How I Make My Stickers – Behind the Scenes at Wilcox Customs

wilcoxcustoms365
Feb 12
3 min read

If you’ve ever ordered one of my stickers and wondered “how does this even get made?” — welcome behind the scenes.This is the real, messy-desk, dog-hair-on-everything version of running my small business.

Holographic sticker on white fabric reads: "Most likely to bring home a rescue dog" in colorful text, creating a warm and cheerful vibe.

Hi, I’m Claudia — the human behind Wilcox Customs — and tonight I’m pulling back the curtain on how my stickers actually go from an idea in my head… to your water bottle.

Spoiler alert: it’s not just clicking “print.”

It always starts with an idea (usually involving dogs)

Most of my designs start the same way:a funny thought, something I see online, something one of my dogs does, or a phrase that makes me laugh and immediately think,

“Yep. That needs to be a sticker.”

My chocolate lab, Hemi, is basically the soul of my brand.If you’ve ever seen one of my dog designs and thought “that feels personal” — it probably is.

Brown dog resting on a sunlit couch in a dark blue room, looking relaxed. Shadows and light patterns are visible on the wall.

I design everything myself and keep a consistent cartoon style across my collections so my stickers still feel like Wilcox Customs, no matter what the theme is.

Designing the sticker (this part takes way longer than people think)

Before anything gets printed, I design every sticker digitally first.

This is where I:

clean up the artwork
adjust colors so they actually print correctly
size everything for real-world use (not just how it looks on a screen)
and prep the file specifically for sticker cutting

Cartoon bearded dragon sticker design with sunglasses and the phrase “Sun, snacks, superiority,” shown in design software while preparing artwork for printing and sticker cutting.

This part is honestly one of the most important steps — because a design that looks good on an iPad can print totally wrong if you don’t prepare it correctly.

Ask me how I learned that one the hard way. 😅

Turning the design into a real sticker

Once the file is ready, it goes into my cutting software so my machine knows exactly where to cut around each sticker.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/66fdef_dcf1bdbea0924263bd8a61a2263fffc2/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

From there I:

load my sticker paper
carefully line up my sheet
let the machine scan and cut each design

Watching the machine cut is still one of my favorite parts.It feels like magic every single time.

Quality checks (because I sell these to real humans)

After cutting, every sticker gets checked by me.

If:

the cut is off
the color is weird
or the edge isn’t clean

…it doesn’t get sold.

I wouldn't ship something I wouldn’t put on my own water bottle.

Packaging… with dogs supervising

Once the stickers pass inspection, I package everything by hand.

And yes — this usually happens with at least one dog supervising me from the floor and another one trying to steal packaging materials.

Goofy light-colored Labrador lying on his back on a carpet while getting belly rubs, showing a funny toothy smile and relaxed paws during a behind-the-scenes moment at my home workspace.

Donald is especially talented at sneaking into my workspace and pretending he’s helping.

He is not helping.

Why I started selling my own designs

Wilcox Customs started because I wanted to create products that actually felt like me — not generic clip art, not mass-produced designs, and not something you’d see in every other shop.