Using Your Inkjet Printer for Fun and Profit
When you first unpack your inkjet printer with a brand new color cartridge, you will be tempted to print out anything and everything just to admire the result.
But your inkjet printer can do much more for you, especially if you are a hobbyist. You will find you can not only have a lot of fun with it, but can actually print out many of your own supplies for scrapbooking, card making, miniatures or practically any hobby you can name.
The scrapbooker soon finds that a printer can not only save money, but can also be used to create unique embellishments and titles. Experiment with the font styles in your word processor and print out quotes and titles on pastel colored cardstock, vellum or patterned paper. Print out several on one page so you can crop them for use on your scrapbook pages.
The new craze for digital scrapbooking even means that you can do away with cluttered stocks of cardstock, croppers and glue. Just create your page with a digital scrapbooking program and print it out. You can frame it or put it in an album just like a regular page, or save the page on a CD album to copy and share with family and friends.
Card makers can design their own cards in programs like Word or Publisher and print them out for use when birthdays and anniversaries crop up. At Christmas, personalize your Christmas message with a favorite family photo on a card. Images for use in card making can be printed out on cardstock, cropped and kept for use when you have a card making session.
If you have just renovated, or moved to a new house, your printer can help you spread the word. Print out a card with a photo of the house on it and send it to your family and friends as a postcard. Don't forget to include your new address, if you have moved.
Do you love to make miniature houses and set pieces? You will find the internet abounds with sites where you can print out ready to cut and fold miniature furniture, decorations and patterned wallpaper for your dollhouses. Experienced miniaturists use a scanner to copy magazine covers, cereal packets and other items, which they can size down to thumbnails and print out. But if you don't want to go to all this trouble, there are many sites where miniaturists have already done the hard yards for you. Just right click on the image to save it, and then print it out at your leisure for use in your projects.
If the wide world of printing looks daunting at first, your printer manufacturer probably has a website loaded with ideas. Check out the websites for Canon, Epson and Hewlett Packard and you will find printables galore. You can download cards, charts and letterheads with just a right click, but why stop there? These sites also have a wide range of paper and card toys that will keep both you and the kids amused for hours.
Around the home, your inkjet printer has many uses. Type inspiring quotes into your word processor, using a fancy font and decorating it with images from nature, and print them out on cardstock. These look charming framed over a desk or quiet reading area.
In the kitchen, you can make your own set of recipe cards by printing favourite recipes on cardstock and cropping them to fit in a standard recipe holder box. If you like recipe calendars, why not make your own, with a favorite family recipe for every month and a family photo to accompany it? You can have twelve months of good times every time you change the calendar.
To keep track on very busy days, print out a timetable with everyone's schedule on it and stick it to the fridge with a magnet. Add a funny cartoon or figure so that everyone who checks it to see where they ought to be and how much time they have left, gets a smile out of it as well.
Another handy thing to print out and have on your fridge is a checklist for grocery shopping. You can download these from the web or create your own. When you start to run low on a grocery item, tick it off the list so you will know at a glance what you need to stock up on while shopping.
Is there no room on your fridge for anything else once all your kids' school art projects have gone up? No problem, just scan each project, reduce it in size and print it out. This means you can put the original away where it won't get dirty or torn, and you can display even more!
When you have a special family occasion or children's party you will find your inkjet printer an invaluable aid. You can customize your invitations and print them out on paper appropriate to the occasion - brightly patterned paper for children's parties, vellum or silk for weddings and so on. Keep the template on your computer in case you have to change details, and then you only have to print them out again instead of calling every invitee.
You printer's manufacturer will have a website where you can download graphics and designs to make invitations, cards and even party favors. Print out templates for party favor bags and placeholders which you can customize with the names of your guests.
Thank you notes and RSVPs can also be saved as templates, customized and printed out as you need them.
If you need to make a little extra money, you can offer to print out resumes, flyers and lost and found notices for those who don't have printers. It is often uneconomical to have one copy or a few done by a professional printer, so you may be able to close this gap with reasonable prices that factor in your time as well as the cost of ink and paper.
If you have some treasured family recipes or ideas that others might like to share, try printing them out and putting them up for sale on Ebay. Ebay sellers have offered such things in the past, including poems for wedding vows and Valentine's Day.
Whatever your imagination and inspiration can come up with, your inkjet printer can help make it a reality.
Author: Gail Kavanagh
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