digi stamps smear
 

Is there anything I can do to keep the black ink from smearing when I go to color? I did the face on one and the face looked dirty. I tried keeping from the black but if the face has freckles, forget it.:confused:

Some people say to dry with a heat gun, or maybe leave a day or so between printing and colouring. Faces are always the most tricky. Pay particular attention to your strokes, colour UP TO the line and lift off, don't pull away from the line with the pen.

Ruth

Try using a white eraser before coloring. That helps a little bit but if your markers are on the juicy side you still need to be careful. One trick I learned other than the one above is to try to color near the line with some dots with a little bit of pressure, then always "test" your marker on a piece of scrap to ensure there's no printer ink residue before moving away from the spots that are likely to smudge. This also tends to happen to me more because flesh colors are so light that you feel like you need to go heavier which makes the area wetter, so just lay down a little at a time.

Hope this helps.

Just as it happens when stamping, then coloring, many times the answer lies with two things:

• your cardstock, and
• your ink ... i.e. your printer.

Cardstock is still an important element when coloring, whether the image has been stamped or it has been laid onto the cardstock with a printer. I usually find that I need to use the same cardstock in my printer as I use for stamping-to-color.

Ink ... and your printer: Laser and ink jet printers use completely different inks and methods to produce images on paper. I'm not an expert on computer hardware, but I do know that between the two printers available to me, I can only color images from one of them. Alas, I cannot explain that in detail ... my "techiness" usually gets handed over to a more tech-savvy person for the big details in that arena. :rolleyes:

In both cases, try your digis with what ever variety that you have available. You may well discover a better combination for your success with digis. ;)

I bought one of these (but haven't tried it with printing yet): Perfect Crafting Pouch : ScraPerfect, Shop For Your Magically Perfect Products!

If your printer is a newer one and has two different black inks (photo & normal), try printing with the highest quality and then the draft or greyscale and try each one to see which one does or doesn't smear. The difference between the two inks is that one is dye based and the other is pigment, so one will more than likely smear whereas the other won't. I have a Canon MP560 printer that I use off brand inks with and none of my inks smear with alcohol based ink markers. Another thing you can try is to heat set your ink with a heat tool or go over it with a warm iron.

I like to color with Copic Markers,so I use Xpress paper from copic. My printer is an ink jet and I don't have any trouble. I also don't color right away.

for me I always print in draft form....you still get a great image but not so much ink is dumped on the cardstock. I do not get any smearing now when I do that. I use Georgia Pacific cardstock from walmart and have had excellent luck

I find that using my printer on "fast draft" and then waiting about 20 minutes works best. It uses less ink (so you can print more cards) and I very seldom have any smearing. I have a HP printer.

I've had the same problem with printer ink smearing and 'muddying' when I colour,so am now using colored pencils instead-you don't get the same vibrant colour though.

Printing on "fast draft" makes all the difference for me. I use markers to color, but often use colored pencils then follow with odorless mineral spirits to brighten the colors.

I know people who read newsprint a lot will iron their papers before reading them. This sets the ink on the paper so it doesn't transfer to fingers & other items nearby. I am going to try heating my images before coloring them next time. (from an old newspaper reporter)

Use Workable Fixative
 

After you are done printing, spray lightly with either clear spray paint, or a product called "Workable Fixative" (I think. It's in a spray can like paint and I think made by Krylon). This will set the ink and allow you to color with water based markers. Sometimes if you want to print on vellum the color bleeds out a bit, so spray the vellum with the fixative FIRST, let dry completely, then print on it and spray again. It can also be used to set chalk so it doesn't smear off.

I agree with Live Joyfully! I have used Krylon Workable Fixatif for this for a long time. It works very well as long as I let it dry for at least an hour.

Additionally, the paper is so important! I use Neenah Classic Crest Solar White . It is 80 lb. stock, very smooth and takes both printer and Copic beautifully. AND....if I am doing something with low detail, I can use it without spraying.

Simply rub an eraser over the entire image to remove any ink that hasn't set into the card stock. I use all sorts of coloring mediums on my digital images - even water color - with no bleeding.

Thanks for all your suggestions! I'll try the heating,both with iron and heat gun,and also using draft setting on my printer,and rubbing eraser over the printing.Unfortunately we can't get the workable fixative here in NZ.

It sounds a bit outrageous to say, go buy a new printer but a laser printer doesn't smear with alcohol or water based markers.

You can buy a laser printer in AUS for under $50.

Considering how much I have spent on markers and pencils, $50 seems like a drop in the ocean (additional benefits are lower cost per page, crisper images and faster multiple prints - I can justify anything. :) )

Thanks for that suggestion KoffeeKat,but I already have an old laser printer which I use for most things I'm printing out (documents etc)The 'plus' with an inkjet is that I only need to use a small piece of card to print a out digi image on (after sticking it to copy paper with repositional glue) I don't have copics anyway,just a few Tombo markers.I think laser printers are more expensive here in NZ,the replacement rollers for the one I've got are US$200 each,so am hoping it goes a bit longer!

Replacement bits for my old one were expensive too. A new one was about 1/2 the cost but I still have toner and drums for it, so I keep it going.

I am able to stick small pieces of velum onto copy paper and put it through my laser so you might be able to do it with card.

Also, I can put smaller pieces (down to A6) through the envelope slot if I make a suitable custom paper size in the program.

you can take your copy to the office supply store and have a laser copy made for about 10 cent. and if you use a graphic program you can put 4 or 5 digi's on a page and have them for later to color.

I'm still quite new to digi stamping,and haven't got to the stage of being able to put 4 or 5 onto a page,it takes me all my time to get 2 on a page,lol.Be great idea though when I've got better at printing them out,thanks :-)

I never do digi unless given to me for a design team project, but this is what I do:
Print the images at home using my printer then take to Kinkos and make some copies on their machines. I keep a binder with plastic sleeves where I keep the originals organized. I use the self serve machines that run about 5-8 cents a page. Sometimes when I bring my own paper, they let me use the machines for free!!!

If doing digi's or even a regular stamped image, if your intent is to use water colors on them should you print it on water paper? Do you know if that makes a difference? I've not tried doing it yet but i've been contemplating it.

I always put the image on paper appropriate to the medium I'm colouring with. I use watercolour pencils and digis a lot and laser print to a fine tooth watercolour paper. I find a coarse tooth paper spreads the colour too far for most stamped images because of their size and detail.

I have had good luck with the xpress blending card sheets of paper sold anywhere they sell copics. The regular computer ink has not spread. I have a paint program on my windows 7 software and I can print off 6 images on a page with that paint program and using the print and page set up, to align on page to print.