about sticker folding

The concept of sticker folding started with a Easter decoration of a bunny, a simple A-folded paper with a bunny printed on either side with tabs on the bottom to facilitate the bunny to stand. My first sticker folding project was a bunny, creating a silhouette of a bunny, then a mirrored second bunny that was connected by the tip of there ears. This kinda worked, the two halves mated pretty well, but handling and folding the sticker was problematic. The next design was a simple flower with 6 petals, utilizing the same concept as the bunny. This time I discovered a better way of removing the backing paper. By placing the sticker on a table with the backing paper on top, use a credit card or plastic scraper to hold down the sticker while peeling off the backing paper. Although this was a upgrade, the accuracy of the mating was pretty random.

The next breakthrough was using a perforated line to assist in the folding process. So before removing the backing paper, fold the sticker along the perforated line creating a crease. This was a game changer, the accuracy was greatly increased and lead me to the next major discovery. The perforated line had a downside also, it was fragile, if you tugged to hard the halves would separate, this got me thinking. What if the outline of the flower was a perforated line that could be separated after it was folded, and voila, the basics of sticker folding craft was born.

The first perforated lines that I created took days to create, the size of the space between the cut/dash has changed dramatically over the years. Basically it's a balance between the stickers' ability to stay together during the backing removal and folding process, the ease of removal from the matrix and the quality of the final edge. Also the type of vinyl or printable label stock make a lot of difference in the properties of the perforated line. In the beginning I made custom perforated lines that took hours and hours, using the nodes tool to individually cut and precisely separate the space between cuts. Then about two years ago I upgraded my cut software so I could create words on an arch for one of my sisters' projects. While learning about all the new tools I discovered a custom line tool that allows you to create perforated lines simply. Game changer, what use to take days to design could be done in hours.