J Sheen & Artylicious CDs

[missusnobby]

I have recently purchased the Heavenly Cards CD, and 2 Artylicious CDs. I tried printing a page from the Heavenly CD on ordinary printer paper to see what it was like. The images weren't sharp at all. I've purchased some cheap photo paper from Wilco (as JS recommends) I've never had or used CDs before, so before I go wasting tons of paper and ink :confused: Are there any recommendations? Does the printer have to be set to 'best' as when printing photos? or is 'normal' OK?

I really want to start using them, as they are lovely:D

thanks for any help

[Phree]

OK first of all let me quote Joanna Sheen - I have heard her say often on TV - "make freinds with your printer".

By this she means get to know what your printer can do for you through the various settings that are available to you when you choose to print something. I suspect a lot of people may be guilty of just clicking on "print" and then they hit the OK button to confirm the print command to their computer. Next time you hit print - take a look at the actual dialogue box that opens.

Now this box will vary a little in appearance, contents and terminology used for each printer, but in general most printers will have more or less a pretty similar selection of choices. The most obvious of these is choosing things like the actual size of the paper you plan to feed through the printer and the orientation you want for your image - ie Portrait vs Landscape. However there are a mulitude of other things too such as paper type - Plain Paper (used for 80gms copy paper and also any of the finer inkjet printable papers) by finer I mean heavier weights up to and including uncoated card stock. Then there are choices such as Transparency - printing onto ink jet printable acetate, Glossy Photo Paper - the one you would use for the paper you have bought from Wilco.

Then you have print quality - usually draft, normal and best - or listed in words that mean the same as those. Don't devalue draft mode - it can give you a more "faded and washed out" look, which may be just the perfect look you want for a backing paper.

Then you have things such as grayscale = black and white printing from a colour image.

You may have an option to select resolution - known as dpi - 300 should give you good resolution.

I could go on, but as I say your printer, unless it happened to be the very same model I use may not offer exactly the same options mine does, such as borderless printing - not all printers do that.

Anyhow I can say this much both the JS CD's and the Artylicious ones are IMO some of the best crafting CD's out there. If you are less than happy with the results then my guess is your problem lies with the settings you used when you printed and perhaps also the quality of the paper you put through the printer.

I mostly use Tesco Finest printer paper - it's 120gsm and has a lovely smooth surface for printing onto and is not that expensive. I can't recall the price but it's under £4 for a pack of 250 sheets. I do also use some of the more expensive 160gsm paper that Glenda sells - and yes the results are better still, but at £9.99 for 100 sheets it's a lot more costly to use this paper, so I wouldn't recommend that to you until you are sure you are getting decent results on something like the Tesco Finest because if you can't get a decent result on the Tesco paper, then it has to be something to do with the settings you are printing on and you need to do a bit more playing around with your printer before risking paper that is costing a lot more money.

Hope this helps

[pyjama princess]

Well done Phree! That's very well explained, I'm sure Missusnobby will now get better results from her CDs and come to love them as we do. :)

[missusnobby]

wow Phree!!! thanks for all the info. I know about all the settings you mentioned, and paper type, as we print our own photos, so use 'glossy, and best'. It's a real help to know what type of papers to try though. This should save me some time, and effort. I thought, like you said, that these CDs are some of the best, so should be guaranteed to get good results. The paper I had a go with was only 80gsm printer paper, and the printer set to normal print. So I'm now v excited to go and try!!!!!


yehhhh thanks everso !!!

[Marie]

Yes this is really helpful info Phree, I've got my Peacocks CDs today and want to start printing some of the pages this weekend, just to see what they look like. There are so many things to think about in terms of print quality, paper weight and type, it really is confusing for the beginner. I was looking at Glenda's introduction to inkpads yesterday evening and it's a whole new world! Still hopefully I can learn as I go along, but if anyone knows of any online guides to things like paper, glue, ink, stamping and the other crafting essentials i'd be pleased to know!

[chrissie]

Thank you from me too Phree!
That was a really helpful post.
I started using the Tesco finest on your recommendation last year & you can really tell the difference from plain old copier paper. I'm really happy with the results, so thank you again for that suggestion.
I purchased another pack today & it was £4 for 250 sheets. Really great value which means that I don't mind so much when my daughter goes on a printing spree!

[Shepherdess]

I've got the Heavenly cards CD and for some reason the images print much darker than they appear on the screen, it's the only Joanna Sheen CD that does this to me but I went into the advanced settings for my printer and just upped the brightness and it's much better, so like Joanna and Phree said 'make friends with your printer' and you'll print lovely images.

[Jeanette]

Tesco Finest printer paper is brilliant. I have been using it since year dot!! :D It makes a great insert for a card and is also good for printing decoupage and pyramage onto. I can't recommend it enough and its great value too

[lilac froggy Jan]

I have never tried the Tesco paper as I have a big stock of 100gsm pure white luxury paper I got from Viking ages ago. It makes excellent quality backing papers and inserts. I'd personally never use anything less than 100gsm. I know they often say on tv 80gsm and draft quality print is fine. I don't think it is. The only 90gsm I ever use is parchment paper which has a luxury and special feel about it anyway.

For decoupage I use HP everyday semi-glossy photo paper 170gsm. They are currently selling it BOGOF at Rymans online making it £5.99 for 100 sheets. Don't know about their shops. But it's a very good price as I've seen it for as much as £14 for a pack of 100 sheets from some online shops.

For pyramage and the like I like the paper to be a bit heavier so I use a semi-gloss photocard around 240gsm.

I bought the pantone huey monitor colour corrector a while back but haven't got round to using it yet.

[Marie]

I printed off a few of the peacock papers this morning on very basic quality paper just to see how my printer performs and I was pleasantly suprised - I have an HP PSC 2355 which is normally used for text but the colours came out very well. The brights were bright and the muteds/neutrals came out as you'd expect. I wouldn't want to use this paper for cards or anything but I'm pleased that the printer lived up to the task.

[Phree]

I think I know the paper you mean Lilac Froggy - is it the Viking Imperial Paper? I used to use that for stuff like CVs to give them a weightier and more classy feel. But that was back in the day when not so many people had computers at home and "office type" supplies were not so freely available in supermarkets and such like.

The reason I don't buy it now is simply because I rarely need to put in an order with Viking that is big enough to meet the minimum order requirment for free shipping. I find the Tesco Finest paper at 120gsm is every bit as good as the Viking in terms of print quality, and much easier to buy a pack as and when I need it because I don't have to try to think up a list of other stuff I want in order to get to the level to qualify for free shipping.

[missusnobby]

thought I'd let you all know I've printed off some images from the JS CD, also backing papers, and they are fantastic. I'm so pleased with the quality, I have made two cards already:D

thanks again

[Phree]

Glad to hear you are getting results you are happy with now - have fun playing with those CD's and if you have time it would be lovely to see some pics of what you make.

Don't forget to have a little play around with your printer settings from time to time - see how it can change the look of something. I always remember a lovely card Joanna showed on Create and Craft which had been a "mistake" - she had accidentally printed on black and white, but the monochrome look turned out to be rather nice so she went right ahead and made a card out of what she had printed. Likewise I have seen Glenda show some beautiful sample cards made with some of her designs that had been printed in draft mode for a very soft subtle look.