Create your own unique planner stickers in Procreate. Download our free sticker stamp brushes HERE.
You will find a range of sticker stamps. Use them individually or layer them together to create stickers for different functions, for example lists, flags, highlights etc.
To use them, just create a new layer and tap to add the sticker shape.
How to Decorate Your Custom Stickers
There are a variety of ways to decorate your stickers. There are two features which are worth noting as these will allow you to do a variety of different techniques to create different effects.
These are the Alpha Lock function and Clipping Mask. You can open these in the layers panel, just tap on the relevant layers (tap on the left of the layer, by the image to open the options panel below).
Alpha Lock – This will allow you to paint only on the shape in that layer and not on any transparent parts.
Clipping Mask – This will clip a layer to the shape of the layer beneath. Use this to clip a photo to the shape of a sticker, to clip a layer with a pattern to the shape of a variety of shapes etc.
Decorate Your Stickers With Doodles and Sketches
One of the easiest way to create custom stickers is to doodle or sketch onto the sticker shape. Stamp the sticker or stickers you require into your document.
Create a new layer and draw your doodle. You can then duplicate this or create different images on different stickers.
Make a Photo Sticker
To make a photo sticker, stamp your sticker shape and then use the ‘add file’ or ‘add photo’ function to import an image on a layer ABOVE your sticker shape.
To crop the photo to the shape of your sticker, just open the layer with the image, then tap on the layer (to the left of the layer panel) and then select ‘clipping mask’. This will trim the image to your sticker shape.
Combine Sticker Shapes
Create stickers which serve different functions by combining sticker shapes. Tip: Create new layers for the different elements. This makes it easier to move the different elements into place.
Reshape The Stickers
Reshape the sticker shapes to create your own unique stickers. To do this, click on the arrow at the top menu bar. This will open a panel at the bottom of your screen which gives a number of options for resizing and reshaping the stickers. Experiment with the different options to make different effects.
Create Painted Backgrounds
Create a painted background to your stickers. To do this, add a solid sticker shape to the bottom layer and a hollow shape on the top layer.
To create a painted effect, ensure the bottom layer is selected, tap on the layer and select ‘alpha lock‘. This will allow you to paint on the bottom layer and not worry about going ‘outside the lines’.
Try different brushes to create different effects. The oil painting brush and watercolor brush are great for different artistic effects.
Create Marbled Backgrounds
To create a marbled background, create a painted background as in the example above and then choose ‘liquify’ from the ‘adjustments’ panel at the top.
This opens up the liquify tool box at the bottom of the screen. Try different options to achieve different marble effects.
Create a Sticker Set
To create a set of stickers, add a variety of sticker shapes to the bottom layer, and then use the ‘clipping mask’ option on the layer above to add pattern and decorations over the entire stamp set.
Create a Gradient Background
It’s super easy to create a gradient or indeed any mix of colors using one of the list sticker shapes. To fill the boxes, just drag from the color icon at the top right of the page and drag it into the space you want to fill.
Create ‘Coloring Page’ Stickers
Create ‘coloring page’ stickers. This is a mix of some of the techniques mentioned above.
Create a new layer and insert a coloring page. You can use any of the patterned coloring pages we have for free here at MakeBreaks (it’s worth noting that some coloring page artists do not allow the digital manipulation of their pages, so if in doubt, check their terms and conditions first).
Use the ‘clipping mask’ feature in the layer panel to clip the coloring page to shape, and then either print it out to color or color digitally by dragging the color icon into the space you want to color.
Create a Blurred Background
Blurred backgrounds are very on trend and popular in a variety of planner accessories.
To achieve a blurred background, paint on the bottom layer and then select ‘gaussian blur’ from the adjustments panel. Swipe slowly on the screen to adjust the depth of the blur.
This needn’t be used only with painting, you can also blur a picture, photo or image for a different effect.
This is just a few ways to decorate your planner stickers in Procreate. Do tag us on Instagram (@makebreaks) and show us what you create with our free planner sticker Procreate stamp brush 🙂
