Printing your own wrapping paper

Alako

Hiya,

Has anyone any ideas or info in getting your own wrapping paper printed?

I'd like to get a smallish amount (50?) of about three or four designs printed for starters.

Any advice greatly appreciated!

looksee

This is going to be expensive! The set up of any printing job is the most expensive part, running a very few sheets (like 50 ) is going to be relatively expensive. The kind of paper you will want makes digital printing not practical.

I would suggest you consider finding someone doing screen printing - the basic craft type, not some of the more technical types.

The main considerations would be: what pattern are you looking for, is it very specific - like initials or a logo - or could you possibly cope with commercially printed paper? What kind of paper do you want to print on? (what will you be wrapping). How big do the sheets need to be? And to make things as economical as possible, printing should be in one colour.

What sort of budget do you have? How arty/practical are you. Could you consider doing some sort of home made screen printing? Screens do not have to be very complicated, quite a simple frame and screen fabric could be possible. Or could you consider stamping, or stencilling?

There are lots of other solutions that might be much easier than printing paper, but you would have to tell us what you are wrapping.

A bit more information would be helpful to offer any good solutions.

Alako

looksee wrote: »

This is going to be expensive! The set up of any printing job is the most expensive part, running a very few sheets (like 50 ) is going to be relatively expensive. The kind of paper you will want makes digital printing not practical.

I would suggest you consider finding someone doing screen printing - the basic craft type, not some of the more technical types.

The main considerations would be: what pattern are you looking for, is it very specific - like initials or a logo - or could you possibly cope with commercially printed paper? What kind of paper do you want to print on? (what will you be wrapping). How big do the sheets need to be? And to make things as economical as possible, printing should be in one colour.

What sort of budget do you have? How arty/practical are you. Could you consider doing some sort of home made screen printing? Screens do not have to be very complicated, quite a simple frame and screen fabric could be possible. Or could you consider stamping, or stencilling?

There are lots of other solutions that might be much easier than printing paper, but you would have to tell us what you are wrapping.

A bit more information would be helpful to offer any good solutions.

Hi Looksee, thanks for your lengthy reply!!

YEah... I'm starting to see that it's not such a cheap process if you only want a small amount.

The patterns I'm making are pretty elaborate and full colour so I think screen printing is out too..

I was thinking of maybe selling my own wrapping paper along with a few other bits and bobs I do, but I might have to can that idea.

There is an online printers based in Dublin where you could you could get 250 A1 sheets printed for €150, that works out as 60c a sheet, and really you'd want to be giving two sheets together so thats €1.20 per 'roll'. Expensive if you're only charging say €3.

..and that's only one design. I'd want to do maybe three designs.. but I wouldn't really fancy trying to find somewhere in my apartment to stick 750 rolls of wrapping paper!!


http://print24.com/ie/?sid=2669a90d03660c898a2a8aa23125d648

Jellybaby1

The National Print Museum would have experts you could consult, you could give them a ring http://www.nationalprintmuseum.ie/ or alternatively I don't suppose you'd consider having a rubber stamp made of your designs and do them by hand? That's a lot of work though but I've seen it done for personally designed backing papers which of course are at most 12" square. The main problem with getting a rubber stamp made is quality. I've had a personal rubber stamp made in Dublin with a commercial producer and the quality is very poor. However there is a lady in N. Ireland who designs her own rubber/acrylic stamps but I don't know where she gets them made. I can give you her details if you wish. I don't actually know of any craft stamp producers in ROI.

looksee

Seriously, don't go there! That is a huge investment for what you are getting, and you have to sell more than half of that before you even pay for it. Not to mention the expenses involved in selling - I trust that is not online selling? p&p would soak up the rest of your 'profit'.

Would you consider putting your designs onto decent sized tags and package them with toning tissue and ribbon as a wrapping kit?

2Cents

Try etsy.com for stamp makers is you decide to go down that route. There are hundreds of heads on there that do custom stamp making.