Creative Printing

Did you know that ink jet printers can handle more than printing on paper? When you think outside the box, an ink jet printer becomes a creative tool that can turn any scrapbook page into a piece of art. Sure, you can use it to print titles and journaling on cardstock, but what I really like about my ink jet printer are all the different types of materials I can print on.

I recently conducted an experiment by doing a “Will it print?” test to see what types of materials my ink jet printer could handle. I printed on cardstock, vellum, photo paper, transparency film, shrink art film, fabric, ribbon, and tags. The results varied for each medium. Measuring the ease of use, the quality of the printing, and the smear resistance on each type of material, these were the results of my testing.

Cardstock/Patterned Paper
The result of printing on cardstock and patterned paper is very similar to printing on regular printer paper. It allows you to print on a variety of colors, textures and patterns. If you use 12” x 12” paper, it might be necessary to trim each piece to 8 ½” x 11” or 8 ½” x 12” in order to run it through a printer. Extremely heavy cardstock may jam in the printer, so use caution. In addition to titles and journaling, I often print photographs onto cardstock to give the photos a more textured background.

Ease of Use = 5
Quality of Printing = 5
Smear Resistance = 5

Vellum
Each brand and weight of vellum will vary in results with an ink jet printer. Some vellum paper has a waxy finish which makes the printer ink bead up on top of the paper. To help reduce this problem, try rubbing sandpaper over the vellum before running it through your printer. This will remove the waxy finish and allow the ink to better absorb into the vellum. Be sure to print on the sanded side of the vellum. After you have printed on the vellum, lay the paper flat (it often curls after going through a printer) and allow plenty of time for the ink to dry before cutting or positioning it on a layout.

Ease of Use = 4
Quality of Print = 4
Smear Resistance = 3

Photo Paper
Now that digital photography is becoming so popular, there are dozens of brands and styles of photo paper to use to print your own photographs. Though often more costly, high quality photo paper is thicker, stronger, and in my experience has always yielded top quality prints. To get the maximum use out of a sheet of photo paper, assemble three or four photos into a Microsoft Word document. This allows you to print three or four photos on the sheet, and reduces wasted photo paper. Your printer settings will give you options for the type of photo paper you are using. Be sure to choose the appropriate settings (ie. matte, glossy, etc.) to match the paper you are using for the best printed results.

Ease of Use = 5
Quality of Print = 5
Smear Resistance = 3

Cardstock, patterned paper, vellum and photo paper are basic paper materials that I use frequently in my ink jet printer. I wanted to stretch the use of my printer so I tried some unconventional items as well.

Transparency Film
You can buy pre-printed transparencies for scrapbooking from various companies, but I wanted to give printing my own a try so I bought a package of transparency film for ink jet printers. Following the directions on the package, I set my printer settings to “transparency” and printed my design. One side of the transparency is slightly rougher than the other side. Be sure to print on the rough side so that your ink will dry correctly and to prevent smearing. The drying instructions on the package were vague and said to “wait a sufficient amount of time” to let the transparency dry. I let the page dry for several hours before putting it into a page protector.

Ease of Use = 4
Quality of Print = 4
Smear Resistance = 2

Shrink Art Plastic
The next material I tried was shrink art plastic. I was apprehensive about running a full sheet of this plastic through my printer since the sheets are rather thick. Instead of using a whole sheet, I taped a small piece to scratch paper and ran the paper through the printer, letting the text print on the shrink art plastic. The shrink plastic is slick and unlikely to absorb ink, so I sanded it with sandpaper before running it through the printer to help the ink stay in place.

The ink beaded up slightly, giving it an interesting texture that was not quite solid black text. Without touching the ink, I took the plastic off the scratch paper and placed it on a pan to put in the oven to shrink it. Five minutes later (after the plastic had shrunk) the text was darker and the ink was set on the plastic. I recommend avoiding any rough handling with the inked portion even after the plastic has been shrunk. Though it can sit within a page protector without smearing, pressing your finger across it will smear the ink.

Ease of Use = 3
Quality of Print = 3
Smear Resistance = 1

Fabric
I bought a yard of cream colored muslin fabric to try printing photographs on fabric. I cut a piece of the fabric and taped it securely to a piece of scratch paper. I ran the paper through the printer and printed a 5” x 7” black and white photograph. Two attempts gave me the same results. The top portion of each photograph had a green tint, while the bottom had a reddish-tint. The center of the photograph was black and white and looked great. Disappointed that the entire photo didn’t print perfectly, I exercised my personal scrapbooking theory of “Nothing is a mistake, it was meant to be that way.” I simply cut the top and bottom off of the photo, frayed the edges of the fabric, and used the center portion as my photograph for the layout.

Ease of Use = 3
Quality of Print = 3
Smear Resistance = 4

Ribbon
Next, I tackled printing on strips of ribbon. For this test, I chose two types of ribbon; a wide paper-like ribbon, and a thin fabric-style ribbon. I was pleasantly surprised with the results of both types. In order to print on them, I first printed the text on a piece of scratch paper. Then, using repositionable adhesive, I glued the ribbon over the text onto the paper. Running it through the printer a second time, the text printed perfectly onto the ribbon. Because ribbon absorbs ink in a different way than paper, the ink bleeds slightly, giving it a somewhat blurry look. As long as your text is large enough, this doesn’t take away from the readability, but instead adds an interesting effect to the text.

Ease of Use = 4
Quality of Print = 4
Smear Resistance = 5

Tags
Finally, I chose to try printing on various tags. Cardstock tags were easy to print on by simply printing a draft of the text, adhering the tag to the paper, and then running the whole paper through the printer a second time. This allowed the text to print directly onto the tag. Metal rimmed tags were slightly more complicated. Using the same technique, I found that when I ran the metal rimmed tag through the printer (taped to a piece of scratch paper), the text printed slightly higher and to the left than what it had printed on the draft page. To fix this, I simply turned the tag over to the other blank side and moved it to line up with where it printed with the tag attached to the page. After running it through the printer a third time, the text was printed in the center of the tag.

Ease of Use = 4
Quality of Print = 4
Smear Resistance = 5

Ink Jet Printing Tips

• Use the appropriate printer settings for the medium on which you are printing.


• When printing on small pieces of paper, print a draft of your text first. Then center the small piece of paper over the text on the draft paper and adhere it with repositionable adhesive. Finally, run it through the printer a second time.


• Use a light box to place your paper over the draft page to help properly center the text on your paper.


• Prevent smearing by sanding vellum or slick papers with sandpaper before running them through the printer.


• Print a draft copy to be sure the spacing and font sizes are correct before printing on specialty materials. This will save you time, supplies, and money!


• Thicker items (such as metal rimmed tags and shrink art plastic) can get caught in your printer. Use tape to hold the item to the page. This prevents an edge of the material from getting caught inside the printer.

Not every material I tried was perfect for an inkjet printer, but I ended up with some really interesting textures and text treatments from my experiment. Look for other paper products that are specifically created for ink jet printers to create interesting embellishments, text and photo treatments on your pages. T-shirt transfer sheets, clear sticker labels and canvas photo paper are a few options. You might also try your own printing tests by printing on mulberry paper, handmade paper, paper ribbon or even pre-printed stickers.

*The printer used for this experiment was an HP Photosmart 1115 by Hewlett Packard. Use caution when printing on materials not originally intended for ink jet printers.

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Article originally printed in the Ivy Cottage Creations June 2004 issue.