Members u6crash Posted July 12, 2004 Members Share Posted July 12, 2004 Recently I've come up with two neat tricks for making presentable CDs that don't cost a lot. Get some unbranded printable CD-Rs. White works best, and if you can find some that have the printable area all the way to the center, all the better. The first method is simplest. Go to some arts & craft store and look for some rubber stamps with images that suit your music. If you can't find them in a craft store, you might find them online or look for a custom rubber stamp maker. Buy an ink pad of your color choice, and put the image on your CDs. The second method is similar, but instead of a rubber stamp, create your own image with a linoleum block print. This is good if you have inclinations towards being an artist. With both methods, let the ink set a good 12 hours or more. This is especially true with the block printing inks. Don't slide them into paper/tyvek sleeves right away because the wet ink will adhere to the plastic window and stick and/or smear. I like this as an alternative to paper labels because I know of CDs with paper labels on more than one occaission to develop bubbles and wrinkles when temperature shifts overnight. Not an issue if the CD is in your house all the time, but if you leave one in your car CD player, it might get stuck. I know a couple people this has happened to. And if you press your stamps right, you can get a great looking image that isn't on a paper label, but also you didn't have to buy a color CD printer or pay to have your CDs printed elsewhere. Anyway, I just thought I'd share. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members u6crash Posted July 12, 2004 Author Members Share Posted July 12, 2004 Two examples that I've done: This is the block print: This is rubber stamp method with handwritten title: The second one I wanted to look even more homebrewed because that's the kind of music is on it, but you can get great results if you get the right stamps and colors going for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MST Posted July 12, 2004 Members Share Posted July 12, 2004 Hey that looks really good, it reminds me of some of the CD's I use to like the look of, thank you so much because this really helps out with some ideas I have been having with my own CD art work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kid Klash Posted July 14, 2004 Members Share Posted July 14, 2004 Why not just spend $99 on an Epson R-200 CDR color printer and have truely professional looking full color CDRs? The Epson even comes with artwork composition software. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members u6crash Posted July 14, 2004 Author Members Share Posted July 14, 2004 I've owned a number of printers over the years and I've found that you usually get what you pay for. And when you use something like stamps, it's a little more personal, but not crude like just scribbling your name on a CD with a Sharpie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Krazor Posted July 15, 2004 Members Share Posted July 15, 2004 These are wonderful suggestions. I would like to add one if that's ok... Since my band is more of the punk style, I just used spray paint. It looks a little crude, but I thought it had an interesting effect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members u6crash Posted July 15, 2004 Author Members Share Posted July 15, 2004 I know some folks who do that quite regularly. I've hesitated to do it myself because I've seen some CD-Rs react negativly to some substances over time. But so far so good with all the CDs they've made so far. But it can look good, especially if you spend some time with stencils and mix up the colors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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