IMPORTANT: Faulty product notice

Monday, August 24, 2020


It has recently come to my attention that a mistake was made last year, and my supplier sent me a roll of material with a stronger adhesive than the material I use to make decals with. This product is still removable, but is designed for walls with more textured surfaces where the standard one doesn’t stick as well.


I pride myself on the consistent quality of my removable Sticky Tiki Decals and am disappointed to have discovered this issue. I have now put processes in place to minimise the chance of this happening again, including testing a sample of each new roll to check the adhesive is correct. I have also withdrawn the affected products from sale, and will replace them with new decals printed on material with the correct adhesive.


AFFECTED PRODUCT LINES

Here is a list of all the affected product lines made since 27th September 2019. Please note that only some of these decals will have been made with the stronger adhesive. (Some weren’t made with the incorrect adhesive until more recently, so products sold during this time but made earlier are unaffected.)


  • Fantail in Kowhai small dot
  • Kakapo small dot
  • Kea small dot
  • Kereru small dot
  • Tui small dot
  • Sumner small dot 
  • Akaroa Harbour small dot
  • Daly's Wharf small dot
  • Lumo large dot
  • Tui large dot
  • Fantail in Harakeke tiny dot
  • Fantail in Kowhai tiny dot
  • Kakapo tiny dot
  • Kea tiny dot
  • Kereru tiny dot
  • Morepork tiny dot
  • Tui tiny dot
  • Akaroa Harbour tiny dot
  • Pohutukawa tree – extra large
  • Retro intense dots – wall mural
  • Dusky Pink dots – wall mural
  • Mustard Yellow dots – wall mural
  • Red Rocket – medium
  • Kereru & Ribbon
  • Paua Stars – medium
  • Nikau – medium
  • Chalkboard New Zealand – medium

  • Paua New Zealand – medium
  • Counting Numbers – medium

  • Bunny – medium

  • Pukeko – tiny
  • Bunny – tiny
  • Pohutukawa Christmas Tree – large
  • Alphabetica – mini mural

  • Pooky Pukeko – large
  • Nikau – large
  • Pukeko – small
  • Paua Stars – small
  • Bunny (brown) – small
  • Chalkboard dot – tiny
  • Dusky Pink Skinny height chart



I have contacted all the customers who have purchased affected products via my website, Felt or Etsy stores. If you have purchased one of these products from another store, or at a market, please email me with the name of the store and date you purchased the product, and I can check for you if it is one that has been affected.


Please get in touch if you have any questions or concerns about any of the listed decals you have purchased or been given. Below are some tips to help mitigate the stronger adhesive.


TO REMOVE DECALS

If you need to remove the decals, you may like to apply heat with a hairdryer for several minutes to soften the adhesive before removing them. Please note this is a short term solution. If you need to remove them again at a later time, you will need to heat them again.


HOW TO REDUCE ADHESION LEVELS

I have tested some different ways of reducing the stickiness of these decals, to make them easier to reuse. The following method is simple, and reasonably effective, but please be careful as it may reduce the adhesive too much, and render them either useless, or not very reusable.


You will need: 

  • One clean tea towel with a flat weave
  • A flat, hard surface such as a kitchen bench

  1. Lay the tea towel out flat on the hard, flat surface
  2. Apply the decal firmly to the tea towel, and then peel it off
  3. Test level of stickiness
  4. Repeat until the adhesive has reduced to the desired level 


I recommend testing each time to make sure you haven’t gone too far, as there is no going back once this has happened. (I have reached 10 times in testing and it still sticks fine.)


If you have any questions or concerns about this please don’t hesitate to get in touch

How to apply and remove decals on your car

Monday, February 17, 2020


Sometimes it's nice to stand out from the crowd. Car stickers are a great way to do this. You can inject some personality into your ride, and make it easier to spot your car in the carpark! Our reusable decals have a UV coating which makes them durable enough to put on your car. They can withstand the sun, rain, and some gentle cleaning.

You do need to take a little more care of them to ensure they last a long time and keep looking good. Follow these steps to get the most out of your reusable decals:


How to apply car stickers

1) To begin with, throughly clean the surface on the car where you are going to apply your car stickers. Depending on how much time you have, and how thorough you like to be, you could wash your whole car!

2) Once it is clean, use a soft, lint free cloth to dry the area and remove any residual dirt that may have been lingering.

3) Carefully apply the car sticker to the surface of the car. You can remove and reapply if necessary to make sure your arrangement works. Make sure to stick with the paintwork and don't stick to windows, as you don't want to lose any visibility, or fall foul of any laws.

4) Pro tip: Firmly press down all of the edges of the car stickers to make sure no dust can sneak in.

Stand back and admire your work!



If it's time for a change, or you upgrade your car, you can remove the car stickers and reapply them to your new car. To avoid transferring any dust or dirt, follow these steps to remove them from your car:

How to remove and reapply car stickers

1) Carefully clean the car sticker and surrounding paintwork with a soft cloth and soapy water.

2) Use a soft, lint free cloth to dry the decal and surrounding paintwork. Let it dry completely.

3) Carefully peel off the car sticker.

4) Follow the steps above on how to apply your car sticker, then stand back and admire your work!

Here are some examples how much difference smoothing the edges makes. This set had been well smoothed down, and no dust had got under the edges. After removing the car stickers, you can just see a faint outline of the dirt with is easily washed away.


If you're a bit less careful, like I was with the second set of car stickers, you can see that in the areas where the edges weren't firmly stuck down, the dirt has settled in there. This will stay stuck on the back of the decals. Although this will wash off the car totally fine, it won't wash off the sticker. These were still fine to re-apply to the new car, but probably won't last as many years.


by mlekoshi