HOME · NEWSLETTER · MOUNTAINCOW MONTHLY NEWSLETTER (NOVEMBER 2004)

An intimate holiday of any size
Set your Thanksgiving table apart from every other family’s by creating unique menus and place cards. Personalize your celebration by describing each special dish made and who is responsible for bringing it. Coordinating place cards give the group a chance to mix and mingle, and help newcomers learn new names.

Mix modern with tradition for both our standard and platinum projects. Everyone can download the fall-inspired acorn and maple leaf graphics to create a menu. We used our pistachio menu card from our new line of stationery for a warm blend of soft green and brown. The coordinating place card uses the same Sky Pie font as the menu.

Platinum users can download a background image of super mod bubbles in shades of brown. We used a complementary Beckles font in a matching brown for the text. Printed on our amethyst paper, the cool lilac adds to the modern design. Use the same bubble background and Beckles font for the coordinating place card.

PrintingPress sample
(click photo to enlarge)

PrintingPress Platinum sample
(click photo to enlarge)

Reply card shortcut
When you’re throwing a formal party with reply cards and envelopes, there are several ways to ask for an RSVP. Unfortunately, we’ve all received RSVP cards where our guest forgot to include their name. To avoid this problem entirely, you can print each guest’s name on the reply card! Like this feature but don't have Platinum? Upgrade now!

Create an inner envelope the size of a reply card, 3 1/2 x 5. Under “The Names From Your Mailing List Will Be Printed Here”, add a text box with the same size and font that says “will _____ attend.” To center the boxes, select them and go to the Design menu, choose Align, and Horizontal Center.

A picture perfect holiday
Some people are so organized that they actually bring a Santa hat on their summer vacation so they can have their children pose in it with Yellowstone or the sea shore as the background of their Christmas card photo.

For the rest of us who are just starting to think about holiday cards, it’s not too late to use a great photograph for the greetings. With PrintingPress, you can create a terrific card no matter how much time you have.

For a card with an old-fashioned style, we printed a photo with faded edges and tied a vellum overlay to it with a festive red ribbon. Using a 5 x 7 card with a top margin of 2.25 inches, add ¼ inch rectangle ribbon-hole markers. Set the holes to lie horizontally .75 inch from the top of the page and with .5 inches between them. Then import a darling photo in the center of the page. Using the Fade Image Border tool in the Image menu, fade the border 20 percent in a rectangle. Create a 5x7 overlay with the same ribbon holes and a 1.5 inch top border. Add a holiday greeting in red Isabelle text, available in Fonts and Graphics 2, at the top of the page, and sign the family’s names at the bottom.

Print the card with the photo on white card stock or photo paper. Print the overlay on vellum and punch the holes. Use a red ribbon to match the text on the overlay and pair with matching red A7 envelope.

If you don’t use the right type of vellum paper for your ink jet paper, you might end up with a some smudging. Now the Mountaincow store offers the perfect ink-jet compatible vellum in all our standard stationery sizes! When printing with your ink jet on any vellum, it’s still a good idea to use the Properties settings on your printer to set the paper type to vellum or choose a reduced ink or reduced quality setting. Try to allow some extra drying time before assembly as well.

If you have a more modern design in mind but still want to use a picture of your children, Platinum users can add a geometric photo border for the front of a folded holiday card. We used a 7 x 10 folded card and imported a photo on the front. To add your own photo to our project, choose Add Background Image from the Design, Background Image menu. The image will be semi-transparent, so to make it opaque, choose Set Transparency in the Design, Background Image menu and set the transparency to 100. Don’t forget to edit the white text in the text boxes to personalize it for your photo.

PrintingPress Platinum sample
(click photo to enlarge)

PrintingPress sample
(click photo to enlarge)

Over the borderline
The ability to print all the way to the edge of a piece of paper is called “borderless printing.” Many printers are incapable of this and leave a small margin, sometimes up to half an inch. Newer photo printers can print borderless on standard photo sizes such as 4” x 6”, 5” x 7” and 8” x 10”. Borderless printers can also usually print borderless on 8.5” x 11” letter size cardstock, allowing you to print borderless 4 cards per page at 4.25” x 5.5” flat or 2 folded note cards per page at 5.5” x 8.5” if you are willing to cut the sheet after printing.

If your printer is capable of borderless printing, you’ll have to update your printer settings in order to enable the feature. All printers vary, so your best bet is to follow your manual’s instructions.

Generally, you first need to open your printer’s Properties window. The fastest way to do this is to select a card in PrintingPress and select Print in the File menu. Click the Properties button to the right of your printer's name. Many of the printers only support borderless printing for photographs, so you may need to say that you're using a high quality photo paper. Don't worry; changing this setting won't affect your invitation.

Once you've got the paper type set to glossy photo, look for a 'borderless printing' checkbox. For some printers it is on the Main tab, for others it is on the Page Setup tab. When you find it, go ahead and check it to enable borderless printing. It may give you some cautions or require you to change other settings. Heed its warnings, as the printer knows its own limitations.

The last thing you need to do is set your paper size. Most borderless printers offer limited photo sizes as the only options. Some newer printers allow you to use borderless printing on any size card, though with varying degrees of success. As always, we recommend doing several test prints to navigate your way through the process.

If your printer is unable to print borderless images, please take a look at our Bleed to the edge tech tip from May 2004 to learn how to overprint your cards and then trim them down to size.

Make it personal at Kate's Paperie
If you live in the New York City area, visit us at Kate’s Paperie for a demonstration on personalizing stationery. Come see the fantastic holiday gift ideas we’ve created using our new Modern Line and take advantage of Kate’s special prices.

Friday, November 26th
Kate's Paperie
561 Broadway
11 am - 4 pm

Saturday, December 4th
Kate's Paperie
1282 Third Avenue
11 am - 4 pm