I've had the Brother printer for about 8 months and it's FUN!  I printed all kids of silliness in the first 2 months! 

We just use the regular 11x17 copy paper in it and then mount on foam core or laminate whatever we print.  If you don't have a large format laminator (we don't), Staples sells a "cold" laminate, which is basically clearer contact paper! Just make sure you flatten it under books or other heavy weights to get it nice and flat before you use it because it comes rolled and likes to stay that way! To use the laminate, we will print our page, mount it on foam core, then peel the backing off the laminate, lay the laminate sticky side up and press the mounted document down on it -- that results in a smoother surface without bubbles and creases. 

One thing I will tell you about the Brother printer, in word, publisher, and other documents you do need to go into the print dialogue box every time you want to print large format and 1) tell it the paper is 11x17, and 2) tell it to pull from Tray 2. The Auto Select doesn't like to pull from Tray 2!

Best of luck!
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