Street Art Stickers: A Rundown On Slaps

Have you ever wondered about all those stickers you see on light posts, buildings, and signs all over cities? Or maybe you wanted to put some up yourself. Those stickers are a form of street art known as slaps, slap tagging, or sticker bombing. What it is called kind of just depends on what part of the country you are from.

Although some slaps do make urban areas look more attractive, they're there for more than just to look pretty. Some slaps are there for the sole purpose of getting the artist's political points or agendas across. Slaps can also promote (or condemn) films, artists, musicians, and other performing artists or influential people. Occasionally they are used to mark gang or drug territories.

Some of them, like most of mine are just for fun, to either entertain, uplift or confuse people. If you want to put up stickers they don't have to make any sense, or put across any important political message. If you want you want you can just make stickers of things you like.

These are a few of my stickers and a couple by Shepard Fairey.

Street artists can use many different types of stickers to print their designs on. Paper stickers are very common; paper stickers are prone to fading after a certain period of time, however, they are cheap or free and get the job done. Vinyl stickers are also very popular as well. Vinyls are the same material that bumper stickers are made out of. These stickers are much more durable than paper ones,  are less likely to fade, and they are a lot more weather proof.

This is what you an expect your paper stickers to look like after a few months outside. 

Paper Stickers

There are a lot of different ways to make paper stickers. You can hand draw designs onto mailing labels or blank sticker sheets. You can make stencils and spray paint your designs. If you know how to use photoshop, bamboo,  or some other design software you can make a design on a computer and either get printer paper and print some at home, or if you want to make a large number of stickers for the lowest price you can get your stickers printed at Kinko's or any number of other online printing companies. 

If you are going to get your stickers printed on paper I suggest the high gloss over matte. Even though that doesn't make them weather proof by any means it does make them a little more weather resistant. 

here are a few hand drawn stickers on mailing labels. 

Vinyl Stickers

Vinyl stickers are long lasting, weather resistant, and washable. They can be exposed to all sorts of conditions. The greatest thing about vinyl is that it can be exposed to sunlight, rain, dry or humid conditions. They are great for outdoor use, that is why they make bumper stickers with vinyl.
They do cost more then paper, but if you buy them in bulk then they aren't too much more.

The blue Dalek sticker has been on that mail box for the same amount of time as the paper stickers and it still looks new.

Clear Stickers

Clear stickers are the same as vinyl stickers, they are just printed on clear/transparent vinyl instead of white. They are good for glass surfaces or other surfaces where you only want to show your design and not have a white or colored background. Most printing places charge a little more for the clear stickers then for white vinyl, but they are a good alterative sometimes if you want a more clean cut look without having to spend the extra money on die-cut stickers.
If you just wanted to make a small batch of stickers and and don't want to have them printed you can make them at home. Clear sticker sheets for your printer are available at Staples, Office Depot or pretty much any place that has a decent office supply section.

This is a sticker that was printed at home. 

Die Cut Stickers

Die Cut stickers are vinyl stickers that are custom cut to whatever shape you want them to be. They can be printed on white or clear vinyl. These are the most expensive stickers, but they look really awesome. One company that does die cut stickers is Sticker Robot and they are really great with their customers. If you wanted a die cut look, but can't afford a custom sticker you could just get standard shaped stickers and then hand cut each one, but that would take a long time.

These are a few die cut on white vinyl stickers. 

Sticker Robots tutorial on how to make your custom sticker designs on photoshop 

If you didn't want to try and design your own stickers right away and you just wanted to buy some stickers from someone else first to see if you like it a lot of street artists sell some of their stickers to help offset the cost of printing them. You can find them on Ebay, Etsy, or various other websites. Just google street art stickers for sale, or go to ebay or etsy and just type in street art stickers and some stuff should come up. You can find them individually, in multi packs or in bulk packs. You can also find some in local skate shops in a lot of bigger cities.

If you have stickers printed already sometimes you can find other artists that are willing to do trades with you. I personally just randomly give stickers away on my Notti By Nature facebook page.

Street Art: An Overview

  Since I've gotten some questions lately about street art, this post is going to be entirely dedicated to street art. There are several types of street art out there, but I'm just going to discuss the types that are most commonly used and that I use myself. I will also talk about things are okay to do and which things you should avoid doing at all costs.

 

TAGGING

  This is one very important aspect of tagging you should be aware of. Tagging is basically a way to sign your name anonymously, whether you are just tagging a wall, or tagging a piece of your own artwork. Street artists often use random words and symbols when they are tagging, but a tag can basically be any combination of letters and symbols. Some street artists also make there tag a meaningful tribute to someone they lost or care about. 

 

examples of tagging

this is an example of a tagging alphabet. There are a lot of others out there that you can find. Some are region specific. ie: you can tell where some taggers are from based on what alphabet they use. You can be creative and come up with your own.

STENCIL GRAFFITI

Like other types of graffiti, stencil graffiti is either used to display art or some sort of political message. These stencils are made by simply cutting designs into the cardboard. The stencil is used to duplicate the image onto a wall for display. These images range from small, simple piece of artwork to large elaborate ones. Stencil graffiti has become very popular since its conception in 1969. Banksy is an example a street artist who is very well known for stencil graffiti.

This is an example of stencil graffiti that I have done. 

This is some of banksy's well known stencils. 

There are a lot of different stencil artists out there. If you want to give it a try you can start off by just making a simple stencil of something you really like, then come up with your own ideas later. 

OTHER TYPES OF GRAFFITI

Graffiti is the most well-known type of street art. Graffiti is created by using markers and/or spray paint. Graffiti can either be a serious social message or political statement, or it can simply be a display of artwork. The street artists who create graffiti work anonymously and tag their artwork after completion. The most common type of graffiti is elaborate calligraphy, but it can come in various different styles.

SLAPS

Slaps (sticker tagging, sticker bombing, slap tagging) is a form of street art that uses stickers to display original art or political messages. This form of street art is easy to do and can be done during the day. It is also the cheapest because several stickers can be printed at one time for a small fee. This form of street art is a very popular for artists to display their work. Putting up stickers became known as slaps because you take the back off the paper part of the sticker and cup it in your hands and slap it on a wall or sign as you are passing by. 

A lot of artists also hand draw all of their artwork on to blank stickers or on USPS labels. That is obviously one of the cheapest ways because you can get the USPS labels for free at the post office or hundreds or thousands of blank ones any place that sells office supplies for anywhere from $4 to $10. 

If you get your stickers printed somewhere you usually have a few options. You can get paper, paper high gloss or vinyl stickers. The paper stickers are a little bit cheaper then vinyls, but they aren't very weather resistant. If your budget only allows you to get paper go with the high gloss. There usually isn't a price difference between no gloss and high gloss and the color wont fade as fast in the high gloss stickers. Vinyl is what bumper stickers are printed on, so they will last for years if no one takes them down verses months. 

A lot of the stickers I use are paper, I like to use them for a few different reasons, but the main one being that if you see my sticker somewhere that means I was there recently. 

hand drawn

printed

printed

Times Square

outside yankee stadium 

 Downtown Raleigh

the last three are a few of mine.

STREET POSTER ART

This is a type of street art that is not commonly known as art by many, however, city streets would be rather boring without them. These posters can be handmade or they can be printed onto thin sheets of paper for and aren't very expensive. These posters (like many other forms os street art) can display a political message. However, they can be humorous or informative as well. 

These are just a few examples of poster art, there are obviously a lot more out there. 

DO'S AND DON'TS OF STREET ART

It is important to know the do's and don'ts of street are. Follow these. They can save you from a lot of trouble from other street artists as well as gangs who tag in the same areas as you. Not only can you avoid trouble by following these rules, but you can earn the respect of your fellow street artists as well.

DO remain anonymous, because street art is in a legal grey area.

DON'T snitch. Keep other street artists anonymous as well. I think that is sort of a rule everyone goes by. If you get caught doing art with someone don't say anything, don't give them anyones names, don't admit to doing anything. If you happen to live in an area where it is illegal the fuzz will use scare tactics to try and get you to admit to doing something, but for the most part they are feeding you a bunch of empty threats. They really don't want to do the foot work to try and get solid evidence against you and in most cases they will just turn you loose after a few hours of harassing you.

DON'T cover someone else's art. First off it's rude, but second some tags are gang and drug related. It is ok to tag on a spot that had art on it, but was white or grey washed by the city or building owner. In that case it is not your fault in any way that whatever was there was covered. 

DON'T listen to people when they tell you there is a wrong way or a right way to do street art. It's like any other art form. You aren't going to let someone tell you there is a wrong or right way to do a canvas, or a wrong or right way to paint your house. NO ONE is the boss or king or lord of street art. The only time you have to worry about following rules is if you are trying to join a street art crew. 

DO at least a rough sketch of what you want to put up before you put graffiti on a wall. Having an idea in your head is great, but having a mapped out visual will help you work faster and your art will look better. 

DO practice your tag before you start putting it up places. You can try a few different ways of writing it out and if you have done it a few times on paper you will be faster at it by the time you put it on a wall. 

DON'T hang around after you have finished a piece. If you want a picture of your work just go back the next day. 

I am by no means an expert in street art, it is just something I do, but If there is anything you'd like to know more about or if there is anything you think I should write about on here let me know. I write back to anyone that takes the time to send me a message, so long as I get the message. The best way to know for sure I'll get something you send to me is by dropping me a line on my facebook page just click there ---> Notti By Nature

Raising Money For A Good Cause

I don't know who would steal from a little kid, but I'm trying to help right what happened.
It's one thing to steal, a whole other thing to steal from kids, but to steal from special needs kids thats just f***ed up.


donate directly at gofundme.com with the link below

Toys for little J

buy stickers and some of the money will go to this cause

stickers with a purpose

I'm sure the next cop that pulls up to this sign will be annoyed at me. 

Stickers are fun. 

~Notti by Nature

I finally got to go to Hardee's. I'd been craving their chicken strips for a while because they are delicious. Got myself a 5 piece, then drove home. I guess I really should have looked in the bag before I left, which I really don't think you should have to do.

Anyways, got all the way home and found a box full of bite size "tenders". I really feel like I could have got more from a kids meal somewhere else. It would have been cheeper and I would have gotten some cute toy for my dog to demolish.

~ Notti by Nature

I think it's safe to say that if we had one of these math would have been much more enjoyable for all of us. I love you protracturtle.

Royal Mail Celebrates Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary

Royal mail has created unique postmarks for each of the home towns of all the actors to have played the Eleven Doctors. This Means that all stamped mail sent from David Tennant's home town will have a special postmark celebrating 50 years of Doctor Who with the name of the actor on it. 

It's times like these that I wish I lived in Europe. It's ok though I suppose. Being the whovian that I am I ordered my set of stamps as soon as they became available. 

The set I really wanted was the one below.

The complete collection of 13 First Day Covers each featuring the Royal Mail Doctor Who Stamps, but sad to say there were two things that stopped me from that, one the set was £195 (roughly $295 US) and they sold out very quickly. I'm sure anyone that ended up with a set of these is going to make a killing if they decided to sell them. 

If they don't sell out before I can get them I would like to get a sheet of these. 

The Monster's Mini Sheet.

it features the Ood, Cybermen, Weeping Angels and of course the Daleks. The sheet also includes the TARDIS at the center.  I suppose if I can't order it from the Royal Mail I will probably be able to find them on Ebay or Amazon sometime when I have the money. 

There are a few different specialty sheets available,like the Doctor Who Presentation Pack and the Doctor Who Prestige Stamp Book, but I like the ones I pictured the best. 

~Notti By Nature