Mountaincow Monthly (November 2009)

The perfect present
If you’re trying to think of alternatives to waiting in line on Black Friday, you’ll love the idea of giving personalized stationery as a gift this holiday season. We’ve created fresh new designs that you can personalize and print in a flash. Print the recipient’s return address on the back flap of the envelope and tie the bundle with a ribbon. We’ve created coordinating gift cards for a professional look that will wow them. To make the gift even more special, add coordinating StationeryStamps!

Our PrintingPress design uses a retro color palette and simple design. We started by adding the name in all caps using the Courier New font at the top of a White A7 card. We used a different color for each letter and then added a strip of dots in the same colors to the bottom of the card. Paired with Avocado envelopes lined in Twilight, it’s a great gift. If you’re feeling extra generous, we created a matching 4-bar folded note card. Tie the bundle with a blue ribbon and attach the coordinating gift card, printed onto a White place card. Since the dots go all the way to the edge of the card, we used our printer’s borderless printing feature to print all of the cards. We told the printer that the place card was a 3.5 x 5 inch card. If you’d like to add coordinating postage, we’ve included a design for Custom Image StationeryStamps.

An adorable duo of hedgehogs is sitting below orange dahlias on a field of blue grass on our PrintingPress Platinum design. We added the hedgehog background image to an Ecru A7 card and then used a floating text box to add the name in brown using the Benjamin Caps font from Fonts & Graphics for Weddings. We expanded the horizontal spacing by 8 points for an airy look. We created a matching 4-bar folded note card as well. Pair the cards with Powder Blue envelopes lined in Mandarin Orange and tie with an orange ribbon. We created a coordinating gift card, which we printed on an Ecru place card. Since the grass runs off the edge of the card, we used our printer’s borderless printing feature to print all of the cards. The finishing touch: hedgehog (brown, blue & orange) Personalized StationeryStamps.

If you’ve got an entire family on your list, try our PrintingPress Extreme 5.0 design. We created personalized stationery for the whole family, featuring the family name and address at the top of the card. We started by adding a 2 inch custom border to a White A7 card. We set the border’s Shape to Line (Top) and filled the border with a new snowflakes pattern. Next, we used a floating text box to add the family’s name. We used the Noodles font from Fonts & Graphics 3 for the family’s name, and the Times New Roman font in the Small Caps text case for the address. We filled the background of the text box in red and stretched it to fill the width of the card. We added a custom border to the text box with the border’s Shape set to Double Line (Top/Bottom) and centered the text box on the snowflakes. Since the snowflakes bleed to the edge of the card, we used our printer’s borderless printing feature. Pair with Deep Red envelopes lined in Powder Blue for a wonderful gift. Tie with a ribbon and add the coordinating gift card. You can print the gift card onto White full 8.5 x 11 inch sheets and then trim using a rotary trimmer, or you can print onto business cards that are precut to separate after printing. Snowflake band (blue, red & white) Personalized StationeryStamps complete the set.