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.

With a Little Help from my Veggie Friends

These "Veggie Friends" sparkly stickers are from Trend, famous for their Stinky Stickers (more on that later!).

I Want Candy

These adorable candy stickers are from Hallmark's Ambassador line and are dated 1984. I found them at a dollar store a few years ago.

They're all so cute, but I think the tube of tiny round candies is my favorite because they remind me of Sixlets.

Shiny, Happy Peanut

This shiny sticker from SandyLion is part of my early '80s sticker collection:

National Sticker Month

Did you know that April is National Sticker Month? No? Well, that's because I just made it up. In fact, when you google "National Sticker Month" nothing comes up at all - until now, that is. But it seems like there should be a National Sticker Month, and April is a good candidate since it doesn't have much else going on. So I'm going to take this opportunity to showcase some great food with eyes stickers for the next 30 days.

To start us off, here's a nice sheet of giveaway stickers from Wegmans, the best grocery store ever:

Each fruit or veggie is on its own circular sticker. I got these in the mid-late 90s (perhaps I was a bit older than their target audience...). Who wouldn't strive for five if fruits and vegetables always looked this cute?