Updated June 2023
Many of us have a printer at home, probably stuck in the corner of a study collecting dust. Most people use their printers for things such as printing out documents, letters or photographs. But your printer is a lot more versatile than you would imagine, and with a little bit of creativity your standard printer can become an entertainment hub! Imagine that!
So, dust off this unloved piece of tech from the corner of your study because there’s so much fun to be had with a printer. We’ve put together a list of funky things you can use your printer for. When it comes to fun things to print using your printer, the list is endless. Read on to discover what a printer does and all the cool things to print out using it.
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T-shirt printing
If you’re wondering what cool things to print with your printer, why not start with t-shirts? There are lots of occasions and events where creating your own t-shirt design would be a fun thing to do. Customising t-shirts with iron-on transfers you’ve produced from your printer is very straightforward. Iron-on transfer paper costs less than £1 per sheet. You print directly on to transfer paper, just like normal.
Once you’ve printed out your design, place it face-down onto your t-shirt and run a hot iron over it, nice and evenly. All you need to do then is peel the paper off and you’re left with the image on your t-shirt. Finally, place the silicone paper (supplied with transfer paper) over the top of the design and iron it once more. This fixes images to the material, so it lasts longer – and the colours stay fast.
Make photo fridge magnets
Another fun thing to print out using your printer is a photo fridge magnet. You can buy magnetic sheets of paper from most craft stores or online and the cost is usually about £1 per sheet, so you can make a lot of fridge magnets for just a few pence each. Magnet paper can be fed through any regular inkjet printer using regular inks.
So, why not make your holiday photos into fridge magnets, and even better, send them to friends?
Temporary tattoos
When David Beckham is looking for a new tattoo, he always has a temporary tattoo first to see if he likes it. OK, we’ve just made that up, but it’s not a bad idea. Or you can just wear temporary tattoos for the fun of it. So, our third cool thing to print using your printer is a temporary tattoo!
You can buy temporary tattoo paper from craft stores or online which are inkjet compatible. All you have to do is create your own designs (or find some on google) and print them out, it’ll just take a few minutes. Temporary tattoos will last for a few days, but if you want to get rid of them, just scrub with hot soapy water.
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Print out edible cake graphics
If you’re an avid baker, one fun thing that you can print out using your printer is edible cake graphics! Yes, that’s how the cake makers do it! You can buy special printers that use edible inks. The image quality is great, so you can admire it… and then eat it!
If you don’t want to buy a special printer, there are lots of cake shops online where you can email what you want, and they’ll print it out for you, using their own printer. Perfect for birthdays and special occasions.
Make the world a better place
No, actually your printer won’t be able to do that, but it WILL be able to make the World! Well, the earth, at least. This do-it-yourself globe looks cool, and you might even learn something such as, where is Belize? Or is Turkmenistan a real place? If you’re looking for cool things to print out using your printer, can you get any cooler than the world?
Click here and you can download the template for free. And you’ll also get assembly instructions, so don’t panic.
Make your own working pin-hole camera
A pin-hole camera is a very cool thing to print, but can you actually do it? It sounds like we’re making this up, but we’re not, promise. You can take pictures with a camera that you’ve printed out from your very own printer.
Click here to download the template. Then all you have to do is print it out and follow the instructions to create your very own working camera, made out of paper.
Make a big poster!
If you fancy making a huge single poster from 16 individual pieces of A4 paper, all you have to do is take an image and upload it into one of the online poster creation tools such as Block Posters app or Kodak’s Big App.
The software splits a single image into individual sheets and lets you save the results as a PDF. You then print out the PDF and assemble the pages to make your huge poster. You can even laminate each one for added effect.
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You decide
SO, there you have a few cool and fun things to print out using your printer. If you don’t have the enthusiasm to do any of the things on our list, then you can just use your printer as normal, we won’t hold it against you. Check out our fabulous range of great value printers now.
And if you’re thinking this could all get very expensive take a look at our guide on how to cut printing costs.
