90s stickers: build your own retro sticker board

Why 90s kids were obsessed with stickers

Before phone cases and laptop skins, stickers were how kids showed off who they were. In the 90s they covered binders, lockers, notebooks, skateboards, bike helmets and bedroom doors. Teachers handed out scented reward stickers, school book fairs sold whole sheets of them, and trading stickers at recess was a serious business with its own rules.

The board above uses the same bold, outlined style you see all over this site. It takes its cues from the 90s Memphis design look: thick black outlines, primary brights, squiggles and confetti shapes.

The most popular types of 90s stickers

Scratch-and-sniff stickers

Scratch the sticker and it smelled like strawberry, root beer, pickles or chocolate. Teachers used them as rewards on homework, which is why many 90s kids still connect a grape smell with getting a gold star.

Puffy stickers

These were soft and raised, filled with foam so they felt squishy, and they were usually sold in strips at grocery store checkouts and gift shops. They were among the most traded stickers at school.

Holographic and prism stickers

Shiny, rainbow-reflecting foil stickers caught the light and were the rare, high-value trade. The same holographic shine showed up on trading cards, binders and pencil cases.

Neon animal and rainbow art stickers

Bright airbrushed animals, rainbows and dolphins were everywhere on folders and sticker sheets. They are part of the look of 90s school supplies that many adults now collect again.

Photo sticker booths

Photo sticker booths, which started in Japan in the mid-90s, printed tiny sheets of selfie stickers with frames and doodles. They spread to malls and arcades and pointed the way to today's photo filters.

Sticker albums and collections

Many kids kept a sticker album with wax-paper or vinyl pages, so stickers could be peeled off and traded later. Albums were ranked by rarity, and a scratch-and-sniff pickle or a holographic dragon could be worth five ordinary stickers.

Ways to use your sticker board

• Party invites and signs: make a board in the party colors, save it and drop it into your invitation or welcome sign. You'll find more ideas in our guide to 90s party decorations.
• Classroom fun: teachers can project the board and let students build a "class binder" together. It pairs well with 90s classroom theme decorations.
• Phone wallpaper: the saved image is square and high resolution, so it crops nicely to a lock screen.
• Gift tags: print it small and add it to a 90s nostalgia gift basket.

Want the stories behind the stickers? The mixtape, virtual pet, handheld and milk cap all have their own place on the 90s timeline, and you can read about more schoolyard crazes in our guide to 90s fads.