Learning what surfaces your stickers will stick to, might save you some time and help you determine how to use your stickers.
1. Non-Solid Surfaces
Vinyl die-cut stickers have a hard time sticking to surfaces such as wood, styrofoam, and any other material that is absorptive. Vinyl can’t stick to these surfaces well because the stickers use a pressure-sensitive adhesive. The smoother and less porous the surface is, will determine how much the sticker will stick to it.
2. Cardboard
Cardboard is an exception to the “stickers will stick to smooth surfaces” rule. Even though cardboard is a smooth surface, cardboard attracts dust and has small fibers that prevent a regular sticker from sticking to it. However, if you use mega-adhesive stickers, you may rip the cardboard if you try to remove the sticker.
3. Fabric
If you have ever been to a get-to-know-you event, you may have had the frustration of your name tag sticker falling off. However convenient it might be to stick a sticker to fabric, the sticker is bound to fall off eventually. Whether it’s movement, moisture, or flexibility of the fabric, the sticker will lose its stick.
4. Human Skin
Did you ever put a sticker on your hand or arm as a kid? You would have one of two things happen. If it was a regular sticker, after about 5 minutes it would fall off because it had come in contact with moisture, skin particles, or oil. The other situation would be the sticker wouldn’t come off of your skin and may have removed some baby hairs in the process. To have a better experience with your stickers, stick to smooth surfaces.
5. Very Curved Surfaces
Stickering your personal items can be a lot of fun. Laptops, cars, and water bottles are all great surfaces to make a sticker collage. However, the more curves an object has, the more tension the sticker experiences. The tension may cause the sticker’s edges to lift up. Too much curvature is usually any surface that is spherical, or too rounded. For these surfaces, you may want to get a better adhesive as well.
These are only some of the surfaces that reduce the quality and stickiness of stickers. Overall, you can never go wrong with using stickers on flat smooth surfaces.
