High Quality Sticker/Decal/Label Paper? (not looking for waterslide)

[enkeybo]

Hi there,

I've been looking everywhere for some high quality sticker paper for customizing minifigs. I'm seeing in videos and pictures everywhere that people are using clear sticker paper on minifigs, but they're not waterslide. I've searched all over the place, and I haven't found out anything about it. Not even the Eurobricks search function can shed some light on this!

Anyways, I'm hoping to find some that are reasonably priced, high quality, easy to apply, and work with an inkjet printer. I don't really like the idea of waterslide decals because it seems to take a lot of skill and time commitment, both of which I really don't have much of. While white paper seems to do well (especially since you can't print white), but I'd prefer to use transparent (obviously I'd need white paper when I would need to print bright colors also, so yes, I guess I am going to need both white and transparent).

I have been hearing a lot more recently about "labels". What are they? Is it just another name for a decal or sticker? Or is it literally using the materials that were originally meant for labeling for minifigure customization? Or is it something different altogether?

I've seen professionals online use transparent stickers amazingly. TheCooperWorks and those old BrickForge decals from a few years back have proven that sticker paper is a suitable alternative.

So please, if there any reasonably priced, high quality, easy to apply decals that work with an inkjet printer that you know of, I'd love to hear about it.

[JopieK]

Well, we use Mactac for solvent Inks with a VS-300 Versacamm machine :)

[ED-209]

Well, we use Mactac for solvent Inks with a VS-300 Versacamm machine :)

That's a little more heavy-duty than a regular inkjet!

But enkeybo, I've used labels from a company called Avery and found them to be cost effective and decent quality. I use a colour laser printer, but they do make versions for inkjet. Both white and clear are available. Try to get the type with only one sticker per page, just to minimise wastage (although you can use the other types with two-, four-, or six-per-page without much problem).

Not sure which country you live in, this link is to an Australian shop, but try looking in large office supply outlets:

http://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/avery-l7167-no-white-laser-labels-av952007?searchTerm=avery%20labels

[enkeybo]

That's a little more heavy-duty than a regular inkjet!

But enkeybo, I've used labels from a company called Avery and found them to be cost effective and decent quality. I use a colour laser printer, but they do make versions for inkjet. Both white and clear are available. Try to get the type with only one sticker per page, just to minimise wastage (although you can use the other types with two-, four-, or six-per-page without much problem).

Not sure which country you live in, this link is to an Australian shop, but try looking in large office supply outlets:

http://www.officewor...rm=avery labels

These look awesome. Thanks for the help!

[enkeybo]

That's a little more heavy-duty than a regular inkjet!

But enkeybo, I've used labels from a company called Avery and found them to be cost effective and decent quality. I use a colour laser printer, but they do make versions for inkjet. Both white and clear are available. Try to get the type with only one sticker per page, just to minimise wastage (although you can use the other types with two-, four-, or six-per-page without much problem).

Not sure which country you live in, this link is to an Australian shop, but try looking in large office supply outlets:

http://www.officewor...rm=avery labels

@ED-209 Also, I had some questions about these Avery Labels. How durable are they, and how well do they stick? Are they thin and bendable enough to fit onto curved surfaces, like heads and arms?

[ED-209]

@ED-209 Also, I had some questions about these Avery Labels. How durable are they, and how well do they stick? Are they thin and bendable enough to fit onto curved surfaces, like heads and arms?

Durable enough for light play and posing/display by an AFOL certainly, but they're not going to withstand anything rough. The white type appears to be more-or-less a treated paper-like surface with a sticky backing, and the clear one is some sort of plastic film. They're both thin enough to curve around a head, and I think the clear type is a tiny bit thinner, but I think they'd still both be thick enough that you'd find hair/helmets would scrape into them to some degree. (The chin area on a motorcycle helmet for instance would cause big problems!) I have no problems using them for torsos and shields though.

They're not going to be as good as actual printed parts of course, or even waterslide decals, but they are very easy to use and very cost effective when you fill an entire page up with designs.

Oh and bear in mind that the colours printed onto clear stickers will be distorted/tinted by the colour of the plastic underneath. You're best printing dark colours and using light plastic, or switching to the white stickers if the design needs it.

Good luck, and if you do wind up trying them or something similar please share your thoughts!

[enkeybo]

Thank you so much, that was extremely helpful. Thanks for the help!

[w00kiee77]

So I've been debating this decision as well, as I really want to do waterslide decals, but thinking if it's worth avoiding all the sealing and stuff...

I tried some injet waterslide decals with no joy, so I got some laser 105gsm white sticker sheets and some clear sticker sheets (not sure of thickness, but definitely thicker than the white sticker sheet.

I found the colours printed out much clearer on the white sticker sheet and the clear sticker still suffered from the transparency issues I had with the inket waterslide decals (see below)

The lighter colour obviously worked better on the yellow torsos, but not by much, I got a similar result with the waterslide decals as I did with the clear stickers below:

on yellow and below, on brown:

exactly the same colours...

I think the end result for the stickers was quite good, and if cut properly, could be quite effective, but as was already mentioned, they're a bit sensitive to being handled, especially if you have it close to the edge, it can fray a bit, and also during the application of my first few stickers, I had cut it out and had some difficulty removing the backing, until I figured out to cut all but one side, leaving me extra space to remove the backing and then trim it off once removed.

Also with stickers, it's usually a case of "once it's on, it's on" as then trying to remove it will damage the sticker paper, even if using tweezers, can leave some indents, whereas waterslide decals can be moved around to be placed much easier...

All in all, I'm definitely going to stick with the stickers (bad pun intended) when I replicate my Republic Gunship sticker sheet that I need to create to replace the deteriorated stickers from the pieces, and on a Laser printer as I found my home inkjet printer wasn't up to the task on waterslide decals and don't hold improved hope for stickers (but the work Laser printer works a treat! :) ) but I think for these figures, I'm going to put in the extra effort to go the white waterslide decal route...