Clearly Hyrid is for you!
Friday, November 16, 2007
The biggest trend right now in the scrapworld is all things clear. From transparent albums, ghost alphas and shapes, transparencies to acrylic pieces. There is also a way to make these projects hybrid by printing your own transparencies. You can buy transparency sheets from office supply stores, ensuring you get ones suitable for your printer (for example: ink jet transparencies for an ink jet printer). They aren't for the frugal scrapbooker, a pack of 10 sheets will cost you around $10 - $15, but they are definitely a cheaper alternative than buying them pre-printed.
Printing your own transparencies bring you many options, pros and cons. Firstly the cons. Obviously you're using your printer so you are limited to the size of your printer. There isn't any way I am going to fit a 12 x 12 sheet into my 8.5 x 11 printer. Also the print quality. Whilst the quality is only going to be as good as your printer, it isn't going to be as good printed on transparency and layered over dark colors. The home printed ones tend to lose their 'pop' against dark colors. This is because the manufactured ones are double printed. First with a light color, then with the end color. This gives the manufactured transparencies a richer, deeper color especially noticeable when layered against dark papers.
For me though the pros far outweigh the cons. The pros of printing your own? Well naturally you can design anything your heart desires! Whatever you can create in Photoshop, or whatever journaling you write in your word processing program, you can print off onto a transparency. For me this freedom alone is worth it. There are many times I've seen transparencies in the LSS and wished it just said something different, or wanted a different font, and printing my own gives me that choice! One thing to remember when printing your own transparencies is that just like photo paper there are two sides. One side is usually a little shinier and the other has a more matte finish. Each pack usually has an instruction sheet, but generally you would print on the more matt side.
My friend Robin made this by printing her journaling onto a transparency. She cut a window into the cardstock and adhered the transparency behind it. This means that the whole panel is see though! I love that! Really goes well with the theme of the layout, the eyes being the window to the soul, hence the transparent window in the layout. Very cool!
Printing your own transparencies bring you many options, pros and cons. Firstly the cons. Obviously you're using your printer so you are limited to the size of your printer. There isn't any way I am going to fit a 12 x 12 sheet into my 8.5 x 11 printer. Also the print quality. Whilst the quality is only going to be as good as your printer, it isn't going to be as good printed on transparency and layered over dark colors. The home printed ones tend to lose their 'pop' against dark colors. This is because the manufactured ones are double printed. First with a light color, then with the end color. This gives the manufactured transparencies a richer, deeper color especially noticeable when layered against dark papers.
For me though the pros far outweigh the cons. The pros of printing your own? Well naturally you can design anything your heart desires! Whatever you can create in Photoshop, or whatever journaling you write in your word processing program, you can print off onto a transparency. For me this freedom alone is worth it. There are many times I've seen transparencies in the LSS and wished it just said something different, or wanted a different font, and printing my own gives me that choice! One thing to remember when printing your own transparencies is that just like photo paper there are two sides. One side is usually a little shinier and the other has a more matte finish. Each pack usually has an instruction sheet, but generally you would print on the more matt side.
My friend Robin made this by printing her journaling onto a transparency. She cut a window into the cardstock and adhered the transparency behind it. This means that the whole panel is see though! I love that! Really goes well with the theme of the layout, the eyes being the window to the soul, hence the transparent window in the layout. Very cool!
Layout by Robin Blankenship. Supplies: Cardstock: Bazzill, Flowers: Queen & Co
So there you have it, next time you are out shopping for office supplies, check and see if there are any transparency packs you can pick up. Then you can print your own at home! Try it! You may be surprised at how easy it is!
Author: Di Hickman, Published in Scrapstreet.com ezine October 2007
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