Journaling & Printing
How to Print On Scraps
By Holly C. Blackwell, Design Team Member
Jul 31, 2004, 05:42

To begin, you need to become familiar with your printer. Do a few test prints to see how your paper feeds into your printer and how it comes out. Note which side it considers the "front" and prints on. Also note, when using landscape format, which side (left or right) it considers the "top". Every printer can vary so it's important to test yours before trying to print on scraps of paper.

Using your computer's word processing program, create a text box that is the same size as your scrap. In Word, select Insert from the top menu, and then select Text Box. Next, click a spot on your document. While still holding the mouse button, drag until a box is created. When you let go of the mouse button, it will complete the box. To get it the same size as your scrap paper, you'll have to use the ruler feature. If you do not have a ruler at the left and top part of your screen, click View then Ruler. Click on the text box. You will see the outline of the box. Click and hold the mouse button as you drag the sides or corners of the text box. Use the ruler as a guide so you will know how large your box is.

Type out your journaling. Click the mouse inside the box. You can type and adjust things such as the font style, size, color and alignment just like normal text. An easy way to make these changes is to click on view, then toolbars and then if the formatting tool bar is not checked, click on it. This will place a toolbar at the top of your screen that will allow you to easily manipulate these things.

Format the text box so that it does not have a line around it. To do this, click inside the textbox. A gray box will appear around it. Right click with your mouse on that gray area. Then click on format text box. It should automatically be on the "colors and lines" tab. Under the lines section, click the down arrow that is beside the colors box. Then click on no line. This will remove the line from the text box.

Print the page onto regular paper. Change the color to light gray to save ink. First make sure your text is highlighted. If you have that formatting toolbar showing, you can easily change the text color by clicking on the "A" icon with a down arrow beside it. Choose the light gray color from the selection.

Using a temporary adhesive, attach your scrap on top of the printed area of the paper.

Feed the paper back through the paper. Be sure to change your journaling back to the appropriate color if you changed it to light gray. The type should be positioned perfectly on your scrap paper.