your pet is on a pillow or around people, it has a difficult time differentiating between where one stops and the other beings. So, you may have a sticker that includes more than you want. But stickers of pets with kids are also great!
I have not figured out how to modify the stickers on the iPhone or iPad. So, if you get more stuff in your image than you want, I have not found an easy way on the iPhone or iPad to make modifications to it.
Using these stickers in Cricut Design Space is super easy and I think I need much much much more sticker paper!
No matter what I upload into Cricut Design Space, the size is always off. Most of the time, it is way too big, so it is important to always adjust the size when a file is uploaded into DS.
There is a Sticker Feature in Cricut Design Space. But that is only available with the Access Subscription. I don’t use that, so that is why there are more steps here than otherwise needed, but I’m ok with that.
I remove the background from my pets using my iPhone and iPad but there are many other ways to remove backgrounds from images. You can get a list of the ones I have used in the past, below.

Frequently Asked Questions About Making Pet Stickers With Your iPhone and Cricut

I have been asked a few questions about making custom pet stickers with your iPhone and Cricut, so let’s do a quick Q&A.

Can you make stickers of anything with your iPhone/iPad?

Yes! Yes, you can! You can follow the steps I laid out for making stickers with your iPhone and make stickers out of it. It can be done with people, pets, places. You may need to crop the image if there are too many things going on around it. This will help the program get what you want.

Can I make Stickers with my IPad?

Yes, this same method works with your iPad. This feature has been around for a long time, but not everyone knows about it. It was around for quite a few generations of i-products.

What if I don’t have an iPad and want to make stickers?

Don’t worry! You don’t need an iPad or an iPhone to make stickers! You need a background remover to help you isolate your images. I have a list below of a bunch of free and paid resources you can use to remove backgrounds as well.

Cricut has a sticker feature, why not use that?

That is correct, Cricut Design Space has its own sticker feature. However, this is currently only available if you pay for Cricut Access. If you do not have Cricut Access, or even if you do, the above method works every time!

I have heard, but have not used the Cricut Sticker feature, that there are limitations to the type of sticker paper you can use and there are limitations to the feature itself. One day I will try it, but until then, I will be using this method.

Did you enjoy this tutorial on How to make Custom Pet stickers?

Did you enjoy this tutorial on how to make custom pet stickers? I hope so! Let me know if it worked out for you! And share your project results with me! I want to know how it turned out!

If you liked this project, be sure to check out some of my other sticker and sticker-related projects here: