ChristyVW Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 I know this topic has come up a lot and I thought I would share some of my recent thoughts and ideas on it. If you had asked me this question 6 months ago, I would have answered that I print everything! I have been doing 8x8 albums and love them and so do my girls! I would usually get my layouts printed about once a month at Sam's club. Well, I got behind in printing the layouts and they have started to pile up! Plus, with my 'job' here, I make a lot more pages than I would otherwise. When I looked in my 'to print' folder the other day, there were 80 layouts to print! YIKES! At a $1.50 a page, that would have been $120 to print them! So, I started looking for some alternatives. I am having a hard time picking and choosing some to print/not print, so I wanted to find a way to cost effectively print them all. #1 - Viovio.com prints loose pages, so I thought I would try them. I put my 8x8 layouts on a 12x12 canvas and sent them in for printing and then cut them at home. (They only print 12x12 loose pages.) The cost was about 86 cents a page, plus shipping. I have to say, I wasn't very impressed with the quality though. They were 'OK', but my photos were washed out. I decided that I spend way to much time tweaking my photos to look good to settle for this kind of printing quality. #2 - I found a steal of a deal on a digital photo frame! I got a 9" Sony frame for $45, regular $200. I loaded all my layouts on an SD card and I LOVE IT! The girls love watching them too. Not something where I would probably sit and read the journaling on the pages, but a great way to see the layouts. #3 - Print the layouts in a smaller size. After looking around on-line, at Hobby Lobby and talking with the photo gals at Sam's club, I have switched to printing my layouts at 6"x6". I know this may not be an option if you are currently doing 12x12, but to go from 8x8 to 6x6 isn't really a big deal! In the 80 pages I had printed, I think there are one or two where I find it hard to read the journaling. And the cost?? 38 cents a page!! Instead of $120, it cost me just over $30 to print 80 layouts!! YEAH!! (to print 6x6 at Sam's, I have to take a disc to the store and place my order. It is not an option on-line or from the kiosk at the store. The girl explained that they just don't want so many options out there, but can do lots of other sizes. AND - don't forget to tell them to TURN OFF the color correction, no matter what size you have them print!) #4 - Display them on the TV! If you have a Wii, you can load your layouts to an SD card, put them in the Wii and use the Photo Menu to display them! Kind of fun! HTH!! I just thought I would share, since I have spent a lot of time digging around for some alternatives! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrappinchar Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 Thanks for the info! You obviously get a lot more scrapping done than I do!!! Very impressive! I LOVE seeing my layouts on the digital frame that I have, too. I haven't tried the TV thing. Well, I don't have a Wii. I think I could put them on a DVD or something, though. Since I don't get a ton of pages done, I've been able to keep up with printing them myself at home...8x8. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J9Buckles Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 I'm running about 40 behind right now..........I love the Wii idea! Maybe I'll have to steal it back from ds! Thanks for the ideas Christy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.