Printing question

[alyssascrapper]

Ok, i'm relatively new to digiscrapping and I just want to know how you guys print your layouts? Do most of you just have them printed and stick them into a scrapbook? or do you make a book with shutterfly or another source? I have printed a few layouts at costco and they turned out fine, I just am wondering if maybe there is an easier and nicer way to print all my layouts together? your thoughts?

tia!!!!!

 

[helenh]

You want to know what I do Alyssa? Hehehe....I get all mine printed up as photos ie. 6x4 and put them in a normal photo album. Great on cost, does not take up large space and I can easily put together special albums for friends or family and have my own yearly album.

 

[Bush Girl]

...I get all mine printed up as photos ie. 6x4 and put them in a normal photo album.

Does that mean that all your LOs end up like 4x4 big, Helen?

I've had several Shutterfly books made, including one that arrived yesterday, and they are awesome - but really expensive compared to the competition out there. I've also done a book at Blurb, which was terrific also, but at only 7"x7" it was perhaps a little small. I'm about to use them again though as I have a 70 page book to do and Shutterfly is just too pricy with that many pages. Artscow are doing all kinds of offers right now too - haven't used them (bit scared off by the forum chat there on quality!).

I tend to only get photobooks printed if the album is of a particular subject. For example, I bought Paislee Press' Happy as a Lark Album, filled it in then got it printed - looked fab.

For individual LOs I print these and put in albums. I used to print at home, by reducing the 12" LOs to 8x8, scaling down the 8.5"x11" and printing on A4 paper. This has worked well - I have a good printer and am pleased with the results. However, I have recently found a store that prints 12" LOs for 60p (about 90c - gosh is the exchange rate THAT bad), cheaper than I can do at home. Now get everything batch printed about once every 3 months.

So, yes, I do print my LOs and they are taking up room in albums, but as I am a paper scrapper also, the albums are already taking up space, so I might as well fill them!

 

[clarabear]

Selena - Try Winkflash. I think they made their sale of up to 100 pages a standard but I'm not sure. The quality there is great!!

I get my pages printed into books. I am trying to them about once a year now. I have printed books at lots of places and I think Winkflash is pretty darn good. At Christmas time I had a coupon at Shutterfly and it was amazingly the cheapest at that time.

 

[mcx10]

I also use Winkflash to print books and have been happy with them. You can't beat their prices and right now they're having their flat rate book sale .

I have also printed out los in different sizes at local photo processors (wal-mart, grocery store etc.) and display them in photo frames just like regular photos.

 

[petey111]

I print out my own "normal" size because I have a pretty decent printer. I have found that you really have to make sure you have high quality paper and select that paper in your printer options. (i.e. HP Premium Glossy on your HP Printer Settings). I have gotten my 12 x 12 printed from Archiver's Online. If you upload 10 or more at once, they are $2.49 per page and the quality is pretty good. I just ordered a calendar from Costco. I'll be anxious to see the quality from that.

 

[ABeautifulMess]

However, I have recently found a store that prints 12" LOs for 60p (about 90c - gosh is the exchange rate THAT bad), cheaper than I can do at home.

I was wondering what the name of the store is? Cause here I couldn't really find anything yet that would print these sizes.

 

[Bush Girl]

I was wondering what the name of the store is? Cause here I couldn't really find anything yet that would print these sizes.

It's called dscolourlabs.co.uk. Their UK shipping is pretty high (I think my last lot cost about £3-4), hence I only print about once every 3 months. I don't know if they'd ship abroad and if so quite how expensive it is. Gotta say, though, their quality (and I always go for lustre finish) is ABSOLUTELY AWESOME.

 

[t_a_l_i]

I have printed my pages individually through sbtoshare.com, and also in books through Inkubook, and been VERY happy with both.

Through sbtoshare.com - the pages are either $1.50 or $2.00 each, depending on the paper quality. The quality - to me - was wonderful for both types of paper.

It has been a little easier for me lately to do bound albums through Inkubook as I had some coupons - one was for a 150-page album (8x8, but I got over that!) for only shipping, so it was about $13.00.

 

[Hybridgal]

When you make your books through these companies do you have to use their templates or do you upload your own finished pages?

 

[t_a_l_i]

I can upload my own finished pages, just making sure to account for the margin they have - the first book I had I didn't pay enough attention and had a few things cropped off.

I made a book for my MIL recently and found that it went very smoothly - I did double-check each page after I uploaded it and dragged it into the full-page template Inkubook uses, and was able to make sure nothing was cropped off.

 

[Bush Girl]

Shutterfly provide blank templates specifically for scrapbookers, but I didn't find them useful. So I just save my 8x8 jpegs at 7.95x7.95 and that seems to do the trick.

Blurb provide you with an off line package called Booksmart. I've just loaded in 69 8x8 pages, which Booksmart resized instantly to 7x7! Too easy.

Don't know about anyone else.

 

[ABeautifulMess]

It's called dscolourlabs.co.uk. Their UK shipping is pretty high (I think my last lot cost about £3-4), hence I only print about once every 3 months. I don't know if they'd ship abroad and if so quite how expensive it is. Gotta say, though, their quality (and I always go for lustre finish) is ABSOLUTELY AWESOME.

thanks, I'll check it out

 

[mcx10]

When you make your books through these companies do you have to use their templates or do you upload your own finished pages?

I upload my own finished pages into their "full page" of "full bleed" template.
Winkflash has all the full bleed template sizes listed on their website. I know their 12x12 Full Bleed page is 13 x 12 and is cropped to 12.3125 x 11.625. In photoshop I make my pages 13x12 and center a guide on the page that's the cropped size to make sure nothing important gets cropped.

All companies are different though, so just make sure you go by the dimensions of the company you choose.

Hope this makes sense!

 

[createwings]

I personally love printing my pages through shutterfly... Here is a link for the custom 8 x 8 book that I do. http://www.shutterfly.com/shop/Digital-Scrapbookers-8x8-Story-Book/product_c21165-p3126 this linked page also gives other links explaining many details that go into the process of making these books.

I don't do any certain theme except I will just do a book that is only with my kids in it for familyI just gather up all my pages and 1 or 2 times a year put all the pages into a book. I figure that it is too hard to do just a single them or colors. I also don't have my pages in just a certain time as I scrap many different photos when they are at different ages. I think that when they are older they will be happy that I even made the books for them to see

Oh I also usually make my books when shutterfly is having a sale. Last year I did an 80 page 8x8 book and ordered 3 of them for family as gifts.

Hope this helps