In case you didn’t know, January 13th is National Sticker Day! Who doesn’t love stickers? It’s amazing how much joy and entertainment little ones can get out of stickers. It’s also pretty sweet how much they will care for their favorite ones. Do you remember saving special stickers, taking your time to put them up just right, or giving away stickers to put on friend’s and family’s hands? One of life’s little funny joys is randomly receiving a sticker from a little one! There’s also nothing better to a little one than receiving a sticker as a reward for doing something great, such as at school or on a chore board. Gold star!
Ready to celebrate National Sticker Day? Here’s a little more on the history of National Sticker Day from National Day Calendar:
National Sticker Day is observed annually on January 13. This is a day to celebrate all things stickers, from the custom printing of them to sharing stickers. Every sticker has a story. Historians credit the European merchants in the 1880s as the first to stick labels to their products, in an effort to promote their goods and wares to passersby.
These savvy, pre-industrial entrepreneurs used a gum paste to get the labels to adhere and, well, stick: hence “stickers.” By the 1900s a sticker-specific paste had been developed and was widely used, most notably on stamps, which dried and then would re-apply when moistened. National Sticker Day is January 13 in honor of R. Stanton Avery, who was born on that day in 1907. Avery was the original creator of the adhesive label with a removable backing.
DIY Stickers
To celebrate National Sticker Day, it’s pretty obvious how we wanted to observe. It’s time to make your own stickers! This DIY is super easy to do; all you need to do is observe the scissor work. Otherwise, let the little ones take over!
What You Need
- 8.5 x 11 sticky paper
- Our printable of blank stickers to color
- Scissors
- Something to color the stickers in with
- Markers
- Paint
- Crayons
- Glitter glue
- Colored pencils
- ….get creative!
- Construction paper or other blank paper to create a scenery
- TIP: Construction paper is best for stickers, since it’s easy to lift the stickers up and reaffix if you make an error!
How You Make Them
- Grab your sticky paper, put it in your printer and print out this printable
- Hand it over to your little one
- Get creative and start coloring!
- Once they are all done, cut out the stickers from the sheet, or if you have child-safe scissors, let them do all the work!
- TIP: The stickers are much easier to color before they are cut out of the sheet, so make sure this step happens after the stickers are all filled in.
- On your sheet of construction paper, arrange your stickers to make an awesome balloon scenery!
- TIP: To extend craft time, have your little one first color a background scene on blank paper to affix the stickers onto before moving onto the DIY.
More Sticker Fun
Luckily, there’s no shortage of places to put stickers and things to do with them. If your little one made bunches of stickers, here are more things you can do with them to observe National Sticker Day!
Blindfold Scenery
After coloring in the DIY Stickers, put the construction paper and stickers in front of your little ones. Blindfold them, then see how they do peeling the stickers and creating a scenery on the construction paper! They will have tons of laughs trying to find the stickers, feel the paper and get the job done. There’s even more laughs to come once they take off their blindfolds and see how mixed up their scenery is! For even MORE laughs, you can take it an extra step further and color the stickers blindfolded, too!
Sticker Exchange
If you’re doing this activity with a group of kiddos, or even in a class, let the kids take time to exchange their stickers with each other. This can be a great ice-breaker activity for birthday parties or a child’s first day at school or day care. All they need to do is say a fact about themselves while exchanging stickers – such as, how many siblings they have or whether or not they have a pet – and see how many they can remember at the end of the activity.
Spelling and Vocabulary Practice
Before or after your little one colors the cloud, sun, balloons, tree or bunny, have them spell out the words for some extra spelling practice. You can also take it another step further and have them use the word in a sentence, so that they can work on their vocabulary. They can also spell out the color they are using to color the sticker, the action the sticker is doing, and much much more!
Balloon Adventure Mesh Dome Tent
Nothing goes better with a beautiful balloon scenery than a balloon tent! Up, up, and away! Our 100% polyester Balloon Adventure Mesh Dome Tent features brightly-colored balloon designs to send your child’s imagination soaring! Measuring in at 48” x 48” x 42”, this tent is large enough for coloring custom stickers and includes color coated fiberglass poles, as well as a tunnel port with hook and loop fasteners. The door curtain with polyester hook and loop ties gives your child privacy while the mesh wall panels allow you to keep an eye on your little balloon wrangler. When it comes to your child’s joy in playing with this dome tent, the sky’s the limit!
Let Us Know!
Is your little one obsessed with stickers? Did you do the DIY? Let us know how you are celebrating National Sticker Day in the comments below! Have fun!