Mountaincow Monthly (September 2007)

HOME · MOUNTAINCOW MONTHLY NEWSLETTER (SEPTEMBER 2007) Mountaincow has found a way to help you make your invitations even more coordinated – our new StationeryStamps™ let you customize your postage to match your invitation design! And now that fall is approaching, it’s just about time to break out your witch’s hat and hand out candy to all the little ghouls in your neighborhood. But why should the kids have all the fun? Throw a spooky Halloween bash with our creepy invitations to bring your friends together for a chilling evening. Update your stationery wardrobe for fall! Our fall personalized stationery designs will help you keep in touch with friends in hues that match the brisk autumn months. Our completely coordinated initial cards include a template for creating matching StationeryStamps. Planning a formal event? Our elegant wedding invitations are customizable for any affair. Check out tips on downloading projects, borderless printing and more in our Newsletter Notes section.

Hello Halloween! Although the streets are bound to be packed with costumed cuties the evening of October 31st, Halloween isn’t just for kids. Gather your friends together for a fun spook-fest and feast on candy and cocktails. Our PrintingPress invitation features a scary black spider atop a two tone design created using “cards only” and “envelopes only” options from our bulk stationery section. We printed the invitation on a Pumpkin 4-bar card and then used a double-stick tape gun to adhere it to an A6 Black card. The invitation text is written beneath the spider in the Benjamin Caps font from Fonts & Graphics for Weddings. Slip the invite into a Deep Orange A6 envelope and add matching spider (orange & black) StationeryStamps. For those not easily scared, try our Platinum design, featuring Pumpkin A7 stationery. We added a background image of a creepy haunted house surrounded by flying bats to the invitation. Next we used five floating text boxes using the Colin font from Fonts & Graphics 2 to add the text “Join us – if you dare for a Monster Bash” rotated at different angles for a jagged look. We added the rest of the invitation text directly into the main text area of the card with the margins adjusted to center the text to the left of the house. Because the creaky picket fence in front of the house runs all the way to the edges of the card, we used our printer’s borderless printing feature. Add haunted house (black on orange) StationeryStamps to the Chocolate A7 envelope to complete the look. We’ve gotten a bit crafty with our PrintingPress Extreme 4.0 design. We used a White 4-bar folded card to print the invitation. The outside of the card features a pumpkin surrounded by text using the Meegles font from Fonts & Graphics 3. We added the text using a floating text box and set the Text Shape to Double Semicircle. We added a brown custom border to the text box in with the shape set to Oval and the line type set to Bumps and the thickness set to 14 pts. We turned off the Make White Transparent setting on the text box so that the white background would remain opaque. We added a solid fill custom background with the margins set to zero to fill the rest of the card in orange. We added the rest of the invitation text on the inside of the card. Since the design on the front of the card bleeds all the way to the edge of the card, we used our printer’s borderless printing feature. To complete the invitation, you need Double Chocolate A7 stationery. Mount the White 4-bar card to the A7 flat card, slip it into the Chocolate envelope and you’re ready to add pumpkin (orange & brown) 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)	Completely coordinated PrintingPress Extreme 4.0 makes it easy to customize any stationery, and now you can customize your postage as well using our new StationeryStamps! We’ve created a special personalized stationery design with matching StationeryStamps, so all that you need to do is change it to use your initial, print it to a graphics file and then order your very own personalized StationeryStamps to exactly match your personalized stationery. For tips on creating an image file for your own StationeryStamps, review this month’s Extreme Tip. Our stationery project uses A7 flat and A2 folded White with Chocolate stationery. Both cards feature an initial on a field of pink polka dots. We added the initial in the Ryan font using a floating text box. Next we added a background to the text box using a custom pattern with pink polka dots. Then we added a custom border in brown with the line type set to Bumps and a white inner pen set to 2 pts. We lined the Chocolate envelopes in Pink.
Fall stationery The impending change of season brings on thoughts of thick sweaters in rich, autumn hues. Why not update your stationery wardrobe as well? We’ve got personalized stationery designs to work with any color scheme. All the projects include flat and folded designs. Our PrintingPress project features a floral leaf design printed on Café au Lait stationery. We added the name in dark red using the Noodles font from Fonts & Graphics 3. We lined the Chocolate envelopes in Deep Red. For a more subtle color scheme, swap the Deep Red liners for Avocado and write the name in the same green. To pull the whole look together, add matching fall foliage (red, green & brown) StationeryStamps printed on Ivory sheets. The matching folded note design uses A2 size stationery. Our PrintingPress Platinum design combines fall colors with springtime blossoms. We added an initial in chocolate using the Ryan font from Fonts & Graphics 3 and set the point size to 180. In order to move the initial up high enough on the flat card, we set the top margin to zero and set the paragraph line spacing to Exactly 200. We added floating daisies atop the initial for a light, whimsical look. We scattered black & white versions of the daisies above the return address on the back flap of the Chocolate envelope. Complete the design by adding daisy (white on green) StationeryStamps and Avocado envelope liners. The matching folded note design uses A2 size stationery. Feeling modern? Try our PrintingPress Extreme 4.0 design featuring our Café au Lait stationery. We added the name to the top of the Ivory A7 card using the Ryan font. We added a custom border to a flat Ivory card and set the border’s shape to Line (Bottom). We set the border’s width to 1 inch and filled it with a new bullseye (earthtones) pattern. We set the margins to zero so that the strip of circles bleeds all the way to the edge of the card and then used our printer’s borderless printing feature. The matching folded note card uses 4-bar folded note cards so that they can also be printed using borderless printing. We lined the Chocolate envelopes in Avocado.		PrintingPress sample (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)	An elegant affair When you’re planning a formal wedding, the list of details and tasks can seem endless. You want your special day to be perfect, and that starts with the very first thing your guests will see – the invitation. Our graceful designs will help you set the right tone for your big day. Our designs feature matching menus and place cards for your reception. Our PrintingPress design features Ivory / Deep Red Two Tone stationery. We added a deep red flourish to the top of the Ivory 4-bar card and then added the invitation text in the same deep red using the Alyssa and Benjamin Caps fonts from Fonts & Graphics for Weddings. We used a double-stick tape gun to mount the Ivory card onto the Deep Red A7 card. The Deep Red A7 envelopes are lined in Ivory and can be sent using the matching flourish (red on white) StationeryStamps printed on Ivory sheets. We used the same flourish on the matching Ivory 4-bar response card, which also uses a Deep Red envelope lined in Ivory. For a touch of nature, try our PrintingPress Platinum design. We added a background image that includes a white outline of a pine cone atop a field of periwinkle to the invitation, printed on a White A7 flat card. The background image also includes a thin white border surrounding the card. We added the invitation text using the Alyssa and Benjamin Caps fonts from Fonts & Graphics for Weddings. We used a floating text box to add the word “and” at a slight angle atop a white flourish that we added as a floating image. We also used a floating text box to add the bulk of the invitation text so that we could set the horizontal and vertical alignment to Justified. We used off-white text to block out the periwinkle background and let the white card show through. Because the design bleeds all the way to the edge of the card, we used our printer’s borderless printing feature. The White A7 envelope is lined in Twilight and has matching postage using pine cone (white on periwinkle) StationeryStamps. We added the same pine cone design to the matching response card, menu and place card. Since we needed to use standard photo sizes to use borderless printing, the menu is printed on White custom cut 4 x 6 inch card stock. The place card is printed on our 3.5 x 4 inch place cards, but we told the printer that they were 3.5 x 5 inch cards. Our PrintingPress Extreme 4.0 design brings on thoughts of a white winter, with delicate white scrolls atop a field of blue. We added the blue by adding a solid fill custom background with the margins set to zero and the color set to blue. Next we added off-white flourishes and scattered them across the card. We added the invitation text in white using the Noodles font from Fonts & Graphics 3 and the Benjamin Caps font from Fonts & Graphics for Weddings. Because the design bleeds all the way to the edge of the card, we used our printer’s borderless printing feature. And since we used a custom background to create the field of blue, you can customize this design to any color scheme. We repeated the same design on the response card, 4x6 menu and place card. We lined the White envelopes in Blue and added matching scrolls (white on blue) StationeryStamps.
Personalize your postage Mountaincow’s new StationeryStamps were designed to let you continue your invitation design on the outside of your envelope. You can choose from one of many stock images that coordinate with our monthly email newsletter projects, choose one of our monogram options, or you can submit your own custom image. PrintingPress makes it easy to submit your image. The first step is to download the PrintingPress project that has stationery already laid out for you in the correct dimensions for portrait or landscape StationeryStamps. Now you can go ahead and add images, text, borders, backgrounds and other design elements to create the image for your custom StationeryStamps.

StationeryStamps measure 2.33 x 1.505 inches, and the image size is 1.48 x 1.125 inches. Click here for complete image specifications. When you place an order for Custom Image StationeryStamps, we will email you instructions on how to send us your image. Once you’ve completed your design, there are two formats you can use to transfer your image to Mountaincow: Compressed TIFF PrintingPress Extreme and PrintingPress Pro Extreme users can choose Print to Graphics File in the File menu and save the image to their hard disk. Be sure to set the File format to TIFF (compressed) and the Resolution to 600 dpi. *PrintingPress Exported File (.pef)** PrintingPress and PrintingPress Platinum users can export their project file to their hard disk, then follow the instructions sent to you by Mountaincow to send the file to our Customer Service department. Please list any non-Mountaincow fonts you used and we will contact you if we do not have the required fonts. If you’ve ordered a proof, we will email you a proof once we’ve received and approved your image. Once we receive your approval of the proof, we will go ahead and print your order.
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.