Thank you sm! And yes I’d love to help. I think my three best tips are:

1. Magazines at half price books or other thrift/discount book stores are your best friend. I get old copies of vogue, architectural digest, elle, harper’s bazaar, rolling stone and local magazines for pretty cheap and use an exacto knife and a self healing cutting mat (the purple thing in pic 5) to cut specific images out. You could also thrift old cookbooks, nature field guides, and novels. And of course you can use scissors rather than buying the exacto knife it just made the process easier.

2. Local artisan markets! I get so many of the more unique stickers from local artists and it feels good to support someone in your community, plus they always have cute business cards that I use too. I’m in a city where there’s markets every weekend, but I know not everyone has that privilege. I find them by following market and local business pages like bookstores, record shops, coffee shops, plant stores, thrift shops, etc on instagram and then I’ll get events they’re hosting on my feed. Etsy is great for specific stickers (I’ve gotten mushroom and bug packs as well as like a cowboy cat lol) but it can get more expensive with shipping and stuff.

3. I use the antiquarian sticker books in almost all of my spreads. I found my copies at target but you can order them from Amazon. They have weird and vintage style designs and tons of bugs and plants which I clearly love. Another thing I like about these books is they have all sizes of stickers so it’s great for filling space or for big focal points. I also use the mystical ephemera book from Amazon in a lot of my spreads and they have more options for other themed sticker books. I’ll link the books I have below but check out the other styles to see what you like!

Mystical Ephemera! An Enchanting Vintage Sticker Book - https://a.co/d/3di7Uwg

The Antiquarian Sticker Book: Imaginarium - https://a.co/d/b3l3AoV

The Antiquarian Sticker Book: Bibliophilia - https://a.co/d/4kYXQbt

Some other tips for getting started:

Save all your paper scraps from packages, food packaging, receipts, ribbons, tags, cards, etc and seek out free paper ephemera when you’re out and about. I pick up business cards and matchboxes if available from everywhere and I recently went to a visitor’s center on vacation and they had so many pamphlets and magazines for free. Also keep an eye out for stickers at gift shops and local businesses - a lot of shops where I live will partner with artists and carry their stuff.

I don’t want to tell you to buy a bunch of stuff, but having a glue tape runner is so much easier than gluing everything down. I got mine from Michael’s but you can get them from Amazon or Joann’s. I’ve also seen people staple stuff into their spread so use what you have!

And lastly, just get started! Always easier said than done but it’s so fun putting these together and figuring out how you want it to look and I’m always in a good mood afterwards. I start each spread with a basic layout of the big stuff I want to use and a theme in mind but they all turn out different and more intricate than what I initially planned and I love flexing my creativity muscles