There's a lot of creative energy that swirls around this house in a day. Ideas come in all forms from sewing to knitting to drawing to pretending. And generally, we have everything on hand that we need for these ideas--a fabric scrap basket, needles, thread, stacks of papers and pencils and markers, a suitcase overflowing with an odd assortment of dress-up disguises.
But until about a month ago, there was one thing that has been missing from our creative supplies--a good printer. We've quickly adopted one into our repertoire, and now I'm not sure we could live without it.
I have had the privilege, thanks to the generous people at Epson, to have an Epson Artisan 800 all-in-one printer come to take up residence in my home. Our previous printer was an economical laser printer that decided the move from our old apartment to this house was too much for it, and we haven't been doing any home printing ever since.
The Epson Artisan 800 is packed with features which I haven't even begun to uncover, I'm sure. But it has opened a whole new realm of creative possibility in our home. I'm finally making and printing things I've always wanted to do--like getting the girls' artwork on to cards and gift tags, I'm scanning tear sheets of inspiration and dropping them into little organized folders on my computer, I'm designing activites and printables for the girls for school and finding amazing activities to print online. And, I'm taking my favorite photographs and finally printing them out. I'm one of those people who is guilty of never printing her digital photographs. But now I'm getting better.
I can never cover all the amazing things this printer can do, but you can read all the details on the Epson website. However, here are several things that get me all giddy about this printer:
- It has a touch panel LCD screen. It's easy to use and well, fun!
- I can print wirelessly. Seriously. No cords to hook up, no carrying the laptop up to the office. I can sit in my living room, hit print or scan, and hear it humming along upstairs. (Then I send the girls to get it. A perk of being the mother.)
- It scans--and at a variety of settings--a quick once over for my magazine tear sheets that I want to plow through, more detailed, high quality scanning for old photos and artwork.
- It's a fax. (no more running up to my dad's for the fax machine.)
- It copies--and quickly, too. This has been great for the girls school workbooks, when I want to be able to use a page again, or it's easier for them to work on a page when it's not inside a bulky book.
- The quality of the digital prints is phenomenal. The colors were beautiful, and the printing was crisp.
- It makes coloring pages! (This will really awe your children. Mine were speechless.) Take a photograph. Hit a button on the touch screen, out pops a coloring page of that photograph. I love it!!
- It prints lined paper (college ruled, or wide ruled) and graph paper. Fabulous.
- It prints directly onto a CD or DVD label--as long as it is one of those ink jet printable ones, of course.
- It holds two different sized papers. No switching between regular paper and photo papers.
- It can scan and save directly into pdf.
- It can print from a memory card.
- It can print a sheet of preview photos.
- You can adjust images before printing on the touch screen.
So you can tell I'm pretty enthusiastic about this printer. It has been invaluable to me for school work with the girls and it has allowed me to finally follow through on some of these creative ideas that have been floating around in my head. It is helping me stay organized by minimizing the paper clutter on my desk, which I can scan and then file away or toss, and I love the fact that I can bring a lot of the girls' creative ideas and artwork to fruition--whether it be creating little books, their own personal thank you notes, or pictures of horses they want to hang on their bulletin boards. (their priorities still haven't changed.)
And you know what else makes me really happy?
The wonderful people at Epson are giving me one to give away to one of you!!
Ack! I'm so excited to share this wonderful printer with one of you! And if you don't win, and your home is in need of a printer upgrade, I highly recommend you check out this Epson Artisan 800. For all it has to offer, I believe the price is fair and worth every penny. (There is even a step down model, the 700 which offers many of the same features, for a lower price.)
So how do you enter this little giveaway? Leave a comment, of course. But I have also tried to come up with a few ideas for you to earn yourself one extra entry... here are a few ideas:
***edited to add: to avoid confusion and keep it fair, each person can get one extra entry. if you already subscribe to my blog, then there are still two other options to choose from. Unless, of course, you want to do #4. (kidding. again.)***
1. Subscribe to this blog (there are links on the sidebar for bloglines, google, or others).
2. Link to this giveaway on your blog.
3. Subscribe to the mommycoddle email updates. (also linked in the sidebar)
4. Make me a quilt, queen size. I like blues, greens, and browns. (ha! ha!) I'm kidding! I do not take bribes. At least not for this....
And if you do any of the extra entries, please be sure to come back and leave another comment, so I know you've earned an extra entry. And on Saturday afternoon, I will close the contest. I will use the random number generator and announce the winner on Monday.
Yeah! I'm excited! Good Luck! And THANK YOU, EPSON!
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Show & Tell is a new series I'll be doing on mommycoddle in 2009. I'll tell you more about that snazzy logo and about the series next week. Stay tuned. More good stuff is coming.
