Printing the Stickers - My Experience So Far

[Gumball Wizard]

Of course, the main challenge in creating custom gumball helmets is printing out the stickers to be placed on the empty helmet shells. If one chooses to stick to the traditional methodology, that will mean one kidney-shaped sticker for each side and a stripe (if necessary) down the middle. For most helmet designs, this allows for a pretty accurate representation of the original, but for some (for example the post-1980 Cincinnati Bengals) it can only present a gross approximation.

At first I used Avery label sheets like shown below and printed on them with a color inkjet printer. For the glossy surfaced type that i think should be used, the colors often looked sort of faded or washed out. Adjusting the print quality settings had some positive effects, but some negative ones as well...some colors changed completely.



Now I have a Brother VC-500W label printer shown below and I feel it is an improvement. The blacks are like a pool of india ink, but reds still look a little faded to me. I'd be interested to hear what other creators use and have found helpful in making the images print well. Then of course matching them to the available helmet colors is another challenge completely...

[Sec19Row53]

I've printed using an inkjet printer. In order to get the nice gloss finish, I cover the sticker in a high quality clear packaging tape. Using my fingernail, I press down over the entire surface, as if I were scratching off a lottery ticket. That gives a glossier finish. I cut the stickers out after that.

Color matching has always been my bugaboo.

[TomS]

Your WLAF set was awesome! I think the inks matched well with the helmets.

My printer is a laser jet from 2012 and it is so terrible makes sucking look good. The reds are almost pink, oranges are terrible too.

I’ll have to give your label maker a shot!

Have you tried the Uline glossy VHS labels?

PS - Thank you so much for establishing this forum!!!

[Gumball Wizard]

Your WLAF set was awesome! I think the inks matched well with the helmets.

My printer is a laser jet from 2012 and it is so terrible makes sucking look good. The reds are almost pink, oranges are terrible too.

I’ll have to give your label maker a shot!

I forgot I hadn't posted about my color laser printer. I've had it for a while now. HUGE improvement. I think the washed out reds are an inherent problem with inkjet printers. The Brother label maker was a step up, but still wasn't great on reds.

I use an HP Color LaserJet pro M454w. Extremely happy with it. It's more expensive than an inkjet, but infinitely superior for this application. I immediately went back and replaced all the red helmets in all my sets when I got it.

[TomS]

Awesome! I’ll invest some of my tax return to upgrade.

Back when I did that WFL project I sent you on eBay, I was battling health issues - I’m better now though - and I have away all of my sets to a younger guy who was new to the hobby, Wisconsin I think.

Anyway, I want to make another WFL set identical to that one, it was well over 100 helmets in total. It was my favorite project and those really large acrylic cases have been discontinued. I just found a stash of them in Asia and bought them out.

The new printer will make it look like your WLAF set!