backgroundbonus.pdf

Background Bonus

By Anita Light

A friend recently asked me to do some callig-

raphy for a display, and unfortunately, I forgot

all about it until the last minute. After a bit of a

panic I remembered an article in issue 13 (Spring

2000) in which Ann Scott had printed her words

out from her computer and then gone over them

in pen so they looked hand written. This seemed

like the solution

to my problem

as it would be

much quicker

than writing

them from

scratch.

My idea was

to print the

messages out on

my (rather old -

about 10 years)

Epson Dot

Matrix printer,

then go over the

writing using

an embossing

pen and gold

embossing pow-

der. I began writing over the printing with the

embossing pen but, worried that the ink might

dry before I had completed all the words I

decided to sprinkle and emboss it in sections.

As I sprinkled the gold powder over the

paper I noticed it seemed to stick to the plain

printed words just as well as the ones I had

written over. I decided to try embossing all of it

and it worked a treat making the rest of the job

really simple – no writing over needed - simply

print, sprinkle and emboss.

Inspired by this success, I began experiment-

ing further. It seemed an excellent way of making

my own embossed background papers, with any

message I wanted and without great expenditure

on rubber stamps. I tried all sorts of different

things, some successful others not and ended

up with a lovely selection of background papers

at virtually no cost.

The main thing

I have to empha-

sise is that this only

worked on my

dot matrix printer,

I tried using an

inkjet to no avail.

So for anyone with

an old dot matrix

printer languishing

in a cupboard (it’s

hard to throw

things out some-

times isn’t it), why

not give it a try?

The ink does

dry out so you

have to be ready

to emboss straight

after printing, I

tried 10 lines of

print 10cm wide

and it embossed

with no problems.

When I tried 12

lines by 16cm wide

the first line did not

emboss success-

fully, so obviously

time is a factor but

it is not necessary to be too hasty.

One problem I have since encountered

is that after fitting a new ribbon, a little too

much embossing powder sticks to the ink

and the excess has to be brushed off. This

will improve as the ribbon becomes more

used, but perhaps will allow a little extra

time for embossing as the print is less dry.

I also tried

some of the

printers at

school. The

newest of them

needed pow-

dering and

embossing very

swiftly and I

could only

print a few

words. Their

older printers

are still newer

than mine, only

about five years

old. These were

better than their new ones but still gave less time

for embossing than my old one.

Different types of embossing powder and

paper surfaces also had an effect. An unnamed

powder in a dumpy container was most effective,

but I can’t remember where it came from. Paper

which is slightly shiny was okay but not as good

as paper with a dull surface. I tried the same

technique with printed out pictures and have included

some examples. I have recently purchased a new com-

puter which is more versatile than my old one - I am

not changing my printer though!!!

We say: This seemed like an idea which would be

even better if it worked with other sorts of printers so,

we gave our inkjet printers, fax machines and photocopier

a try all, sadly, without success.

We use dot matrix printers for our invoices and had

reasonably good results printing on two part invoice

paper (see our samples on the

right), some customers almost

got embossed invoices! We did

have to be fairly quick with the

embossing and some bits were

patchy, however, we always

managed to get a good sized area

on each sheet which worked well

and the embossing was good.

What a pity our printers only

take paper with feed holes, so

we can’t try it out with a good

quality paper.

Hello,

We hope you enjoy this article, it was taken from a back issue of the Craft

Creations Magazine.

All the articles on our web site are at least one year old. If you want the latest

projects, designer profiles, gallery pages and more, then you need to subscribe

to the quarterly Craft Creations Magazine.

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You can subscribe to the quarterly Craft Creations Magazine or purchase any

of the back issues from our online shop.

http://www.craftcreations.com/Shop/shop.html

The details above are correct as of 1st January 2002, but are subject to change without prior notice.

Craft Creations Limited, Ingersoll House, Delamare Road, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, EN8 9HD, England.

Tel: 01992 781900 Fax: 01992 634339

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