Stickers!
 

Picked up a Xyron sticker maker and thought it was fairly neat -- you feed it items and it applies an adhesive backing. To make things waterproof, I added laminate to both sides. Using some logo-ish art from a friend the result is interesting stickers for no reason.

http://fox.org/~vince/photos/out/stickers.jpg

Anyone know of a better way to produce decent stickers? I've been searching for a long time with no luck. I would love a vinyl cutting machine, but they are a bit out of my price range and sending the graphic out to someone with a machine is just not as satisfying as doing it yourself. The hardest part so far, besides the tedious process, is making them stand up to the test of the elements.

Please keep us posted on the weather-testing aspect of these laminated stickers. I may want to order some from you (are you selling these or actually *doing* custom orders?).

Please keep us posted on the weather-testing aspect of these laminated stickers. I may want to order some from you (are you selling these or actually *doing* custom orders?).

Heh -- I'm only doing these for fun. They're cheap and easy to do and aren't the best quality, so I don't see why you'd want to order any from me. Simply print, trim, apply laminate (doesn't require a machine and can be purchased at any office store) to both sides, trim again, and then send them though one of the sticker making machines (they run between $15-$35 depending on the size you want to do).

Just out of curiosity, what would you like turned into a sticker? I always like to see the seemingly random ones/political ones/funny ones around town.

The one downfall to the Xyron machine is that I don't have a cassette that puts laminate on the front and adhesive on the back. This results in a non-weatherproof sticker and the manual lamination is what takes the most time and effort. This downfall, however, is kinda cool -- you can put an adhesive on practically anything and it doesn't look unusual. This allows for sticking of dollar bills to the ceiling, CDs to desks, etc. Xyron has other cartridges, including one that applies a magnetic backing to whatever you insert. These other sets aren't found at the local office supply stores, however.

Edit: On second thought, applying laminate to the front and only adhesive to the back didn't make a weather-proof sticker, either. I placed one of these on my windsheild as a test and a few rains later it wasn't looking very healthy. Laminate on both sides, however, appears to work fine in the weather.

At Kinko's we had a tabletop lamination machine that we could feed sticky-lam sheets through. You took your artwork and placed it in the 8.5x11 sheet and then ran it thorugh the laminator. The result is laminated artwork with a sticky back. My friend has a bumper full of "Free Leonard Peltier" bumper stickers now.

I'm being redundant again.

think you could swing this?:

think you could swing this?

That is awesome and soon it shall be seen on the random street signs, city buses, and men's restrooms all over the area!

When I worked at Westinghouse, we had a laminator than took two 150 foot rolls, one top and one bottom, that you could feed continuously.
First day, somebody got their tie stuck and panicked. The buttons were right in front of him but he was too busy trying to pull the tie out to think straight.
The best one was a Tasty Cake chocolate cupcake that came ont 27 feet long.:D

I'll have to check out Michaels when they have their next '%40 off any item' coupon out. It appears that they sell 4 Xyron models.

I already have a laminator.

Xyron models at Michaels

Xyron closeout at Michaels
 

I went to pick up a Xyron 510 at the Michaels store on Rte 100 next to the Exton Mall. Apparently the store is moving to another location nearby, so they had a %70 off sale. Things were picked over, but I found boxes of Xryon 850 and 510 cartridges.

I bought 7 boxes of 510 laminate/permanent and laminate/repositionable cartridges for $3 apiece. I left behind 3 or 4.

I saw what I believe to be 2 850 laminate/magnet cartridges in the same aisle as the 510's, and there appeared to be 6 or 7 850 cartridges in front near the registers.

The store's last day is Saturday, although they may close early if they get cleaned out.

They didn't have the actual 510 units, but I can get that from the Michaels near me or at the Exton store when they reopen on Monday.

richlevy, let me know how yours fare if you put anything outside. Even with laminate on both sides, mine still found a way to absorb water through the edges.

If you can, get the laminating material to stick together at the perimeter by not trimming as close.

If you can, get the laminating material to stick together at the perimeter by not trimming as close.

Yeah -- I tried that. I guess I didn't do a good enough job at it or something. I even tried pressing with a ruler edge and rubbing to ensure a good seal. Damn.