What Matters Monday – Printing Your Work
Today I wanted to talk about the final step in the digi-scrap process. PRINTING. It’s something I have to admit I’ve only dabbled in. I have been sort of saving up my LOs in order to make a great big book on Shutterfly. But, the more I think about doing this the more I start to weigh the pros and cons in my head.
Pros:
-A slim professionally bound book. It won’t take up tons of room on a shelf like a binder would. Plus it just looks cool.
-A customizable cover. Now that is nifty!!
-While it seems expensive, if you add up the cost per page, its really not!
-I’ve heard wonderful things about the quality at Shutterfly and I know my pages would look gorgeous.
Cons:
-The pages are only paper. If someone (even me) was looking through it and turned a page funny and one ripped, I think I’d have a stroke. The pages are unprotected, which is fine for me now, we don’t have kids yet. But when I want to let my kids look at it, that could be a big problem.
-While I’m finishing pages and completing a full time period that I would want to bind together, I’m not getting any of my pages out of the computer and into real life.
-The cost is all at once, where if I was printing page by page I wouldn’t have to spend all the money right at the same time.
So, I still can’t decide. I’m so torn. I emailed some scrappers who I know have printed to see how they did it and why. I learned a lots of little tips and tricks as well as some good information about printing. I thought I’d share how some other team members here at SM print!
Our chief here at ScrapMatters, Andrea, is a home printer. She resizes her 12×12 LOs to 8×8 then prints them on an Epson CX4200 and/or a CX4800 with matte heavyweight paper and/or cardstock. For brag book pages or 4x6s she uses her small Kodak printer with Kodak glossy paper. She uses the Epson for things she prints for hybrid scrapping because the ink is waterproof and can handle the Modge Podge without bleeding.
Shari says she hasn’t printed much, but has printed a few things (like those cute candy bar wrappers we saw on the blog last week) on her good old HP Deskjet printer. She said its not even a photo printer, but she was pleased with how well they printed out. The ink isn’t waterproof, but for disposables (like the wrappers) or pages that go into protectors, she’s not concerned with that.
Happy Scrap Girl had LOTS of really great info on printing! Here’s what she said:
“I have a crummy printer, so I always send mine out. However, I do print in black and white on my printer first, just to make sure everything is readable, and that I didn’t make goofy mistakes.” (What a GREAT idea! Duh! Why didn’t I think of that?!)
“I’ve tried several online printers, most of which are no longer in business – for good reasons! When I look for services, I look at price per page, shipping costs, page sizes available, paper maker (ie Kodak, Fuji, etc). I also check to see if they brag about any new printing equipment and if they offer a sample of their work.
My favorite place is Scrapbookpictures.com. They use Kodak paper – it’s thick & sturdy. The pages always come out wonderful. I’ve also emailed with the owner a few times, and their customer service if wonderful. They have many sizes from a 2×2 to a 16×16. They have a flat rate international shipping fee of $2.00 per order, and their square pages are all on sale now (12×12′s are on sale for $2.49 each).
I have also ordered Shutterfly Books – I love the quality, and how easy they are to customize. I use these for gift albums because I don’t trust my DD’s little hands on those unprotected pages 
They use Fuji paper. They also now do square sizes, but are on the pricey side.
I have personally seen pages from adoramapix.com. They use Kodak paper, the prints are good. They occasionally have sales.
Once I printed a LO from my local LSS, but they had their own large format printer (don’t remember brand name), and only had cardstock to print on – the images bleed a bit, so I won’t use that again!
One thing I have learned from all of the places I’ve tried out, is to only send a small order the first time to be sure you are satisfied with the quality. Also, shipping adds up, so be sure to figure that into the equation.”
Thanks so much Happy for all this info!! VERY useful!!!!!
I asked Teresa about what she does to print and here’s what she said:
“I print at lot of layouts through Costco . . . $2.99 for a 12×12.” (That’s what I’ve done too, and 8x8s are only 1.50. I also heard someone say that since 12x18s are the same price as 12×12 that they add a couple little things in that extra 6 inches and just order 12x18s. Then they cut off little extra things, which I thought was a very good idea!! Ok – back to Teresa)
“I have used Shutterfly for one book. The first one was awful because they color corrected the files so some of the red pages were the red they were supposed to be and others were neon red. I called and they reprinted and set my account to DO NOT COLOR CORRECT since I set the color in Photoshop myself. They said most customers are loading pics straight out of the camera and need the color correcting. So that would be a tip to give any digi scrappers printing books.”
Thanks so much for that tip Teresa!
And finally, I asked my sister-in-law Marci about printing because I LOVE looking at all her digi-pages when I go over there. She prints her LOs all the time and puts them into page protectors and binders. It’s because I saw her pages printed out that I started to have doubts about my own Shutterfly plan. Seeing the pages in real life, not long after she scrapped them was so much fun!! Here’s what Marci said:
“I just print my all my 12×12 LOs at Costco. I have printed little brag books at Shutterfly and it was very easy and straight forward. I’ve printed holiday cards at Shutterfly that I scrapped. You just have to get their template. It’s very step by step!
“I have been printing my LOs from the very beginning of when I started scrapping! I always print them at Costco because they have great prices and they do a really great job! When I print my LOs I print them in 12X12 because I love a big scrapbook. When I printed my first batch of LOs I found some fun surprises . . . In one of my pages I had used staples all over and didn’t realize how big they actually were until I printed the page!! They were HUGE!!! It made the page look so funny! So, always make sure you realize that the supplies you’re using and everything will be so much bigger when you print! Just a little heads up! I really like printing my pages because it gives me a sense of accomplishment . . . I can actually go and look at my pages. I can see what I love and things I think I need to change about my scrapping.”
So, I wanna know . . . how and why do YOU print your LOs? Have you done any printing yet? I suggest you print some of your LOs now. Like Marci said, there are things you’ll learn about your scrapping that you can only learn from printing those pages. Like size for example. 12×12 is bigger than you might think. Bigger than your monitor in some people’s cases (especially if you scrap on a little lap top). So when you’re putting big flowers and things like that on our page, your jaw might just drop when you get that page back and actually SEE how big it is on the page. Use those rulers and really think about what size things are!
Anyway – let’s have a chat about printing. I would love to hear more about your experiences with printing sites and Shutterfly. Join in the discussion here in the forum!!
February 18th, 2008 at 9:49 am
I also print my pages at Costco. I just recently had a bunch printed there over the weekend. I LOVE making pages, but I LOVE getting them printed and putting them into my albums. If you print them at Costco, you can print a 12×26 for 5 bucks! It’s a great deal. I went there this weekend and the just informed me that they are changing their policy. Before, YOU had to put 3 pages onto a 12×36 and give them that large file and then had to take home these HUGE pages and cut them. NOW, they said they are willing to print the 12x12s for the same price (as long as the number of pages you are printing is divisible by 3). They figured it’s the same amount of paper and it’s easier for us not to have to make the huge files and then cut them. What’s even better with that is that now you can upload your pages on their website and go pick them up (before with the 12×36 pages you had to bring in a disc for them since they didn’t accept that size on-line). If you load them on-line, it will give you the individual 12×12 price, but when you go in, just tell them and they will adjust the price for you. This isn’t just a rumor, the photo guy actually called me and told me after I dropped my photos off (what a nice guy!). I am not sure about ALL Costco’s, but I know they are trying to get on the same page. My costco is the one in Orem Utah. If your Costco doesn’t do it, call and complain-that is how they changed the policy here–enough people make a stink and they changed it for us. Hope that helps.
February 18th, 2008 at 9:49 am
whoops, I meant 12×36 in the first sentence.
February 18th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Wow! So interesting to see the diffferent ways people print things. Now I’m kind of scared to print my LOs in the actual 12×12 size at Costco. Visions of huge staples and flowers! I always do 8×8 because I originally was a rectangle scrapper and so if there is a page I want to put in my kids’ 8.5×11 scrapbook, I can just plop the LO on a piece of coordinating cardstock–add a little trim and have a hybrid LO. Also all of my heritage scrapbooks are 8.5×11 too, because all of my genealogy reports print out at that size–so I do the same thing with 8×8 LOs unless I decide to make rectangle LOs in the beginning.
February 18th, 2008 at 10:34 am
I have tons on the computer that HAVE to get in the albums… my children will be begging me to go back to paper otherwise.
I do like for my scrapbooks to have the pages in my regular albums WITH page protectors.
My order next month will be hundreds of dollars but then I plan to space it out printing every month at least.
Thanks for a great entry Britt!
February 18th, 2008 at 10:42 am
This is a great post, and something I’ve been thinking about for a while now. So far, I haven’t found anything good or well priced in New Zealand… in fact the best (and strangely cheapest) option so far seems to be to order through Shutterfly over there and pay shipping, also we are looking into the books etc you can order directly through iPhoto.
I haven’t printed any layouts yet, only 6×4 layouts that I’ve made into invitations for various events, and Christmas cards, and then they were easy because I just got them printed as regular 6x4s.
Lots to think about!!
February 18th, 2008 at 11:03 am
Great article Brittney! Makes me think even more about printing
Everyone had such wonderful tips to contribute.
BTW Kate – scrapbookpictures.com is offering $2.00 flat rate shipping per order, internationally! You can send an email to their customer service to make sure it’s still going, but he emailed me about a month ago to let me know it was still running.
February 18th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
I’ve never printed my pages, except for the one that I did for parents’ anniversary. I printed it in 8×8 (the real size was 12×12) coz I think 12×12 is too big. Then my sister went to a store to frame it up and gave it to our parents as an anniversary present!
Sya (another CT of SM) did an awesome job to save money while getting all the pages printed and protected. She printed all of her last year’s pages in 4×4 and put them all in a plastic-covered album! Check out the pictures in her blog: http://scrap-stuff.blogspot.com/2008/02/57-layouts.html
February 18th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
I print all my pages at Costco, too. For $2.99 it’s a great steal. I have tried many, many, many online sites and the quality is just not the same. Costco has been awesome! I did print an 8×8 Shutterfly book for a girls weekend trip and I enjoyed the “book” idea. I won’t do it for my regular stuff b/c the paper isn’t as good of quality, but most of all because if there is a mistake in one of the pages you can’t go back and fix it, as you can with printing off each page at Costco. The books are great for small trips or vacations, but make sure you proof-read EVERYTHING very carefully! I mis-spelled one word and it’s going to drive me crazy forever but I refuse to re-print the entire book. I HIGHTLY recommend Costco and I would spend up to $5 on a print if it was as good of a quality. Luckily they are only $2.99. I don’t buy much from there other than photos, but once in a while I get a couple things and people like to tag-along, so it turns into a fun trip every time!
February 19th, 2008 at 11:29 am
What format do you guys all save your LOs in? I always save mine in PNG because of the ghosting effect of JPEG, but I’m wondering if that’s even a factor when printing pages.
February 27th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Hi!
I’m totally new to scrapbooking and I just loooove it!!!
I’ll print my stuff at home (when finished).
Cheers,
S
March 13th, 2008 at 11:52 am
I just want to thank Dacia for her helpful comment about printing at Costco. I always print there and after reading her comment about printing a 12×36 I called my local Costco and asked them. Mine doesn’t offer that size and that’s why no one ever told me about it but when I called the Costco in the next town over they told me all about how it would save me money. They wouldn’t, however, agree to let me just print regular 12x12s at the cheper price. Doesn’t matter. I am still getting a great deal. Thanks so much for the suggestiong! I have extra cash to buy supplies now!