Unclear on the Concept

Yesterday was one of those days.

I had run out of business cards weeks ago and decided I wanted to add my examiner.com logo and page info to my card before printing out new ones.  I did that, it took about 10 minutes, and then printed them.

For some unknown reason, the cards printed out improperly aligned.  I discarded the ruined sheet of cards, re-checked all the settings, and then re-printed.  Again they came out incorrect.

I have no idea what the problem was.  I've been using these cards and template forever.  I discarded the ruined sheet, and then went online to the card manufacturer's website, and looked around for answers.  While I was there, I noticed they had a page for designing and printing your cards using their paper right from their website.  I thought, Well, then I could be sure the template was perfect and so I decided to try that.

The only problem was, you had to recreate your cards.  Well, no biggie, I thought, it will only take a few minutes.  And I was finished and ready to print in the blink of an eye.

I printed.  The cards came out improperly aligned.  And now I was completely out of card stock.


Then I had to leave to go to my PT appointment.  On the way back, I stopped at the office supply store and bought more of the business card stock.  (Yes - I bought the same brand and size, because I still had faith that I could fix whatever was wrong, and I didn't want to monkey with yet another template.)


When I got back home, I studied the website again (they had allowed me to save my card document) and saw that there was a button to click on to fix printing problems.  Lo and behold, when I went to that page there was a "fix" for improper alignment: you were to measure the length and direction the printing was "off" and then enter that info into a menu, which would then fix the problem.


I don't know about you, but I think that Avery is unclear on the concept of a template.


It kind of reminded me of that Seinfeld episode, where Jerry reserves a car and when he arrives at the airport's car rental counter is told there are no cars available.  He explains that he made a reservation, and proceeds to tell the clerk how a reservation works.  "I know what a reservation is" she says.  "No, I don't think you do" says Jerry.


That was the conversation I was having with Avery's computer screen, about the template.


Anyway, after wasting PAGES  of expensive business card paper, I adjusted the template onscreen until I was satisfied with the cards that came out.  They're not perfect, but I have given up.


What to do with all the discarded, cattywompus cards?  Well, I couldn't bring myself to throw them away.  So I decided to cut them up and put them on tags; I can include them with product that I mail off from my vintage shop.

I started on that: cutting up the cards and then cutting scrap booking paper and gluing the cards onto it, then punching holes at the top and inserting ribbon.




My ten, maybe 20 minute print-my-own-business cards turned into an all-day (with interruptions) affair.  And I still haven't finished putting on all the ribbons.

On another note: how do you store your ribbons?  I have never been able to come up with something that works, so finally the other day I just sorted the ribbons by color and put each in a plastic storage bag, and then all the bags in a bin:


It seems to work okay, but I'm interested in knowing how you do yours.

Comments

Linda Sue said…
You are a very patient person! I didn't hear any swearing the whole time and you just kept putting one foot in front of the other- admirable! Your cards are beautiful- making lemonade, I see.
Bunty said…
How very frustrated you must have been. I have no patience with things like that and would probably have been tearing my hair out!! At least you managed to make use of the misaligned cards, which is very resourceful of you! They look very pretty indeed.

I know exactly what you mean about a little job turning into a whole day job!

Ribbon storage was OK for me until I acquired humungous amounts of ribbon - now I have two largeish drawers with colour coded ribbons and a little "nail & screw cabinet" from the DIY store for all the rest - colour coded of course! I still desperately need more storage though and I think plastic bags sound good to me and don't take up as much room. Will have to try that.

Barbara
Sherrie said…
I would have been ready to call it quits. I am not at all tech savvy. Good for you. By the way, that is how I store my ribbon as well, by colors, in plastic bags. Simple and it works for me.
Angela said…
Oh, Laurie, I couldn't help but laugh! Been there, done that, many times! Good for you for accomplishing your goal, even if it took much longer than you wanted it to! :o)
said…
I can hear your frustration and have felt the same, but with a different online company.

My ribbon is stored in a basket and a drawer. I wish I could come up with something handier.
Sandra said…
Laurie, you have more patience then I do, that is for sure! I sure admire you for that. And I love!! how you turned all the misaligned cards into such cute tags !! You are so creative, I really do admire you, because I am not at all.
Lydia said…
Love the tags!

I keep my ribbons on their rolls in 2 drawers in a vintage shabby dresser in my living room. I also have some on a rod that goes in a rack. A great idea is to put them on a kitchen towel holder. I also use baggies for the loose pieces.

We are lucky to have a great ribbon factory near us. You never know what you will find. Sometimes it is the same old, but often we find neat items besides the inexpensive ribbons. Some rolls as cheap as 10 cents, or these big mega rolls on big , old , vintage spools for $4-
fun.
stampgram said…
First, let me tell you what I do on printing onto forms such as business cards...I always print in draft on cheap copy paper first, then lay it over the perfed paper to see it aligns perfectly, holding it up to the light so I can see the perfs. This is because I had purchased some form paper and used it for a long time so had my address labels saved for that paper. When I went back they had changed the paper so that the margins were not the same and there was little strips to remove between them...but they package had the same number as the old one GRRRRRRRR and I didn't notice they were different until I clicked print and walked away to do something else only to discover later that I had printed several sheets that were all cut off on the end. Now I do a test print on every new package I buy just to be safe.
stampgram said…
On ribbon storage...
My daughters and I all use different systems so maybe one will work for you. My hubby made me a lovely wooden ribbon rack that hangs behind the door on the wall (it is heavy). It is about 30" w and 48" h with a larger rod at the bottom (like on a shelf with a rod for hanging a quilt) to hang those huge sheets of handmade papers on. The rack has 10 lift out rods to hold rolls of ribbon. The slots are on an upward angle so they are easy to lift but still very secure. I can store tons of ribbon on it and having it behind the door uses only wasted space. My bits and pieces are stored in drawers of an iris cart by my work table, wrapped on cardboard the size of the cards in rickrack - they line up perfectly in rubbermaid drawer dividers.

My oldest daughter has her ribbons and fibers stored in the cardboard photo boxes from Michaels. She got boxes the color of her ribbons, ie, red, blue, green, gold, white, black, purple, pink, etc. If she finds she has more of one color than will fit in a box she gets another box in a different shade such as brown and beige, red and pink, etc. She has a bookcase that hold theses perfectly and it is so easy for her to just grab the box she needs. It also looks pretty in her art room. I don't have enough space to spare to do this so I am thrilled that my hubby made me the rack.

My youngest daughter wraps all her ribbons and fibers on the little cards they sell for embroidery floss. She has some very large (more than a gallon size)glass jars with wide tops like they use in vintage shops for candies and such that she stores them in. She says half the fun is digging around in them for just the right thing. And they do look like jeweled things in the jars - very pretty on the shelf.

I hope this helps.

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