Choosing the Right Paper & Printing Options

Customer, Mairead, had some great questions about printing. She usually prints at her local library or would need to go to a printing shop to have the pages of a Faith Folder printed. Mairead wondered about colored paper and how a finished product would look if everything was printed on white paper. I'll share my responses and anyone else, please feel free to jump in and share what works for you.


Within the Faith Folder file, I provide several options for each component. There will be black and white pages that can be printed on colored paper or on white paper and colored in by the child. I also provide colored options that can be printed on white paper, however, this does take a lot of ink. It can be nice to do for a few of the books but not necessarily all of them.
For most of the books, I use regular weight paper as they fold easier. Sometimes the card stock is nice to use for flash cards or for the pockets that hold cards as it makes them more durable.
I usually use a combination of colored paper, white paper with colored printing and black and white printing on white paper that allows the kids to add their own color or design. I buy packages of paper with a variety of colors. Perhaps you could take your own colored paper to the library.
Here at home and for my samples, we add a lot of embellishments with foam letters or shapes, glitter glue, stickers and scrapbooking elements. I even mount many of the books onto colored card stock or scrapbook paper before gluing them into the Faith Folder. So, a lot of the pizazz can be added without printing in color or on colored paper.
I know I have some customers who do take the file to a print shop (like Kinkos) and print out the desired pages. Anyone who uses this option want to join the conversation and share how it works for you or how much it costs? Just remember, it will really benefit you to look through the file first to see what options are available. In addition to the black and white and colored options, there are also prewritten and blank options to choose from. This really allows you to adjust the lapbook to the age and learning level of each child.