I vividly remember categorizing my stickers by type in the early 1980s, placing them one by one onto the pages of a slick-surfaced album. The fuzzy stickers were my favorite, especially if they were cute little animals.
No matter what decade you grew up, you likely have some sort of memory related to stickers… even if it started with scrapbooking.
In this episode I’m joined by Laura Wonsik and her childhood best friend, Annie Simkin. Together they have created the BFF Sticker Club, an Instagram community that celebrates a love of stickers and encourages you to not just collect them, but to use them.
Links Mentioned
- The BFF Sticker Club on Instagram
- Laura Wonsik on Instagram
- Puffy stickers with googly eyes
- Abandoned Lisa Frank factory
- Lisa Frank cows
- Everything Smells
- Four Bears Sticker Club
- Pipsticks Pro Subscription
- Mrs. Grossman’s Sticker Club
- Before Your Story workshop
Laura Wonsik 0:00
A pattern that I've noticed since childhood, to your point, is this treating things like they're precious and not using them because I'm waiting for a theoretical day in the future where I suddenly feel worthy of using them. And what happens is that I don't use them for so long that I either don't like that style anymore or I stopped doing the thing because I completely agree with you about the stationery.
Jennifer Wilson 0:24
Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I'm your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper and author of The New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is Episode 117. In this episode, I'm joined by Laura Wonsik and Annie Simkin, also known as the best friend's behind the BFF Sticker Club. You can expect to experience a wave of nostalgia as we talk about all the stickery things, including how you can bring that childhood passion to the present. Welcome to the podcast girls.
Annie Simkin 1:03
Hey.
Laura Wonsik 1:04
We're so excited to be here.
Jennifer Wilson 1:06
Yeah, I am so excited to have you the first time in a long while to have two guests on together. And of course, we have two very special guests who are very special to each other. So can you kick it off by sharing just a little bit about yourselves just as individual humans?
Laura Wonsik 1:25
Yeah, I'll go first. So my name is Laura Wonsik and I am a scrapbooker. That's that's the first piece of identifying information that I'll give. I'm also I'm a therapist. I work at Miami University and Oxford, Ohio. And I am married and have two daughters, Ellie who is six and Ilsa who is one.
Jennifer Wilson 1:47
Awesome. What about you, Annie?
Annie Simkin 1:50
So my name is Annie Simkin, and I live in a suburb of Cleveland called Solon. And I am also a therapist, and a sticker enthusiast with my friend Laura, who I have known since we were maybe like five or six. I live here with my husband, his name is Josh and my son who is also six and his name is Max.
Jennifer Wilson 2:17
Awesome. This is gonna be so fun. I can't wait to hear your story. So before we get there, we always love to ask our guests what is something that's exciting you in memory keeping right now? Now Annie? Are you a scrapbooker too or not?
Annie Simkin 2:29
I am not a scrapbooker. But you know because Laura is my friendship soulmate. I know enough about scrapbooking that I think I can take part in the conversation. Also Laura scrapbooks, a lot of my memory. So if you're scrolling down her Instagram feed, you're going to see a lot of my son's milestones.
Jennifer Wilson 2:49
Love it. That is so awesome. Well and I think we're all Memory Keepers today, whether or not you're actually a scrapbooker because you're taking photos all the time on your phone, you're sharing them on social media. And so really everything counts. So can you each share one thing that's exciting you right now? Annie how about you go first?
Annie Simkin 3:08
Just in life?
Jennifer Wilson 3:09
In memory, keepingish in general, like photos, and app, a class, a person? Maybe Laura is your inspiration?
Annie Simkin 3:16
Sure. I mean, I would say that my major inspirations right now are you know, stickers. And Laura, you know, Laura and I talked about how she, she is my scrapbook, you know, role model, because she's like my walking talking scrapbook, because she is just the holder of so many of my memories. She's been there for so much of my life. And I think the older you get like the less people you have who just really know all these random things about you like what, what did my clothes look like when I was in first grade? Like what were the things that made me nervous. So Laura is always my favorite memory keeper and inspiration.
Jennifer Wilson 3:58
Oh, I love that. And I think it's so important. You know, to have those people in your life that can kind of ground you and remind you of the things that we forget, especially the older we get, the more, older we get, the more we're forgetting and can't kind of piece all those details together. Alright, Laura, what's exciting you right now in scrapbooking?
Laura Wonsik 4:16
So, a couple of months ago, I don't really remember Annie how this happened, but her parents and had trusted me to convert her childhood videos into digital. So I took a bunch of VHS I think there were like eight or eight or nine VHS videos, each with like two hours of content on them. And I went through and converted them to digital on my computer, which was so fun because there was a lot of footage of us when we were kids. So our first grade classroom, you can see me her in birthday parties. That's been so fun. Now, obviously I am a scrapbooker. So I like pictures, but I've done some screenshots, but there's a lot of stories in those videos. Things that we forgot, things, they sparked memories, it was extremely fun. So that that's been a really fun project. I'm very into that right now. And it's sort of inspired me to go back and do a lot of childhood photos. So I have technically scrapbook to my childhood, but not with stories. So like, when I scrapbook my childhood photos, it was at a stage in my development as a scrapbooker, where I was very product heavy. So you'll maybe see like a two by three photo and then like 50,000 prima flowers around the side and like a bunch of like old October Afternoon, chipboard and some paper, but there's not any journaling about like, where are we in this picture? Like what's happening?
Jennifer Wilson 5:43
Yes.
Laura Wonsik 5:43
I'm feeling very inspired now to go through and say like, this is what memories this photo sparks for me. And it's so funny because as she and I have watched the videos together, we're like, oh my gosh, do you remember those cubbies? Or do you remember that like, oh, I remember how they used to open the windows in the summer. And it smelled like this. And it just brings all of the stuff like flooding back. So yeah, it's and it's especially cool because when we watched that our two kids are the same age that we were, which is also...
Jennifer Wilson 6:13
Wow, that's super special. Just to compare what like, you know, our childhoods were like growing up to what these kids are facing today. You know, it was already interesting before the pandemic and now it's even more interesting. But I love all the nostalgia you're bringing up and I'm sure that is going to be a big part of this episode today. Yeah, but before we get here I want to talk just a little bit about story. So how do you are there any stories that you really want to still tell? You know, you already we already mentioned that like maybe that was your Bucket List idea of going going a little bit deeper? Are there things that you want to get captured and an Annie are there things that you want Laura to scrapbook for you?
Annie Simkin 6:18
Okay, she's done my wedding my honeymoon. I mean, you name it like Laura has scrapbook this memory for me. She's such a great friend to have. You know, I was talking with her about this because we were like, well, Annie what are you going to talk about when she asked you about your your scrapbooking goals? I was like, well, I'm gonna talk about what I want you to do. So we were saying it would be so fun for Laura to scrapbook sort of the beginnings of the BFF Sticker Club, because it's been so funny for us and we have just really liked it laughing nonstop for the last month about it. So I'm pretty interested in her doing that for us.
Jennifer Wilson 7:39
All right, okay, let's dive into that. And now we need to know how did the two of you meet? So you mentioned five or six years old the age that your kids are now. How did that happen?
Laura Wonsik 7:50
So we met and Miss Lemmon's first grade class at Gerson Elementary. Um, yeah, I mean our first memory is not I mean, I remember you in that classroom but that's not I don't remember the exact like moment that we met but we have memories from that age. You share your first memory Annie.
Annie Simkin 8:15
Well, it's funny so we have sort of a combined memory but one of the things I always think about little Laura is that she was always where. So you know how you have like a picture of someone in your head like you're just go to picture and my go to picture of little Laura is always that she always had like her hair and in sort of this circle bang that just like really framed her face, and always wearing a pastel sweatsuit. Always in a pastel sweat suit, and it's so funny because we're watching these videos together and she's wearing the pastel sweat suit. So I'm like, that was real. But the memory that her and I were sort of talking through Well, you can tell it Laura. Do you want to tell?
Laura Wonsik 9:01
You see that we're wearing these shirts?
Jennifer Wilson 9:04
Yeah, you are twins today. Can describe them for our you know, podcast listeners?
Laura Wonsik 9:10
They're shirts that say Kiersten, Molly, Samantha, Addy, Felicity, Josefina. And for those listening who don't know those names, those are American Girl dolls. They're like the core seven.
Jennifer Wilson 9:22
Yeah, the OGs.
Laura Wonsik 9:25
OGs. When Pleasant Company owned, you know that. And she bought this for me for Sue Heck day which we'll get to in a minute. But our first memory is we both remember this. She had Molly and somehow I must have roped my parents into buying me one because I was jealous. So I got Kiersten and I called her and asked her to come over to see Kiersten. She had come in the mail. And we sat on the front step of my house and just admired Kiersten together as a magical memory.
Jennifer Wilson 9:57
So beautiful. I love it. You know It's so interesting to see the relationship with American Girl dolls and kids these days and they actually play with them. Like, I don't know, we were like they were on a pedestal like we revered them and had to take care of them. And everything was very precious about it in my experience.
Annie Simkin 10:18
Did you have one too?
Jennifer Wilson 10:20
I did, I did.
Annie Simkin 10:21
Who did you have?
Jennifer Wilson 10:23
Can you stand up again? Let's see. Okay, I see. I had the first three Kiersten, Molly and Samantha.
Annie Simkin 10:30
Oh you are not playing around. I asked because I think you can tell a lot about somebody by who was their American Girl.
Jennifer Wilson 10:39
I think my mom might have colletcted more, even after I left home.
Annie Simkin 10:43
I think you can tell a lot about someone by what doll they identify with the most.
Jennifer Wilson 10:48
Oh, I definitely identify with Kiersten because I have Swedish heritage. So like, I was all about that, especially like around Christmas time and doing crafts and baking and things like that. So Kiersten was my spirit girl.
Laura Wonsik 11:04
It's so funny, too, that you talk about treating them like they're precious. Because we've joked about this is happening with stickers for us as well. But I let my daughter play with my American Girl dolls. And she has three American Girl dolls. And she just does not have that same reverence for them that I did. And so I had to put them away cuz I was like, we don't treat Kiersten that way.
Jennifer Wilson 11:31
I can. Yeah, I can totally see that. I've had certain circumstances with my daughter like that with other things. And I'm like, okay, I don't think you're quite ready for that. You know, mommy wants to keep this forever. And you know, sometimes it's our own kind of mental issues.
Laura Wonsik 11:47
Yes. Did you have any sets?
Jennifer Wilson 11:50
I just I had a few little accessories, but I didn't have anything that was ever big. Like I had Molly's like, I don't know if it was a Molly or Samantha's like little lunch tin or something with the fig sandwich in it.
Annie Simkin 12:02
Molly. Molly.
Jennifer Wilson 12:07
Yeah, I didn't have too much of the extra stuff. So. Oh my gosh. Okay. Now there were never any American Girl doll stickers back then, were there?
Laura Wonsik 12:18
They had paper dolls. I love the paper dolls.
Jennifer Wilson 12:21
I remember the paper dolls, for sure. Yeah. So okay.
Annie Simkin 12:24
You know, the reason I identify most with Molly, I think is because I was always kind of geeky. And one of the things they did have that I was talking to Laura about. And we do have a memory of is that Pleasant Company made scripts for like plays that you could put on where you pretended to be the characters. So I had them and I would bring them to the playground and have other kids do them with me.
Laura Wonsik 12:50
Hilarious.
Jennifer Wilson 12:52
I was writing Roman numerals for fun on the playground. Like let's see how many how high we can write our Roman numerals.
Annie Simkin 12:58
Wow.
Laura Wonsik 13:01
That's pretty advanced.
Jennifer Wilson 13:03
I might have to cut that out of the podcst.
Annie Simkin 13:07
I like it. I like it.
Jennifer Wilson 13:09
All right. Okay, so you guys both still live in Ohio. But how far are you each from where you grew up?
Laura Wonsik 13:17
So we're on opposite ends of the state of Ohio. And I'm about 40 minutes from where we grew up. So she's about, like, what are you like four and a half hours? Five hours?
Annie Simkin 13:27
Yeah. Yeah.
Jennifer Wilson 13:29
So you How long has your friendship been this long distance?
Laura Wonsik 13:35
I guess since we graduated high school, right?
Annie Simkin 13:38
Yeah. I mean, I haven't lived close to home since 2001. Then I guess? Yeah. 20 years.
Laura Wonsik 13:47
Wow.
Annie Simkin 13:48
I know. It's bananas.
Jennifer Wilson 13:50
I'm curious how you like maybe stayed connected in those early years. It wasn't Marco Polo.
Laura Wonsik 13:57
Yeah. So that's funny. We were just talking about this. We were we've always just been talking about. So we wrote letters. We did AOL instant messaging. And I know that when I studied abroad, we would talk I would go to the internet cafe, and we would email and I printed out, as the memory keeper that I am. I have stacks of emails, and I am like instant message conversations from forever ago.
Jennifer Wilson 14:29
For sure, I don't know how I did it. But I have in my, at some point in my Gmail, I imported like two previous Gmail accounts. And so I have, like going back to the early AOL Instant Messenger days where you could like send yourself a copy of the chat. And I'm like, how is this even in existence? And why did I save those things.
Annie Simkin 14:48
Like a customer service chat function.
Jennifer Wilson 14:51
I know. I know. I don't even know how I did it. Maybe it was copy and paste, but it's so bizarre to go back to like 2003 and see shots from back then. So...
Laura Wonsik 15:02
I think we also talked on the phone, I'm trying to think, if was there any other way that we did that I visited you, we visited.
Annie Simkin 15:10
I mean, just the phone, I think is sort of interesting to think about. Because at that time, too, I didn't have a cell phone. So we would have to talk on a landline. And so at that time you had to buy, I remember going and buying phone cards to make my long distance calls, to call Laura and other friends from home. So even just that, I mean, even just talking on the phone was a whole other thing. And you had to be like on the landline phone, you couldn't be out and about. So I think it's interesting. And what we were talking about is sort of how our communication is just changed throughout the years as things keep on chugging. So I think, you know, at some point, like we connected over Facebook, and that you know, it just, and then I'm always the last to like understand technology. So at some point, I got a smartphone, I think we decided it was What 2014?
Laura Wonsik 15:56
Yes, we bought it together.
Annie Simkin 15:58
Yeah. So Laura and our other friend had come to visit me and they were both like, it is time, it is time, because I still had a flip phone and everybody else had had a smartphone for I don't know, like four or five years. And so I got it, and it opened my whole world. And then we started talking through, you know, I mean, a smartphone, you can do like pictures and videos, and you know.
Laura Wonsik 16:23
Really kind of a trend, because we've been making videos and sending them back and forth since 2014. And so Marco Polo has just been a recent, we don't have to delete them all from our phone anymore, because we would like, like, we wouldn't have space. But yeah, it's really ideal. The video format.
Jennifer Wilson 16:42
Oh, for sure. So what do you just basically, did you email them to each other before?
Laura Wonsik 16:46
We would text them. Just through the text.
Jennifer Wilson 16:49
Oh, wow. Okay,
Annie Simkin 16:50
So maybe like in 10 years, Laura can just be here and like a hologram form. We can hang out.
Laura Wonsik 16:58
We can dream.
Jennifer Wilson 16:59
I mean, Alexa has that drop in feature where you could just really drop into anybody's room and say hello. I can say like, drop into my mom and then just talk to her. And she lives in Texas.
Laura Wonsik 17:11
I didn't know about that.
Annie Simkin 17:12
Terrifying.
Jennifer Wilson 17:12
Yeah. So I mean, we do it here, we do it just inside our house with Google Home. But Alexa can do it like to other devices anywhere. So it's interesting to think about, you know, if you think about the kind of the post high school, college, when, when people when friends start to scatter, and some stay close, and some don't. But if you think about how technology will change that for our children, and you know, they of course have kind of an extra level of drama on top of it, it seems because of social media and all of that. But I think some of those friendships will stay even closer. And then maybe others may, maybe you know, land a fiery flame somewhere. It's just fascinating to think about because I you know, I had a best friend move away in third grade. And so we were pen pals for many, many years and only, you know, recently reconnected on social media. But just the idea of writing a letter to a friend is so foreign and I can't even get my daughter to write a thank you note for Christmas.
Laura Wonsik 18:17
Yeah.
Jennifer Wilson 18:19
All right. So let's turn to the topic of the day, stickers. So let's start with what kind of stickers do you remember having as a kid?
Annie Simkin 18:30
Okay, so I feel very passionately about puffy stickers that have googly eyes.
Jennifer Wilson 18:37
Oh.
Annie Simkin 18:38
And they just do not make those anymore. Like they're it's a real shortage in. I don't know if any sticker people are listening, but please make more puffy stickers with googly eyes. Because those are the best. And you know, when we've been posting on our Instagram account, people have been saying like, yeah, those were the best ones. Can't find them anymore.
Jennifer Wilson 18:59
Wow, I do not have a recollection of that. I saw you a photo of your childhood sticker book, I think. And I'm like I recognize a lot of especially like fuzzy ones. And of course the course like the scratch and sniffs. I don't remember, I think. I don't like googly eyes.
Annie Simkin 19:16
Stop it. Stop it right now.
Jennifer Wilson 19:20
You know that thing where like people don't like small holes.
Annie Simkin 19:23
Yeah.
Jennifer Wilson 19:26
I know, I think I might have a touch of that. And I think the googly eye thing kind of connects to that, it kind of creeps me out.
Annie Simkin 19:32
Okay, well, then those aren't for you. You know, Scratch and sniff though, is my second favorite.
Jennifer Wilson 19:38
Yes.
Annie Simkin 19:38
And I've been really happy because I've been able to find some really good scratch and sniffs lately, so that's keeping up with the trend.
Jennifer Wilson 19:46
That's for sure.
Annie Simkin 19:47
Yeah.
Jennifer Wilson 19:49
Are there any like stickers that you like when especially when you see maybe like a modern version of it today? Do they just always kind of take you back like. What do you feel like what kind of stickers do you really feel nostalgic about? Even beyond the googly eyes? Like any kind of patterns? I don't know the 80s are so special.
Laura Wonsik 20:08
I feel like that holographic shimmery always reminds me of like the 90s Lisa Frank kind of tie dye kind of neon experience. Lisa Frank's an experience a visual experience.
Jennifer Wilson 20:22
Yeah.
Annie Simkin 20:24
Are you on TikTok?
Jennifer Wilson 20:25
Mm Hmm.
Annie Simkin 20:26
Okay, so have you seen all the TikToks where people go to the abandoned Lisa Frank factory?
Jennifer Wilson 20:31
No.
Annie Simkin 20:32
Okay. It is. It is both amazing. Somehow, you know how you get on an algorithm. So I've gotten on sticker TikTok now, which is perfect. And so people are going outside to the Lisa Frank factory, which is abandoned. And it's beautiful, but also super depressing because it's really worn down. But it has like all of her designs on the outside.
Jennifer Wilson 20:53
Wow.
Annie Simkin 20:54
It's amazing.
Jennifer Wilson 20:56
So it's just like, dilapidated, rundown rainbow unicorns.
Annie Simkin 21:00
Correct? Yes.
Jennifer Wilson 21:01
Sounds like like a horror movie maybe?
Annie Simkin 21:05
A little bit. Yeah.
Jennifer Wilson 21:08
I will have to get on that TikTok train. They do kind of do just that and YouTube to like, you watch two videos, and all of a sudden, that's all you see until the end of time.
Annie Simkin 21:18
That's right.
Jennifer Wilson 21:21
All right, so how did you store your stickers when you were younger? Did you take them off and put them in something? Or did you keep them just hoard them forever, never touching them? How? Do you still have them to any of them today?
Laura Wonsik 21:37
Well, you can answer that Annie cuz you just found a bunch.
Annie Simkin 21:40
So first of all, I we had that sticker book, which I posted on our page. And then I also just had a box of sort of precious stickers that I never wanted to use. Like, I don't know if you remember Lisa Frank cows. They were amazing. I had this. I'm still upset because I had this sheet of Lisa Frank cows and I and my mom says she can't find them. I don't think she's looked hard enough. But that's for another day.
Jennifer Wilson 22:08
My mom does that all time too. Like have you really looked?
Annie Simkin 22:14
But it's funny because...
Jennifer Wilson 22:15
Oh my gosh, Lisa Frank cows, yes! Okay. Yeah. I think I had the folder. So...
Annie Simkin 22:20
It was an excellent design. But So Laura and I just like an hour ago, we were like, we were talking about how we mistakenly gave some of our stickers to our kids without really thinking. And so I took a trip down to the basement on Marco Polo and and took back some of my things. But I found some what were those color like Susie? Susie?
Jennifer Wilson 22:47
SusieQ.
Laura Wonsik 22:48
Suzy's Zoo.
Annie Simkin 22:50
Yes, she's like a duck. And I have from like the 80s two unopened packages of those. And they're Hanukkah stickers. So growing up, there weren't a lot of Hanukkah stickers. So I think my mom probably just grabbed like five packs of them. And then now we have them in my house. And they used to be my son's but now I've taken them back. And I also found an unopened package of Mrs. Grossman stickers, with hairdryers and hairspray. I mean, it's like a, it was very exciting.
Jennifer Wilson 23:23
I remember going to the store and usually was like the teacher supply store, I would go with my mom. And there'd be these walls with like, all these rolls of stickers. I'd be just like, give them all to me.
Laura Wonsik 23:34
Archivers used to have them too.
Jennifer Wilson 23:37
Oh, you know, I only went to an Archivers like the year before they closed and then they were gone. And I remember walking in and saying like, hey, do you carry Studio Calico when they were doing wholesale lines? They're like, I've never heard of that. And I'm like, this does not bode well for a lot of things.
Laura Wonsik 23:53
You're gonna close in a year.
Jennifer Wilson 23:58
So do you have any like sticker regrets, besides maybe give them to your children now? Like maybe sticker regrets from your childhood? Like, I know I have stationery regrets, like I had so much beautiful stationery that I never used. I just like, I didn't want to touch it because it would be used up. But now it's been what 35 years, and I've still never used it.
Laura Wonsik 24:21
So I feel that about scrapbooking stuff. So I specifically remember doing that, like Sassafras Lass. And I did it with a lot of what is that? October Afternoon. Because I feel like a pattern that I've noticed since childhood, to your point, is this treating things like they're precious and not using them because I'm waiting for a theoretical day in the future where I suddenly feel worthy of using them. And what happens is that I don't use them for so long that I either don't like that style anymore, or I stopped doing the thing because I completely agree with you about the stationery. I would put stickers, I mean my biggest sticker memories really surround when you would get a sticker for something. So going to the dentist, book it, like any sort of reward sticker, I think I felt like I could use those stickers. And I think my impulse was always to put them on my shirts. But I remember also using stickers on stationery. Yeah, there was a lot of hoarding. And so I have regrets big time of that. And that has spilled over in the scrapbook world. And now, as Annie and I have discussed, we're experiencing anxiety about it now as we're playing with stickers.
Jennifer Wilson 25:41
So the point that you make about putting it on your shirt, I was thinking about my behavior now. And it's like, there's no way I'm taking that off the backing, I'm going to adhere to cardstock, so that I can punch it out or keep it and then put in a scrapbook, I'm not going to put it on my shirt, I'll take an extra one for my shirt so that I can brag that I voted or whatever, and then one for the scrapbook.
Laura Wonsik 26:01
So it's funny because we even started getting stickers in the mail. And she made the comment, well you tell the story about the stickers and how Max thought that they were for him.
Annie Simkin 26:13
So I got these stickers in the mail. And I was so excited. And then my son Max just assumed that they were for him. And Laura was talking about how you know, when you are a loving and attentive parent, like our children just assume that everything in the house around them belongs to them. So it's like we can't have these special thing. I think that there's this feeling as adults that like we don't, we don't deserve these like special frivolous things, or whatever. But to your point, it's like grownups are still getting excited about stickers. Like, that was a perfect example with voting like you see everyone posting their sticker on the internet to say I voted and now everyone's posting their COVID shot their COVID vaccines are on the internet. So it's like we're still getting these stickers for milestones, and adults are still so psyched about them. But it's like those are the stickers, I think we believe that we're allowed to have because of course our kids can't have the voted sticker. They didn't vote. It's rightfully ours.
Laura Wonsik 27:19
And they're so willy nilly.
Jennifer Wilson 27:21
To unpack here in terms of you know, our childhoods, how we were trained to, like, seek these accolades, maybe and we need the reward to, to then share it with others. Gosh, there's I mean, you could do a whole episode just on that, and how we were raised and how that compares to, I think that only exacerbated maybe, with future children. Like, they're getting stickers for lots of things. And now, it's not just stickers, it's trophies, and you know, everything just for participating. So but that's a whole sidebar.
Laura Wonsik 27:54
Well, yeah, and I think the other thing is that, you know, I think that I always felt like, Okay, this is like, this might be the only sticker I get this month or whatever. But I give Ellie a pack of stickers, and they're all over the table in four seconds. Like, she's just throwing them willy nilly. You know, like, there's just like, there's plenty. And so it's just interesting mentality.
Jennifer Wilson 28:14
It goes back to the American Girl dolls, too. I mean...
Laura Wonsik 28:16
Yeah, totally.
Jennifer Wilson 28:16
There's, there's, I don't know, I think maybe our parents were raised that you know, the things that you acquire, we take care of because they're not replaceable. And now everything is kind of disposable. And it's unfortunate, you know, our electronics break before you would think they should, and we had to replace them. And that's just kind of how things have changed. We still have stickers from the 80s and 90s. That just makes it so much more fun, I think can help us teach our kids that it's fun to celebrate these little things that you know, are just fun to play with. So what stickers are you getting in the mail Annie? And Laura, are you getting things in the mail too?
Laura Wonsik 29:00
Yeah, so we are sending each. So this all started. It's not even been a month since the first sticker discussion happened. It was February 28. it escalated very quickly. So I think that it, did it surround Sue Hack Day? Was was did it spin off from that?
Annie Simkin 29:19
So I think it was because we really liked getting that kind. Well, maybe you should explain Sue Hack Day.
Jennifer Wilson 29:26
yeah, let's start there.
Laura Wonsik 29:27
Okay, so Annie and I were commenting over the holidays how. So Annie is Jewish, and I celebrate Christmas. I'm Christian. And so we don't celebrate the same holidays around that time, which means that we have historically not exchanged gifts. And we were commenting like we are each other's best friend and yet we're not exchanging presents. So we decided that we would have a holiday that's just for us. And we did that where we would exchange presents every year. So we settled On February 20, well, it's February 29, when it's leap year, but the other years it's February 28, which is the birthday of Sue Hack on The Middle.
Annie Simkin 30:09
Have you ever seen it all all?
Jennifer Wilson 30:10
I've never seen The Middle so I had no idea. I never heard of that before.
Annie Simkin 30:13
You really have to.
Jennifer Wilson 30:15
Okay.
Laura Wonsik 30:16
It's not negotiable. You must watch it ASAP.
Jennifer Wilson 30:19
All right, I will do that. I will put it on my to do list for this weekend. So...
Laura Wonsik 30:23
So we opened, we opened our, we exchanged our gifts. It was extremely fun. She gave me these earrings, which she's also wearing these little bunny, earrings. And I yeah, I think you're right, then we were saying how much fun it was. And then what do you remember after that?
Annie Simkin 30:37
So after that, Laura, Laura made a Marco Polo. And I think that maybe you had been looking at the Pipsticks website or something. Because you were like, you know, I've been thinking about getting a sticker subscription. But I'm nervous that I'm going to get a subscription and like, they're not going to understand my taste. And I'm going to get all these stickers that I don't really like. So I was thinking, wouldn't it be fun if we made our own subscription for each other? And you sent me stickers once a month? I sent you stickers once a month. And I was like, Yes, we should start a whole thing called the BFF Sticker Club. And then it sort of just like really escalated rapidly.
Jennifer Wilson 31:18
Did you expect to get like press, you know, so quickly after creating your Instagram account?
Laura Wonsik 31:23
You know, we did not but we appreciate your investment in our burgeoning business.
Jennifer Wilson 31:32
I was just like, this is so awesome. I must hear more.
Laura Wonsik 31:35
I love it.
Annie Simkin 31:38
So yeah, so now it's sort of escalated. Well, you can talk about it. You can talk about our rapid escalation, Laura.
Laura Wonsik 31:46
Well, yeah, I mean, it was so funny, because in the first 24 hours, we had like all these ideas of like, what this could be, and we were joking. I remember you were like, what's gonna happen tomorrow like, because it was just, it just happened so quickly.
Annie Simkin 32:00
I was hell bent on contacting Lisa Frank.
Jennifer Wilson 32:03
Yes. Oh, yeah.
Annie Simkin 32:05
I was like, how do we contact Lisa?
Laura Wonsik 32:09
So funny.
Annie Simkin 32:11
Side note, she has not gotten back to us. Lisa Frank, if you're listening.
Jennifer Wilson 32:16
Okay. Well, if she does, by the time this episode goes up, then you have to let us know.
Annie Simkin 32:21
We've seen your building. Lisa, we will help you redo it.
Laura Wonsik 32:25
So we've joked that we're good business partners because I am like the the kinetic energy, is that the right phrase? I didn't pay attention in physics, but I'm like the energy and Annie, Annie. Annie has probably said, pump the brakes Lar, like six times in the last 24 hours. Cuz I'm always like, we can get this on. And she's like, pump the brakes. So it's we're still really formulating what it is exactly that we want to do. Here's what we know.
Jennifer Wilson 32:56
Okay.
Laura Wonsik 32:57
We know that we're not trying to sell stickers. So we're not we're not doing that. I mean, at least right now. That's not that's not our stick?
Jennifer Wilson 33:08
Sure. Because the important distinction to make is like it's important to have boundaries.
Laura Wonsik 33:11
Yes, we really want to create a community of people that I think of adults. I mean, children are welcome. But like, especially targeted, I think, to adults, who we feel like we want to help enjoy stickers, savor stickers, and use stickers. Because I think we want to savor them and appreciate them, but also use them and walking that line, I think is hard because you we might have that hoarding tendency. And they look so pretty in the package. But also we need to use them and they do look fun when we use them. So we have these challenges. Like we just put up our first challenge yesterday, fill fill a heart. And so it's just like some direction on how to use them. So we really just yeah, we're just looking to create a community.
Jennifer Wilson 34:01
I love that. And I think it's just, it's not only just a way of connecting us as adults to our childhood, but I can see like, as soon as I saw that challenge yesterday, I was like, Oh, I could sit down and do this with my daughter and a way to connect with her in a way that feels awkward as parents like, I'm like, Oh, hey, I'm doodling with you. And we're kind of just on our phones on the side and not like being invested in it. But if we can connect to that, that love and that just the the quirkiness of loving stickers as a kid, we can then really play and feel connected to our children that way too. So I think there's a special element of it with that too.
Laura Wonsik 34:36
Definitely. And, and I we had a post recently about five reasons why stickers should be your hobby. And you say that reminded me one of the things I think that's great about stickers is they don't really require like a lot of skill, you're putting them down, you know, there's not some special tool.
Jennifer Wilson 34:54
For sure. When I think back to the way that I stored them like and this is just me being a nerd, I had categories like in my album, like, we couldn't just like put all the new stickers in, it wasn't a chronological thing. It was like it was totally a library of memories type of system where there were, you know, categories for the fuzzies. And the puppies and the Garbage Pail Kids were like stuck in the back somewhere.
Laura Wonsik 35:18
Well, yeah, and I've talked about how, you know, 90% of the fun seems to be buying them, storing them, organizing them, looking at them and talking about them. That's just as fun as playing with them.
Jennifer Wilson 35:30
Yeah, that's for sure. And so do you. Are you encouraging us to make cards to make things to put in your home? How do you like to share your stickers with others and kind of celebrate them? Like, are you planning to let them go? Is that using them? What, how do you define using a sticker?
Annie Simkin 35:51
I mean, I guess I feel and Laura, you can comment on this. But any way you get your sticker off the sheet is how we use them. And so if it makes you feel good to put it on a card and send it to someone, that's awesome. If you want to put it in a sticker book for yourself, that's awesome, too. But I think that we really want to sort of encourage people to get the ship, the get the stickers off the sheet, use them and not feel so anxious about it. Because even just when we were getting our stickers, and we were looking kind of at the sheet and just seeing this wide open white space, it's kind of scary, right? And you're taking the sticker away from all this sticker friends on a sticker sheet, and putting him alone on the white page. And so we want to just make that okay, and make, you know, I think that sometimes we feel like we're wasting a sticker. There's no wasting stickers, there's no regrets in the BFF Sticker Club. Because we're just gonna use those, you can always get more stickers.
Jennifer Wilson 36:51
Yes, that's so beautiful. Now you mentioned like putting it in a sticker book. So like, I haven't looked up that on Amazon? Can you get sticker books today? And is there like a source that you recommend? Or are we not there yet? Are you guys maybe you or somebody will make it your own sticker book, that could be something that you could sell.
Annie Simkin 37:11
So actually, Laura posted a video a tutorial about how to make sticker books on our page, which is really cool. And I think that that is sort of a, an issue that we're finding in the market is that there's just not great sticker books. So there are definitely are sticker books. I wouldn't say that they necessarily are like, tickling our fancy. Is that a thing? People? I don't know. And so I think that that's definitely something we're kind of looking at. Because we want people to be able to use them and have fun. And I think a sticker book definitely is a good way to use your stickers and still be able to keep them. And look at them.
Jennifer Wilson 37:57
Yes, for sure. And you know, it's the yeah, there's unique characteristics that you would need to make sure that, you know, with page thickness and all that because stickers are thick, you can't just have like a book because it gets thick really fast. Super fascinating. I'm excited to see what kind of comes next out of this. Do you guys have any plans for like, so how often will we see challenges?
Laura Wonsik 38:23
So we're gonna do a weekly challenge, we also are gonna have opportunity for people to be matched with their own BFF, which is gonna be on a monthly basis so that you can find information about that on our Instagram as well. We have kind of a weekly schedule. So we're going to I'm going to be doing Tuesday tips and tutorials where I'll do some maybe how to make your own sticker, how to make your own sticker book, that kind of thing using my craft knowledge. What is the rest of our schedule?
Annie Simkin 38:55
Monday, we're doing lives which we did our first one this week, that this week, time doesn't exist anymore. And that was super fun. And we were excited because we have like a lot of engagement from the people who are watching. And then Tuesday is tips and tutorials with Laura. Wednesday, I'm introducing the challenge and Thursday Laura is going to do her part of the challenge. Friday, Saturday are kind of like our fun day free days. Free day, fun days. Something with apps and alliteration. I don't know we haven't quite gotten to that part. Yeah. But I think that's going to be a time that maybe we're gonna post like some unboxings from stickers that we buy because who doesn't like to watch that so satisfying to watch people unpack stuff. Or maybe like showcasing other BFFs who are participating, we're gonna get there. And then Sunday we are featuring a sticker shop every Sunday. And we're really working to get some coupon codes for all of our followers. From those shops, and we've gotten some really great ones from people so far, so it's exciting.
Jennifer Wilson 40:05
So fun. I just, I love how you're approaching this from the community perspective, and just really trying to celebrate the love of stickers and kind of growing that organically. It feels very authentic and just fun and exciting.
Laura Wonsik 40:18
So yeah, thanks. It's been really it's been really fun for us. Yeah.
Jennifer Wilson 40:24
You mentioned Pipsticks already, but what are some of your other favorite sources of stickers? Like Where? If I'm, you know, not necessarily new. If I'm a returning sticker collector, where would I go and find them?
Annie Simkin 40:36
Okay, so this is such a fun question. Okay, do you do you want to go first Laura?
Laura Wonsik 40:45
You go.
Annie Simkin 40:46
Okay. So one that I really been excited about is there is one called Everything Smells. Are you familiar with that?
Jennifer Wilson 40:54
I am not. That sounds awesome.
Annie Simkin 40:56
Okay, so she has all of these scratch and sniff stickers. And then she has other things there that smell good too. Like pens and erasers. I mean, it is magical. So that's a really fun one. And she also has a monthly subscription. And there's another company who has a monthly subscription called Four Bears Sticker Company, I think it is Four Bears something. She's a delight. And she has some really cool stuff from artists who make stickers. So she kind of has like lots of different artists he works with and they have really cool arty stickers. And then Mrs. Grossman has a monthly sticker subscription that I just signed up for. And within that subscription every month, you get like a vault sticker. So you get like a vintage sticker. I'm really excited to see what I get.
Jennifer Wilson 41:51
That's so cool.
Annie Simkin 41:52
And then there's like a gazillion Etsy ones too. So...
Jennifer Wilson 41:56
Yes, for sure. I'm curious, like, are there? Like cuz of course, we have this realm of like, stickers for scrapbooking. And then we have like realm, stickers that are like, pretty clearly for kids. And not necessarily that there's kind of gray area there. Like, are you finding that there are a lot more stickers for our age of consumer than you thought maybe there were?
Laura Wonsik 42:21
Yeah, you know, I think something that's fun about this is Annie and I, to your point about with your daughter, I think it's a way to learn about somebody and and we've sort of been connecting about trying to learn each other sticker style. And so I think there's like specific types of stickers out there that each of us like some of them maybe were technically meant for kids, or maybe technically or for scrapbooking, but they sort of fit our general aesthetic. Yeah, I mean, I definitely think there's lots of stickers out there that that are sort of targeted for adults that kids wouldn't really necessarily get, and I certainly as a scrapbooker wouldn't think of for scrapbooking. They're just kind of fun. adulty type stickers.
Jennifer Wilson 43:00
Oh, sure. Yeah, with more adulty sentiments on them. I can imagine a number of those for sure. Yeah, I think it's really cool that you're supporting small businesses through this too. It's It was not just like, big sticker companies that you're gonna see in your grocery store. You know, you're supporting indie sellers and trying to shine a light on them. So that's, I think that's really fun and cool.
Laura Wonsik 43:22
Yes, yes. It's really cool. My favorite right now that I that I've been loving is a shop called A Little Idiot. You can see them on Instagram or on Etsy. And I love I love her stuff. So there yeah, there's lots of great artists out there that are making their own stickers. And they're really fun.
Jennifer Wilson 43:39
Very cool. Well, we will include all the links that you've mentioned in the show notes. This is going to be a jam packed a link list, I think. Are there any other, is there any other advice that you have for our listeners on how to become more of a sticker user versus a sticker hoarder?
Annie Simkin 43:56
Well, we would love for you all to become part of the BFF Sticker Club and join us because we're having a good time. I think that watching other people use stickers really inspires me to use my stickers. I think that being paired up with with Laura as my sticker BFF and getting stickers from her in the mail every month is gonna inspire me to use them. And so if you have somebody that you can do that with or if you want us to help you find somebody to do that with I think that that's been really helpful. What do you think Lar?
Laura Wonsik 44:31
Yeah, I agree with that. I think doing the challenge is is good. And I think remembering that when you, if you really love a sticker and you want to keep it, getting it off the sheet doesn't mean you don't have it anymore. So I was playing with stickers last night and I was like, I still own this I still get to look at it. It's just I've just moved it. And it's so funny Annie said that about separating stickers from their friends because I feel like I do feel this feeling of like I'm disrupting a set like there's you know, they're packaged so cute. It's hard to separate them but I'm just relocating them, they're gonna make new friends.
Annie Simkin 45:03
It's like going to get a puppy from a litter.
Laura Wonsik 45:06
Yeah, absolutely. I'm bringing you to a new loving home.
Jennifer Wilson 45:11
That's like also like sending your stickers to camp. They can meet new friends.
Laura Wonsik 45:16
Totally. It's just one night.
Jennifer Wilson 45:19
Sticker camp sounds like something fun. I would like to go to oh my gosh, this has been so delightful. So can you share what's your Instagram name where we can find you?
Laura Wonsik 45:33
We are the BFF Sticker Club on Instagram. And that's the only place we really are right now. Just on Instagram. But yeah, DM us if you want your own BFF we're gonna match people for each month on a rotating thing. So...
Jennifer Wilson 45:49
That's so fun and I love that you're rotating it too so that you can just always meet someone new and and just have a good time with it. So yeah, so much for your time.
Laura Wonsik 45:57
Yeah, thank you for having us.
Annie Simkin 45:58
Hey, thank you.
Jennifer Wilson 45:59
And to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to scrapbook and use stickers your way. In case you missed last week's episode, I wanted to let you know that registration is now open for Before Your Story, our album workshop to document your growing up story or someone else's. You can head over to simplescrapper.com/story to learn more.
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