DIY Wedding Guide for Printing Invitations, Cards, Photos and More!

Planning a wedding is more than just picking a location, finding a dress and choosing your dream honeymoon location. Months and months go into preparing for your big day and along with that come the sometimes overwhelming costs associated with all that a wedding entails. Some choose smaller celebrations while others prefer a grand event with hundreds of their closest friends but in the end your wedding is about you and loved ones.

Organizing the details for your big day may require creative ways to stay within your budget, but it is still possible to plan the wedding of your dreams. There are a variety of ways to minimize costs throughout the process while maintaining the style and feel you are looking for. From save the dates and formal invitations to decorations and thank-you notes, there are a plethora of resources available out there to help create custom and stylish stationary. With projects that involve at-home printing, couples can cut out the unnecessary cost of expensive printing fees and take control of the printing process. Do-it-yourself templates and projects are available and ultimately make the wedding planning process more cost effective and unique for your special day.

For more information on do-it-yourself wedding projects including save the dates, invitations, thank-you notes and more, check our out complete list of resources below and get started on planning your cost-effective dream wedding!

Teachers and parents can turn this fun project into an educational activity.

Now that we have officially entered the summer season and many kids are out of school on vacation, parents and teachers all across the country are looking for fun ways that they can keep kids active with educationally stimulating activities, while also keeping them entertained during the long summer afternoons.

Whether you are a teacher who is keeping your students on track this summer through educational camps and tutoring, or you are a parent who is simply looking to keep your child’s mind working hard until the next school year resumes, there are a number of fun lesson plans out there that mix fun with learning.

One such activity that both yourself and your kids may enjoy is creating glowing art with your very own printer. This fun project not only gets the creative juices flowing and encourages children to be imaginative, but it also teaches them about the printing process―an everyday activity that they may use, but not necessarily understand.

Therefore, to help kids get creative with learning this summer, here are some basic steps on how to create custom glowing art photos with your at-home printer.

1. Gather Necessary Materials

In order to print a glowing photograph, you need to add a specific chemical to normal ink in order to cause it to glow in the dark. This can be done with the following materials:

• An empty printer cartridge
• A refill of printer ink
• An empty syringe (can be found at any major pharmaceutical store)
• Colored glow powder (can be found at craft and science stores)

2. Prepare The Glowing Ink

In order to get your photograph to glow, you need to create your own custom glowing ink cartridge to put into your printer. To create this ink, you are going to combine 1/4 teaspoon of your glow powder with 3 teaspoons of ink from your refill ink cartridge in a small bowl. Next, put the mixture into the microwave for 20-30 seconds in order to blend it completely.

3. Fill Your Custom Glowing Ink Cartridge

Once your mixture is complete, use your syringe to draw up the ink. This is what you will use to fill your empty printer cartridge. Most printer ink cartridges can be refilled through refill holes located underneath their label.  However, if your cartridge is missing these refill holes, simply pop off the cap and inject the glowing ink from the top. Next, add the cap back onto the cartridge and insert it into your printer.

4. Print Your Pages

Once your glowing ink cartridge has been inserted into your printer, print a couple of test photos in order to get the ink to start flowing well. Once the ink begins dispensing, you can print out any image of your choosing. However, once the image has printed, you will need to “charge” the ink by shining a bright light onto the paper for 60-80 seconds. Sunlight typically works best for this process, but black light or a bright light source will work also.

5. View Your Glowing Work Of Art

Once you have charged your image, it is time to turn off all of the lights and watch your photo glow. The light may fade after a couple of minutes, but if you continue to expose the image to bright light or black light, it will continue to glow each time you turn off the lights!

If you have followed our simple steps above in order to create your own custom glowing masterpiece, be sure to share your artwork on our Ink Technologies Facebook or Twitter page. We would love to see your creation! Also be sure to check out our inkjet cartridges brand pages in order to stock back up on regular ink once your activity is complete.

Finish photos with the best quality ink and paper to get an everlasting image.

There are an endless number of different point-and-shoot and DSLR cameras available in this day and age that allow the average person to take personal photographs that look just as good as the pros. Through different camera settings, lenses and editing software, we are able to capture a flawless image that faithfully reproduces some of the most important moments in our lives.

However, for as much time as people spend editing and altering their photographs in order to capture the best possible image, they rarely spend as much time or effort thinking about how they are going to finish off their photo and archive it. While your only option used to be dropping off your film at a lab and waiting for it to be developed, people are now able to get professional prints right at home from a number of high-quality photo printers.

While a great photo printer can print an unlimited amount of photos right from the comfort of your own home, truly great home printed photos are created when these printers are combined with high-value printer ink and paper in order to produce an everlasting photograph with the best possible quality.

Good Photos Depend On A Good Ink Cartridge

Photos are one thing that you want to make sure hold up over time and will always look great when you go back to them year after year. However, if you do not buy high-quality ink to print your photos, they can easily fade due to heat, light, humidity and air-born contaminants. Therefore, when selecting printer ink, you want to make sure that it will stand the test of time.

There are two popular types of printer ink to choose from when printing photos at home:

• Dye-Based Ink: This type of ink is made of different colorations that are dissolved in a liquid. Depending on the manufacturer, dye-based ink can be primarily made of water (such as with Canon Ink) or with glycol (such as with Epson Ink). The advantages of this ink is that, since it is made of liquid, the ink flows easily onto paper and dries very quickly. However, the downsides to dye-based ink is that they are not usually waterproof and can fade faster than other types of ink. (A photo printed on quality paper with dye-based ink typically lasts from 5 to 25 years.)
• Pigment-Based Ink:  Pigment inks were first introduced in 2000 and have revolutionized the digital photo printing industry. These popular inks have an insoluble powder pigment that is suspended, not dissolved, in liquid. This makes the ink more stable and able to resist fading much longer than other inks. (Properly stored pigment-based prints on high quality paper can last 150 years or more!) The only downside is that dye-based inks are more viscous and may be incompatible with some papers that do not absorb ink easily.

Printer Photo Paper Is Just As Important

While high-quality photo ink can make all the difference when it comes to printing photographs at home, it is also important that you are choosing printer photo paper that is just as high quality. This will help make the photos that you print look much more realistic, and it will also give photos better contrast and realistic details that you simply can’t get with multipurpose paper.

Ink Technologies offer premium quality photo paper for use in all types of inkjet printers. Better yet, all of our paper is backed with our 100% satisfaction guarantee so you can always ensure that you are getting paper of high value that will produce excellent prints! To find out more about the different types of photo ink and paper that we offer, contact Ink Technologies today. Also be sure to check out our Facebook page where you can sign up for our beneficial Rewards Program and receive exclusive access to deals and rewards.

These simple tips can help to streamline your daily work routine and tasks.

Everyone has those days where they simply can’t seem to stay focused. You sit down to get caught up on your work or to finish up an important document that is due at your next office meeting, only to get distracted by what’s happening outside your window or even a phone call on company spending that’s taking place in the cubicle next to you.

Unfortunately, while a few minutes of mind wandering may offer a refreshing mental break during a stressful work day, too much procrastinating can put a serious damper on your work and productivity levels when it occurs day after day.

Luckily, if you are the type of person who has trouble focusing throughout the long work day, there are many tips and tricks that can help you streamline your daily work routine and stay more focused on your assigned tasks. To help you get started, here are four simple office tips that will help you save time and increase your overall productivity day after day:

1. Prioritize Your Tasks

Do you ever feel as though there is so much work to do on a given day that you simply don’t know where to begin? The key is to just get started, one task at a time. A great way to manage a large load of assignments and keep yourself from feeling overwhelmed is to prioritize your daily tasks and keep an ongoing daily to-do list for yourself. You can rank the importance of these assignments based on your team’s deadlines and goals. However, just be sure that you are completely finishing each task before you move onto the next to prevent yourself from becoming too scattered.

2. Be Vigilant Against Procrastination

If you tend to become easily distracted throughout the day, whether it is from emails, social media sites or your internal office chat, try to limit these distractions as best you can. For instance, instead of keeping a separate email or Facebook tab open in your browser, only allow yourself to look at these sites as a “break” between large assignments. This will help you keep focused on the work that needs to be done and prevent yourself from becoming tempted by the open browser tab that you see.

3. Simplify Repeated Tasks

Many office managers and employees often find themselves repeating the same tasks or assignments on a monthly, or even weekly, basis. For example, ordering the same replacements of office supplies or ink cartridges month after month. If you find yourself repeating many of the same processes, see if there is a way you can streamline them instead by simplifying repeated tasks.

Ink Technologies offers a simple, one-click reordering system for people who will be repeating orders of toner and Inkjet printer cartridges from its website. This helps office managers and private customers streamline the reordering process and saves them from the irksome task of fulfilling the same order month after month.

4. Do More By Taking Breaks

While it may seem like a backwards thought process, taking breaks throughout the day and stepping away from your assignments can actually help you to become more productive. This is because you are giving your mind a much needed break to recharge and revitalize, rather than working it until it hits a dead end. A study in Science Daily has also show than taking a 15-20 minute break to get outside can even add to the feelings of revitalization, as spending time outside among nature can help to decrease feelings of confusion, tension and depression. Therefore, next time you are feeling stumped on a big work project or assignment, try taking a quick walk around outside to help boost your mind.

Do you have any more suggestions for saving time or increasing productivity during the work day? Be sure to leave your tips in the comments below! Also be sure to follow our Ink Technologies Facebook and Twitter pages where we may share some of the best suggestions with our loyal fans!

I know we all have more fun things to do than maintain the printer. When placed with a decision to clean the printer on a Friday night or go catch a movie no one in their right mind is going to elect to stay late at the office. However, if you have a couple minutes between tasks let me make an argument for the poor neglected printer.
Continue reading “Take the Time to Maintain Your Printer” »

The HP LaserJet P2055dn is an excellent workhorse of a printer. The HP P2055dn is a monochrome laser printer designed for heavy use, making it ideal for a home office or a small company. The printer is one of the fastest printers available on the market, clocking in with speeds of 35 pages per minute. The HP P2055dn also has superior print quality. Rounding off the printer’s capabilities with a tendency not to jam or malfunction, the HP P2055dn is an excellent printer for a reasonable price. Continue reading “HP P2055dn Review” »

Today is Wednesday again ad we bring another addition to our blog, “Ink in the Water”. Today we will be looking at black ink in the water.  In some ways, black ink in the water lacks the clarity of color found with other colors in the water, as seen in last week’s post of “Magenta Ink in Water”. However, Black ink does have a majesty found in water that all other colors lack, especially in the contrast.  Black ink gains dimension through the shades of grey and abstract forms.  Black ink in water often looks like the famous Rorschach Test, more commonly known as the “ink blot test”. Continue reading “Black Ink In Water” »

We supply remanufactured in cartridges at Ink Technologies.  Remanufactured ink cartridges is a way to recycle and reuse old cartridges to both lower the cost of ink cartridges, as well as helping effect the environment in a positive way.  The primary difference between an original equipment manufacturer, such as HP, Canon, Epson, Brother, Dell, Lexmark, etc., is that remanufactured ink cartridges are much more affordable.  Ink Technologies can make use of all inkjet cartridges to provide the best equipment, supplies, and services to our clients.

Continue reading “Benefits of Remanufactured Ink Cartridges” »

Wednesday’s on Facebook, we share pictures in a series we have named, “Ink in Water”. This week we will be looking at magenta ink in water.  Magenta ink cartridges are one of the four basic ink cartridges of an inkjet printer, along with cyan, yellow, and key – which is the industry name for black ink.  Magenta ink cartridges are available from our website for a host of printer manufacturers and models, as well as standalone magenta ink cartridges or part of set, depending on your specific company needs.

For the pictures this week, we have chosen a small variety of beautiful magenta ink in water.  Magenta truly blossoms in the water, taking on a form of a natural wave of the ocean, or perhaps the delicate beauty of a flower. Continue reading “Magenta Ink in Water” »

At Ink Technologies we are obviously in the ink business, but what good is ink without the printer? Printer manufacturers have made steady progress over the last decade to provide efficient, reliable, and user friendly machines. One of the nation’s leading printer brands is Canon. Continue reading “Canon MX870 Ink Cartridges” »