Printing decoupage sheets - Page 2

Janet Briggs · 06-03-10, 02:27 AM

Hi Diane
Like you, I've never had much success with the so called specialist 'decoupage paper'.
In fact to be honest, I only stocked it once, was disappointed with the results and have never sold it since. (It may have been down to the brand, but I'll never know for sure, as I just wouldn't buy it again)
I now only use photo paper and prefer matt, satin or semi-gloss to the glossy sheets.
'Perfect Paper' is another option, gives very good results and is excellent quality, but not the cheapest.

Amanda Mcgee · 06-03-10, 09:41 AM

I'm the same as Janet. I bought paper that was called decoupage paper. It worked ok but I recently managed to get 150gsm photo paper for half the price.

Another good one is Tesco 120gsm premium quality printer paper. It is £4.99 for 250 sheets and to be quite honest works just as well as super smooth decoupage paper. it cuts really well too and so does the 150gsm photo paper.

Amanda

Helen Williams · 06-03-10, 09:44 AM

I am always printing Photos which are saturated with colour and used to have no end of problem especially with reds, yellows and blues (all of them then lol) spent a fortune......i always now stick to this one as i know it gets good results......

Epson photo paper, s042158 3/5 stars on the quality. 190gsm. It says Glossy but it isn't, more of a sheen i would say.

It never lets me down!! i get it from PhotoGlossy.com where they stock alot of paper and its cheap too...

I did use a fuji brand that was green box, cheap and in the supermarket, but for me with photo printing it wasn't good enough....

I also use Mirror for my unusual sizes or ICE both of these are on ebay and if you google them they are a cheaper option and work well too......

I would also try choosing a plain paper option on the printer settings, it may work better for the saturated images as it shouldn't chuck as much ink out.

Good luck, i have wasted so so so much money in the last year getting my paper, printer and settings right........

Helen

Diane Scotland · 06-03-10, 03:01 PM

Hey Guys,

I want to thank you all for the advice and suggestions for papers to use, all I know is that I have wasted £10 in paper and who knows how much ink, fortunately though I found a really cheap site for ink refils( disk depot) you should check them out, I got all the colours from there for just over £4, I'll try out some of your suggested papers as soon as I can and will let you all know how I get on. Thanks again everyone xx

Helen Williams · 06-03-10, 03:17 PM

I have used disk depot, think i have had paper from there too...

That is cheap for ink refills.......

Gwyneth George · 06-03-10, 03:44 PM

Hi Diane. I can only commiserate with you at your problems printing as I had a similar problem a while back. Pages and pages of super smooth decoupage paper, decoupage card and meltdust paper ruined. And I went through the process of trying all the different settings for image quality and paper type and nothing worked satisfactorily with the three problem papers. The occasional useable copy, but what happened to work for one image, possibly as said earlier in this thread due to depth of colour, produced a mess for another image.

I'd decided to give up and just print out on good quality photo paper (more expensive per sheet but not when losses with the other paper types were taken into consideration) andthen use the Tesco paper mentioned earlier in this thread for insert printing. Then my printer/scanner broke down!

As I liked the machine, other than the problems printing to the specialised papers, I decided to go for another one of the same make (HP) but a slightly more modern model. It does used different numbered inks though, so I decided to give it another go with the specialist paper, and lo and behold, it works fine. No fiddling with settings, just left it on general automatic printing, not changed it to photo quality or anything and no problems.

This obviously doesn't solve your current problem, but knowing what I do now, I think I'd recommend to anyone who's going for a new printer in the future to go to a local printer suppliers with a few samples of the types of papers and cards you know you will want to work with and ask if the shop will demonstrate the printing of an image onto the different types for you using any printer you may be interested in. You don't actually have to buy there, you can still shop around on the Internet once you know what make and model you want to go for. Although, if the prices are reasonable, it sometimes works out best long term to buy local at a few pounds more as it's handy to have somewhere to go back to for any computer related problems.
GG

Diane Scotland · 07-03-10, 08:14 PM

As Victor Meldrew would say " I don't believe it" lol, I went off and got myself a pack of Asdas own A4 matt picture paper and low and behold it works, I've wasted good money on "proper" decoupage paper when all I had to do was buy cheap stuff out the shops

, how totally unbelievable is that? Hey ho!!! at least now I can print off my decoupage sheets, got 20 or so done already, all I need to do now is buy more ink cartridges hee hee hee Thank you all for the help, what would I do without you guys mwah mwah xxx

Carol Clarke · 07-03-10, 11:20 PM

Waheyyy ................ in the end it may have saved you money though as you now know to go for the cheaper option! lol

Annelies Brown · 08-03-10, 12:19 AM

Hey Diane, I think it was me that suggested you get matt paper from Asda, wasn't it? Anyway I am sure the colours and look are fantastic now. Glad you have sorted it out. If in doubt always buy coated paper especially if you want to do decoupage. You can also get silk paper (again it should be coated).

Diane Scotland · 08-03-10, 06:16 PM

So much for QUALITY !!!!!! that's me now sworn off buying the most expensive before I've tried the cheapest, silly plonker that I am lol. Yeah Annelies I think it was yourself who mentioned it, I've always tried to buy the best so that the cards I make look good enough to sell, doesn't work that way all the time though does it?

Never mind all, at long last I can print, print, print yeeha,til I run out of ink that is lol, still can use what's left of the decoupage paper for a couple of sheets that DO seem to print off okay though so all not completely wasted, a very good lesson learned too. Thanks y'all

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