As I mentioned in my recent post about getting started with AI art, I’ve particularly been enjoying Midjourney. I also love making real-life objects—there’s something about it that is so satisfying when most of my days are filled with virtual endeavors.

My favorite experiment so far has been using Midjourney as the first step in the process to create stickers for my real-life objects.

Here’s a quick overview of how I did it:

• Craft a starting prompt
• Make the image with Midjourney
• Convert it to a vector image
• Clean up the image
• Order stickers

Craft a starting prompt

Crows fascinate me, so when I decided to make a sticker to put on my computer, my water bottles, and my journal, a crow was what came to mind. I also have a penchant for the cute, so after a few tries that looked too serious for what I was envisioning, I landed on adorable crow sticker, illustration, chibi, remove background.

Strictly speaking, you certainly don’t need to tell Midjourney to make a sticker, but it helps get the image isolated from the background if Midjourney adds one—sometimes!

Since I originally made the image I used, I have experimented more and now would probably start with a prompt like adorable crow sticker, illustration, chibi, vector, white background --no gradient --no background. (The –no flag tells Midjourney to avoid whatever comes after it, though it doesn’t always. ?‍♀️)

Make the image with Midjourney

I usually have to re-roll the prompt a few times to get something I love. Expect to make adjustments and step back to think of new synonyms. Try not to hold on to any idea too tightly—working with Midjourney is more like collaborating than issuing orders.

Sometimes the result looks good but then when I upscale, Midjourney adds details that are odd. (In that case, I have it upscale again using the light setting.) Just take your time, settle in, and enjoy the oddities.

When you get an upscaled image that you’re happy with, download it and you’re ready for the next step.

Here’s mine:

Convert it to a vector image

I suspect this step may be optional, and you could use a tool like this upscaler to create a high-res version of your sticker that will look good in print.

However, for my experiment, I wanted to minimize the number of variables, so I converted the image to a vector because then there’s no possibility that resolution can pose a problem. (Read more about vector vs. raster. The images Midjourney creates are raster images, even if you put “vector” in the prompt. Adding “vector” simply tells it to create an image that looks like a typical vector image, which can make it easier to get good results during the conversion.)

I used the currently-free Vectorizer.AI. (Vectorization also gave me pretty good results, but required more clean-up afterward.) If you’re planning on doing a lot of this, Vector Magic gives the best results and best experience, but it’s not free.

When I liked the way the main part of the image looked, I downloaded it as an SVG file.

Clean up the image

Whether you have a vector image or an upscaled version of the Midjourney image, you’ll need to do some tidying before it’s ready to print. Your goal in this step is to get your image down to just the image you’ll want on the sticker, with no white border, no background, nothing else.

For my vector image, I used the free and open-source Inkscape software. (It’s possible that you could also use this tool to convert the image to a vector, but frankly, Inkscape is fairly complex and a little intimidating, so I prefer to use a single-purpose tool instead.)

In Inkscape, I mostly clicked on “anything that’s not supposed to be here” and hit the delete key (occasionally using the undo option!) until only my crow was left. Then I save the file, still as an SVG.

Here’s a video of the process:

Order stickers

There are lots of custom vinyl sticker printing places, and since these are the only stickers I’ve ever printed, I don’t have any basis for comparison.

That said, I went with StickerApp and had a good experience, and I’ll use them again if I decide to make more stickers. The ordering process was easy (I went with 2″×2″ die-cut), the communication was clear, the stickers arrived in a reasonable amount of time, and they look and feel great!

I’m very happy with the finished product, and I’m planning on making more stickers this way. Also, I have about 25 stickers more than I actually need, so let me know if you want a crow sticker!