The Zizzler

Living THE life on a shoestring budget. Traveling, DIY projects, general fabulousness.......

Thursday, April 13, 2006


Stinko's...ok but you can decorate cheaply

I HATE Kinko's. HATE. I worked there for over a year, when I was too old to work there. They are a terrible company to work for. However, I got to make some pretty cool stuff there for free. Its a bit overpriced to the public, so any copy shop will do.
Firstly, their oversize printing machines rule. They won't let you blow up a copyrighted picture, but I enlarged a few of my own to 24x36 (about $9/sq ft). You can even have them printed on canvas and then put them on stretchers(about $12/sq ft)! The downside is that the inks are not archival and fade after a few years, but you'd probably be tired of the same old photo anyway. The blueprint machines are also great, because you can enlarge a contrasty black and white photo for only 50 cents/sq ft. I once made ghetto wall paper this way, and just tacked them up.
The other gift I liked to make were notebooks.
I'd print out a photo on glossy paper then have them bind it with fiber paper. Overpriced, they are about $5/each, but I'm sure a non-Kinko's could be cheaper. I also make their Holiday Calendars with photos from whichever trip was my last, this year it was Paris. Most people I've worked with at Kinko's live up to the stereotype of being completely unhelpful and/or clueless, so have your files all ready to go, and be REALLY SPECIFIC about your job. Some other cheap decorating ideas: laminated placemats, color copy transparency sun catchers, greeting cards and magnets.

2 Comments:

Blogger haveboard said...

'MOST' is the key word here.

4:27 PM  
Blogger Lori Zimmer said...

except you of course.

1:17 PM  

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