Mountaincow Monthly (November 2007)

HOME · MOUNTAINCOW MONTHLY NEWSLETTER (NOVEMBER 2007) It’s nearly Thanksgiving and your Santa’s helpers have been busy at work here at Mountaincow! If you’re planning a holiday get together, we’ve got sophisticated invitations for any style soiree. If you’re famous for a certain hors d’oeuvre or side dish, print beautiful recipe cards to make it easy to share tasty treats during the holidays. If you find yourself needing to wrap a Secret Santa gift in a hurry, our gorgeous holiday gift tags will make sure your gift ends up in the correct stocking. And one of the most important things to remember during the holiday season is to say “thank you,” so we’ve designed some adorable holiday note cards that you can personalize in a snap. Check out tips on downloading projects, borderless printing and more in our Newsletter Notes section.

Happy Holidays With all the warm wishes flying through the air, throwing a party during the holidays is always fun. Whether you’re planning an intimate gathering of a few close friends or a neighborhood bash, our invitations are sure to get your guests in a holiday mood. All of our designs were created by mounting several layers of card stock in different colors for an elegant look. We mounted each layer using a double-stick tape gun. Our PrintingPress design uses our Guacamole stationery as a base. We added pink and red silhouettes of partygoers and a Christmas tree to the top of White card stock, custom cut to 4 x 6 inches. We added the invitation details in green using the Ryan font from Fonts & Graphics 3. We mounted the White card onto Pink Lemonade card stock, custom cut to 4.5 x 6.5 inches. Next we mounted the pair to the Avocado A7 card. Mail in an Avocado A7 envelope lined in Pink, and add the coordinating holiday party (red, pink and green) StationeryStamps to get the party started. For a more elegant affair, try our PrintingPress Platinum design, featuring our Hothouse Tomato stationery as its base. We added an elegant holiday wreath with a red bow to the top of an Ivory card, custom cut to 4.5 x 6.5 inches. Next we used a floating text box to add the family initial in red in the center of the wreath. We used the Alyssa font from Fonts & Graphics for Weddings for the initial. We added the invitation details in black using the Alyssa and Benjamin Caps fonts from Fonts & Graphics for Weddings. We mounted the Ivory card to an Avocado card, custom cut to 4.75 x 6.75 inches. Then we mounted the pair to the Deep Red A7 card. We created a matching design for Custom Image StationeryStamps, printed on Ivory stock. The downloadable project includes the StationeryStamps design so you can customize it with your initial and email us the project file for easy ordering. Add the custom postage to the Deep Red A7 envelopes lined in Ivory for a truly elegant look. For a sparkling evening, check out our PrintingPress Extreme 4.0 design. We used our new Show Color Separates option on our bulk stationery page to create a custom color combination for our invitation. We chose A7 Envelopes and Flat Cards in the Size combo box on our bulk stationery page, with Powder Blue envelopes and Black cards. Next we added Powder Blue card stock, custom cut to 4.75 x 6.75 inches. To top the set, we used White card stock, custom cut to 4.5 x 6.5 inches. We scattered black and blue sparkling stars atop the White card, floating the images so that they can be placed anywhere on the card. For tips on selecting multiple floating objects, review this month’s Extreme Tip. We used a floating text box to add the text “Please join us for a” on a curve at the top of the card using the Benjamin Caps font from Fonts & Graphics for Weddings. We used a second floating text box to add the text “Holiday Celebration” using the Alyssa font from Fonts & Graphics for Weddings, adjusting the horizontal and vertical alignment of the words so that they nestle perfectly together. We added the remaining invitation text using the Benjamin Caps and Alyssa fonts. Slip the completed invitation into a Powder Blue A7 envelope and post with coordinating stars (black and powder blue) StationeryStamps.		PrintingPress sample (click to enlarge) PrintingPress Platinum sample (click to enlarge) PrintingPress Extreme 4.0 sample (click to enlarge)
PrintingPress Extreme 4.0 sample (click to enlarge)	Visions of sugarplums Are you planning to serve your famous spinach dip or cheese straws at your holiday get together again this year? If you are asked for the recipe every year, why not use PrintingPress Extreme 4.0 to print beautiful recipe cards to hand out at the party upon request? Print your name at the top if you want everyone to know it’s your recipe, and everyone will be grateful to you for being a gracious hostess and sharing your party secrets. We used a standard 3.5 x 5 inch card for our project, and used borderless printing to print all the way to the edge of the card. We added a 0.75 inch custom border with the border shape set to Line (Top) to add a stripe of color to the top of the card. We filled the border with a custom pattern of green polka dots on a field of brown. With the stationery margins set to 0.25 inches, we added the name of the recipe at the top of the card in white text. For easy reading in the kitchen, we used the Times New Roman font. We added the remaining text in brown, using a floating text box to create a second column of ingredients.
The finishing touch We know how hectic things can get during the holidays, and last-minute gifts are sometimes unavoidable. Use our holiday gift tag projects to print out a personalized tag to make let the recipient know who gave them the gift. You can modify any of the designs to add the recipient’s name to the gift tag. All three of our fabulous gift tag designs use our 3.5 x 4 inch folded place cards, so you can buy a bundle of 25, and then print and tag as you wrap. Whether your gift is going under a menorah or a Christmas tree, one of our PrintingPress gift tags will coordinate with your colors for the holiday. Choose from red, green and pink circles or blue and green circles at the top of the card, with snowflakes designs inside each circle. We added the text “happy holidays” in all lowercase using the Benjamin font from Fonts & Graphics 2 to the front of the card. When you download the project, you can use PrintingPress to customize the message if you like. Our PrintingPress Platinum design is ready for the ho ho holidays, with a background image of “ho ho ho” in gray scattered across the field of white. You can use a floating text box to add the recipient’s name atop the “ho ho ho,” or add the name to the inside of the card. Since the design uses a neutral color, it will coordinate with any color gift wrap that you have on hand. The background bleeds all the way to the edge of the card, so we used our printer’s borderless printing feature and told the printer that it was a 3.5 x 5 inch card. If you are looking for a more formal style, try our PrintingPress Extreme 4.0 design. We used the Alyssa font from Fonts & Graphics for Weddings to add the words “Happy Holidays” to the front of the card. Next we created a custom border with the border shape set to Line (Bottom) and set the line type to Dotted (overlapping fill). We set the spacing to 5 to spread out the dots. Since the background bleeds all the way to the edge of the card, we used our printer’s borderless printing feature and told the printer that it was a 3.5 x 5 inch card.		PrintingPress sample (red) (click to enlarge) PrintingPress sample (blue) (click to enlarge) PrintingPress Platinum sample (click to enlarge) PrintingPress Extreme 4.0 sample (click to enlarge)
PrintingPress sample (click to enlarge) PrintingPress Platinum sample (click to enlarge) PrintingPress Extreme 4.0 sample (click to enlarge)	Giving thanks Always remembering to say “thank you” is an important lesson we teach our kids, so why not make the process more fun by giving them festive note cards? Our holiday designs are easily personalized with your child’s name, and of course you can also print some for yourself! Our PrintingPress design is suitable for yourself or your stylish college-age daughter, with a stiletto Santa boot atop a White A2 folded note card. We added the name in red using the Noodles font from Fonts & Graphics 3. Send in a Deep Red A2 envelope with coordinating sassy santa boot (red) StationeryStamps. Our PrintingPress Platinum design will work for any age. We added a background image of Santa’s jolly red suit to the front of a White 4-bar folded note card. We added the child’s name at the bottom of the card using the Boys on Mopeds font from the Bonus Content CD included with our book, Easy Invitations. Since the background bleeds all the way to the edge of the card, we used our printer’s borderless printing feature. We created a matching design for Custom Image StationeryStamps to bring the same design to the outside of the Deep Red 4-bar envelope. You’ll go dotty over our PrintingPress Extreme 4.0 designs, available in Christmas or Chanukah colors. We created new polka-dot patterns and filled the background of the card. Next we added a rectangular shape object to add a stripe of color across the field of dots. And lastly we used a floating text box to add the child’s name to the front of the card. We added a custom border to the text box with the shape set to Oval and the line type set to Bumps. We used the Girls are Weird font from the Bonus Content CD included with our book, Easy Invitations to write the name. We created matching designs for Custom Image StationeryStamps so that you can add your child’s name to your postage with the same design as the card. Pair with either Clover or Midnight envelopes, depending on your selected color scheme.
Selecting floating objects If you’re using more than one floating object on your stationery, there may be times when you want to select specific objects. To select more than one floating object at a time, you have a few options: Shift into gear Press and hold the Shift key on your keyboard while clicking on each floating object that you want to select. Shift-clicking on an object that is not selected will select the object. Shift-clicking on an object that is already selected will de-select the object. Drag it If you have a large number of floating objects that you want to select, you can use the Select Objects tool to select many objects at once. Click on the Select Objects button in the Design toolbar and then drag a rectangle around the desired floating objects. All objects that fall at least partially within the dragged rectangle will be selected.
Select Objects tool in use (click to enlarge)	resulting selected floating objects (click to enlarge)
Just take everything To select every single floating object on your stationery, choose Select All Floating Images in the Edit menu. You can then Shift-click to remove specific items from the selected group of objects
Note: StationeryStamps™ products are made possible as a result of the expanded Customized Postage Program from the United States Postal Service. StationeryStamps™ are produced in collaboration with Pitney Bowes, an authorized Customized Postage Provider.