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We’re helping you plan ahead this year at Mountaincow! We have created great new holiday designs so you can get started before the leaves even begin to turn. We have beautiful menu and place card designs to dress up your Thanksgiving table. For those who like to have the holiday gifts wrapped and hidden away before Thanksgiving, our adorable gift tags will help dress up any package. To avoid last-minute holiday card chaos, we’ve designed beautiful cards to let you send your good wishes to friends and family. For all the fall brides and grooms-to-be, our rehearsal luncheon invitations offer a new, affordable twist on the traditional rehearsal event. And of course, we have new StationeryStamps™ to coordinate with this latest batch of newsletter projects. Check out tips on downloading projects, borderless printing and more in our Newsletter Notes section.
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Trim the
table Our PrintingPress design features fall colors and our Scalloped stationery. The menu is topped by an acorn and a pair of oak leaves. We added the menu text in brown using the Alyssa Afternoon font from Fonts & Graphics for Weddings and the Benjamin font from Fonts & Graphics 2. We printed the menu on a Toffee Scalloped menu card and used a double-stick tape gun to mount it to a custom cut 5.5 x 8 Double Chocolate card. The coordinating place card uses the Alyssa Afternoon font on a Toffee Scalloped place card. For a sophisticated tabletop, try our Platinum design. We added deep orange blossoms in the upper-right and lower-left corners of a White 4-bar card. We added the menu text in brown using the Alyssa Afternoon font and the Benjamin Caps font from Fonts & Graphics for Weddings. We aligned the first paragraph to the left, the middle paragraph to the center, and the last paragraph to the right of the card. Since the blossoms bleed all the way to the edge of the card, we used our printer’s borderless printing feature to print the card. Next we used a double-stick tape gun to adhere the white card to a Double Chocolate A7 flat card. The matching 3.5 x 4 inch place cards were also printed using the printer’s borderless printing feature, but we told the printer that they were 3.5 x 5 inch cards. If you’re planning a fun & casual affair, our PrintingPress Extreme 4.0 design is right for you. We added a custom border to the White menu card and set the border’s shape to Line (Top). We set the width of the border to 1 inch and filled it with a custom pattern featuring black & white polka dots. We added a green 12 pt Inner pen to the border and set the line type to Dotted (overlapping fill). We added the menu text in black and green using the Meegles font from Fonts & Graphics 3. Since the border goes all the way to the edge of the card, we used our printer’s borderless printing feature to print the menu, telling the printer that it measures 4 x 6 inches. The matching 3.5 x 4 inch place cards were also printed using the printer’s borderless printing feature, but once again we told the printer that they were 3.5 x 5 inch cards.
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‘Tis
better to give…
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‘Tis (almost)
the season... For a simple holiday card, try our PrintingPress design. We used card and envelope colors that aren’t normally paired in order to create a modern holiday look. We printed a simple black snowflake at the top of a Deep Red A2 flat card. We added the holiday greeting using all lowercase letters in the Arial font. We left room between the greeting and the family names for you to pen a personal note. We used a corner punch to round the corners of the card and paired it with an Avocado envelope. We added coordinating snowflake (black on red) StationeryStamps. To order the stationery used in this project, order A2 flat cards only in Cherry Cordial (in the Chocolate Envelopes section) and A2 envelopes only in Avocado. Our PrintingPress Platinum design is the perfect opportunity to showcase a family photo. We added a photo of the kids at the beach to the top of a custom cut 4 x 6.25 inch White card. We used the Convert to Grayscale feature to convert it to a black & white photo. We added a simple avocado border to the photo with a white inner edge to offset the border from the photo. We added the greeting text in avocado beneath the photo, using tabs to left align the text towards the center of the card. We used the Benjamin Caps font from Fonts & Graphics for Weddings for the greeting and the family name. We used a floating text box to add the large “W” using the Isabelle font from Fonts & Graphics 2. We mounted the white card to an Avocado A7 flat card using a double-stick tape gun. We paired it with a Chocolate A7 envelope lined in Avocado and used custom StationeryStamps to add the photo on the outside of the envelope as well. To order the stationery used in this project, order A7 envelopes and flat cards in Avocado (in the Chocolate Envelopes section), custom cut cards in White and A7 envelope liners in Avocado. To customize the card with your own photograph, first add the photo to the card and crop it if necessary to make it square and resize it as desired. Next download the border image and save it to the My Documents folder. Now click on the image to select it and choose Image, Add Image Border in the Design menu. Click on the Browse button, browse to the My Documents folder and select the image you just downloaded. If you have too many adorable photos to choose just one, then our PrintingPress Extreme 4.0 design is perfect for you. We used a combination of floating text boxes, shapes and photographs to create a beautiful collage on the front of a White A7 folded note card. For tips on aligning floating objects, see this month’s Extreme Tip. We added the text “happy” and “holidays” in two separate floating text boxes with the Resize to fit setting turned off and the background color set to pink. We added two shapes in a darker pink and then placed white flourish designs above them to block out the dark pink. We added two more shapes in deep red and then filled the remaining squares with photos. Because we used shapes and the text box background color, not images, to add color to the card, you can change the color scheme to anything that you like. We cropped all the photos so that they are square and turned on the Convert to grays setting. To add your own photos, double-click on the image placeholders and then click on the Change image button, then on the Browse button to browse your hard disk for your photos. Send in a Deep Red A7 envelope lined in Pink and add custom StationeryStamps with your favorite photo.
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Let's
do lunch Our PrintingPress design will work for a casual or elegant affair. We added vibrant orange peonies to the top and bottom of an Ivory A7 flat card. We added the invitation text in twilight using the Times New Roman font in all lowercase. We added the betrothed couple’s names in a larger point size in orange. Since the flowers run all the way to the edge of the card, we used our printer’s borderless printing feature to print the card. We lined the Ivory A7 envelope in Twilight and added matching peony (orange) StationeryStamps printed on Ivory sheets. The matching Ivory place cards print your guests’ names in twilight. To continue our floral theme, orchids grace the front of our PrintingPress Platinum invitation, featuring our Café au Lait A7 Two Tone stationery. We added the invitation text in brown using the Benjamin Caps and Alyssa Afternoon fonts from Fonts & Graphics for Weddings on the Ivory 4-bar flat card. Because the orchid branch bleeds all the way to the edge of the card, we used our printer’s borderless printing feature to print the card. We used a double-stick tape gun to adhere the Ivory card to a Chocolate A7 flat card. We lined the Chocolate A7 envelope in Yellow to coordinate with the yellow in the center of the orchids. We also added coordinating orchids (brown and yellow) StationeryStamps printed on Ivory sheets. The matching place card features the same orchids above the guest’s name. Our PrintingPress Extreme 4.0 design features our Café au Lait A7 Two Tone stationery. We filled the stationery background in avocado, setting the margins to zero to bleed the color all the way to the edge of the card using our printer’s borderless printing feature. Next we used a floating text box to add the initial of the couple’s last name to the top right of the card. We turned off the Make white transparent setting to make the text box be opaque white and block out the avocado background. We stretched the text box (automatically turning off the Resize to fit setting) so that it spans the width of the card and is 1 inch high. We added a custom border to the text box and set the shape to Line (Bottom) to add brown dots and a white stripe across the avocado. We floated the text box behind the main text area so that we could add the bride and groom’s name on top of the initial. We added the invitation text in brown using the Benjamin Caps and Alyssa fonts from Fonts & Graphics for Weddings. We used a double-stick tape gun to adhere the Ivory 4-bar card to the Chocolate & flat card. We lined the chocolate envelope in Avocado and created custom StationeryStamps with the couple’s names from the top of the invitation. The matching place card uses the same design and prints the guest’s name using the alternate font feature to use both the Benjamin Caps and Alyssa fonts for the guest’s first and last name.
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Aligning
floating objects
Next you want to start creating aligned rows. You can hold down the Shift key on your keyboard and click on each item in the first row to select all of them. Alternatively, you can click on the Select Objects button in the Design toolbar and drag your mouse to select all the objects in the first row.
Now that we have all the objects selected, we need to align them relative to each other. If you have the Relative to stationery setting turned on, then the objects will be aligned relative to the edges of your stationery. Make sure to turn off the feature using the button in the Alignment toolbar or the menu item in the Object menu. Now you can click on the Align Top button in the Alignment toolbar to align the top edges of the selected objects. Repeat this for each row of objects to align all three rows.
Now we need to align the objects vertically. Select all the objects in the first column using the using the Shift key on your keyboard or the Select Objects button in the Design toolbar. Now click on the Align Left button in the Alignment toolbar to align the left edges of the selected objects. Repeat for the remaining three columns. Now that we’ve got all the rows and columns aligned, it’s time to evenly space or distribute them across the card. We’ll start with the rows again. First we’re going to group all the objects in each row into a single object. Select all the objects in the first row and then click on the Group button in the Alignment toolbar. Repeat for each row to create three grouped rows. Place the top and bottom rows roughly where you’d like them on the page. Now select all three groups and click on the Distribute Vertically button in the Alignment toolbar. Click on each group and choose Ungroup in the Object, Group menu and then repeat the same process to select, group and Distribute Horizontally the columns.  (click to enlarge) Now for the final step: centering the grid of objects on the page. Choose Select All Floating Objects in the Edit menu and click on the Group button in the Alignment toolbar to group all the floating objects. Now turn the Relative to stationery setting back on using the button in the Alignment toolbar. Now any selected object(s) will be aligned relative to the edges of the stationery. Click on the grouped grid of objects and then click on the Align Center button in the Alignment toolbar to center the grid on the card. For additional tips and shortcuts on aligning floating objects, visit the Align & Distribute Objects page from the PrintingPress Extreme online software tour. BONUS! Pro Extreme Tip Snap
to the grid
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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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