Our PrintingPress 6.0 design features adorable animals from Illustrations by Mountaincow, Baby Collection. The purple and pink color scheme is perfect for a baby girl, but the animals are available in a variety of colors in the collection. We began by adding a giraffe (grape) image as a floating image along the left side of a White 3 x 4.5 inch custom cut card. Next, we increased the card’s left margins to center the text to the right of the giraffe. We added most of the text in pink using the Arial font in all lowercase letters. We added the baby’s name in purple using the Girls are Weird font from the Easy Invitations Bonus Content CD. We added a bird (pink) image as a floating image in the bottom right corner of the card. We used a double-stick tape gun to adhere the announcement to a Magenta 4-bar Scalloped card. The coordinating thank you note features the baby’s name with the animals on a White Scalloped A2 folded note card. We used the same text styles on the outside of the White envelopes lined in Purple, and added a cute frog (pink) image floating in the bottom left corner of the envelope. The coordinating Custom Image StationeryStamps feature the baby’s name above the bird (pink) image.

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For an announcement with an artsy, funky feel, check out our PrintingPress Platinum 6.0 design. We started by adding the cute critters border from Illustrations by Mountaincow, Baby Collection to a White A7 card. We added the announcement text in pink using the Arial font in all lowercase letters. We added the baby’s name in blue using the Girls are Weird font from the Easy Invitations Bonus Content CD. We increased the line spacing to spread out the text within the border, and added the baby bird (green, orange & blue) image above the parents’ names at the bottom of the announcement. The thank you note features the cute critters background image on the front of a White 4-bar folded note card. We cropped 50% of the image (from the top) so that the 5 x 7 inch background image would fit perfectly on the front of the card. Next, we used a floating text box to add the baby’s name to the front of the card. We turned off the text box’s Make white transparent setting to keep the text box opaque white to block out all of the cute critters. We added a 0.03 inch pink custom border to the text box and set the border’s Shape to Oval. For the finishing touch we placed the tiny bird image above the baby’s name. Since both designs bleed to the edge of the card, we used our printer’s borderless printing feature. We added tiny bird standing in the middle of the return address on the back flap of the White envelopes lined in Blush. The coordinating Custom Image StationeryStamps feature the tiny bird sitting atop the baby’s name, framed in a pink 0.02 inch custom border.

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Sweet sixteen
Fast forward sixteen years and oh, how everything changes! A girl’s sixteenth birthday traditionally calls for a big celebration. Let your daughter’s personality and the tone of the party shine in the invitation design. We’ve got fabulous new invitation designs to help you get the party started!

Our PrintingPress 6.0 design is all heart — thanks to Illustrations by Mountaincow, Everyday Collection. We started by adding a heart with flourish (lemon, raspberry & lime) image to the top left corner of a White A7 card. To keep the design fun and youthful but not too little girl-ish, we made the heart large enough to take up nearly half of the invitation. We added the invitation text in green using the Arial font in all lowercase letters. We increased the Character Spacing and Line Spacing for a light, airy look and added the birthday girl’s name in pink using all capital letters. We lined the Magenta envelopes in Celery and added coordinating Custom Image StationeryStamps.

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If your daughter is a girlie girl, she’ll love our PrintingPress Platinum 6.0 design. We started by adding a butterfly silhouette (kiwi & grape) – horizontal border from Illustrations by Mountaincow, Everyday Collection to a White A7 card. We added the invitation text in purple using the Benjamin Caps font from Fonts & Graphics for Weddings. Next, we used a floating text box to add the birthday girl’s name to the upper right corner of the border using the Alyssa Afternoon font from Fonts & Graphics for Weddings. Since the border runs to the edge of the card, we used our printer’s borderless printing feature. We added a single lacy tiger swallowtail (purple) image from Illustrations by Mountaincow, Wedding Collection alongside the return address. We lined the White envelopes in Celery and added coordinating Custom Image StationeryStamps.

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Our PrintingPress Extreme 6.0 design is the perfect mix of sweet and sophisticated. We started by filling the background of a White A7 card with the simple flowers pattern from Illustrations by Mountaincow, Everyday Collection. We increased the scale of the pattern to make the flowers reach mammoth proportions. For tips on modifying patterns in a snap, see this month’s Extreme Tip. Next, we added an 18 point brown custom border to the card. We used a floating text box to add the invitation text to the card using the Arial font in a combination of all lowercase and all uppercase letters. We added the birthday girl’s name using all lowercase letters without any spaces between her first, middle and last names. To separate the names, we used a different color for each name, sampled from the pattern by using the Sample Color tool in the Color menu. We filled the background of the text box in brown and set the text color for the remaining text to white. Since the design goes all the way to the edge of the card, we used our printer’s borderless printing feature. We lined the Magenta envelopes in Yellow and added coordinating Custom Image StationeryStamps.

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Pattern transformations...
PrintingPress Extreme 6.0 makes it even easier to modify a pattern in a shape, border or background using the controls in the Adjust palette in the Design palette group. This tip discusses the controls that allow you to scale, rotate, or modify the Pattern Make White Transparent setting. In this month’s Extreme Sweet 16 design, we added a pattern to the background of the card. When the pattern is initially added, the default size for the pattern is used.

(click to enlarge)

PrintingPress Extreme 6.0 lets you use the Scale Pattern field in the Adjust palette to adjust the size of the pattern without having to open a dialog window, so you can immediately see the modified pattern on your card and quickly get the exact scale you want. Just click in the Scale Pattern field and use your mouse wheel or the up / down arrow buttons to increase or decrease the size of the pattern and you will see the updated pattern immediately.

In our example below, we increased the pattern scale to 20 to give the pattern a modern edge.

(click to enlarge)

If you want, you can also rotate the pattern using the Rotate Pattern field just to the right of the Scale Pattern field. Again, you can click in the field and use your mouse wheel or the up / down arrow buttons to increase or decrease the rotation as you watch. If the pattern is in a floating shape or text box and you want to be able to see through the white area of the pattern, click the Pattern Make White Transparent button.

If you want to make changes to a pattern used in a border, click on the Apply to Border button and then use the controls in the Adjust palette to modify the border’s pattern.

Check out tips on downloading projects, borderless printing and more in our Newsletter Notes section.

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