How to Laminate Stickers: Prevent Air Bubbles & Creases
Laminating your stickers increases its quality and durability; here is how to laminate stickers and prevent air bubbles or creases.
If you’re self laminating your stickers with a self-adhesive laminate, also known as cold lamination, this is the tutorial on how to get perfect laminating every time.
It’s nerve wracking to manually put on self-adhesive laminate if you’re not careful.
This guide will show you how to laminate your stickers without air bubbles or creases!
If you also want to learn how to make waterproof stickers, see my tutorial here!
*Note: I do receive a small portion from purchases made through the links in this article which helps fund our small business. I will never recommend a product or service I don’t have 100% faith in.
What You Will Need
- Laminating Sheets
- Laminating Machine
- Squeegee
Note that technically you don’t need the laminating machine, however this definitely makes laminating much easier and definitely worth the purchase. Plus, it is super affordable. You do not need a fancy one to get the job done!
Make sure you have your sticker paper printed and ready of course.
Cold or Hot Laminate?
You can either use cold or hot laminate, however I only cold laminate my stickers so that is what I’ll be teaching you today.
Hot lamination usually requires a heat machine that feeds the laminate and sticker paper through it and seals it through thermal heat. This really seals your sticker in place. Personally, I would recommend cold laminating for waterproofing stickers. Hot lamination can warp your designs.
Cold lamination usually refers to laminate that is self-adhesive and no heat or machine is required. You just stick it onto your sticker sheet with the help of a squeegee. I like using squeegees that have a felt-tip so it doesn’t scratch the surface of the stickers too hard.
*I would recommend getting a laminator machine for cold lamination anyways because it helps press on the laminate better.
use the cold laminating sheets and use a squeegee to firmly press on my sticker sheets. I then run it through the laminating machine under the cold setting just for extra pressing.
Method 1: Laminating without the machine
I like to use this method now that I am definitely more pro at doing this by hand. Before, I had trouble getting the laminate on perfectly and had a bunch of creases.
Step 1: Peel about an inch and a half of the laminate off it’s backing sheet; you will be placing this on the top of your sticker sheet.
Step 2: Now place that one and a half laminate over the top of your sticker paper. Firmly press on the top of the sheet with your squeegee.
Step 3: Carefully now peel down the paper and use the squeegee as you go. This will ensure you don’t get any air bubbles. Focus on slowly making your way down the paper as it slowly peels off the backing.
There you go! You should now have the laminate on the sticker paper! Now all you have to do is squeegee over the page a few times to make sure the laminate is secure on.
Step 4 (optional): What I like to do is use my laminating machine and run it under the cold setting so it presses it down firmly for me. The laminating machine is worth it for my business, and I encourage you to try it out! It saves me lot of aggressive squeegee-ing.
Method 2: Laminating with the Laminator Machine
This method is similar to the first method but slightly modified. It’s much more beginner friendly, as it takes away the steps of you having to manually put the laminate on the sticker paper. the machine prevented me from getting air bubbles.
Step 1: You will still peel back about an inch and a half of the laminate and place it over the top of your sticker sheet. Make sure to squeegee it in place nicely.
Step 2: Now go ahead and place the top part of your paper in the machine (while its off).
Step 3: Hold up the laminate and peel it off a little so that when you turn on the machine on the cold setting, it will slowly feed through the laminator, peeling it ever so slightly while the machine pulls it in for you.
Make sure to have a steady hand for this part.
That’s all there is to this method! This was a little hard to explain, so feel free to comment if you have any questions!
Method 3: Laminating
How to Get Rid of Air Bubbles
With these methods, you should have no air bubbles, however not everything is perfect.
So let’s say you have an almost perfect laminate but there are some air bubbles. Fortunately, there is one more thing you can do to fix this.
To get rid of air bubbles in laminate, poke a small hole with a pin or the back of an earring away from your design. After you puncture the hole, try to flatten the area as much as possible your your finger or squeegee. This should push out the air and put the laminate back on the paper. This method works sometimes if it isn’t too close to your design.
How to Get Rid of Creases
Getting rid of creases is a bit more tough than air bubbles, especially since you can’t peel it off and put it right back on (trying to peel it off will take the ink off your paper right with it).
I mentioned earlier I seem to have gotten a crest, which luckily is not into my design that much and can still be fixable.
My advice would be try to flatten it pushing away from the design as much as possible. For example, there are times when the laminate creases just over the ears of my cat stickers and I am able to flatten it just enough where the crease is no longer on the designs. If this is the case for you, I would use a really flat object and try to scrape it out.
Unfortunately, if your laminate has creased over your design completely, there may not be much you can do.
Of course you can try to salvage the other stickers that were not creased on.
Some Extra Laminating Tips
Tip #1: When I laminate by hand, I make sure my hands are clean, dry, and not sweaty. This really helps avoid fingerprints and also makes
Tip #2: Do not rush! I did this mistake a lot when I first started; I would try to peel the laminate off quickly thinking the faster I did it, the less time air bubbles will have time to form. Slow and steady is better!
You can be quicker the more you practice though, so don’t worry about taking it slow at first!
Tip #3: Make sure lint, dust, and other debris didn’t fall on your sticker paper. Once they’re under the laminate, that piece of dust is stuck on your sticker forever. Be mindful of that.
Tip #4: Make sure the laminate and vinyl paper are really stuck together. You want to make sure the laminate layer is not lifting in any of the corners of the sticker paper. If they weren’t pressed hard enough, you will risk water getting into the ink and ruining your sticker.
Conclusion
There you have it, this is how I laminate stickers without air bubbles or creases.
These methods are what personally oared for me and may not be the best fit for everybody, but I still hope this helped you in any way.
Found this article helpful? Subscribe to my blog for more secret tips, crafts and more!
If you liked the stickers used in this article, check out my sticker shop!