Me and my prom date, the Sandylion.
I’m 19 years old, and I am fanatical about stickers. The mere sight of that Sandylion rack in the corner of the stationary store makes the backs of my calves tingle with excitement. If I happen upon some stickers in the company of friends, I get all Harriet the Spy in my efforts to sneak away and spend a few moments among the laser-hologram smiley faces. A new sheet of alphabet stickers can make my day. A package of playful velour cats can make my week. Something about stupid adhesive pictures gets me really amped. I’ve got dozens of sheets stockpiled in the back of my junk drawer.
Chilling with my buds.
I’m proud of my collection, but what’s embarrassing is that I still haven’t managed to figure out what to do with it. I don’t stick stickers to my shirt because sticker lint is disgusting. I don’t stick them on paper, because most papers eventually get thrown away. I mostly just leave my stickers in the back of that drawer, fantasizing about the day they’ll be called to action. Maybe a handwritten letter to a distant lover will require some adhesive pizzazz. Or maybe my next job application will include a directive to “share your favorite sticker here.”
For now I’m content to keep my collection tucked away and pay it a visit from time to time. My mood fluctuates with the phases of the moon and the news and the weather, but a smiling holographic sticker always smiles.
Oh god, I’m so glad I’m not the only one hoarding stickers. I’m hoping I’ll use them in an art project someday, but mostly I just like to stare at them. STICKERS ARE SO BEAUTIFUL.
Log in to replyyou are beautiful
Log in to replyand you just made my day
I display the choicest specimens from my sticker collection on a good old-fashioned cork bulletin board. Lined up neatly with uniform pins, it looks like something in a 4th grade classroom, but in a good way that looks nice over my desk.
Log in to replyI LOVE STICKER TOO!!! i use them to send letters to my friend even though she doesnt live far away from me.
Log in to replystickers!
Log in to replymy weakness!
oh loveley
When my sister and I were very young, my aunt got us a giant roll of like one thousand stickers. Needless to say, they were everywhere and it wasn’t the best present in some ways but to us it was even better than Playdoh.
Log in to replyI always make it a point to look at all the stickers. My favorites are puffy and scratch n sniff :D
Log in to replyNo shame here – I’m 31 and freaking love stickers. I am old so I still send paper greeting cards for birthdays, anniversaries, etc, and I decorate the cards and envelopes with stickers. I like trying to gear them towards the personalities of the card recipients :)
Log in to replystickers all the time always
Log in to replyI covered my entire laptop, except for the keyboard and the trackpad, in stickers. Everywhere I take it, I leave a little trail of happy faces and Lisa Frank peace signs behind. It’s great.
Also, thanks for reminding me about Harriet the Spy. Such a baddass.
Log in to replyA couple months ago I bought a 500 pack of Lisa Frank stickers and went to town. My laptop, phone and ipod are all covered in rainbowy tackiness and I couldn’t be happier.
Log in to replyJAMIE….I am 30 years old and still very proud to be a sticker collector. This is what I do with them:
1. I still have my childhood sticker book that I started using AGAIN last year. Next to scratch n’ sniffs from the 80′s, there are now stickers from the parasite museum I visited in Japan. GROSS
2. My vintage Lisa Frank sticker collection is for some reason with my polaroid cameras…no idea what to do with those beauties. They SHOULD be in a safety deposit box OBV
3. Any new Lisa Franks and Hello Kitty stickers are used to mail out packages. I basically make the box/envelope look like an explosion of FUN for the recipient.
STICKERS 4 EVER WOO
Log in to replyStickers are my life
Log in to replyhttp://www.paytonturner.com/wallpaper%201.html
Log in to replyResumees. Tuition checks. College applications. Rescheduling to jury duty (which I just had to do for the first time). A pal and I cut out the sides of large cardboard boxes, stickered the shit out of them, wrote happy birthday and sent them off in the mail to our friend across the country as a birthday surprise/bombardment of multiple huge makeshift postcards.
On the light switches and electrical outlets of rented living spaces….hahahaha sucker landlords
Log in to replyGreat! I hoard stickers too. All kinds of stickers, not just the ones from stores. I have a handful of “New” stickers, they’re from a grocery store, to stick on shelves to inform shoppers of new items…I took quite a few. Don’t rat me out, Rookie readers.
xoxo
sticker bandit.
Log in to replyI had a storage container in my dorm room where I displayed every sticker I was given in college. It was like a rolling scrapbook.
Now I’m into wall decals, which are basically large, expensive stickers. Kind of miss my old collection now.
Log in to reply@marie i do the same thing when i mail packages, dudes at the post office always giving me looks
Log in to replyI have always been a fan of wearing them on my body like accessories! Stars & hearts are cute to stick on your temples, and rainbows can be like an extra brow. I guess it’s not the nicest thing to do to your face to clog up your pores with stickers, but it’s fun!
I also like to give out stickers to my college kids at least once during the semester, and always always always stick stickers on their completed assignments. Thanks Jamie for writing about the best thing in the whole word. Stickers stickers stickers.
Log in to replyOh lord, I had forgotten how totally in to stickers I was as a kid. I’d stick pokemon-shaped ones on poster paper, ever so carefully cut them out and carry them in my pockets. Those holographic ones were pretty sweet…thanks to you I am now googling stickers…
Log in to replyI just finished a-stickering my textbook covers when I read this, and I have to say, I really identified with it. When I was little I couldn’t decide on using stickers I liked because then I wouldn’t be able to use them again. Can you say worry-wart?
Log in to replyi stick them all over my face!
Log in to replySTICKERS RULE!!
i have a lot of pokemon stickers and cutesy japanese stickers but they are too precious to use on anything
Log in to replyFelicidades. Es una cosa fantástica este sitio. Uuuuuuuuuuuuuupp !!
Log in to replyI basically was hoarding all of my stickers until last year when I realized that I had a 6 year old phone. Essentially it is /coated/ in puffy stickers, lisa frank dolphins,kittens, corgi puppies, and little engrish word bubbles. This whole mess is topped off with a Windsurfing Tan ‘Hawai’i’ Hello Kitty phone charm, which also features a little metal “USA” to remind you that Hawai’i is part of the United States.
Log in to replyI come form a family of sticker lovers. My mother, my sisters and I all love and collect them. Even my grandmother who is now 85 years old still collects stickers and my favorite part of Christmas and birthdays is receiving cards off her because every inch of them is always covered in magnificent shiny stickers!!!
Log in to replyWe should organize and sticker swap and help spread our collective sticker wealth!!!
Log in to replyStickers are fun! I <3 them as they are, but have also found a way to use them in art. A while ago I used them as a stencil, to create a polka-dot effect. Just stick some plain dot stickers over a surface of one colour, then paint over it all with another colour. Then whilst the paint is still wet, use a pin to carefully peel off each sticker :-)
Log in to replystickers are awesome… I like stickers but what I love more is water tattoos… I like those girly ones, haha.
Log in to replyYES.
Log in to reply<3Lovely
awesome, i collect stickers!
Log in to replyachhh yes totally on board with you on this. every saturday when i was little my mum would take my sister and i after our chinese class [years later and i dont remember a word] to buy stickers as our prize~ and if we weren’t going to the stationary store it was like, uh oh something is wrong here. i still have too many stickers for my own good and i’m 20. T__T
Log in to replyI do love 3D, holographic stickers and animal stickers (especially cats) but i just love gold stars. I kno im not 5 but just cant get over how proud they make me feel. Ahhhhh gold stars
Log in to replyi used to put every sticker i got on my bedroom door. every sticker from school and friends. for some stupid reason when i was “growing up” i scraped them all off. Now I’ve re-started and started sticking them on my bed frame so i can take them with me, whereas I couldn’t take the door with me.
Log in to replyAlso Jamie, I love that your calves tingle with excitement.
Stickers!!! I used to have a penpal and we’d always send each other stickers. It was SO fun opening up the envelope and seeing what magical surprise she had sent me in the gorgeous form of stickers.
Log in to replyI put stickers on my notebooks/planner.
Log in to replyAlso, Emily’s idea of phone accesorization is a good one. I have a stickers on my phone and my ipod shuffle.
Log in to replyI’ll see your stickers and raise you POSTCARDS.
I buy them everywhere I go, hoard them and stick them all over my room and schoolbooks and send them instead of birthday cards.
Log in to replyI brought my old ’80s sticker album into work a few months back – it was a riot. It was passed around and everyone had a childhood sticker story to share. It was pretty cool and broke up the monotony of the day.
Log in to replyI still have a little plastic suitcase in the back of my closet that houses my sticker collection. It also has several sheets of paper each covered in stickers so that I could show someone my collection without having to physically bring all my stickers with.
Log in to replyHaha that’s soo funny! But what youcood to is get a cheap selve and decorate itbwith stickers! How about that?
Log in to replyI’m juist going to leave this here:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/wallpaper-made-out-of-stickers
So I’d say – keep hoarding!
Log in to replyI want stickers to stick everywhere, including where I keep my pseudo-courses (I’m unschooled)(not on the courses’ paper, on the thing that keep these), but I never find these while visiting supermarkets. I admit I have some, but these are FOSS and computing stickers: the GNOME logo, Seeks’ logo, the Quadrature du Net logo, other logos. I guess I’ll have to command these on the Internet, or art & crafts shops.
Log in to replyWhen I was 6, there were always a bunch where I bought magazines.
I think I could also just buy sticker paper and print these… Which would ease my search of an OpenVMS sticker.
I could also put it:
In/on my diary
On boxes
On my radio (I did put one on another radio)
On some furnitures
On one of my bikes
On a suitcase
Find a penpal and decorate the letters you send hir with stickers and stuffs.
Wait, an idea: find a sticker penpal and exchange stickers! Exchange collages made partly using stickers, stories based on stickers and illustrated by stickers, magazines cuts with stickers sticked where it’s funny/interesting/weird.
Ah, and make a special sticker penpalling service, someone.
Phewf, now I don’t feel quite so odd. Knowing that some one else gets excited about adhesive accessories.
Log in to replyI love stickers too! I have a big box of them that I’ve been saving up my whole life (and I’m 31 so that’s a lot of sticker hoarding!)
I had a scrap book making party for a friend that was moving out of town and I got to buy a bunch of crazy scrap booking stickers AND I used old stickers I had been collecting! Some neon pig stickers that said things like “Extraordinary” and “Awesome” on them were surprisingly popular! I was very sad about my friend moving so having stickers around at her going away party really helped me feel better.
Also, you know who else loves stickers? My dad! Every card or package he sends me is decorated with stickers. He is very meticulous so they are usually themed and applied in nice orderly rows. Stickers are for everyone!
Log in to replyI stick them all over my school planner!
The best stickers I own are my Takashi Murakami flowers which creep everybody in my school out.
Log in to replyyay, stickers! i’ve recently stuck a load of cutesey ones from paperchase all over my school excersize books. stickers!
Log in to replyI love stickers but whenever I decide I simply have to use one because otherwise I never will, I can’t bear using any of the ones I actually like, they are WAY too precious!
Log in to replyI just finished sealing a letter with a Disney Princess sticker! Stickers make the world go round. When I was little I was always too indecisive to use them, but that only means that now I have a big stash that I use on notebooks, my phone, my big nerdy calculator, & of course letters.
Log in to replySTICKERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRZZZZZ
Log in to replyI stick them on my computer or cameras and also on my name tag at work :))))
Log in to replyI once saw a pair of sunglasses in an edgy fashion magazine that were completely saturated in little stickers. You won’t be able to see all that well out of them but it definitely looks awesome.
STICKAS4LYFE!
Log in to replyI still have an old shoebox full of stickers in my closet. They’ll probably be there until I move out, but at least I know they’re there. In case I have a sticker emergency.
Log in to replyI’m a “grown-up”… but I go to a Japanese bookstore a lot, and they have sooooo many awesome stickers! I have an agenda that I put them in if they fit whatever purpose. I found some beer stickers not too long ago that I use a lot. Otherwise I keep them on the sheet and fantasize about when I will use them.
Log in to replymy phone has a bunch of glow in the dark stars and aliens, and a big glow in the dark space ship that i put green glitter on.
Log in to replyi need to find more glow in the dark stickers though, because all my stars keep falling off.
i tried normal stickers, but it just doesnt feel the same.
I have a sticker drawer too!!!! I had a sticker book in grade school and it’s just a habit that won’t die. I use them occasionally when I send letters and packages but only to people who will appreciate their awesomeness. My sticker collection tells you about my varied interests, too. I have a ton of Hello Kitty stickers, but also a bunch of Edward Gorey stickers and fuzzy bat stickers from my goth days.
Log in to replyI have the same problem – a pretty fantastic collection of stickers, but I’m too anal or something to actually use them, hah.
Log in to replySticker collages on lunch boxes to personalize them…also total abuse of those label maker machines is lovely too. Seal over with clear tape/laminate or epoxy coat to protect.
Log in to replyI used to have a HUGE collection of stickers when I was younger. I used to stick them all over my room and books and papers and everything. This makes me want to buy more again and put them EVERYWHERE haha
Log in to replyi collect stickers too!, and also waiting for the best place to stick them! im about to move and i hope ill find a perfect place in my new house to stick them all!!!!!! all together in one little place could be so nicee :)
Log in to replyYess! Stickers! I have ALMOST stumbled my way into creating a personal archive blog for showcasing and trading stickers so often! Now I know where I can get to see likeminded folks. And girls, I don’t think any of us should feel the least bit of shame to hoard stickers! My mom often shakes her fists to the skies when I refuse to part with them when I wrap presents or write party cards for her, but I can’t have my award winning collection thinning out over people who hardly know better!
Log in to replySticker Hoarders unite!
Log in to replySeriously though, how do you know that wherever you stick a sticker is going to be okay later? How do you know you’re not going to regret sticking that precious one-of-a-kind sticker on a surface that isn’t kind to sticker removal? :(
catshapedeyes > I imagine the result in my head, if I want to stick multiple one I try to do so in an organized way. Then, as calculators and computers, these are stuffs I’m more likely to keep all my life, so I’m less scared about “losing” the sticker on these. (yeah, but I stick these only on more recent calculators or computers… I just hope if someone buy those somewhere when I’m dead, for collecting, they won’t take the stickers off; when I buy some vintage calculator I won’t take these off, too, but I know some people do.)
Log in to replyi felt compelled to say: I ALSO LOVE STICKERS.
Log in to replyup until recently i never used them, they were locked in a drawer, never to see the light of day. but as the beginning of term loomed i felt it was time to get them out and take the plunge.
i now have a beautiful notebook covered with frogs and little animals in cute little outfits, all glittery and sparkley.
so to all of you who didn’t feel they could push themselves over that edge, just get them out and use them. i haven’t looked back.
I have to say, I agree with everything you said here! I was and still am a crazy sticker fanatic. I LOVE STICKERS. I have a whole Minnie Mouse sticker case full of them. And I, too, have no idea where to put them. I feel like I have to use them, but I don’t want to waste it…it’s so difficult!
Log in to replyI wanna see your collection!
Log in to replyI have these smiley stickers on my room’s lights-witch! Love ‘em!
Log in to replyThis could be written by me, except for that I am already nearly 23 years old and I still have a bad sticker hoarding habit. Maybe it is because I rarely got any as a child and I remember other children having beautiful collections of stickers.
I come from Finland and we had a Canadian English teacher there, he used to give out scented stickers, hologram stickers, furry stickers – you name it! Back at that time in Finland they didn’t sell stickers like that so it was really exciting to get these American stickers. I still get so very excited when I see scented stickers somewhere – especially those banana scented ones remind me of this particular teacher.
I love stickers!
Log in to replyI have them all stuck on one photo album, so I can unstick and re-stick them whenever I want to x)
Log in to replyWhen I was like 5 or 6 i was OBSEssed with stickers and i kept a binder with plain white paper in it, and i would just put all my stickers on the pages. even as a little kid, though, it was hard to use them because it felt like such a permanent, life-changing thing to use a sticker. I wish my mom had kept my sticker book (I hold a lot of resentment towards her for that), but she didn’t so I have recently started my collection up again. I like putting them on random people’s shirts, jackets, etc. I may get weird looks but I know that deep down they feel special because they were chosen to be stuck by (stickered by?) me
Log in to replyThis is basically the best thing ever.
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