Printing digital Layouts?

[lorig]

I have a question for those of you who have been scrapping digitally for awhile. Do you print your layouts? If so, how? Do you print them at home or elsewhere? On cardstock or photo paper?

I usually use 12x12 when I paper scrap. I am currently working on a Christmas gift album in 6x6. i would like to include some of my digital layouts in this album but have many questions about the best way to go about it.

[amandathor]

i use 12x12 for my digital layouts. If i want to print them at home, I resize for 8x8 borderless. I hear that Sams club or Costco does a good job with printing. Kinkos as well. I would use a matte finish photo paper.

If you want them bound into a book, there is a thread in the forum for Heritage Makers Bound books that you can check out.

[lorig]

i use 12x12 for my digital layouts. If i want to print them at home, I resize for 8x8 borderless. I hear that Sams club or Costco does a good job with printing. Kinkos as well. I would use a matte finish photo paper.

If you want them bound into a book, there is a thread in the forum for Heritage Makers Bound books that you can check out.

Thanks for the reply Amanda. At this point I am not planning to bind them into a book. What I am thinking of doing is mixing digital and traditional paper layouts in an album. What I want to do is print the digital ones and then slide them into the page protectors at the appropriate places in the album. I will lokk into the printing options you have mentioned.

[wifeofarmynco]

my mom orders all of my layouts .. she uses Shiny Nickels to order the prints. They are about $2 a page for 12x12 ... she tells me that they come on 13x13 paper, so she has to trim the edges, but she has a 12x12 book she keeps them all in.

[oilnwine]

I have tried Shinynickels, but I don't care for the way they print. The dark photos especially don't print very well. I do h ave a wide format printer (Epson R1800) that prints 13' wide paper, so I print my own. But there is qoop.com which works together with your flickr account and I have just ordered some photo books that turned out great. The books are 8.5X11 but they print the layouts in the center so it looks good.

HTH

Hugz,
Maddy

[CynR3219]

Thanks for the printing info. I need to decide if I'm printing or not.
Cyn

[momoid]

I tend to do all of my printing at home. I have an HP wide format printer so I can do 12 x 12 and I finally found some reasonably priced matte finish photo paper that is 13 x 19. When I print, I will set up the page to print a 12 x 12 and then put a row of 6 x 6 prints underneath it so I don't waste the paper. Otherwise, if I don't have the smaller size to print, then I save the trimming for printing pictures or Christmas cards, etc. HTH

[rdrake]

I have printed out a few at home. I print 8x8 to put in a scrapbook, and I've also printed out 8x10's to hang on the wall

[SMMann]

Glenda says Sam's Club is the best. She loves them.

[Janeal]

Great info ladies. Thanks for answering for me too. I am not sure what to do at this point. I will keep looking around myself. Maybe I will check out Sam's Club.

[nicats]

this was shared in a group I was in and I kept it to help me print my layouts.

It really is a matter of personal preference. For printing it depends on whether you want to be able to print your layouts at home or plan on sending them to a printer to have professionally done. I print the majority of my layouts myself. I did have a bunch of layouts printed at Office Max at Christmas just because I had so many to print and I didn't want to use up all of my ink. They did a very nice job.

Unless you have a wide format printer you won't be able to print larger than 8.5"x11" -- and even then most printers do not print all the way to the edges of the paper. There are some printers that do print to the very edges of the paper -- these are referred to as "borderless" prints. My printer is an Epson Stylus RX620 and will print all the way to the edges of the paper, but it is not a wide format printer so I can not print a 12"x12" layout. The maximum width I can achieve is 8.5". I normally make my layouts either 8.5"x8.5", 8"x8" or 6"x6". The reason I choose these sizes is that they are common sizes of scrapbooking albums that you can buy at your local craft store or online. Most albums can be purchased in 6x6, 8x8, and 12x12 sizes. K & Company makes their midsize album 8.5"x8.5" instead of 8"x8" -- so that is why I will sometimes scrap at that size (if I have a specific album that I am working with).

When looking to purchase an album look for an album that is "post bound." This means that it will have page protectors on each page (the plastic sheath). You can also add additional pages to a post bound album. The majority of albums come with 10 to 12 pages -- meaning that you can put 20 to 24 layouts in the album. There are a few that come with 20 pages -- meaning that you can have up to 40 layouts in the album. There is a company called K & Company that makes the most beautiful albums. They are top notch on quality. You can normally find them at your local craft store. I have found them at Michael's here in Virginia Beach. They normally make three different sizes of each album style (12x12, 8.5x8.5, and 6x6). I bought numerous 6x6 K&Co. albums at Christmas when I was making albums as gifts for family members. I believe that they cost around $10 to $15.

When looking at the description of the album you want to make sure that pages have protectors on them. That way your LO will just slide right into the protector. Almost all of the post bound albums have page protectors and are "top loading" which means that you slide your LO in from the top of the page and not the side. There are some that are side loading -- and I personally don't have a preference on them. I haven't had any problems with layouts coming out of the page protectors.

Here are a few links for you to check out. I have personally ordered from all three of these stores and have not had any problems at all. If you aren't opposed to buying stuff on Ebay you may want to check out their listings. I have ordered numerous albums on Ebay over the last 9+ months -- and out of probably 10 to 15 transactions have only had one problem. When I didn't receive my album after I paid for it I placed a complaint with PayPal and they took over. The seller had a certain amount of time to respond to the complaint -- and in my case I guess she didn't respond. PayPal refunded the money that I had paid to the seller in full -- and I did NOT check that box for "insurance" when I initially paid with PayPal. There is always a little bit of a risk buying on Ebay -- but I figured when I am spending less than $20 -- it is worth a little bit of risk. I would estimate that I have purchased probably 90% of my albums on Ebay instead of a local craft store or an online store.

Okay... here are the links for you. Just browse through the stores so that you can get an idea of what is out there. Almost any of the K&Co albums come in all three sizes I mentioned earlier -- although you won't usually see every size available. If you like a certain style you can do a further search online to find the specific size that you want.

Joann Crafts http://www.joann.com/catalog.jhtml?CATID=40760 (link is to their album section -- this is a huge store -- so it is easy to get "lost")

A Cherry on Top http://www.acherryontop.com/digital/type/albums_%26_refills/ (link is to their albums -- they don't have a huge selection -- but they have a very good reputation. They also have quite a large section of digital scrapbooking kits.)

Scrapbook.com http://store.scrapbook.com/scrapbooks.html (this is to their section of albums)

As far as what kind of paper to use -- again it is a matter of personal preference. I personally don't like the high gloss look (but many people do) -- so I usually buy the soft gloss photo paper. You can also buy a matte finish. You do want to buy good quality paper to print your layouts. Sometimes I will print them on regular paper on a "quick print" setting to make sure that everything looks like I want it to before I put the photo paper into the printer. I then print at the highest quality setting using the photo paper. For cards or calendar pages, etc. where you really don't want a glossy paper I use a paper by Epson called "Double-Sided Matte Paper." I bought it at Office Max. It is a heavier paper (the weight is 47 lb) and is very good quality. It claims that you can print on both sides -- but I personally haven't tried it. I just checked to see what photo paper I am currently using -- and it is by Kodak. It is called "Kodak Picture Paper for Inkjet Prints - Soft Gloss." It also claims that you can print on both sides of the paper -- but again I haven't tested it. If you do use the glossy paper make sure that you have it loaded properly in your printer. It should print on the smooth glossy side and not the matte side.

Okay... one last thing. If you do want to make a 12"x12" album and need someone to print your layouts for you -- you might want to consider an online printer. Although I personally haven't used this company I have heard great things about them -- and they offer a FREE sample. All you have to do is send them your layout and they will print a sample for you at no cost -- I don't even think they charge any shipping fees. The company is called Scrapbooks to Share and the URL is http://sbtoshare.com/Digital_v1.htm Actually I had this site bookmarked because I plan on sending them a 12x12 layout to print -- just to see what their quality is like. I do have a few 12x12 albums -- just cuz I am a weirdo when it comes to buying albums -- and will buy one because I think it is beautiful -- even though I don't have a present use for it. LOL I figure that eventually I will have a use for it.

There is another online printing service that caters to digital scrapbookers -- but I have heard a few negative things about them -- so I am not comfortable in recommending them. I believe the name of the site is Shiny Nickels (or something like that). They may very well be a reputable company -- but as I said I have heard a couple of people complain about their customer service -- so proceed with caution if you want to use them.

[lorig]

Thank you for all the information. I now have lots to consider.

[kimberkatt]

I haven't printed anything so far because I'm still new to digi and I only have a dozen or so LO's done, but I'm planning on getting them printed up sometime after Christmas! Thanks for the info! :)

[daisy454c]

I got my prints from ShinyNickels.com today and they are beautiful! They are $1.99 for the 12x12 and they send you two free 6x6s with each! I'll put those into little booklets for grandparents or my kids. Shipping is flat rate $5.99 on orders of 10 pages or more.

The color registration with their new wet ink press is beautiful (dark photos included), and no edges were cut off! What I submitted is exactly what was printed. I even got my order overnight - they say it takes 3-5 days, but somehow USPS got my priority box to me sooner.

Customer service was great and personable. The pages have a white border on the bottom but bleed to the other three edges. Easy!

This makes me want to scrapbook more...

[SMMann]

www.persnickeyprints.com is where I get my layouts printed and they are excellent!