Technology has done a lot for us as consumers. Not only has it made a lot of things faster, more efficient, and easier, but it has also given us the ability to have some creative fun in ways never before possible. Printing on fabric can be a fun project for just about anybody, from quilters to sports fans. The good news is that you aren’t the first one to come up with the idea. You might be surprised to hear that there are actually a couple ways to move an image onto some fabric. The first method is to use a printer friendly fabric that can be printed on directly. The second method is to use a special transfer paper that transfers with heat. No matter which method you use, you can end up with a product that makes a real statement.

Now, there are several special printer supplies for this kind of thing, like fabric sheets that can be used in a standard inkjet printer to print directly to a fabric. These sheets, which can be found in a number of sizes including 8 1/2 x 11″, 11 x 17″ and 13 x 19″, can simply be sewn together as traditional fabrics once printed on and dried. You can hand-pick photos, patterns, clip art, or you can actually draw something by hand and scan it into the computer. Then, you can use a photography editing program to change the image to exactly what you want. Then, you just put the fabric sheets in your printer and print away. Be sure to load it correctly, so that the image is printed on the correct surface and follow the guidelines on the product packaging for direction on set time and possible soaking. Then prepare the sewing machine or needle and thread. Keep in mind that these work especially well for quilts, shams, curtains, accent pillows, and other things, but there are some things that it doesn’t work all that well on. If you just want to put a picture on a T-shirt, tie, or ribbon, there’s a product that makes that easier: heat activated transfer sheets. These nifty papers can be found in printer-friendly fashion and are simply a means to redressing existing fabrics. For this you will need to have the article of clothing or material you wish to adorn with an image. Next, just find the picture and edit it the same way you would have earlier. Print the image on the transfer paper after you have properly loaded it into your printer. Most likely, you’ll want to cut the borders off of the image. You do not want much more that a thin border surrounding it. From here on, you should really follow the directions provided with the product because the the exact steps can differ significantly from one brand to the next. You can then take pride in your own creation as you wear or display it.

These products can open up brand new possibilities in the areas of clothing design and quilting. Create a photo collage quilt, let your dinner napkins share a holiday sentiment, make matching tees for you and your friends, or adorn socks with piggies to cover your little one’s piggies. Whatever the application, one thing is for sure- with the help of your printer and a few special printer supplies, your material creations are sure to be better than ever.

Practically speaking, handmade design is all about having a workable collection of materials and ideas to hand when you are working on a project. You might want to take a long time collecting something entirely suited to a pattern and a style; you may enjoy the spontaneity of placing incongruous items together to make something totally unique in your home. Either way, it’s good to have variety, and to start off with a place to store all your materials together is a good way to pool these ideas and resources. So get yourself a printer to keep ideas you find online and a box or a file and start hoarding.

What often drives these projects is the tendency towards creative redecoration – the best projects come when you re-use and re-appropriate off-cuts and used items in your design. There’s a pleasing quality to the finish, and you’re turning free, unwanted materials into something new. With items such as cushions and rag-rugs, you can even quickly give back a unique bit of creativity for all the off-cuts you’ve been supplied with.

When you’re thinking of throwing away tired wooden furniture, are you sure that you couldn’t redecorate the piece to give it another turn? With solid, structurally-sound tables, chairs, consoles and the like, it’s often possible to take off the finish of the piece back to the natural wood, then re-stain it in a more lively tone, or add a touch of fresh country style with some stencilling in bright colours. Printing out stencils from home on layers of old paper is a great way to court the re-usable effort at every step all you need is a simple mono printer.

Home made gifts are a great way to ensure your gifts are thoughtful and, of course, unique. What about a kitsch, rugged pouch bag or satchel made from off-cuts of corduroy or khaki, with a handful of button badges that really tell the person you know their tastes? These take only a rudimentary knowledge of the sewing machine and a bit of interface material for the inside, and the odd quirky button to top things off.

What’s essential to remember is that creative redecoration is the original of the factory copy; manufacturers often use a host of methods to achieve this look, but there’s a finite number of ways they bring them to you, along with the extortionate price tag, to boot. Break free and start collecting your own creative redecoration materials, and bring that unique touch to your home this new year.

If you have a budding artist on your hands, you may want to allow him to use the paint program in the computer. For most people, painting hands on is nothing like painting electronically, so electronic painting has the potential to present both new challenges and new ideas. In order to make sure he can have a finished product, you should make sure your ink cartridges have enough in them to print out the masterpieces he will create.

One more thing that you can do with your kids is to use your printer to start a scrapbook. Scrapbooking is an awesome way to save the memorabilia and photos that will keep the memories of good times alive as they grow up. Don’t forget to make sure that there is enough black ink and color ink in your ink cartridges to insure that you’ll be getting the best results. Make copies of photos for your kids to crop and place in their own albums. To go even further with this, help them make and print stickers to specialize their scrapbooks with.

One space saving way to keep your kid’s science project that many parents don’t even think of is to take a picture of the finished project. Sometimes your kids will create projects that are simply too big to keep. In those cases, you can take a nice picture of it and print it out so that you can remember how nice the finished product was.

One more thing that can be done with your printer, provided that you have enough ink in your ink cartridges, is to use the internet to find printable crafts to do. This can get your children to start being creative while also allowing them to experience some of the things that can be done with electronic creation.

If your child is interested in learning how to sew, you can find patterns online and print them to help you in the teaching process. You can use simple patterns on paper to sew along to in order to help teach your little beginning sewer how to sew in a straight line. Provided that there is enough ink in your ink cartridges, you can print out a handful of patterns for your little one to follow along to so he or she can practice. You can find patterns, both simple and more complex, so that you can have some guidance for some beginner projects that you can do together.

If you want to bring out the creative side of your kids, using your printer is a great way to do so. You’ll probably be surprised by what your little ones can come up once they get going.

So, assuming that you want to make Christmas cards yourself, in comfort and glad tidings at home, we’ll continue. The first thing we should explore is that, in a secular society, Christmas has many meanings and associative feelings, depending on who you ask. This is good for us. We can expand hugely upon the usual green-and-red things and bells and holly, which have, we should admit, somewhat lost their original meaning. We’ll hang on to this thought as we talk about designs. Which simply require your creativity and a computer and printer.

With our new blank canvas, we can think about a few ideas. Think ‘Christmas season’, and not traditional Christmas. What things go with Christmas that we particularly love, what is it that we share when we come together? A great idea is to make collages – describe your favourite winter walk, your ideal setting, where the empty space is the undisturbed snow, and you illuminate the features with cut-outs from magazines and newspapers. For a uniform texture, scan this into your computer, turn the image fully black-and-white, and make quality print-outs.

One quite original idea (I’m sure it’s been done before) is to give someone a wintry treasure hunt. To do this, print out the successive clues to be hidden, and place them in a complex trail around the house. This presumes you are regularly in this person’s home; you’re unlikely to be thanked for planting these clues uninvited.

Think back to previous Christmas periods – with family and close friends, you’ll no doubt have endless folders of photos from over the years. How about making a photo-board from your existing pictures with a scanner and some simple image editing software to cut out the pieces digitally, thus saving your snaps from the scissors? Once you’ve layered several memorable shots, you can add your seasonal message and print your cards out to stand landscape-wise as a reminder of past and future good times.

Whatever choice you make, be original, and try to take a twist on the normal way of doing things. Use good quality paper and colour printer to make your design look the part. Plain print-out Christmas cards are just as dull as their cheap, shop-bought cousins. Change this with a little thought, and you’ll no doubt remember more clearly what this season means to you personally along the way.