by Linda | Apr 11, 2017 | DIY printables, my creative journal
It’s amazing the print quality you can achieve from your home printer these days. Technology has really progressed and although there is no replacement for professional, bulk printers out there (love you guys) – it’s extremely convenient to be able to print from home, whenever you need it – instant gratification!
I love designing and using printables (no surprise) but I understand that most complaints center around the usage of ink. Printers might be affordable these days, but their ink cartridges seem to be the most expensive things in the world! I get it and feel your pain. You can imagine that I go through a lot of ink every year. But whatever solution you have at home, I know that it makes sense to make the most out of our ink cartridges and use it to the max.
So here are a few tips about printing from home and using up those ink cartridges to the max.
Take your time – if you don’t want to waste or misprint, make sure you slow down, take your time and check all the settings and preview. It’s easy to just get trigger happy and press print a zillion times… then you realize the paper setting was wrong or quality was set low – whatever – and you’ve got a huge stack of misprints! It totally pays to double-check before hitting print.
Test print and click cancel – if you are just starting out and not sure on the best papers and settings for your purposes, it’s okay to test a swatch! You can cancel a job and it’ll stop the printing and you save ink! There’s no need to let the whole thing print when you notice something is wrong or if you just wanted a partial print to see the quality!
Greyscale and Fast quality – I find that it saves color ink to print b/w work with greyscale selected… instead of using colors to mix and create black, it uses the straight black cartridge. I also find that it helps to print some items as Fast quality – especially black and white items that you really don’t need that true black. It really does save ink!
Batch printing lower quality prints – My biggest tip is to save things you want to print in a folder, so you can batch print at a later time… namely, when your printer is nearly out of ink. This is for stuff that you maybe don’t need at full quality or wouldn’t mind if it was a bit streaked or light from lack of ink. You know that dreaded warning of low ink and to change the cartridge? Ugh!
The issue is that it’s not totally empty yet and it might only be some colors and not others. So when I get that message, I rock out my “to print” folder and print them all out until there really is no ink left. I printed everything you see in the photo above when my ink was “low.” You can see the last couple prints were streaked and missing some spots of ink, so I knew that I was truly at the end at that point.
However, sometimes it’s only certain colors, so you can still get some other types of printables out before tossing the ink cartridge for good. See above how vintage prints seemed to still work! I think especially if you like shabby chic, vintage looking printables, it’s actually pretty cool to get the ink variations at this point of the ink cartridge life. If you are using your printables for art journaling, all the better as you might not want perfect prints anyway.
So those are my tips for home printing. You can save a lot of ink and money with just these few tips, making your ink stretch to many many printables. I hope you found these tips useful!
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by Linda | Mar 21, 2017 | DIY printables
Looking for some free printable vintage papers and cards? Check out this freebie design for your cardmaking and papercrafting projects.
I’m all for color and cute designs, but there’s definitely a special place in my heart for shabby papers, aged ephemera and the oh-so-warm earthy colors of anything vintage.
I think it’s pretty amazing that we can scan real-world items into the computer, so that we can manipulate them, remix and ultimately create lots of neo-vintage inspired designs. Yeah, I think I just made up that term neo-vintage.
I realize these new designs do not hold the true stories of real-life ephemera, but I still enjoy the design process of mixing and matching and being able to share the end result with you.
I created these set of 10 vintage journal cards and wanted to share with a little bit of the old world. You can download the files below and print them out for your own paper collaging and decor. They are designed to be 4×6″ cards, but you can easily print at a smaller percentage for your traveler’s notebooks and art journals.
Free Printable Vintage Journal Cards
Download Vintage Journal Cards ZIP
I really love including little hints of the vintage look in my art journals and sketchbooks. I feel that the earthy paper tone somehow grounds everything onto the page. Don’t you love it? I hope you enjoy these printables and feel free to tell all your vintage paper loving friends.
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by Linda | Mar 8, 2017 | DIY printables
Check out these free printable primavera papers, a bright and happy color palette for all your springtime paper projects!
Happy International Women’s Day! Looking for some pretty free printable primavera papers?
March 8th is a pseudo-holiday here in Italy. Even though you technically don’t get the day off work, it is an occasion that people definitely observe and everyone will wish you happy women’s day as you go about your day-to-day routine. It’s quite nice! There’s also the mimosa yellow flowers that often get gift to ladies at cafe bars, supermarkets, etc… Nice, huh?
This year there are many who are taking the holiday and celebrating A Day Without A Woman:
On International Women’s Day, March 8th, women and our allies will act together for equity, justice and the human rights of women and all gender-oppressed people, through a one-day demonstration of economic solidarity.
The idea is to support each other and bring more awareness to women and equality issues. I know that a contribution I can make is to offer a fun, free printable, so that you can get a bit crafty today. I know that’s what I would enjoy doing, hah! 🙂 Sometimes, it’s not always easy to figure out what we can personally do for various causes in life. But I know that it’s okay to do what I know best… so I know design and I love printables, so that’s what I’ve decided to celebrate with!
Download Free Printable Primavera Papers
Download Primavera Digital Papers ZIP
I hope you enjoy my primavera paper designs in fresh and happy, springy colors. I sort of thought the blue is the sky, the green the grass and pink for women – not to mention just because I’m partial to pink anyway!
You can make some nice pocket letters, happy mail and envelopes to send out. Or perhaps a minibook or notebook inserts? What about just papercrafting and art journaling away?
Either way, I do hope you have fun with the free printables paper set, if even I’ve given you a dose of colorful cheer – then I’ve done my job!
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by Linda | Jan 21, 2017 | DIY printables
Download this set of Rosie the Riveter printable stationery for your correspondence letterwiting this month and beyond!
InCoWriMo is shorthand for International Correspondence Writing Month and it happens February of each year. The point is to write a letter, card or note to someone every single day of the month. April is also letterwriting month for those participating in that challenge – although I suppose we should simple note that it is ALWAYS a good time to send someone a handwritten letter or card!
I have participated on and off with various snail mailing and correspondence challenges over the years and although I always find it challenging to keep up, I know from experience that participating means that I will write and send more mail than if I just passed.
I don’t know if multiple people are claiming the name but I found multiple references to this letter writing challenge and multiple websites! There is InCoWriMo.org and incowrimo-2017.org – is it two groups promoting the same thing? And of course there is also the LetterMo challenge – same exact idea really. I don’t know who started first or if they just have different names for different groups who like to participate together, but I can understand that February is a popular month for challenges given that it has the least number of days in the year. Trying to help everyone succeed, right?
Regardless, you can definitely participate with whatever challenge or group you choose. They all provide some resources to help you prepare and get started. Namely, it would help to write a list of who you want to write to, get mailing addresses ready, prep stationery/cards/postcards and mailing stamps at hand!
Personally, I don’t think I will make it to the post office or post box every day, so will probably do every couple of days or weekly drops. As with all challenges, you can follow the rules strictly, or just make up your own. Because the point is to doing something enjoyable and not beat yourself up!
I noticed that Boho Berry blogged about InCoWriMo with a giveaway and so did Goulet Pens. I also noticed that quite a few folks in the letter writing community blogged about the upcoming event, so there are groups popping up if you want to join a smaller group who will write to each other. It’s just another way to do some pen pal writing for this month of intense letter writing!
For my own contribution, I would love to share a printable stationery set, so you can prepare for your month of letter writing. I took my Rosie the Riveter drawing and colored her up to design a set of printable stationery for you. There are lined and blank pages as well as the matching envelope. You can easily print out the stationery in advance!
Download FREEBIE Rosie the Riveter Stationery Set
Rosie Stationery Set LETTER PDF | Rosie Stationery Set A4 PDF
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by Linda | Jan 10, 2017 | DIY printables
Here’s a free love wallpaper design that is motivational, inspirational and super pro-love, because love is out there, always.
After watching the Google year in search video, it brought tears to my eyes. I really think they did a good job in summarizing the general feeling that many of us may have these days. Lots of turmoil and uncertainty in general… but I love that they started to move towards showing all the good things and ended on a positive note. Love is out there. The song Light the Sky by Grace VanderWaal is beautiful as well.
I decided to create a simple and direct “love is out there” design in response to the whole presentation and my feelings at the comment. This design makes a wonderful wallpaper for your computer, laptop and devices. Just click on the image below and downlaod the full size 1920×1080 version. I hope my design will help to inspires you and remind you that love is out there. Keep hope and love in your heart, always.
I love being able to share my design and I think it’s important for all of us to have reminders of love, goodness and hope – all around us. Enjoy and please share with anyone who need a little pick me up. Love to you all.
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