How to Make Planner Stickers in Procreate

When it comes to making planner stickers, the possibilities are truly endless. Your stickers can be to-do lists, days of the week, note boxes, washi tape, tags, color dots, icon reminders, etc.

In this tutorial, we will show you how to make digital stickers in Procreate on your iPad. If you are printing the stickers at home with your printer and cutting machine or scissors, then you can use the designs as-is under the Design Bundles license. If you are outsourcing the production through a print company, a manufacturer, or another outside source then you must follow the Transformative Words Guidelines, outlined in the Stickers and Decals section of the Design Bundles license. 

We will go over two different planner sticker styles that you can make in Procreate. One style has a bleed area, while the other has a white outline around the sticker.

In this tutorial, we will be using the Mighty Mountain font along with Procreate Shape Brushes.

Create a Planner Sticker with a Bleed Area in Procreate

When making stickers with a bleed area, we don’t need to worry about getting the perfect cut around the sticker as the base color or pattern extends beyond the cut lines. We will be making a washi tape sticker that will have a bleed area in Procreate.

Step 1 - Make the Background Rectangle

We want the base shape of the sticker to be slightly larger than the actual sticker. In the Brush Library, select the Monoline brush located in the Calligraphy category. Next, turn on your drawing guides [link when live]. The drawing guides will help keep the rectangle edges straight. Draw a rectangle, and keep your pen down on the canvas to enable QuickShape. Tap Edit Shape at the top and choose Rectangle. Drag the little blue dots to straighten the edges if needed. 

Drag and drop color inside the rectangle to fill it in.

Step 2 - Add Details/Decorations to the Rectangle

Add a new layer above the rectangle layer. Tap the layer thumbnail and enable Clipping Mask.

Draw a design or pattern on the new layer. Don’t worry about going outside the rectangle as Clipping Mask is enabled. We drew a bunch of 5-petaled flowers.

Step 3 - Export Sticker as a Transparent PNG Image

Hide the Background color layer to make the background transparent.

Open the Actions panel, and tap Share. Next, choose PNG under Share Image. Save the PNG file to your desired location.

The PNG file is of the whole canvas with the sticker wherever it was on the canvas in Procreate. See the following image for a preview of the file.

Upload the PNG file to Cricut Design Space or Silhouette Studio. Use the inset feature in either program to create the cut line inside the bleed line. See the following image for a better understanding.

Create a Planner Sticker with a White Outline in Procreate

If you are using a Cricut machine to cut the stickers out you may want to add an outline while you are in Procreate. We will be making a to-do list sticker with a white outline layer. Another option would be to add an offset in Cricut Design Space instead of adding an outline in Procreate.

Step 1 - Make the Background Rectangle

In the Brush Library, select the Monoline brush in the Calligraphy category. Resize the brush to your liking. The size of the brush will affect how round the corners of the rectangle are.

Pick the color you want the background rectangle to be. Turn on the drawing guides. Draw a rectangle, and keep your pen down on the canvas to enable QuickShape. Tap Edit Shape at the top and choose Rectangle. Drag the little dots on the rectangle to straighten the edges if needed. Drag and drop color inside the rectangle to fill it in.

Step 2 - Add the Header Text

Pick the color black. Open the Actions panel. Tap Add and choose Add text. Type "To Do” and resize it to your liking. Align the center of the text to the middle of the top edge of the rectangle. After aligning the text, change the text to white. See the following image for a better understanding of how to align the text to the rectangle.

Step 3 - Make the Rectangle for the Header

Pick another color from your color palette that would look good under the text. Add a new layer right below the text layer. On the new layer, draw a rectangle around the text following the same steps found above in Step 2 of “Step 1 - Make the Background Rectangle.”

Step 4 - Add the Checkboxes

Edit Brush Settings

Choose what shape you want to use as your checkboxes. We picked a heart stamp brush for this tutorial. If you are using the same brush, swipe left on the brush and tap Duplicate.

Tap the duplicate brush a second time to open the Brush Studio. We will need to edit a couple brush settings. In the Stroke path tab, change the Spacing to 50%.

In the Properties tab, change the Minimum Size to 50%.

Draw Line of Checkboxes

Add a new layer at the top. Resize the newly edited brush to your liking. Draw a vertical line near the left edge of the larger rectangle, and keep your pen down on the canvas. Press and hold the canvas with a finger from your other hand to keep the line straight.

Step 5 - Make the White Outline

Cricut Design Space will not recognize any blank or transparent areas, so we will need to actually make the white outline layer in Procreate.

Merge all the layers. In the Layers panel, swipe left on the layer and duplicate the layer. Hide the top layer and the Background color layer.

With the visible second layer selected, open the Adjustments panel and choose Hue, Saturation, Brightness. Tap Layer.

Slide the brightness button all the way to the right.

Show the top layer by marking its checkbox in the Layers panel. With the white layer selected, open the Adjustments panel. Tap Gaussian Blur and choose Layer. Slide your pen to the right to about 10%.

Tap the Selections icon. With Automatic selected in the Selections toolbar, tap the canvas outside the sticker. Tap and slide your pen to the right to about 11%. This will affect how thick the white outline will be.

Tap Invert. 

Select the color white and a large brush. Brush over the whole selection. The white outline now has a solid edge instead of a blurred edge.

Step 6 - Export Sticker Layers as Transparent PNG Layers

Because this sticker has two parts we will have to export the sticker as transparent PNG layers.

There should only be two visible layers (the actual sticker layer and the white outline layer). Make sure the background layer is still hidden.

Open the Actions panel. Tap Share and choose PNG Files under Share Layers. Save the files to your desired location.

Each layer will be saved as a separate PNG file. Again, the PNG files are of the whole canvas with the sticker and the white outline wherever they were on the canvas in Procreate. See the following image for a preview of the files.

From here, you can upload both PNG files to Cricut Design Space.

If you are using Silhouette Studio, you only need to import the sticker PNG file. Trace the PNG image. Offset the trace line to thicken the white outline around the sticker if needed, and delete the trace line before cutting.

If you have enjoyed this tutorial, check out all the other Procreate tutorials such as how to fill a shape and how to prevent blurry lines.