Make Your Own QR Stickers!

Materials:

• Sticker Paper (cheap on Amazon, available at some craft + office stores)

• An INKJET printer. Do NOT use a laser jet printer, unless you are using sticker paper specifically for laser jet printers it will melt inside.

• Any website you wish to redirect to (feel free to use ours or build your own for free on google sites!)

• Editing Program (any works, free versions below)

  • Canva (free version is perfect)

  • Photopea (free photoshop, little fancier but more technical than canva)

• Optional

  • Packing Tape

  • Wheatpaste (Instructions linked)

Instructions:

1. Identify the Website you want your sticker to redirect to

   • • Your stickers will be going up in public, so try to be considerate of diverse audiences. Choose or build websites that limit profanity and graphic images, and have trigger warnings for any intense content. This is not just "respectability politics" but tactical, as people who are upset by your content will try much harder to take your stickers down, which is quite annoying esp. when there's helpful content too!

2. Insert URL into a Static QR Generator

• Must be Static QR or your code will eventually expire, making stickers unscannable

• I recommend Unitag QR as the best site to use, has yet to give me any issues, but any site that makes static Codes will work

• Remember: the longer the URL, the bigger the QR Code, so if you are making your own site aim for a small URL, and if you're using someone else's, consider using a URL Shortner. Just make sure the shortened URL doesn't expire either, must be permanent. Ultimately bigger stickers aren't an issue, they just take up more sticker paper, so this is a side note more than a necessity.

3. Check to make sure the QR Code scans on your own phone (IMPORTANT STEP)

4. If so, download your QR Code in at the highest quality offered, and as a PNG (jpeg or pdf works too, but lower quality)

5. Now open your photo editor program and upload your QR Code

6. Make a frame for your Code. I recommend including:

   • • How to Scan!!! So many people do not know how to scan QR Codes. Simply put "open camera app + point @ sticker" or any variation should work

     • Where the Code directs (as to not seem like a virus). Ex. my codes say "Free E-Library" and lists what you can find at this library

     • If made by an Org, consider adding your @ so ppl can get involved in your other projects.

7. Once your QR Code Sticker is how you want it to print, duplicate it across a standard printer paper page 8.5 in x 11 in leaving room on the margins for printing

   • • On Canva this is best done by downloading the template for the sticker, uploading it as an image, and copy pasting it until the page is full

8. Once your print template is down, do a test run on one sticker paper to make sure its aligned right

9. If the print comes out well, print as many as you like!

10. Important: most sticker paper is not weatherproof. This means it will eventually fade with rain + sun. To prevent this you can:

    • • Put your stickers in enclosed or indoor areas like bus stops and checkout lines only

      • Cover your pages (the sticker side not the peel paper side) in clear packing tape then cut them out

      • Cover your pages in wheatpaste before cutting or when you put them up coat them in wheatpaste (cheapest method but more labor + more conspicuous if you do it the second way, but will last much longer)

And there you have it! This should leave you with dozens of cheap, useful stickers to spread resources across your city! Carry them with you, or make a night of putting them up with friends, however you use them will be perfect.