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I have just spent the best part of 10 minutes trying to peel away the back of a double sided sticky tape like sticker (specifically a label just printed from a label printer) and I thought that there must be an easier / quicker way to do it.

It's not like peeling a sticker off or finding the end of a roll of stick tape as in these instances it is slightly raised up from the surface so you can just pick until it comes away. With double sided sticky tape and similar things, you are trying to separate the two sides without really anything to pick at.

The method I was using was just slowly brushing my thumb over the corner until one of the grooves of of my finger print catches on it and manages to pull it away far enough to grasp - as mentioned, this takes a long time so is there a better way!

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What I do to remove printed labels is bend the paper slightly at the corner or edge of the label. The corner of the label should pop up where it can be grabbed. The backing is made so the label will come off easily. If necessary use a knife blade to help the edge of the label pop up while bending the paper.

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One of my co-workers saw me struggling with this problem and pointed out that our labelmaker has a special tool built into the plastic next to the cutter. You stick the end of the label in and pull hard, and it curls the end of the label around and makes the two halves separate.

If yours doesn't have this feature, you can achieve the same thing with a pen and its cap: Put the cap on the pen, slide the label between the pen and the clip on the cap, curl the label around (so it makes a U-turn around the clip), and pull hard. This forces the label and backing to separate at the end, and you can then easily pull them apart. (This works best if the clip is fairly close to the pen; a standard Bic ballpoint is perfect.)

Diagram of above explanation

You can also buy labelmaker tape where the backing is split along the center, so you just fold in half lengthwise and it comes apart.

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Get two 2-inch pieces of adhesive tape (like Scotch tape or masking tape). Fold over about half an inch on each, to leave a short non-adhesive section. Then stick one of the pieces of tape on the front of your "double sided sticky tape like sticker", and stick the other on the back. You should then be able to pull the 2 pieces apart.

Your adhesive tape may mess up the label, it's true. With practice (experimentation) you'll learn how much of the adhesive surface to apply to your label, and how hard to press it on. And you'll be able to apply your adhesive tape tabs without messing up the label.

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For Casio EZ-Labels at least, Casio advises bending the extreme tip of the label+backing at a sharp angle. I forget whether up or down, but I do this (up AND down a few times), and it works well. HTH

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It depends on the type of tape -- some are darn-near impossible to peel! To get it started, though, I sometimes resort to using duct-tape to grab the tape where it starts. That doesn't always work, particularly for the more stretchable tape. The other thing I've done is put on magnifiers so I can even see the start and use fine-pointed tweezers to start it.

BTW, once started, after you cut off what you need, stick a small piece of paper or plastic at the end of the roll so you don't have to struggle next time.

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If you have a VERY SHARP craft knife, score the backing so that it leaves your sticker unharmed but cuts right through the backing. This isn't easy but if you have a lot to do then it will get easier with practice.

You then bend the sticker lightly at the score line and the 2 edges of the backing will pop up along the cut to be easily removed.

This is the trick they use on self-adhesive labelling machine tape and I've copied it on double-sided tape and on sticking-plasters.

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Use a hair dryer to heat it; the glue's viscosity is reduced making it less adhesive and easier to pull apart.

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This made it VERY easy for me on a near impossible to separate label. Take two small pieces of scotch tape and apply one to an end of the front of the label and one to the back so that half the tape is on the label and half is not. Be careful that the opposite ends of the scotch tape don't stick together. Then simply pull the tape ends apart and the backing will separate.

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Hold the label in your finger and thumb, with the back of the label on your forefinger. The end of the label should be out from your fingers about 10-5mm. Pull with the index, and push with the thumb, very hard.

The end of the sticker will be revealed, and you can take the sticker off.

This works every single time regardless of length. as long as enough force is applied.

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    Welcome! Please always clearly state when you are linking to your own website or similar. Otherwise it may be seen as an attempt to generate traffic over being just an answer. I like the suggestion, although your video technique needs a bit more practice if you want to spare your viewers crackling noise and shaky images.
    – Stephie
    Nov 27, 2020 at 14:15
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Take a piece of sticky tape and put it on one corner of the backing paper, to give you a bit of a handle to hold the backing paper with. Press it on hard to get it to stick well.

Now roll the label off the backing paper, concentrating on getting the very corner of the sticker to peel off. Once the corner is loose, the rest of the sticker will follow easily.

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This works on Brother label tapes for sure, but I don't know about others. Take the printed label in between your thumb and fore finger of each hand with the backing side of the tape facing you, gently keep squeezing it and you will see that the waked backing tape is split down the middle, then just flip your thumb nail under the spit and peel off, it takes a few attempts but after a while you will do it first time every time.

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SIMPLE as popping a pimple. . . . Use a semi sharp piece of metal. ( I use the top of a chewing tobacco can) hold a corner tight and pull the rest . It will strip out the clear printed label. . .

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    That answer has already been given.
    – Chenmunka ♦
    Feb 18, 2019 at 10:58
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Take a sharp knife. Place it 3/8 inch from the end of the tape. Push down and scrape. It will cut the top layer. Then just pull it apart. 6 mm Casio is the hardest to do.

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3 different tapes didn’t grip the label good enough. Knife on the back also doesn’t work. I held my cigarette lighter under the back corner and it worked like charm. Probably like the hair dryer but I was too lazy to go all the way upstairs to get it. Just watch how long you burn it because it will start to melt.

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A hairdryer!! Just as someone else had posted; i used a hair dryer in one corner and heated it quite well. Then picked at t he corner and it came up fairly easy and peeled it down. some of the paper wanted to stick and not peel in the middle so I heated that up too. Presto, I had 8 small sheets of contac paper peeled off in less time than it took me to do the first--ugh!

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  • This answer has already been given. Please do not post duplicate answers.
    – Chenmunka ♦
    Mar 29, 2016 at 21:23
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You can try glue remover, it is the liquid, removing spray foam insulation spray glue for scrap gap filling

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  • I can’t see how this would help at all? The question is not about removing unwanted stickers from somewhere, but about lifting the stickers from the carrier paper to use them as intended.
    – Stephie
    Dec 4, 2019 at 8:26
  • This would effectively destroy the label.
    – Chenmunka ♦
    Dec 4, 2019 at 9:15

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