Kurimanju would take a sip of an American beer and then throw it on the ground
I don't think that's true... I think they would find much to love in our craft beer culture...
I also think they would like our funny novelty beer hats
GIGALITH for @poketcg-art 's Unova redraw! Shiny because I love shiny Gigalith. Original card is from Emergining Powers and illustrated by Naoki Saito.
Hi ! Do you mind sharing where you print your zines & stickers from? I've been searching around and there's a ton of answers & your stuff looks really high quality ! <3 Love the art!!!!
I got the zines printed through Mixam! They were printed and put together well but the color is a little less vibrant than the draft I printed at home. I heard Comix Wellspring is good as well and around the same price so I might try them next time.
I actually print my stickers at home, here's what I use!
For printing I use a CANON PIXMA, a TS9521Ca to be exact!
Performance wise, I mean... it's a printer, it's their life's goal to not work in the least opportune moments. Though it is definitely on the better end of printers I've used. I've run into problems but were able to fix them after much stress and meltdowns but I haven't had any issues in a while (knock on wood.)
Ink is cartridge based and of course, expensive. Apparently using cheap low-quality third party ink can break the printer so you do have to buy the expensive name brand stuff. Some people drill holes into the cartridges and refill them with genuine canon ecotank ink but I haven't made the jump to do that quite yet. The longer I've had this printer the more it LIES about the ink being empty. If the prints looks fine I IGNORE THEM!! It's crazy how many sheets I can print on supposedly "empty" ink.
I think ecotank printers are supposed to have cheaper ink and are less wasteful, something to look into and research.
For paper I use PPD'S MATTE VINYL STICKER PAPER
Glossy is usually recommended because it gives a more vibrant print but I was having a lot of issues with ink bleed. Matte paper is a little less vibrant than glossy but I've had a lot less issues with ink bleed. This stuff is on the more expensive end but I think it's worth shelling out for quality because the paper is the sticker! Everything else relies on it being good!
For laminating I use a CRENOVA
For stickers you need to use "cold" or "self-adhesive" laminate because the heat from the machine will mess with the sticker adhesive. You can actually put cold laminate on yourself with a credit card or little tool but with the amount of laminate I use I absolutely think it's worth the money. It's also the more reliable machine I own and it's own $20!
Only nitpick I have is that the LED that specifies hot or cold broke but that's okay because there's little pictures next to the switch anyways.
I can't speak to it's ability to use hot laminate because I haven't used that feature.
For laminate I use AVERY SELF-ADHESIVE LAMINATING SHEETS
This stuff is good and pretty cheap! It's bigger than letter size so I cut off the extra laminate so it doesn't get stuck in the laminator. There's also a little tab to pull off that makes laminating much easier! It's only water resistant (not water proof) and doesn't protect against UV so prints will start to sun fade after a while. You can shell out for more high quality stuff like Oracle that offers UV protection but I haven't used that. I just put a disclaimer on my listings that my stickers aren't for outdoor use.
For holographic laminate I use WHATEVER.
All the listings on Amazon use basically the same pictures and designs so I have to assume they are all buying from the same manufacturer and selling them under different brands. Avery and other reputable brands sell holographic laminate but they only sell one design, and the fun of holographic laminate is all the funny designs right? I just buy whatever design strikes my fancy.
For cutting I use a SILHOUETTE CAMEO 4
This thing.... I am going to have a hard time recommending this thing. The amount of headaches caused by troubleshooting this piece of crap are un-quantifiable. For the past, I think year at this point, I been trying to troubleshoot it to cut all the way through my stickers. It was doing that fine right out of the box but then just stopped??? cutting through things it's cut through a hundred times before??? Can do a damn good kiss cut through. Ugh.
It's also LOUD as hell so if you have roommates or live in an apartment you will have to time your cutting accordingly. I have to wait till everyone in my house goes to bed...
That being said I don't know what other cutting machine I can recommend, I think they all might be kinda shit, like printers. I got a silhouette because I heard bad things about cricuts, and now I hear of people jumping ship to other cutters but then complain about their software. Sihouette's software is already kind of shit, how can it be the height of cutting software?
I used to cut all my stickers by hand with scissors but that's time consuming and I have tendonitis so I should probably avoid doing that. TBH whenever I want to avoid using my silhouette I just cut things by hand lol
PRINTING AT HOME VS. OUTSOURCING
I wanted to print my stickers at home because I can print really low quantities of each design which makes new designs a less risky investment. Printing companies will typically ask for higher minimum order quantity (MOQ) and if they do have lower MOQs it's usually much more expensive or of worse quality. One of my most popular products is a gacha that includes all the gyroid designs from Animal Crossing. That is something that would be very hard to do with a manufacturer. There's also the waiting for your shipment to arrive and then having to coordinate with a representative if there's any printing errors. At home I have instant printing and feedback if anything goes wrong, even if I'm the one who now has to troubleshoot or order more materials.
HOWEVER a good manufacturer is going to be able to print at a higher quality than what is possible at home. They can also print proper water proof and UV resistant stickers as well as stickers tough enough to go outdoors and on a car. They can also do all kinds of fun things with holographic elements rather than the big cheap flat sheet that I have to use.
Either option is good and when I was researching sticker printing I think artists were pretty split between printing at home and outsourcing. If you only have a couple designs you want printed and don't want to deal with the upfront cost and troubleshooting of machines a manufacturer is a good choice. If you like slinging shit at the wall and seeing what sticks like me, home printing is a good choice. Troubleshooting and printing is it's own skill and as much as I complained about my silhouette I do find it rewarding to work with machines and computers. Of course, being able to coordinate with manufacturers is also it's own skill and one I would rather avoid doing when I can. So you can also view this as which skill you want to build more.
Of course if you already have a printer at home, there's nothing stopping you from test printing a couple sheets and cutting them by hand to see if you like the process ^_^
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