Yes! Yes! Print on sticky notes!

So, I wanted to print on sticky notes.

I have been teaching growth mindset strategies and philosophy to teachers in the Lindbergh School District for the past couple years.  In addition to studying Carol Dweck's Mindsets: the new psychology of success, we've moved onto reviewing a resource book by Mary Cay Ricci called Ready-to-use resources for mindsets in the classroom.  

With more than 60 resources to examine and just six hours of class time, I was looking for a fast, clean way for teachers to share their experiences implementing the mindset resources.  Inspired by Yelp, I created my own customized resource reflection sticky notes:

Here is my step-by-step sticky note printing procedure:

1. Select your sticky notes (the stickier and flatter, the better) and get their dimensions.
2. Recreate the outline of one sticky note with proper dimensions using Microsoft Publisher.
3. Create a text box inside your sticky note outline.  Build your custom template.
4. Click-and-drag to select all objects in your template, including the outline.  Select Group to make all objects part of the same image.
5. Copy and paste your template as many times as needed to create your page template.  Here's what mine looked like:
   
6. Print out your template once without sticky notes.  When you do this, mark the top side of the paper as it rests in the printer.  Note the direction the paper flows out through the printer.
7. Here is the key step in the process: It is critical that the adhesive side of the sticky note is on the leading edge of the paper as it flows through the printer.  As a result, you may need to rotate your templates on Publisher so that the top edge of the template will print out on the sticky side of the sticky note.  This is why, in the image above, I rotated my templates so that top of the printing and the sticky side would both be on the right edge.  Print a new test page if you made any changes.
8. Place one sticky note on the test page directly on one of the images, checking alignment.  Adding a small piece of tape to secure the opposite side is recommended. 
9. Place the test page, sticky note and all, into the printer, revisiting step 6 to make sure the paper is facing the correct way with the correct side face down.
10. Print.  (Note: I chose the least used printer in the district for my printing in case I jammed up the machine.)  Deep breath...
11. If it was successful, fill the template with sticky notes in proper alignment and repeat the process.  If you want mass production, you can print several templates and run several sheets at a time.
    

Happy sticky note printing!