Hello again!
I’m really excited to bring you this post today! I’ve been wanting to share tutorials on my blog for a really long time, and I’m so glad this series gives me a chance to do so. If you’ve been following along, by now we’ve talked about the Hot Tech Tools for Mom, and Setting up a Creative Command Center, and now we’re going to put our tools and supplies to use and start using our printers and the internet to make the most of printables!
For today’s post, I’ve put together two video tutorials...and I’m a bit self-conscious about them because I’m a total newbie at doing something like this! I don’t know if I made something decent, or something terrible, but I figured I’ve gotta start somewhere, so you guys are my guinea pigs!
The first tutorial I made is for those of you who are not all that comfortable with the whole process of HOW exactly one “downloads” a file from the internet, and then prints it using their home printer. I really hope it’s helpful and that after you’ve watched, you’ll be instantly ready to download and print all kinds of goodies from the web!
In this video, I'll walk you through each step, including the proper software downloads for reviewing and printing files, to different file types and how to work with them, including zip files and .pdf’s, and my recommendations and settings for printing with an inkjet printer, and a quick tutorial on installing fonts.
If you’re ready to watch, grab your coffee, and here we go! (try not to laugh at my dorkiness!)
I briefly touched on DPI and printing sizes in the video, and I just wanted to reiterate the details in case I wasn’t clear. This is really one of the most important things you need to know about pixels and JPEG sizes and printing:
- 300 DPI to print to size: When measuring pixels to determine sizes, remember 300 pixels = 1 inch.
If you are printing an 8”x 10” print, then the pixel dimensions you need to your print to be are: 8 x 300= 2400 and 10 x 300= 3000 which is 2400 x 3000. This is the standard printing formula that you should use whenever you’re intending to print a project. - When printing something that needs to be a specific size, always make sure your printer dialog box is checked to ACTUAL SIZE, and NOT “scale to fit.”
Are you ready to download and print a file? Great!! I thought you might want to try it out, now that you’ve got these hot new skills, so I made this printable just for this post:
Let's step it up a notch!
Next, we're going to move on to making your OWN custom printables and crafts, without having to buy or learn design software!
This next video is going to walk you through using a FREE web-based design service called PicMonkey.com. PicMonkey is a site I use to make collages and round-up images for my blog, because it’s super fast and easy…and since I’ve had the chance to play with it a bit, I realized that it’s really a great tool for anyone to use to make print friendly items!
Here we go:
(Boy, can I ramble? I hope that all made sense...)
Picking up where the video stops, everything printed out just as it should have, using my HP Photosmart 5520 Inkjet printer, and now I’m ready to use some of the tools from my Creative Command Center to slap these cupcake toppers together:
- Grab your printed sheet, paper trimmer, 2” circle squeeze punch, tape and a package of cake pop sticks, skewers, or toothpicks.
- Trim off the white edges of your page and cut the tags into strips.
- Trim down each tag using the trimmer.
- Place your squeeze punch over the circle image and check to make sure it’s centered.
- Oops! Not centered? Go back and trim a bit off the bottom of each tag.
- Slide the tag back into the squeeze punch, where it should now be centered and punch out.
- SQUEEZE!
- SUCCESS!!
- Line up your tag on your stick of choice.
- Hold your tag in place firmly so it doesn’t shift…
- Flip it over and tape in place with some clear tape. (You can hot glue it as well, but seriously, tape is fine.)
- YUM! Your topper is done and ready to make itself right at home in the top of your cupcake!
Any time I get to buy cupcakes to stage a photo, it's a good day in our house. In fact, not only was Maggie excited to get a hold of one of these, but when moving them from the table to the counter, one slid onto the floor...and was promptly gobbled up, wrapper and all, by Drake. :)
Well, if you've made it this far, and especially if you sat through the videos, I would love some feedback, and if you have questions, don't hesitate to ask! And...don't forget...there is still time to enter the $200 Target® Gift Card giveaway, you can find more details here.
-Jennifer
Full Disclosure: I am a member of the Target® Inner Circle, all opinions expressed are my own. I was provided a gift card to purchase some of the items used in this series, however I have also contributed my own resources and time. Affiliate links are used for items that can be purchased online
