Printers: Your opinions please

A reader has asked what type of printer I would recommend. I have a printer that is fairly old, an Epson Photo 820 ( 810 in Europe) and have been using compatible inks for a few years in it ( as they are around $5 CAD a cartridge). This is not a recommended practice, I know, but when a printer is out of warranty and the price is right... :) I feel I am not really in a position to offer advice as I am wondering the same thing myself. I am not sure how many more legs my printer has left, I am nearly out of ink and reconsidering buying more ink but I don't know if the printer will last long enough to use up the cartridges. My printer is dye-based and is quite dependent on what type of paper I print on to get good results ( eg. brightness of colour and bold/crispness of blacks).

There are many great printers out there. I'd love to know what you think is a great printer.

Here are some important issues I'd like to discuss:

1. Is your printer a dye based or pigment based printer? ( pigment based use "water-resistant", "fade resistant"," smear-proof" inks).

2. DYE-BASED printers: Dye based printers are great for the following colouring techniques - Coloured Pencils and OMS & Copics/Alcohol based markers - Not so much with watercolour techniques unless you fix the inks somehow like with a sealing spray. I also heard that you can heat set the print ... I also heard mixed results. Maybe it depends on your paper? Watercolour paper causes less bleeding?

3. PIGMENT-BASED printers: I know Espon makes these. I know the cartridges are a bit more expensive, you will have a harder time finding pigment based compatible cartridges. However, they apparently give good print results on most papers as the ink lays on top of the paper as opposed to dye ink that is absorbed into the paper. MY QUESTION is how are Pigment based printers with various colouring techniques? Can you watercolour on them or do they smear/bleed? How about Pencils/OMS or Copics? Another question, how do you find the prints on cheaper uncoated papers? Is the colour good?

Please use the comments section of this post to give us your opinion. This is your "forum" LOL

Thanks so much for any advice given.

:)* Fred

Blog Candy Time! 100,000 on my counter

Hello friends! I am looking at my hit counter and very soon the odometer will turn 100,000 yippee! I doesn't seem that long ago I had a 5,000 hits challenge and I thought THAT was a long shot LOL! Thank you so much for your friendship and support and riding with me through my spits and spurts :) You are all a blessing to me and my family.

Please leave a comment on this post ( one only). You have until Wednesday 12:00 PM EDT . I will announce the winner that afternoon.

The Candy is a $20 CAD Gift Certificate to my store. Thank you and good luck!

:)* Fred

P.S. while I have your attention, Emma the Mermaid is almost ready to come out and play! Here is one of her friends and he's ready to partehhhh!


this Blog Candy contest is now CLOSED. Thanks for playing!

FSS- Bunneh's are up at the STORE

This cute little bunneh! is up at the STORE. There is a digital stamp version and coloured versions. If I get time tomorrow, I plan to have a few freebie coordinating Easter papers :)

I got more up my sleeve but that is all I could muster to get finished today LOL! I was away for the weekend; I hope to catch up and have more goodies by the end of the week :)

Have a great day!

:)* Fred

Card - sneak preview

Meet Sydney the Seahorse. He is a friend of Emma the Mermaid :)

Sydney and the foliage were coloured on the computer. The foliage is another project I am putzing with and eventually will have "worked out" LOL. I coloured the water with pencils and OMS. The background is a black and white doodle pattern I printed. I then coloured wavy lines in various oranges and yellows of soft pastels, then blended with a cotton ball. After, I sprayed with gold glitter spray ( aresol can ). The flower is from the Polka Dotty Flowers - Fred's Flowers v1 Edition B Pack

Oh I just want to squeeze Sydney and make him squeak LOL!

Fred hopes to have Emma the Mermaid and friends ready for the beginning of next week.

:)* Fred

Bunneh!

This is what happens when Fred has trouble finishing a project; she starts another one! LOL. I painted this yesterday.

Oh I love little bunneh's! The basket was originally purple but I decided to show a more subdued version ;)


:)* Fred

P.S. Eggs are really hard to draw with a graphics tablet LOL!

Card - purple with quilling

I've been sifting through my card pile for things to blog, while I scramble to finish some projects.



Here is a purple one ( flower coming soon) and I tried my hand at a bit of quilling. I bought some gilded quilling paper a while ago and finally used it LOL!

****

I hit Walmart and bought some Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue to stick my ribbon and gems down; it might be too thick for attaching quilled paper but I hope to try it soon. It does stick stuff fast! I bought a "Happy Birthday" embossing folder for "George" ( my cuttlebug, cuz I will love it, and squeeze it, and call it George - quote from Abominable Snowman vs Bugs Bunny ). .... and some Martha Stewart glue and glitter... cuz a girl just can't have enough glitter ;)

ahhh, shopping therapy... did not help this girl with her creative hurdles. ... Back to the grind....

:)* Fred

Playing with Chalk Pastels pt 2

I really wanted to get my part 2 up much sooner. Remember Part 1? Back in NOVEMBER??? LOL . I know this is probably not an original idea, but it is easy and fun.

It's kind of like the technique, Poppin' Pastels at Split Coast Stampers. But with embossed paper and soft pastels. The colour is a bit bolder/stronger.

You Need:
embossing/diecut machine
embossing folder
versamark pad
brayer ( optional)
sakura glitter pen ( or somthing similar)
artists chalk/soft pastels ( the ones in stick form)
cotton balls or a balled up tissue
spray sealer ( optional )

Technique:

Run some CS or paper through an embossing machine using an embossing folder.

Tap or brayer versamark ink onto the embossed areas of your CS.

Colour just the embossed areas of the paper with the flat edge of a pastel stick. Vary the colours if you want. For the birds example, I coloured the birds with the finer point on the pastel.

Rub the paper with a cotton ball or balled up tissue. Some of the pastel will softly colour the debossed areas and the stronger colour will be left where the versamark is on the embossed areas.

Lightly spray with sealer to fix the chalks. You may not have to do this, it depends on how well the chalk is sticking to your paper.

For EXTRA fun:
Try reapplying the technique with another coordinating colour. Reapply versamark to the already chalked paper. Be careful and use a cleaned brayer and versamark... so you don't mess up your versamark pad.

Add some glitter pen to the chalked areas ( example is the paisley paper )

Have a great day!

:)* Fred

A Momentary Diversion

I got sidetracked and made this in Painter LOL! Feel free to use in your crafty endeavours if you like.

Now off to draw some fishies, I am.

Have a great day,
;)* Fred

Painting: Max

I painted this for my sweet friend Barbara, who lost her beloved dog last year. He had such a sweet face and looks like a chap who knew what you were thinking without having to say it.


:)* Fred

Card - Dover Clipart

I coloured a lovely Dover Clipart bouquet with pencils and OMS, and stickles here and there. Notice you can do a nice scrumble effect with pencils shown here on my purple background colour. Just colour little scrumbly circles using very little pressure, then blend with OMS with a circular motion.

Have a great day!

:)* Fred

Another Teaser Card and a Freebie

I had a kind customer email me and had pointed out the fact I had the wrong sheet in the Pink Blossoms Kit according to the preview. Yikes! Instead of offering the sheet to customers by request like I usually do when I goof up ( or use my perogative and add things to products LOL ). I'll post it here as a FREEBIE! Oh and it's FRIDAY. How good of a coincidink is that? LOL

FREEBIE:



EDIT: Please click image to get full size, then save it to your hard drive.

Sorry for the mix-up everyone!

Oh and here is a CARD:


This card uses another flower I am currently working on. It is coloured with pencils/OMS and Stickles, as is the stamped curly vines ( from Stamp Attack Art Stamps - Butterflies Doodle-dallion Sheet by Fred She Said Designs), I also stamped a doodly medallion from the Doodles rubber stamp sheet with versamark and some "Bridal (PSX)" glittery embossing powder on the light purple backer. The patterned paper is from a design I have "experimented" with. I hope to have a similar version of the stamped vines in digital to put your pretty flowers on :)

***Please forgive any grammatical/sp errors on this post, we were up most of the night; they had to evacuate (on foot) our neighbourhood at 2 am, a gas line broke across the street, right in front of our house while repairing a broken fire hydrant, smucked by a van a few hours earlier. Talk about scary! ( the hissing was so loud we could hear it in the house) If I typed perfect prose, I am better than I thought ROFL.

Have a great day! I am hitting the hay.

:)* Fred

Card - Pink Flower

Is that shocking pink enough for your eyes? LOL I used quite bright and happy colours 0n this one. The flower is from Fred's Flowers V2 Pointy Petals Pack. I used a neon pink pencil ( from a Prismacolor Scholar 60 pk - I don't think they make that colour in their Premier Line) and OMS to colour and added cotton candy pink stickles. My flower has the chicken pox, poor thing! LOL On the background, I used that chalk pastel technique, cuttlebugged, and then painted the embossed parts with some homemade acrylic glimmer paint ( RECIPE: I added a bit of yellow pearlex and glamour dust to a small jar and mixed in some acrylic floating medium I had kicking around collecting dust). The same paint was used to edge the scalloped rectangle. I have a part 2 of my playtime with pastel chalks; I'll post it soon.

Have a great day!

:)* Fred

Clarification

Sorry if I confused anyone, yesterday's ( Mon March 2nd) teaser card uses a new design I am working on and will be available soon, they are NOT from the Polka Dotty Flowers set.

:)*
Fred

Card and a Teaser

- Playing with new flowers, pencils & OMS, L-Em ash family punch, alcohol inks, Nestabilities of all sorts and my cuttlebug ( which is getting quite a work out lately).

I am loving my new flowers, I hope you will too :)

EDIT: These are flowers I am currently working on and will be available soon.

:)* Fred