Making your own digital stickers is completely doable on an iPad – and once you have the workflow, it takes about five minutes per sticker. The catch is that a full set of 25 takes hours, and most people quit around sticker seven. Here is the honest version of both paths.
What you need
- An iPad and a stylus. An Apple Pencil is ideal, but any stylus works for simple shapes.
- A drawing app. Procreate is the usual choice; GoodNotes itself can work for very simple stickers.
- A way to export PNG with a transparent background. This is the step that trips people up – a JPEG or a screenshot will show a white box behind your sticker.
Step by step
- Draw each sticker on its own layer, keeping it roughly square.
- Hide or delete the background layer so the canvas is transparent.
- Export as PNG (not JPEG, not HEIC). In Procreate: Share → PNG.
- Save the files to the Files app so you can import them straight into your notebook.
- Open GoodNotes, tap the Elements tool and choose Import from… to add them.
If any step feels fiddly, our import guide walks through the GoodNotes side in detail.
The part nobody mentions: time
A 25-sticker set is roughly 4–8 hours of drawing, exporting and tidying – more if you want a consistent style across the set. You also have to keep brush, font and colour choices consistent, because mismatched stickers look homemade in the bad way.
When buying makes more sense
- You want a matching set. A designed pack has one palette and one line weight throughout.
- You need it today. A download is instant; drawing 25 stickers is not.
- The maths is obvious. Our 57-sticker bundle is $1.99 – that is about three minutes of your hourly rate.
Plenty of people do both: buy the functional sets (trackers, budgets, checklists) because they are boring to draw, and make their own for personal touches.
Frequently asked questions
Can I make stickers directly in GoodNotes?
Yes for simple ones – draw on a page, then use the lasso tool to crop and save it as an element. For anything detailed, a drawing app gives you more control.
Why is there a white box behind my sticker?
The file was exported as JPEG or captured as a screenshot. Re-export as PNG with the background layer hidden.
What size should I draw at?
Draw larger than you need – around 1000×1000 px – and scale down in the app. See our guide to digital sticker sizes.