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Get ready for lots of holiday cheer! If you’re planning to send out your annual holiday greetings, you can print our holiday cards in a snap. Our personalized gift wrap designs using PrintingPress Extreme 5.0’s new gift wrap stationery type will look fabulous beneath your tree or menorah. And what gift is complete without the recipient’s name? Use our adorable gift tags to avoid squabbling over packages. Then, once the frenzy of unwrapping is complete, send these adorable thank you notes to make sure everyone knows how much you appreciate their gift. Check out tips on downloading projects, borderless printing and more in our Newsletter Notes section.
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NEW! PrintingPress Extreme 5.0 We have created an interactive online tour to introduce you to the new features of the PrintingPress Extreme 5.0 upgrade. You can begin the tour using the link below. Extreme Note: Pro Note:
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Jingle bells A beautiful stained glass window tops our PrintingPress design. We added the stained glass image to the top of a White 4 x 6 inch custom cut card. We added the holiday greetings below the window in black using the Benjamin Caps font from Fonts & Graphics for Weddings. We added the family name in light blue using the Alyssa font also from Fonts & Graphics for Weddings, and added each family member’s name in the Benjamin Caps font at the bottom of the card. We used a double-stick tape gun to adhere the card to a Metallic Arctic Blue 4.25 x 6.25 inch custom cut card and then mounted the pair onto a Metallic Black A7 card. We added Custom Image StationeryStamps to bring the stained glass design outside the Metallic Arctic Blue A7 envelope. We printed the metallic envelope using our laser printer. For a matte version of the project you can print on an ink jet printer, try substituting Powder Blue for the Metallic Arctic Blue. Want to spread the joy? Try our PrintingPress Platinum design. We topped a White 4-bar card with a kissing ball hanging from an elegant red ribbon. We used a floating text box to add the letters “j” and “y” on either side of the kissing ball to spell the word “joy.” We added the holiday greetings in the Times New Roman font with the family name in red. Since the design runs all the way to the edge of the card, we used our printer’s borderless printing feature. We used a double-stick tape gun to mount the card to a Deep Red 4 x 5.5 inch custom cut card. Send in a Deep Red A2 envelope with joy StationeryStamps. If you’ve got some gorgeous faces to help you spread the holiday cheer, then our PrintingPress Extreme 5.0 design will be just right for you. We started with a White A7 card and filled the background of the card in red using a custom background. We used a shape object with its fill color set to black to create a black strip along the right side of the card. We set the shape’s Shape to Double Line (Left/Right) and added a 3 point black outline and then a 5 point white dotted inner pen with the spacing set to 10 to make the black shape look like a film strip. Next we added three photos of our kids and placed the photos along the shape to create a photo strip. We turned on the Convert to Grayscale setting for all the photos and increased the brightness so they would print more clearly. We moved the right margin of the card over to accommodate the photo strip and then added the holiday greetings in white using the Times New Roman font with a 0.25 point white outline to make the white text stand out against the red background. We added the words “happy holidays” in separate floating text boxes. We set the text size to 85 points and placed the text boxes at the bottom of the card so that they slightly overlap each other to nestle the words together. We used a shape object with the shape set to Oval to add a green dot to the “i” in “holidays” for a festive look. Since the red background runs all the way to the edge of the card, we used our printer’s borderless printing feature. If you want to use a laser printer without borderless printing, you can choose Change Stationery, Change Margins and add a 0.25” overprint to the card and print onto a larger sheet so you can trim it down after printing. With PrintingPress Extreme 5.0 you can also add crop marks in the Print window for easier trimming. Since all the design elements were created within PrintingPress Extreme 5.0, you can customize the card to use any color scheme. For tips on adding your own photos to this design, see last month’s Extreme Tip. Send in a Deep Red A7 envelope with Custom Image StationeryStamps.
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Personalized presents Our fabulous gift wrap designs all feature the new Repeated Text feature, which allows you to quickly and easily repeat text across a custom background. In these examples we used the repeated text to express holiday greetings. The repeated text feature works beautifully with patterns to print a message within the images or designs of the pattern. Since the repeated text feature also allows you to use text on a curve, we created waves of text across several of our designs. For tips on creating your own repeated text designs, see this month’s Extreme Tip. All these designs are included on the PrintingPress Extreme 5.0 CD so you do not need to download anything. Choose New Project in the File menu and click on Create a new project based on a sample project. Click on the Sample Gift Wrap projects folder to view all the projects shown here and many more.
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Playing tag For traditional yuletide trimmings, try our PrintingPress design. We added a sprig of winter green branches and holly to the White place card. Since PrintingPress does not support adding images to place cards, we created a regular card in PrintingPress and manually typed each recipient’s name directly onto the card to the left of the holly. We used the Alyssa font from Fonts & Graphics for Weddings in red for a formal look. Feeling playful? Try our PrintingPress Platinum design. We added a frosty snowman to the front of the White place card. The snowman sits atop a field of snow and in front of a brilliant blue sky. We set the text color for the Guest Name to off-white so that it will block out the blue sky and show the name in white. For tips on this technique, review the Experts Only section in the April 2004 issue. We used the Brina Strong font from Fonts & Graphics 3 for a playful look. Since the design runs all the way to the edge of the card, we used our printer’s borderless printing feature and told the printer that the card measures 3.5 x 5 inches. For a sophisticated gift, try our PrintingPress Extreme 5.0 design. We added a wreath of eucalyptus, evergreen and berries to the front of a White place card. We added a 12 point red custom border to the place card and set the border’s shape to Double Line (Top/Bottom). We set the alignment for the Guest Name to Left and used the Alyssa Afternoon font from Fonts & Graphics for Weddings. Since the red border runs all the way to the edge of the card, we used our printer’s borderless printing feature. In order to work best with the borderless printing feature, we designed the place card upside down.
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Graciousness Our PrintingPress design features a globe ornament dangling from a luxurious red bow. We added the ornament to the top of a White A2 folded note card, setting the card’s top margin to zero so that the bow dangles directly from the fold. We added the words “thank you” in black using the Times New Roman font beneath the ornament. Paired with a Deep Red A2 envelope lined in Sky, it’s a gorgeous way to say merci. For an extra special touch, add globe ornament StationeryStamps. For a personalized note, try our PrintingPress Platinum design. We created a background image with a collection of presents on a field of blue. We added the background image to the front of a White 4-bar folded note card, setting the opacity to 100% and sizing the image to fill the card. Next we added the words “Thank you from Emma” using the Girls are Weird font from the Easy Invitations Bonus Content CD. Since the blue background runs all the way to the edge of the card, we used our printer’s borderless printing feature. We made the text white except for the name which we wrote in red. Pair with Deep Red 4-bar envelopes lined in Powder Blue, and add presents (blue & red) Personalized StationeryStamps (shown in the Small size). Feeling retro? Try our PrintingPress Extreme 5.0 design. We added a custom background to the front of a White 4-bar folded note card and filled the background with a new pattern of white stars on a field of green. Next we used a floating text box to add the words “Thank You” in the Noodles Strong font from Fonts & Graphics 3. We set the background color for the floating text box to red and set the text color to white. We added a custom border to the text box and set the border’s shape to Oblique with a 6 point inset. We used the drag handles to stretch the text box until the shape framed the words perfectly. We used our printer’s borderless printing feature since the background runs all the way to the edge of the card. Paired with a Deep Red 4-bar envelope with Custom Image StationeryStamps (shown in the Small size), it’s totally groovy.
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Repeated Text Repeated Text Repeated Text
Now we need to add the repeated text element to our custom background. Click on the Repeat Text button in the Background palette in the Design palette group.
The Edit Repeated Text window will appear. Enter the text that you would like to repeat across the background of your stationery. In our example, we added the words “Happy Holidays from the Peterson family!” using the Boys on Mopeds font from the Easy Invitations Bonus Content CD twice; once in red and once in green. Next we set the Text Shape of the text box to Wave. A preview of the curved text is shown on the right side of the Edit Repeated Text window. Click on the OK button to add the text to your background.
PrintingPress Extreme adds the repeated text to the background with default values for the number of rows and columns of your text. You can easily adjust the horizontal spacing of your waves of text so that the waves connect. Click in the Number of Columns field in the Background palette and use your mouse wheel to increase the number of columns until your text waves connect. Each time you roll the mouse wheel upward, the number of columns will be increased by 0.1 columns. In our example, we used the mouse wheel to increase it to 1.20 columns, then manually increased the value to 1.25 columns for perfect spacing.
Now we need to adjust the vertical spacing of the rows of text. First we need to enter the number of rows that we counted earlier plus an additional row for the space above the top row of snowmen and below the bottom row of snowmen. Click in the Number of Rows field in the Background palette and type “6” in the field. This will give you a good starting value for the number of rows of text that you need between the snowmen. Now you want to use your mouse wheel to adjust the number of rows of text so that each row of text hits the snowmen in the same spot, showing that the rows are evenly spaced. As you adjust the number of rows, the vertical placement of each row will change. In our example, we would watch the bottom of the text wave to see when all rows line up in the same vertical position on the snowmen. However, 6 rows is perfect in this case so we don’t need to change it.
Finally we need to adjust the vertical offset of our repeated text so that the waves are between the rows of snowmen rather than overlapping them. Click in the Vertical Offset field in the Background palette and use your mouse wheel to reposition the repeated text vertically. In our example, we increased the vertical offset to 265.
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| 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. |  | |||
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