Mountaincow Monthly (August 2005)

	HOME · MOUNTAINCOW MONTHLY NEWSLETTER (AUGUST 2005) All good things must come to an end, including summer. So what is there to celebrate? Going back to school, of course! If getting back to the books means heading off to college, throw a proper sendoff to your favorite Betty Co-ed. Need a present pronto? Make personalized stationery and a gift tracker for the guest of honor. Then wrap up the summer right with a Labor Day blowout.

	Follow that bus! Get the kids in gear for a new school year by throwing a back to school party. To avoid hurt feelings on the first day back, invite the whole class and any new kids who just moved to the neighborhood. Start with a big yellow school bus and the handwriting font Brina Strong from Fonts & Graphics 3 and there is no denying this party is all about the kids. Because Brina Strong was made using an actual 5 year-old’s handwriting, it almost looks like the kids hand-wrote each one. By serving their favorite foods and having lots of fun activities, they won’t even notice their summer days are numbered. An A6 school bus-yellow envelope ensures this invitation will get noticed. Platinum users can work with a chalkboard background image from Fonts & Graphics 3 and write all the details of the party on it. To make the writing look like it was handwritten using chalk, we used the Charlotte font also from Fonts & Graphics 3 in bold. We used different colors for each text box and rotated the text boxes for a more fun, scribble-y flair. Pair this invitation with an A6 Blush envelope		PrintingPress sample (click photo to enlarge) PrintingPress Platinum sample (click photo to enlarge)

	PrintingPress Platinum sample (click photo to enlarge)		Ciao, sayonara, adios Whether she’s your first to go off to college, your summer intern heading back to class, or your mother’s helper heading home, send her off right with a bon voyage party. Show her how much you’ll miss her by inviting all her summer friends over for a fun farewell. To make this invitation super girly and flirty, we used a collection of pink images from Fonts & Graphics 3 and tied it together with a pink loopy border. We used Sky Pie font in green for added oooh la la and to match the A6 Clover envelope.
	Get gifted Heading to a party and still don’t have the right gift? Instead of settling for the picked-over options from a wedding registry like egg slicers and olive bowls – or re-gifting the same bath gels you got for Christmas – give a gift that’s sure to be used. Create personalized stationery for the birthday girl or betrothed couple. Make a matching log for them to record all their gifts and even make a column for them to check once they’ve sent one of your fabulous cards as a thank you note. Be sure your present is opened first so all the other gifts can be listed on the gift record! For a wedding shower, we used a brown silhouette of a couple on the front of a folded Apricot Truffle note card with the couple’s names and wedding date underneath in Sky Pie. To print the return address on the back of the Chocolate A2 envelopes, we created a reply envelope and positioned the address as a return address. We created the gift log with the same design on a 10 x 7 folded card with a vertical fold to open like a book. The inside has lines and check boxes to fill in the guests and gifts. The Platinum project is for a hip birthday party. We added a pink and brown striped background pattern for the front of the card and blocked the name in white Beckles Wide text. The return address is printed on the back of Chocolate A2 envelopes by creating a reply envelope and positioning the address as a return address. The gift log has the same pattern on the front of a folded 10 x 7 card with a birthday message and the date. The pattern is continued inside and on the back of the gift log to serve as lines for her gifts.		PrintingPress sample (click photo to enlarge) PrintingPress Platinum sample (click photo to enlarge)

	PrintingPress sample (click photo to enlarge) PrintingPress Platinum sample (click photo to enlarge)		Labor Day blowout Serving watermelon is almost like wearing white – you’re not really supposed to do it after Labor Day. So get the juicy melon in while you can! Watermelon is the unofficial symbol of summer, so we thought it was a perfect way to say farewell to the hot days of July and August. We used a bright, succulent image of a watermelon slice and added matching pink and green text in the hip and casual font Meegles from Fonts & Graphics 3. With the yummy slice of watermelon announcing your party, you’ll need to be sure to add watermelon to your grocery list! We matched these invites to Clover A6 envelopes. For our Platinum invitation, we scattered our watermelon slices on top of a red and white gingham border. What says celebrate summer more than that? This invite gets your guests ready for a picnic, BBQ or whatever your favorite way to celebrate outdoors may be. We used the cute Ryan font from Fonts & Graphics 3 and paired the card with a Deep Red A6 envelope.
	Rinse and repeat Always making personalized stationery for friends? If you're finding yourself creating the same card and envelope over and over again, have we got a time-saving idea for you! Just create a new blank project and name it "Template," and then add a blank card using your most frequently-used card size. Create a reply envelope to match and position the address as a return address (as in the Get Gifted project above). Customize the fonts on the card and envelope so that it's just the way you like it. Then choose Export Project in the File menu and save a copy of the project to your computer's hard disk. Then the next time you need to make more of that fabulous personalized stationery, just choose Import Project in the File menu, find the "Template.pef" file that you saved, and import the ready-to-go stationery!
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