If you have a fairy princess in your life, then our PrintingPress Platinum 6.0 design is just the one for you. We started by adding a Valentine fairy princess as a floating image on the left side of a White 4.5 x 3 inch custom cut card. We used the place card stationery type in PrintingPress Platinum so that we could add each person’s name directly onto the Valentine.  We moved the placeholder Guest Name to the top of the card and changed it to use the Girls are Weird font from the Easy Invitations Bonus Content CD in purple. We used a floating text box to add the greeting “Have a FAIRY Happy Valentine’s Day” above a pink spotted toadstool. We added the signature “xoxo Emma” using a separate floating text box. We used a double-stick tape gun to adhere the Valentine to a Deep Pink 4-Bar Scalloped Card. Combined with Blush envelopes lined in Violet, these Valentines are dangerously cute. The final dose of cuteness:  coordinating Custom Image StationeryStamps with the Valentine Fairy.

Our PrintingPress Extreme 6.0 design is just right for anyone who wants to send a tasty sweet with their Valentine Cards this year. We started by adding a heart-shaped strawberry to a White 4.25 x 2.75 inch custom cut card. We used the Address Label stationery type to print 8 Valentines per page and used the Inner Envelope Name setting to put each person’s name on the left side of the Valentine. We used the Bubbles font that is included with PrintingPress Extreme 6.0 for the name and matched it to the red in the strawberry. Next, we used a floating text box to add the greeting “have a BERRY happy valentine’s day” in a circle around the strawberry. We used the Trebuchet and Arial fonts that are included with Windows in pink and red. We used separate floating text box to add the signature “xoxo emma” in the bottom right corner of the card. We used a shape to print guidelines for where to cut the slits for the lollipop. We added a 1 pt light grey border to the white shape and set the shape’s border shape to Line (Top & Bottom). After printing onto full sheets of card stock, we separated the cards using a rotary trimmer and then used a hobby knife to cut the slits for the lollipop handle.

Save the date
Know what else is around the corner? Wedding season! If you are sporting a new sparkler on your ring finger, it’s time to think about sending out save the date cards so that your friends and family can make sure to mark their calendars for your big day. We’ve created fabulous new designs to help you spread your news in style. All of the designs feature images and patterns from our Illustrations Wedding collection.

Our PrintingPress Platinum 6.0 design combines modern elegance with a classic twist. We started by adding the future bride and groom’s names in yellow using the Palatino Linotype font with the size set to 78 pt. We set the card’s left and right margins to zero and repeated the period character “.” with the horizontal alignment set to Justified to create dotted lines across the card. We added the rest of the wedding information using the Palatino Linotype font and the Alyssa Black Tie font from Fonts & Graphics for Weddings. We added elegant flourish 3 (yellow) images flanking the date for a refined touch. Since the dots run all the way to the edge of the card, we used our printer’s borderless printing feature. We lined the Pewter envelopes in Yellow and added coordinating Custom Image StationeryStamps.

If you’re craving something sophisticated, try our PrintingPress Extreme 6.0 design. We started by filling the background of a White A7 card with the embroidered damask (black) pattern. The pattern is black and white, and we used the Selective Color feature to recolor the pattern to dark grey on grey. We used a floating text box to add the wedding date in white using the Palatino Linotype font at 44 pt. We gave the text box a 2 point white custom border with the Border Shape set to Line (Top & Bottom). To give the border additional drama, we added cropped versions of the embroidered damask #5 (white) and embroidered damask #6 (white) images. For tips on this advanced technique, see this month’s Extreme Tip. We added the wedding information in white and the future bride and groom’s names in light blue. We added embroidered damask #4 (black) images on either side of the names with a custom border to mimic the look of the white damasks at the top of the card. Since the pattern goes all the way to the edge of the card, we used our printer’s borderless printing feature. We repeated the damask faux border on the back of the envelope to dress up the return address. We lined the Pewter envelopes in Powder Blue and added coordinating Custom Image StationeryStamps.

Getting crafty
For this month’s Extreme Save the Date design, we used PrintingPress Extreme 6.0 to combine a simple line border with elegant damask images from our Illustrations Wedding collection to create a modern, elegant border. Read below for step-by-step instructions to learn a technique you can use to create your own totally new border designs using parts using pre-existing artwork. 

First, we added a Double Line (Top & Bottom) custom border to the text box.

Next, we started creating our elegant custom border. We added the embroidered damask #5 (white) image and then cropped the image in half. You can see the original image on the left and the cropped image on the right.

We rotated the cropped image and placed it at the top of the line border.

Next, we copied the damask image and flipped it so that we would have the mirror image on the other side of the text box.

To center the design on the text box, we grouped the two damask images together so that they behave as a single object. We clicked on the first damask image, then pressed the Shift key on our keyboard and clicked on the second image. Then we clicked on the Group button on the Align palette in the Design palette group.

Once the objects are grouped, you can click on the Align Horizontal Center button to center them on the text box. You can always separate the objects again by clicking on the grouped objects and then clicking on the Ungroup button.

Repeat with the bottom damask and you’ve got a gorgeous totally unique border!

Check out tips on downloading projects, borderless printing and more in our Newsletter Notes section.

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