Well, I really enjoy making journals out of junk mail envelopes and this is one of the prettiest paper sets I have ever seen so I put my others aside and had to make this one. The blues are incredible and my printer prints like velvet on presentation paper but it really uses the ink. If I'd had scrapbooking paper this pretty I wouldn't have to print my own papers.
But I do like to print my own because there is no waste like leftover scrapbooking papers. But I'm trying to use up my stash so I did have a few blue and gold papers left over from another project so I used those. They are from a pad set a few years ago called Royal Gypsy by DCWV.
And my printer quit right in the middle of printing out some lovely pages I got from Lily J on etsy under the name SecretHelper. The moon is magical, don't you think? Well, I've had my Epson ink tank printer for a little over 4 years and so it turned out that the ink pad container for overflow ink was almost full and my printer stopped dead in its tracks and refused to print another page until it was fixed. But I'm not the only one who has run into this problem. That's why I love youtube. You can find out how to fix or make just about anything on there.
I did some research and then called Epson. They said they get a lot of complaints about this issue so I said, "Why don't you fix it?" She told me there was no reset key which turned out not to be true. Well, as far as she is concerned in selling a new part, yeah, it doesn't come with a reset key but... you have to get an authorized repairman to do it and I'm sure it costs extra but I didn't ask how much because $25 just for the part was already way more than I could fix it for free..
So instead of spending $25 and waiting 3 weeks for a new container with new pads (after mailing in my old one) and then having to contact an Epson authorized service repair technician to reset the ink pad counter, I decided to take it apart and clean it myself. I've always been a DIY kind of fix it yourself person.
The messy part is washing all the ink out of the felt pads and drying them out. I squeezed as much water out of mine as I could, twisted them tightly into towels and was surprised at how clean they came. They were practically white again and they did look like new.
There are youtube videos showing you how. And I downloaded a free trial key from WicReset to reset the counter myself. It worked! I was back in business in less than 24 hours but I did have to bake my clean felt ink pads in the oven at my lowest setting of 170 degrees for several hours to get them dry. You could also set them in the sun or give them a good 48 hours or more to dry.
But you can buy replacement pads for your model from amazon if you don't want to clean them. I urge you to WEAR RUBBER GLOVES if you do clean them!!! Three days later and I still have black ink under my nails. I was in a hurry.
I used WicReset and the trial code but when it fills up again it will be much faster and cheaper than Epson to just pay less than 10 bucks for a code. It resets the counter to 80% based on the number of head cleanings preset. Mine took 4 years to reach 100% so that should give me about 10 months before it needs to be cleaned again.
The trial will get you through an emergency but if you want to coordinate your pad cleanings with your key resets, you might want to then buy a key. Either way you are going to have to check the overflow if the notice is disabled.
I really didn't know it had been four years since I bought mine. Time flies. That's probably the longest I've had any printer and I still love this thing. I use it a lot and have only had to refill my tanks about every 18 months. I just topped off the blue ink too. I hated the ink waste in the cartridges on my old printer. If buying a key and cleaning the pads will give me another four years then I think it's worth the 9 bucks. I hope the rest of the printer parts last that long.
I think the best use of my printer is to mix what I print with my scrapbooking papers. It gives a lot of variety to the journal and keeps it from looking too matchy-matchy. You know how sometimes a collection will be too perfect? I really don't want my journals to look pre-printed. I want them to look a little messy and hand made. Anyone can just go buy a journal from a store. These journals that we make are pieces of art. They are one of a kind and that's how I like it.
So I figured the moon messed with me during the eclipse and I probably got off lucky because I'm a moon child. This is my journal paying homage to the beauty of the moon.
I have so many journals done and yet to be documented... next up is the family tree.
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