Sticker journal ideas for kids with too many stickers

A sticker journal is a book built entirely from peel and press. It is also the cure for that drawer of sticker sheets you love too much to use. Below are the spread ideas, layering tricks and swap rules we rely on to turn a pile of stickers into a book worth flipping through again and again.

Themed spreads to start with

• The dream bedroomDraw a floor line and a window, then furnish the room with stickers: a bed, a pet, snacks on a shelf, a rainbow out the window. Add one tiny detail only you would notice.
• The snack shopRule a few shelf lines across two pages and stock them with kawaii food stickers. Write little price tags underneath and name your shop at the top.
• Weather weekSeven boxes, one for each day. Every evening, add a sun, cloud or rainbow sticker plus one word about how the day felt.
• A caticorn adventureSplit the page into comic panels and send one character on a trip — to the beach, to space, to a sleepover. Speech bubbles are just drawn ovals.

Layering: full, not messy

Great sticker pages are built back to front, like a stage set. Big pieces go down first and tiny ones last, so every layer has something to sit on.

1. Set the backgroundStart with a colored-in patch, a strip of washi tape or one wide scene sticker. It gives the page a floor to stand on.
2. Place the starChoose one large sticker to be the hero of the page and put it slightly off-center. Off-center pages feel lively.
3. Tuck in the supporting castAdd medium stickers that overlap the edges of the star just a little. Overlaps make a page look planned rather than scattered.
4. Title itSpell a heading with alphabet stickers — the 1500+ Sticker Book includes letters for exactly this.
5. Sprinkle the tiny onesStars, hearts and dots fill the leftover gaps. Stop when the page makes you smile; you can always add more tomorrow.
6. Puffy stickers go last3D stickers make a page bumpy, so press them on at the very end and keep them away from the spine so the book still closes nicely.

Keeping stickers and pages flat

• Store loose sheets flat in a folder, never rolled up or folded.
• Peel slowly from one corner, bending the backing away from the sticker instead of tugging the sticker off the backing.
• Press down with the side of a ruler or a fingernail, working from the center out.
• Slip a used backing sheet between finished pages so stickers do not grab the page facing them.
• If pages curl, close the journal under a stack of heavy books overnight.
• Keep sticker books out of hot cars and sunny windowsills, where the adhesive can go gooey.

Paper Crafting

Just My Style 1500+ Sticker Book

4.8 6,643 ratings

$7.57

Paper Crafting

Just My Style 1100 Vinyl Sticker Book

4.7 212 ratings

$12.95

Paper Crafting

Just My Style 3D-Style Activity Sketchbook

4.6 140 ratings

$12.99

Running a sticker swap

Swapping is half the fun of collecting, and a few simple rules keep it friendly. Before friends come over, have everyone pick their trade stickers and press them lightly onto a spare backing sheet, so they peel off again easily. Our 3D-Style Activity Sketchbook comes with a sheet of 100+ 3D stickers, and puffy ones are always the hottest trade at the table.

Find more books to fill on our paper-crafting shelf.