Once upon a time, the Enchanted Times was but a small part of my creative output, which as a categorical Jill-of-all-trades flitted about from one craft to the next as the whim took me. Well, to be fair, I do still flit about a bit, but also I appear to have settled so that one thing – the fairy tale theme – has become what I could call a specialism (at least when measured against the bits & bobs of…everything else). So with that in mind, I decided that I really ought to make sure I was using the materials which best complimented these creations rather than just using what I had because it was there.
I actually really like the thick newsprint-type paper that I currently use for Enchanted Times Mini, but my home printer is less keen, and insists I hand-feed every sheet (otherwise it instantly jams), which can – obviously – be quite time-consuming. So over Christmas I trialled several different recycled papers to find one that I liked aesthetically in terms of a ‘newspaper’ but also which my printer did not object to so vociferously. The results:
- The first was just the right shade of off-white/grey, printed crisply without jamming, but was not thick enough (wrinkled with block-colour areas). This one is perfect for general office printing, though, and will definitely be made use of.
The next was another pleasing shade of off-white with random speckling for a nice recycled appearance. It was also a good weight & before it went into the printer I had high hopes for it. Sadly – as you can see from centre sample (right) – it bled horribly, to the point where the text was almost illegible. Even in plain black on white areas, the text instantly appeared faded. Well, I can use it for testing layouts etc. Or maybe we’ll just keep it as spare drawing paper for our god-daughter to use…- I also trialled a lovely creamy coloured hemp paper, which was also nicely speckled and a good weight. This one printed beautifully in all respects – no problem with printer jamming & nice sharp text/images. This one lost out only due to the overall colour which was simply not ‘newsy’ enough. It will definitely be used for other future projects, though.
- The winner you will see in action very soon. It had very similar results to the hemp paper, but with a more newspapery, off-white colour & all-over speckling it better suited the task to hand. And the printer likes it, too – yay!
In the meantime, you can pick up half-price copies of Enchanted Times Mini in the E.T.Printworks & Folksy stores while the old paper-stock is used up – the perfect opportunity to get Behind the Times!
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