How are kiss cut stickers made? – Sticker it

When you approve your design proof for your kiss cut stickers, we manufacture your custom order within 4 working days.

Have you ever asked yourself what happens during those days? You are about to find out.

Watch the video below or read on for a more detailed look behind the scenes of the kiss cut sticker-making process.

What exactly is a kiss-cut sticker?

But before we jump into that, let's revisit the most important question: What is a kiss cut sticker?

The word kiss cut describes the way your custom stickers are cut. Most individually cut stickers are cut through the vinyl and paper backing.

If you order a round, square or even custom-shaped die cut sticker, the edge of your sticker is also the edge of the backing paper.

Kiss cut stickers are special because they are only cut through the material layer, while the paper backing stays intact.

This creates a border around your stickers that allows you to easily peel your final sticker, but also allows you to include additional branding on your stickers.

Essentially, you can think of your kiss cut stickers as small individual sticker sheets. The image below helps to explain.

How do you make kiss cut stickers?

Now, let us dive into the three steps involved in manufacturing your custom kiss cut stickers. We will cover each step from sticker printing, over lamination, and the different cutting processes that can be used to create custom stickers.

1. Printing

Before we do anything, your stickers have to be printed.

As kiss cut stickers only describe how your stickers will be cut, you can choose from any of our materials to create your ideal sticker.

We then take the roll of the sticker material you decide on and print your custom designs with our state-of-the-art digital printer.

Learn more about the different types of print technology here.

2. Laminating

This second step is optional and depends on the material you have chosen.

We highly recommend a glossy laminate if you are looking for stickers with outdoor durability. It not only functions as a UV lamination that protects your stickers from fading in the sun, but also makes them water- and scratchproof.

All of our vinyl stickers are laminated, unless you request something else. However, if you choose our biodegradable paper stickers or one of our eco-friendly bio-plastics, your sticker will not be laminated.

This is simply because the laminate is not biodegradable and would therefore interfere with the sustainability of your sticker choice.

3. Cutting: Digital vs analogue kiss cutting

After your stickers are printed, it is time to cut those custom shapes. The beauty of kiss cut stickers is that your peelable sticker can still follow the exact shape of your sticker design, as you can see in the images below.

There are different kiss cutting techniques that can be used to create such custom shapes.

However, other than the die cut sticker cutting process, it is essential to control the pressure of the cutting tools as you want to keep the backing material intact.

Digital kiss cutting

Cutting stickers digitally means that we use a digitally controlled knife. There is no need to custom make tools in order to cut your stickers.

Instead, you can imagine an ultra-sharp, tiny blade gliding over the material. The blade applies different degrees of pressure, depending on whether we only cut through the vinyl or the backing paper as well. Through this, we can be super flexible when it comes to kiss cut stickers.

Digital cutting, therefore, allows us to cut your stickers faster and more precisely. It also means that we can cater to smaller quantities of custom shaped stickers are we do not have to charge a set-up free.

Want to find out more: Then read our article "How are stickers & labels cut and what are the limitations?"

And this is how we make your custom kiss cut stickers! Now that you are a kiss cut sticker expert, are you ready to print stickers?

Or are you still looking for that perfect custom design? Then try our free online design tool Graphic, where you can browse and edit hundreds of templates.

If you are looking to learn even more about stickers, check out these articles: