This post was sponsored by Derwent Academy as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own.

Learn how to make your own watercolor planner stickers with some easy-to-use watercolor pencils! Instead of buying or printing out stickers for your planner, why not give *painting* your own custom designs a try?!

How to Make Watercolor Planner Stickers Using Watercolor Pencils

Here’s a quick time-lapse video showing this fun process:

Supplies

Derwent Academy Watercolour Pencils
White sticker paper
Silhouette Cameo & cutting mat
Cup of water & paper towel
Variety of small paint brushes
Planner

Watercolor pencils work great for this particular project because the surface area of each sticker is obviously quite small, and the pencils allow for greater control than traditional watercolor paints. You can put the color exactly where you want it, and you can also get really bold markings.

Plus, they work as regular colored pencils too, so you can use them without any water if you’d like. Hooray for a fun two-in-one!

Cutting Out The Stickers

The first thing I did was design all of the sticker shapes I wanted for my planner. As you can see, I like having a wide variety.

This was done in Silhouette Studio since I’d be cutting them out with my Silhouette Cameo.

Next, I placed a sheet of white sticker paper onto the cutting mat and then loaded it into my Silhouette Cameo.

A few moments later, the stickers were cut and ready for painting!

Using the Watercolor Pencils

I love working with watercolor pencils from Derwent Academy, and they worked great in making these planner stickers. The colors are rich both wet or dry, plus they’re break-resistant.

Derwent offers a full range of high-quality art products, but don’t let that intimidate you! “High-quality” doesn’t mean “for professionals only.” I am most definitely a hobbyist in the finer arts, especially with watercolors, and these products are great for us newbs too.

I mean, Derwent has been making art supplies since 1832, so they kinda know what they’re doing. That’s why their new Derwent Academy line offers high-quality art products for artists of all levels of experience, not just the professional *arteests.*

For this project, you can use these watercolor pencils a couple different ways.

First, just draw with them dry like you would with regular colored pencils and put color down wherever you want. I used this method for probably 95% of my stickers.

A second method is to dip the tip of the pencil directly into the cup of water, then start coloring with them that way. This method will give you really bold, strong colors, and is a lot of fun to play with.

I like using this method for adding small, bold details (especially on the polka dots and flowers), and for also adding depth to already-colored-and-dried stickers.

When using this method, make sure you dry the pencil off on a paper towel after you’re finished with it.

After applying some color, I then used a variety of paint brushes to add water over top the stickers.

This part is sooo relaxing because just like the water you’re using, you’ve got to go with the flow.

Here’s a little time-lapse animation to give you a better idea of the process. Just add some color with the pencils, then, if you want, blend out with a little water. Easy as can be!

The Completed Watercolor Planner Stickers!

It was really fun to experiment with different styles and techniques, both when using the watercolor pencils and then applying the water over top. I discovered that I tend to gravitate toward more abstract designs as well as floral ones…nothing too formal or fussy for me!

Here are a couple of my favorite ones from this sheet:

Tips for Making Planner Stickers with Watercolor Pencils

Color over the edges of the stickers for fun designs.
Wet your pencil tip directly in the cup of water for BOLD colors.
Be careful around the edges of the stickers (especially any sharp angles) because the pencils can start to peel them up and/or smush them.
After a sticker has dried, go back and add additional color(s) and/or water for depth and detail.
Don’t add too much water and oversaturate the sticker paper (keep a paper towel handy to dab off any excess water).
Clean your brush off after painting a dark/bold color so it doesn’t overpower lighter colors.
Don’t get hung up on the not-so-pretty look of the whole painted sticker sheet…the stickers will look much nicer once removed from the sheet and applied to the planner. Promise. :)
Go with the flow and experiment! That’s the beauty of watercolor.

I had so much fun creating these watercolor planner stickers! The actual painting process was quite relaxing…just me, my pencils and brushes, and some tunes filling the air. Is there anything better?

Plus, I’ve now got cute, custom, one-of-a-kind stickers to use throughout my planner. Fashionable AND functional creative art in no time flat.

This method would also be fun for making stickers with different uses, such as:

Return address labels
Envelope seals
Gift labels
Teacher stickers

Find out more about Derwent and Derwent Academy here:

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Thanks so much for stopping by!