5 Arts and Crafts Projects You Can Do with your Printer

I’ve been missing crafting so much that I noticed in my current design project, I’ve been including some arts and crafts elements: buntings, paper crafts and cut-outs. So, finally, I gave it a try.

I realized, there’s more to your printer than just producing the usual school and office documents or photos (Of you and your crush! *laughs* In my case, that would be Riley and the hubby.) What many people fail to recognize is that you can also use it to make arts and crafts. Think DIY projects perfect for your party needs! You can even utilize it to give your art new life. Check out this video & we’ll show you how!

One day, we decided to play with our printer and give in to those crafting temptations. I guess this is a warm up for Riley’s 2nd birthday. Woohoo! Riley aside, we’ve rounded up 5 easy projects you can make. Anne and I realized this is best done while chatting and having ice cream in between. *Oopsies!* 😀

Gems/Geometric Paper Shapes

I’ve always been attracted to dodecahedrons and geometric shapes.  This was my staple set of IG props years ago. Haha. One time, the initial set of template I found then was quite hard to fold but we found one that’s really friendly and awesome. Mini-eco, a craft blog, generously shares her templates.  All we did was print them on our paper of choice, cut, fold and glue the tabs together. We used craft paper and cartolina (cut into A4 size so it fits the printer) from the bookstore and shiny shimmery sheets from Ifex. 🙂 From experience, 160gsm works best for this since it’s sturdy enough, holds its shape and isn’t too difficult to fold.

DIY Stamps

Do you love stationery? We do. Back in the day people would mail each other postcards and letters and although it took some time to receive, the excitement you get while waiting adds to the experience! Stamps were all the rage too and so we thought why can’t we make our own? You can even use them for your party invites. I utilized one of my abstract works and edited it on Adobe Illustrator. You can do the same with your program of choice. All I did was copy certain areas of the image, add a white border around it and hit print. To make things look more realistic, use sticker paper (we used Best Buy’s in Matte Finish) and some decorative scissors to cut around it.

Gift Wrappers/Paper Bag

Do you have sketches lying around? Because I know I do. *Hihi. Guilty.* Who knew that those doodles can live past your sketchbook? I digitized some of them with the help of the Canon Pixma G3000’s built-in scanner and printed it on colorful craft paper (we used Bio Top Color in 80 gsm). Voila! Personalized gift wrappers in a matter of minutes. You can also make paper bags out of them, which would be the perfect party loot bags. By the way, we’ll be holding a digitizing workshop this coming August. Feel free to sign up here: bit.ly/GGworkshops.

Personalized Stickers

Were you one of those ’90s kids that used to trade stickers with friends? *Do I see hands or am I just painfully revealing my age again?* Seems like even the young ones today can’t get enough of stickers. Besides, they’re great for journaling and even for gift wrapping. You can make your own too! It’s so easy. All you’ll need are some sticker paper, a quality printer, your chosen artwork and some trusty scissors.

Source of Fictional Addresses: Quora

Washi Tape

We all love washi tape but sometimes it can be particularly difficult to find a specific design or a color that matches our needed palette. The fix? Let’s make our own. It’s pretty simple too. Just print the pattern on some sticker paper and cut them to size.

We had so much fun making and shooting these projects. All the more because printing was a breeze and the colors did not distort while it transferred on paper thanks to the Canon Pixma G3000 printer. It’s an all-in-one wireless printer, scanner and copier that works with the SELPHY mobile printing app and PIXMA Cloud Link™ so you can work straight from any device.

I remember a time when people had their printers modified by a third party to save on ink. We did too but it ended up clogging the machine so we eventually had to purchase a new one. *Wrong move there. Sigh.* It’s a good thing that the Canon Pixma G3000 already features a refillable ink tank system which helps save on costs and helped us skip through all that trouble. The design also allows us to gauge ink levels so we don’t have to guess if we’re running out or not.  Here’s another tip: don’t forget to specify the type of paper you’ll be printing on: matte, glossy etc so the printer can optimize the print quality. 🙂

So which project do you want to try?

Canon Printers are available in major computer shops. 🙂 To those who have been asking, the photos & videos in this blog post were taken with a Canon 5D Mark IV & Canon 24-70 lens f/2.8 lens. 🙂  Thank you Anne for helping out with the project and the chats in between. 😀
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