National Sticker Month 2011

Although April is rapidly drawing to a close, I didn't want to let National Sticker Month pass us by without highlighting a few food with eyes stickers. This shiny beauties came from my favorite down-market dollar store, the Yankee One Dollar Store.

Here we have a sheet of some cheerful fruits. But look closer... that banana is eating a banana!

Here is another sheet of more fruit, but without the cannibalism:

And the third sheet is a bit more unusual. While I can identify a cherry, tomato, and corn, there are 4 other fruits (?) that are more obscure. I think there are two varieties of melons plus a seductive papaya in the middle. But the real mystery is the prickly fruit on the bottom left. I think it is a breadfruit or a jackfruit?

Mostly Happy Stickers

This set of happy kawaii stickers is by Lily.

Click for a close-up. Just one green apple has a frown.

National Sticker Month 2010

Welcome to the Third Annual National Sticker Month here at Food with Eyes. To kick us off, here's a fantastic set of Food Friends stickers by Paperchase, presented to me by Maria of Curly Wurly.

Be sure to click for a larger view to fully appreciate these wonderful friends and choose your favorite!

Note to commenters - thank you to everyone who leaves legitimate comments! I'm sorry I had to turn on comment moderation, but I seem to have a large number of spam comments with deleterious links now.

Happy Birthday, Curly Wurly!

Happy Birthday Wishes to Maria of Curly Wurly today!

Merry Christmas!

Happy and Relaxed

This set of puffy stickers by Lily features an assortment of winsome goodies: cookies, doughnuts, fancy cocktails, and potato (also known as French fries).

They even appear to be housed in a shop with eyes. On the back are some bonus images: milk and cookies.

Kitchen Seals II

Here is another set of Korean Kitchen Seals. If it's possible, this set is even cuter than the first set. Click for a larger view.


Look at the tea bags. And the one in the teacup steeping itself. And the egg on the toast. And the butter on the pancakes. I can't decide which I like best. But what is that in the blue teacup? It looks like some kind of dumpling to me, but that doesn't seem right.

Kitchen Seals

These stickers are made Korea and the only words in English on the packaging are "Kitchen Seal." I've surmised that they are actually labels for kitchen items like salt, pepper, and soy sauce.

Click to get a close-up view of these cuties. I especially like the egg with its mouth open and the milk carton. Funny how the food items are labeled in English. I'm not sure what the yellow rounded guy is, though. Any guesses?

Sweets to the Sweet

This set of Sweet's Cake Shop stickers is by Lily.

These cakes and other confections proclaim sentiments like "love you," "miss you," "happy day," "so cute," and "so sweet." There are even a few smiling strawberries. Sweet is the only way to describe these stickers. Time for my insulin now!

National Sticker Month 2009

Today marks the start of the Second Annual National Sticker Month. This year's posts will focus on kawaii stickers from Asia. Kawaii is Japanese for cute, and what could be cuter than food with eyes? Kittens, you say? Well, just wait until we get to the combination of kittens and food with eyes! While many kawaii items are from Japan, similar items also come from Korea and Taiwan.

To start us off, here are some Yum Yum Stickers made by the Korean company Morning Glory (I am not linking to the Korean website because my antivirus software found something objectionable about it...).

These are glittery puffy stickers with some very cute peppers, eggplants, and peas, as well as a carrot, some unknown yellow and orange jars (juice?), various citrus fruits, a peach (?), and a white thing I can't identify. Plus some frogs and clovers. All with upbeat greetings like "Happy Day," "Good Luck," and "I am Happy." Looking at these smiling faces, I am happy!

Stuck in Schenectady

I was walking along State Street in Schenectady yesterday when I came upon this sticker stuck to the sidewalk:

It features Appleby, spokesfruit for MVP Health Care, a regional HMO based in Schenectady. I can only guess a real live Appleby was recently walking around doling out stickers and health care advice.

Last week I visited Hudson, NY, known for its many upscale antique shops. I didn't buy any antiques, but I did spot this adorable picnic basket filled with stuffed food with eyes:

This play set is by Melissa & Doug. Further investigation has also turned up a cute Candy Jar Fill & Spill set. The age range for both toys is for 6 months +. I initially began to rationalize that 440 months is greater than 6 months, making the toy appropriate for me, but in the end I decided to settle for a picture.

Farewell, National Sticker Month

Closing out the first annual National Sticker Month we have a couple more examples of anthropomorphic stickers.

This set of ice cream cones, cake, and a cupcake is by Heartline, a division of Hallmark. I found these a couple years ago.


And lastly, these whimsical fruits and veggies are by American Greetings. I got these in the early-mid 90s, and in a fit of temporary insanity I actually used them! These are all I have left. I think the empty spots are peas in a pod, a pair of peppers, and cherries.



That does is for this year's National Sticker Month. Check back next year for more!

The Grapey Bunch and Friends

This next group of images rounds out my collection of anthropomorphic scratch 'n' sniff stickers. These stickers happen to be my favorites and were rare even in the 80s. I got all of these from a gumball machine at a grocery store my mother frequented.

The Grapey Bunch:

Vanilla Ice Cream Cone (this one hasn't aged too well):

Bubble Gum Machine:

Cream Cycle:

Peppermint Patty:
Orange Pop's Cycle:

Chocolate Sundae:

The origin of these stickers were always a mystery to me, but recently I found some information in a new Scratch & Sniff Sticker guide. Apparently they were made in Canada and are called "Goofy Stickers." There are ten designs in all including a few non-food with eyes ones.

They Call Me Mello Smello

Continuing with our smelly sticker theme, here's an assortment of food with eyes scratch 'n' sniff stickers from the early 80s:

Creative Teaching Press' Sniffys peach stickers from 1981:


Paper Art's Sniffer Stickers orange scent:

Mello Smello Top Banana sticker:

Mello Smello Cool Ade sticker:

Sandylion Oliver Martini sticker:

I think these scratch 'n' sniff stickers came with an issue of Stickers magazine:

Go for a Spin

Another less common line of scratch 'n' sniff stickers from the early 80s was The Sticker Factory by Spindex. These came as a sheet of eight rectangular stickers.

Here we have grape:
And banana:

Check out Bubbledog's page for pictures of the other scents.

Mini-Maxi-Me

Trend's Stinky Stickers may have been the most common scratch 'n' sniff stickers, but there were a lot of other great smelly stickers in the 80s. One of my favorite series was Creative Teaching Press' Mini-Maxi line. Each pack featured one large "maxi" sticker and 26 small "mini" stickers. The mini stickers came in four different designs. I managed to collect at least one of each scent.

What's Poppin'? (click for close-up):


Here's Dancin' Donuts (smells like cinnamon):


It's Cool Cola:

The Candy Apple Quartet:

Choco Bear:

Some assorted minis including peanut, watermelon, cherry, banana, coconut, and pineapple:

Package insert listing the six original scents:

To see the other Maxi designs check out Bubbledog's CTP guide (scroll down for Mini-Maxis). The one I'd most like to add to my collection is Mr. Coco Nut, who looks like Groucho Marx, a clever nod to the Marx Brothers' 1929 film The Cocoanuts.

Start a New Trend

The most popular stickers of the '80s sticker craze were surely scratch 'n sniff stickers, and the most popular scratch 'n sniff stickers were definitely Trend's Stinky Stickers. Most pictured an anthropomorphized representation of the smell they featured, although there were some exceptions (rainbow?). Rather than scan each sticker, here is the 1983 Stinky Stickers catalog with checklist:

Front cover (when folded):

Back cover:

Dated 11/83. I turned 12 that month. I have a feeling that 12 year-old-kids today would not be interested in collecting stickers.

Some albums:

More album options:

I never used these types of albums since I preferred to keep my stickers on the backings.

The checklist, page 1 (Click for larger view. Feel free to print out. Sorry about the existing check marks.):

The checklist, page2:

And the order form:

Only $0.99 a pack! At this point there were 88 different scents. Just a year later, 104 were available, according to Bubbledog's comprehensive guide. I had 74 of the original 88 stickers. A couple years ago I picked up three sheets for a total of 77.

Candy mint:

Ketchup:

Soda:

These newer acquisitions are on glossier paper, not the matte finish of the originals. All include the Trend copyright. Curiously, I recall that stickers with the copyright were more desirable than ones without, although I now see that those without the Trend were the earlier printings.

Trend still does make Stinky Stickers, but the characters aren't the same and kids don't bother to collect them anymore.