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Can I Print on Fabric with my Inkjet Printer?

Technology has led to many new conveniences in our lives- it has made nearly everything easier, faster and more efficient, but it has also brought with it a great deal of fun and the opportunity to further the creative spirit. Whether you are a quilter, fashion-guru, or simply an avid sports fan, printing on fabric can seem a wonderful idea. Fortunately for you, you weren’t the first to think up such an idea. You might be surprised to hear that there are actually a couple ways to move an image onto some fabric. The first is to print directly on printer-friendly fabric, while the second involves a product called heat-activated transfer paper. Whichever way you choose, it can result in you making a noticeable statement.

Now, on the market, they sell a number of interesting printer supplies, such as inkjet friendly fabric sheets, which are sheets of cotton fabric made to accept ink from the average inkjet printer. These sheets, which can be found in a number of sizes including 8 1/2 x 11″, 11 x 17″ and 13 x 19″, can simply be sewn together as traditional fabrics once printed on and dried. You can hand-pick photos, patterns, clip art, or you can actually draw something by hand and scan it into the computer. Then, you can use a photography editing program to change the image to exactly what you want. Then, you just put the fabric sheets in your printer and print away. One note: it has to be loaded correctly so that the correct side of the sheet gets printed on. Also, there might be special directions, such as whether or not you should soak it or how long to let it sit after it has been printed on. Then prepare the sewing machine or needle and thread. However, while these products work great for shams, quilts, curtains, and the like, it won’t work so well on some materials. If you just want to put a picture on a T-shirt, tie, or ribbon, there’s a product that makes that easier: heat activated transfer sheets. These nifty papers can be found in printer-friendly fashion and are simply a means to redressing existing fabrics. To start off with, you should have some clothes or some other material that you want to permanently attach an image to. Then, you locate the picture and edit as before. Print the image on the transfer paper after you have properly loaded it into your printer. Chances are that you won’t want borders around the image, and you’ll probably need to trim away the extra border to make it look just right. The best result possible is when there is a thin border, or even no border, around it. After this point, read and follow the directions that came with the product to get the best results. Different products can have different instructions, and it’s important to follow the right ones. At this point, your creation should be ready to be worn or displayed with pride.

These products can open up brand new possibilities in the areas of clothing design and quilting. Create a photo collage quilt, let your dinner napkins share a holiday sentiment, make matching tees for you and your friends, or adorn socks with piggies to cover your little one’s piggies. A printer and some special printer supplies can turn an average project into a fun, creative adventure, no matter which way you choose to go about it.

Make Kids Crafts More Fun With Your Printer

When you have kids, there are many challenges to consider. Not the least of which is finding a way to productively use their creativity, which carries the benefit of keeping them busy. As long as you can replace any low ink cartridges you may have, you can use your printer and computer to gain an advantage in that area. There are a number of things that can be done to see how creative your kids can be.

Your little budding artist could use an electronic painting program on the computer for some artistic fun. Painting through a computer is very different than painting with your hands and a brush. It may bring new ideas out while it presents new challenges. Don’t let his or her project go to waste because you don’t have enough ink. Always make sure that your ink cartridges are full enough to print out any masterpieces your children can come up with.

Scrapbooking is another way that you can use your printer to enjoy crafts with your kids. Scrapbooking is an amazing way to keep good memories alive as they grow up through the photos and other memorabilia that are stored inside. Make sure your ink cartridges have both black and color ink in them to give you the best results. You can make copies of photographs so that your kids can cut them up and put them in their own albums however they would like to. To go even further with this, help them make and print stickers to specialize their scrapbooks with.

Many people don’t think about this, but if you take a picture and keep it instead of the whole science project, you can keep all of your kids creations. Occasionally, your children will create a nice project, but it will be too big to keep. When that happens, you can take a picture, print it out, and keep it as a memento of a beautiful project.

You can look up some printable crafts online as well, just make sure that your ink cartridges aren’t low on ink first. This is one of several possible ways to get your children excited about the possibilities associated with electronic creations, not to mention to get the creative juices flowing.

If your child is interested in learning how to sew, you can find patterns online and print them to help you in the teaching process. Beginning with something simple, such as patterns to sew along on paper, is one of the best ways to teach a beginning sewer how to sew in a straight line. Provided that there is enough ink in your ink cartridges, you can print out a handful of patterns for your little one to follow along to so he or she can practice. For beginner projects that you can do together, you can also find simple patterns.

Using your printer is a great way to bring out the creative side of your kids. You’ll probably be surprised by what your little ones can come up once they get going.

It’s the Thought that Counts: Give Creative Christmas Cards this Season

If you’ve taken any time to scan on the internet, you’ll already know that there are hundreds of sites offering printable Christmas cards for printing out. But where’s the creativity? Where’s the personal touch, other than the signature inside? If we’re going to send people cards expressing our goodwill this season, we should do it with the appropriate thought, and spend a little time doing it.

So, assuming that you want to make Christmas cards yourself, and that you’ve not caved in yet and just bought five-thousand generic cards with a robin on the front. The first thing we should explore is that, in a secular society, Christmas means different a different thing to different people. This is good for us. We can expand hugely upon the usual predictable symbols and images, which have, we should admit, somewhat lost their original meaning. We’ll hang on to this thought as we talk about designs. Which simply require your creativity and a computer and printer.

With our new blank canvas, we can think about what’s going to go on our card. Think ‘Christmas season’, and not traditional Christmas. What things go with Christmas that we particularly love, what is it that we share when we come together? A great idea is to make collages – describe your favourite winter walk, a crisp, snowy scene, where the empty space is the undisturbed snow, and you illuminate the features with cut-outs from magazines and newspapers. For a uniform texture, scan this into your computer, turn the image fully black-and-white, and make quality print-outs.

One quite original idea (I’m sure it’s been done before) is to give someone a wintry treasure hunt. Along with the instructions for the hunt, print out the successive clues to be hidden, and place them in a complex trail around the house. This presumes you are regularly in this person’s home; you’re unlikely to be thanked for planting these clues uninvited.

Think back to previous Christmas periods – with family and close friends, you’ll no doubt have endless folders of photos from over the years. How about making a photo-board from your existing pictures with a scanner and some simple image editing software to cut out the pieces digitally, thus saving your snaps from the scissors? Once you’ve layered several memorable shots, you can add your seasonal message and print your cards out to stand landscape-wise as a reminder of past and future good times.

Whatever choice you make, be original, and try to divert from the norm. Use good quality paper and colour printer to make your design look the part. Plain print-out Christmas cards are just as dull as their cheap, shop-bought cousins. Change this with a little inspiration, and you’ll no doubt remember more clearly what this season means to you personally along the way.