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02-10-2010, 05:26 PM #1
RockiesFan33's Step by Step Custom Printing Tutorial
Hey everybody! I get a lot of PMs asking what materials I use for my customs and the printing process I use for my cards. So, I thought it would be easier to show you all just what I do beginning in Photoshop and ending with the finished cards. I hope you find this helpful!
1. After designing the card template, I make the individual cards and save them as JPGs. Everything I make, I save at 300dpi. Here are the dimensions of a typical card for me:
2. When I have 8 cards designed, I put them all onto one large image to print. I make sure to have a little spacing in between each card to make cutting easier. Here is a shot of that sheet as I'm putting it together:
3. The dimensions of the sheet:
4. When I print, I do it in Photoshop. Here are the print settings I use:
5. And the next screen for the print settings. I use HP Premium Plus photo paper for all of my cards. It's thick and glossy and cuts well.
6. Once the sheet is printed, it looks like this:
7. Then, I use my trusty Scotch scrapbooker's glue to adhere the card sheet to my card stock backing. Here's the glue, available at Target, etc.:
8. Here is the card stock I use for the backing. It's 140lb watercolor paper from Office Depot. They have a pretty good price for that paper, better than Michaels or Hobby Lobby:
9. The glue covers the entire back of the photopaper sheet:
10. Then I press the watercolor sheet down onto the photopaper, smooth it out and then flip it and smooth it again. Here's the sheet with the card stock attached:
11. Then I use my Fiskers trimmer to cut out the cards. I cut the excess off around the outside of the cards and then cut out each card individually:
12. Once cut, the cards are the same size as traditional trading card. They're slightly thicker than one card, but the height and width are the same:
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02-10-2010, 05:26 PM #2
13. The finished product, ready to mail out:
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02-10-2010, 06:25 PM #3
Great tutorial.
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02-10-2010, 07:08 PM #4
That helped a ton to find out why mine haven't been coming out as clear as I would like. Turns out it wasn't the printer but that I didn't have the resolution up as high as I needed it to be. Otherwise, I do essentially the same thing to make my customs.
Great tutorial! Thanks a ton!
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02-10-2010, 11:07 PM #5
Great tutorial....
Now if I can just figure out everything else with photoshop... LOL!
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02-10-2010, 11:16 PM #6
very good tutorial
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02-11-2010, 05:34 AM #7
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02-11-2010, 09:31 AM #8
Brian, great info. Now if I could learn how to lift images from Photoshop Elem #7, I would have it made.
Thank you for taking the time!
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02-11-2010, 03:08 PM #9
absolutely wonderful tutorial. the colors look really great printed out!
what kind of printer do u have?
do u think u could take a picture of the side of the cardstock? i am just curious as to how thick it looks compared to a piece of paper.
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02-11-2010, 03:21 PM #10
I'm glad y'all are finding this helpful.
I use an HP Photosmart Premium (c309 series) printer. It does a great job with my prints.
I tried to take a shot of the cards from the side, but it's tough to see it well. They're as thick as two regular cards together.
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