Think your home inkjet printer is just for printing out boarding passes and driving directions? Give it a new lease on life. Here's how to use your printer to label things, play games, design a clothing line, and more. Whether you're feeling productive, playful, crafty, or creative, there's a project here for you--and it won't require specialized (or expensive) equipment.
Make Super Models
Paperkraft.net is a good place to start--this papercraft blog is updated daily with all kinds of new models, including plenty of contributions based on retro tech, sci-fi, and video game themes. My personal favorite is the official Street Fighter II set.
Print Your Own Posters
Get Organized
Whether you need to label your file folders, stick name tags to your personal possessions, or simply remind yourself that a stapler is, in fact, a stapler, your printer can get the job done.
But why stop there? Your stack of burned discs with the barely-legible permanent marker tags are so 1998. Give your carefully crafted mix CDs some extra street cred with print-out disc labels. If your printer is one of certain models from Epson or HP (the HP Photosmart D5360 and C5280, or the Epson Artisan 50/710/810 and Stylus Photo 1400 and R1900), your printer may have a special tray that supports direct printing onto special CD/DVD disks, saving yourself the hassle of buying separate disc labels and the risk of messing up an optical drive if a label comes off or gets stuck.
Home brewers, on the other hand, will want to grab some waterproof labels to class up their operation a bit--it's no fun being a do-it-yourself beer or wine snob if you're still using masking tape and Magic Marker to label your bottles. (This also makes your homemade hooch more appropriate gift for a house call.)
Get Your (Old-School) Game On
A printer might not be much of a match for an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3, but with a little imagination on your part, it can be a pretty solid game machine in its own right. Simple print-and-play games like word searches, crossword puzzles, and dot-and-boxes sheets are readily available on Google if you're looking for a low-tech way to amuse yourself (or the kids) during a long car ride. HP even has a printable version of tabletop football available, in case you feel like your finger-flicking field goals need more flash.
However, you can find plenty of printer games that cater to the more discriminating gamer. Start by hunting through BoardGameGeek.com, a Web site devoted to the art (and craft) of making and playing board games, many of which are free to download, print, and play. Just use the site's Advanced Search button, click Filter on Board Game Category, and check the Print and Play box to see a full list of games with instant gratification.
Your printer can also supplement your existing gaming habits, too. Dungeons and Dragons enthusiasts can use the Dungeons & Dragons Character Builder app (free demo available) to keep track of your characters and loot, complete with readily printable character sheets. Feel like getting back into Magic: the Gathering but don't want to fork over obscene amounts of money on cards? MagicCards.info has printable proxy images of every card in every single series, so you won't need to take out a second mortgage to get back in the game.