Just like everyone else, I was obsessed with stickers when I was a little girl in the 90s. They were the treasure every kid collected and exchanged. In my sticker journal, I had all the classics—tile stickers, puffy ones, the fuzzy flocked kind—and they still spark this deep nostalgia for me.
Sticker collecting/exchanging have become wildly popular again in Japan, and now that I’m an adult with my own bank account… well, it’s a dangerous combination. I can finally buy all the stickers I dreamed about as a kid. (No longer need to massage my grandma’s shoulders to earn a few Yen — which, now that I say it, makes me a little sad.)
What’s fun is seeing all the new types that didn’t exist back then—stickers with water inside called “water stickers,” the “shaker” ones filled with glitter and tiny sprinkles, and the whole "Bon Bon Drop" series. My six‑year‑old daughter caught the sticker bug too when we visited Japan this spring, and her favorite is the “Oshiri (butt) stickers”...
Recently, during a visit to a local art scrap shop, we found these old clear scrapbooking stickers for 25 cents, and I immediately knew I wanted to turn them into my own collectible sticker series.
They’d aged into this yellow tint, and it’s honestly perfect — because it’ll give my stickers such a cute retro vibe!
Remembering that hamster stickers were my absolute favorite when I was little, and my daughter is now just as obsessed with them.
I made a series of 1‑inch by 1‑inch illustrations using paper scraps—bits from our recycling bin, half‑used origami paper, and a really cool piece of glitter paper I’d been saving for a while (finally the perfect moment to use it!). The themes and subjects are completely random, since this was just an afternoon craft project for fun during my baby’s nap time.
Every time I do crafting or make an illustration with paper, scissors, and pens, I feel sharper, and I love that feeling. There are lots of oops moments—especially because the scissors I’m using are the ones my daughter used in preschool, and those are probably not meant for cutting out a 1/4‑inch piece—but those oops usually end up being the best parts of the piece, adding a nice imperfectness and character that makes me smile.
Snail mail
It was an 86‑degree day, and I stepped out onto our patio for about two seconds to take a picture of these. Then I came right back inside and didn’t go out again for the rest of the day.
There's something about stickers... I think I like them because of the whole miniature‑ness. I also collected miniature dolls and furniture as a kid (and honestly, I still do).
I used to re‑stick all my stickers into my sticker journal the moment I got them, but now I appreciate them in their original packaging—it preserves that little spark of joy from the moment you first got them.
...Therefore, I made the packaging for them.
Ok, that was a really good nap day for my baby. I had a fun!
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