These acetate stickers are made using recycled plastic, paper scraps, and sticker paper, making them both creative and resourceful. Instead of foam tape, these new methods use brads, staples, eyelets or sticker paper to assemble the layers, resulting in a flatter secure finish. You can stick with one technique or experiment with all of them. Add these whimsical embellishments to cards, tags, gift bags, or other paper crafts or create a batch to sell at your next craft fair.

To get started, gather plastic packaging or acetate sheets (store-bought or recycled), along with brads, eyelets, staples, and sticker paper. You’ll also need paper scraps and a selection of punches. For decorating the acetate, use alcohol markers, alcohol inks, acrylic markers or StazOn ink. Keep basic tools on hand, including glue, an eyelet setter, a stapler, and a small hole punch.

Begin by punching your acetate base—this will always be your largest layer. Decorate it however you like: outline the edges, add dots, stamp text, or fill in the entire surface with color.

Next, punch or cut smaller shapes from your paper scraps to build layered designs. Add as many layers as you’d like, and embellish with jewels, pearls, metallic accents, or marker details. If you’re using brads or eyelets, punch a hole through the center of your layers before assembling. For other styles, secure the pieces by stapling or by placing  stickers on each side of the acetate.

To make your stickers functional, punch two identical shapes, glue them back to back and then stick on the back. This creates a peel off sticker base for attaching your finished embellishment later.

Experiment with different punch shapes like scallops, snowflakes, sunbursts, or florals to create a variety of playful designs. Even simple circles work beautifully, and decorative scissors can achieve a similar effect if punches aren’t available. You can also die cut both acetate and paper for added variety. For a quick option, apply a decorative store-bought sticker to the front and adhere a double sided sticker to the back. Use colored plastic too for even more variety.

These trash to treasure recycled plastic stickers can be assembled at least six ways from dimensional by using foam tape to very flat, enjoy the variety of looks you can create with these junk materials.

Happy paper crafting!