SPIRAL BETTY PHOTO PROJECTS HAVE REALLY TAKEN OFF IN A SPIN! YOU COULD SAY THESE PROJECTS HAVE GONE VIRAL. THEY ARE A FUN AND VERY EASY WAY TO GET CREATIVE WITH YOUR PHOTOS. TODAY I WANT TO SHOW YOU JUST HOW EASY IT IS TO MAKE SPIRAL BETTY PHOTO STICKERS.
When I first saw Spiral Betty Projects popping up on various social media outlets, I have to admit I got excited with the possibilities this would bring to the crafting world. Besides the fact, the weeding process of doing a Vinyl or HTV project just looked like too much fun!
I decided to try and make spiral betty photo stickers. They turned out Ah-mazing! Stickers are so awesome and they are really super easy to make with a cutting machine like Cricut which also has an awesome Print then Cut feature. Trust me it only sounds complicated but I’m here to share it’s super easy!
Also, if you’ve ever wanted to design your own stickers using Cricut Design Space I even have a beginner-friendly tutorial for that too!
Even if you don’t think you’re brushed up on the latest tech skills, not to worry, you don’t need them for this project. I will walk you through step by step in a beginner friendly video on how to make some Spiral Betty Photo Stickers.
What is a Spiral Betty Design?
A Spiral Betty Design is basically one single line that spirals neatly from one end of the line to the other end. It’s also unique due to the width variances that are formed in that single line. This is what makes it so awesome when you use a photo. Those varied widths along with the varied contrast and light options give you so many options to play around with your photos.
We’ll start off by finding the perfect picture to use. I find pictures that are not too busy to be the best. What do I mean by not too busy? Here are some good examples of what you want to look for..
- A close-up photo of a person or subjects face/head
- Same rule applies to pets (not too much extra stuff in the picture such as toys, blankets, pillows & yard art, etc.)
- If more than one person, try to make sure they are close together, instead of say 3 ft. apart.
It’s also a good idea to choose a picture with high contrast. What do I mean by high contrast?
- Bold colors
- Bright highlights
- Dark Shadows
- Black and White are great contrasts, they are bold and bright, they are opposites with each other.
Materials to make Spiral Betty Photo Stickers
- Sticker Paper Clear (I used clear for this tutorial)
- Sticker Paper White
- Spray Sealer in Matte (Optional for non-waterproof stickers)
- Spray Sealer in Gloss (Optional for non-waterproof stickers)
- Blue Light Grip Cricut Cutting Mat or a used green standard grip cutting mat
- Spiral Betty Website
- Linesublime Website
- 65# Parchment Cardstock (what I used to make the engagement card)
- Cricut cutting machine
Note about Sticker Paper. I get asked all the time about which sticker papers to use. All I can say is what works for me. I kind of break down sticker paper into 2 categories.
Professional & Durable
These are sell-worthy and yield high-quality results. They are UV resistant and waterproof (mostly). Can you put them on a car window with the sun and rain? Nope, only use permanent outdoor vinyl for that! But they do stand up to putting on water bottles that are handled all day long and with a sweaty workout hand etc. Can they go through a dishwasher? I would never put mine in a dishwasher, so no! They stand up to a child who handles EVERYTHING, lol. Are they invincible? No, nothing is. Would one of these look ah-mazing on my Cricut machine? Yes, it would, and it can handle the dusting over it all the time.
They are a bit more expensive but worth it for your Professional, Business, and Durable Projects. The combo I use is as follows, but before I list them, I want to explain why I use a laminating sheet on top of what claims to be waterproof sticker paper.
For me, regular waterproof stickers only stand the test of time for a little while. But when you add the valued protection of a laminating sheet, you bump the quality and durability of your sticker to the highest level that I am very satisfied with. Stickers I’d be proud to sell! Leave me a comment below or email me if you’d like me to do a tutorial on how to make sell-worthy stickers. I use the 2 products listed below:
Non-Professional & Less Durable
These my friends are for projects like today. I want to slap that easy sticker on a greeting card or envelope. It will not be out in any elements or even handled or dusted daily. My fun craft stickers if you will. Fun stickers for all kinds of craft projects. Also more economical. I actually have a few different sticker sheets I’ve used and loved. The white and clear ones I listed in today’s material list are great and I mention other sticker papers that have worked for me in this sticker blog post.
I hope this helps you with your decision on which sticker paper to use. Of course, keep in mind you need it to work with your brand of printer. I’ve used all of these papers with HP, Epson, and Brothers printers to date.
Video: How to make Spiral Betty Photo Stickers
How to make Spiral Betty Stickers
Step 1 – Upload Photo to Spiral Betty Website
Go to Spiralbetty.com and click on “upload image” or simply “drag and drop” your picture from a folder or your desktop (wherever you saved your photo or moved it too) into the big circle area where you see the words “upload image”.
Today I’m uploading an Engagement photo taken right after my Son; Eric proposed to his lovely Fiancé; Ashley. Once you upload your photo it’s so simple to move it around and/or use the circle as a slider to zoom in or out till it fills the circle to your liking. Then click on the checkmark as seen below.
The fun Spiral moment happens right after you click the checkmark. Your photo will now easily and proudly be shown with a bunch of color options. Simply click around for the color of your choice. Today I chose the black and white up towards the top for my purpose of making stickers.
Here is the same image but with the black and white color option chosen. So simple right?
Your spiral will show as default to what likely will look great. But, you have the ability to change and play with the settings to fit your type of project.
Since I was making print then cut stickers today, I needed to make some adjustments. In the picture above the word “RINGS” is in bold. So when you move the slider the rings will change to tighter rings or larger rings.
TIP: If you are doing this for a vinyl or Iron-on project don’t make the rings too small or tight as you will need to weed your project.
The rest of the settings for scale, lightness, and contrast work the same by clicking on “CONTRAST” the slider will be changing the contrast. Still super easy right?!? I love this site 💖.
If you want to see how I set my contrast and lightness you can watch my tutorial. Honestly, you are just changing it to your preferences. Here is how it looked once I changed the settings.
See how it’s easier to see the details. This is the look I want for stickers and for printing as well. 👌
Once you are done creating your Spiral Betty Photo Design click on the “Download” arrow, as shown below:
Just a note that this service currently is free for personal use. You can leave a tip if you like and most importantly if you plan to sell your designs you will need a commercial license which can be found right here. They have 2 choices to fit your specific business needs. Simple again! 🙌
STEP 2: Upload Spiral Image to Cricut Design Space
Open Cricut Design Space and click on “New Project” then click on “Upload”
For this Spiral Betty Photo Sticker Project, we want to select the “Upload Pattern” option and not the “Upload Image” option.
Then you can either search for your spiral betty image or do it my favorite way, simply drag and drop the photo from my computer desktop!
Now we can rename our photo if we want via the pattern name area and we can also click each color that is in our image if we want. This helps us sort the patterns you can save. I have quite a few patterns saved and highly recommend you click at least one color. Today you can see where my checkmarks are in the boxes I used. Then click “Upload”.
Then you will be back on your Design Space Canvas. Have no fear your pattern did indeed upload to the pattern area.
STEP 3: Design and Size your Stickers
Now it’s time to create your stickers, Yay! Honestly, it’s probably best to watch my video tutorial as I show 2 different but helpful ways to set up your sticker designs.
In this post I will show how to make a rectangle template so once you create your sticker, you can see how many you can fit into the Design Spaces Size limit for Print then Cut Project.
Click on shapes and choose the square. Unlock the square by clicking on the padlock icon in the bottom left corner of your selected square (be sure you clicked on the square to see the padlock) OR you can unlock the padlock at the “size” area where you will be changing the Width and Height. This is up in the upper toolbar of Design Space.
Change the W to 6.75″ and the Height to 9.25″. Then click on the lock again to lock it up so you don’t accidentally change the size when you move it around on your canvas.
I like to change the color of this square to a lighter color. You can do this by clicking on the “black square” in the upper toolbar section next to the word “Operation” Then choose your color.
Now let’s choose a “Circle” Shape from the “Shapes” icon on the left side of Design Space (like we did with the square) and size it to 2″. I am using 2″ for demonstration but use whatever size you like for your project.
Click on the “Operation” area where it says “Basic Cut” then choose “Print then Cut-Standard”
Click on the “Black Square” and choose “Pattern” Then click on the pattern you just uploaded. Your pattern will display in your circle. That’s it! Super easy right!?!
It’s like magic!
Now suppose you want to make 12 of the same sticker. You would click on “Duplicate” twice (then you will have 3 of the same stickers) in your “Layers Panel” on the right side of Design Space.
Now there are several options to be efficient with Design Space. One of the things I love about Cricut Design Space is the ability to do the same thing but in 3 different ways. You will often find this convenience the more you design in Design Space.
For the purpose of this tutorial let’s keep it simple (I do show quicker ways in the video if you are interested)
Keep clicking on “Duplicate” until no more stickers fit in the rectangle. So if you made your stickers 2″ you will be able to fit 12 stickers total as seen below.
If you are happy with your stickers this would be a good time to “Save” your project. Simply click on “Save” and choose “Save as” then name it.
Now we are ready to “Make It” but before we send this to the printer to print we need to turn off the layer or delete the rectangle. Personally I just click on the eye in the layers panel on the right side that shows the picture of the triangle (you may need to scroll down a bit)
Tip: To find the square in the layer panel quicker, simply click on the rectangle on the canvas, and then you will see the rectangle in the layers panel without having to scroll as much, Yay!
STEP 4: Send your Sticker to the Printer
Click on “Make It” and make sure your Cricut machine is powered on. Your images will seem distorted but they will print fine. The smallest spiral betty photo sticker I’ve made was 1.5″ and it looks amazing once printed.
No changes need to be made on this screen. Click on “Continue” Your machine will connect and you will click on “Send to Printer”
For this sticker project, I turned off the bleed and also selected “Use system dialog” This is where we will ensure and/or change your printer preferences so your spiral stickers will print beautifully! Then click on “Print”
Now, this is where my screenshots may or may not be helpful as depending on what brand your printer is it may look a little or a lot different than mine. But, I can tell you it will be similar in the wording. Look where I have the red arrows and look for something like mine. So far I have not needed to change the “media type or paper type” but your printer may need to so keep that in mind.
Pretty much what we are after is the best quality and color your printer will print to make the sticker colors pop. Not AS important with these black and white stickers, but if you were doing colors most definitely you will want to check these settings every single time you print stickers. At the time of this posting, my specific printer does not have a default setting I can make for just when I print stickers. If you have a newer printer that may be an option for you.
Be sure you load your sticker sheet the way your printer prints. I have a bottom paper loader and have to place my sticker sheet face down in my printer feed tray. Yours may be different.
Once your printer completes printing you can place it on your Cricut cutting mat. I like to use a Blue light grip for stickers.
Choose your material settings for your sticker paper. Click on “Browse all Materials”
Then click on the search field and type in “Sticker” and press enter or click on the little search icon.
3 results will come up. For any of the sticker paper I’ve mentioned in this blog post I choose the “Sticker Paper, Removable as seen below.
Click on “Sticker Paper, Removable and it will add a green check mark, then click “Done” in the lower right-hand corner. Now your screen will change to the picture below and your Cricut machine should be flashing its “load” button. TIP: When you look at the screenshot below, note that I added an arrow where if you wanted to make 10 sticker sheets of the same sticker, you can increase the number to 10 and then hit apply.
STEP 5: Cut your Stickers
Now you can take your printed sticker sheet and place it on your Light Grip cutting mat and load it into your Cricut machine. Press the flashing “load” button and when the “C” button flashes press it.
That is it, so simple & fun! Anyone can do this. I love the fact there are so many ways you can use stickers. You are also not limited to only using photos. Any JPEG image that is not too busy and has a high contrast will be just fine. The large sticker in the photo below is 4.75″ and the one on the envelope is 1.5″ so you have a reference.
Hey, these would even be cute stuck on each side of a CD and hang it with chain and/or beads, so cute! Even make a hummingbird one and hang it under a patio for garden art!
There are just endless possibilities with these amazing Spiral Betty Designs!
More Spiral Betty Ideas
Whether you are familiar with Spiral Betty Designs or not, I wanted to list some great ideas, everyday I think of more or see more, enjoy 😊
- Iron-on projects such as t-shirts, aprons, tote bags, make-up bags, pillowcases
- Vinyl projects on almost any blanks including, shadow boxes (inside the glass or outside), art canvas, a mirror, on acrylic with or without a light base, a CD, and cardboard with paper on top as a nice backdrop color.
- A Spotify Shadow Box or Acrylic Piece
- A Sublimation Photo on a coffee mug
- On paper projects such as greeting cards, invitations, anniversaries, weddings, engagements, envelope stickers
- Coloring pages
- Placing on top of painted surfaces (such as alcohol inks)
- Placing on top of a white background for even more contrast
- Create a solid shadow layer to back only the image part of your design for more pop!
Wow, that is a lot of helpful information! It literally takes me long multiple hours to prepare a video and blog post of this nature. So much so that I may have forgotten to share a tip you may be wondering about.
Please always feel free to ask any questions or even leave a helpful tip I may have forgotten or did not think to include in this post! You can leave a comment or question below or on my YouTube channel.
Let’s all help each other and “create with love”.
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Easy Spiral Betty Photo Sticker Project » Creates with Love