For hip stationery with a great splash of color, check out our PrintingPress Platinum 6.0 design. We started by adding a violet and green pair of cats eye glasses as a floating image to the bottom right corner of a White A7 card. Next, we used a floating text box to add the name to the upper left corner of the card using the Trebuchet font that is included with Windows. We wrote the first name in violet using all lowercase letters, and we wrote the last name in green using all upper case letters. We rotated the text box 90 degrees to the left and added 6 points of Character Spacing. We repeated the same design on the front a White A2 folded note card and lined the Clover envelopes in Purple. We placed a grayscale image of the glasses as a floating image in the bottom left corner of the envelope and rotated the return address on the front of the envelope to line up with the glasses. We added the glasses and the name to the Custom Image StationeryStamps for added style.

Our PrintingPress Extreme 6.0 design combines a playful yet sophisticated design with fall colors. We started by adding the name to the bottom right corner of a White A6 card. We added the first name in red using the Isabelle font from Fonts & Graphics 2 in all lower case letters. We set the Skew to 60 to straighten up the letters and make the script font more upright. For tips using on this technique, please review the Extreme Tip from the January 2010 issue. Next, we added the last name in black using the Palatino Linotype font in all lower case letters. We repeated the same design on the front of a White A2 folded note card and lined the Cinnamon envelopes in Black for a great pop when you open the envelope. We added the return address on the bottom left corner of the back of the envelope, and used a floating text box to add the name to the left of the return address. We added a 2 point custom border to the return address text box with the Border Shape set to Line (Left). If you’re creating the stationery for yourself, you can use the Addressed Envelopes included in the project to print addressed envelopes one at a time as needed. We used the Alternate Font feature to use the Isabelle font for the name and the Palatino Linotype font for the address. Since script fonts tend to have more line spacing than serif fonts, there is typically too much space between the name and address in this case. See this month’s Extreme Tip to learn how to bring the address closer to the name. The finishing touch? Coordinating Custom Image StationeryStamps.

A BIG birthday for your little one
Maybe times have changed since we were little, but it seems that birthday parties for kids are getting bigger and bigger. One way to keep the budget in check is to make fabulous invitations at home using your computer and printer. We have some adorable new designs to help make your little one's party a huge success.

Not loving pink? Check out our PrintingPress Platinum 6.0 design featuring a vintage sky blue scooter. We started by using a floating text box to add the words “scoot on over” in sky blue using the Arial Black font that is included with Windows. We rotated the text box 90 degrees to the left and placed it along the left edge of a White A7 card. Next, we added the scooter as a floating image to the bottom of the card. We added the invitation text in grey using the Arial font that is included with Windows and aligned all of the text along the right margin. We used the Arial Black font in blue to make the birthday girl’s name really pop. We used repeated periods and added the RSVP info in italics to make it look like it’s speeding away with the scooter. We lined the Powder Blue envelopes in Pewter and added a grayscale version of the scooter image along with periods and the return address in italics on the bottom of the back of the envelope. The scooter appears once more on the coordinating Custom Image StationeryStamps.

Our PrintingPress Extreme 6.0 design features a cute trio of owls asking “Guess who is turning 2?” on a White A7 card. You can easily change the 2 to another number for use with any birthday. We added a branch as a floating image and then piled the three owl images one atop the other in the upper right corner of the card. We used the Impact font that is included with windows to add the invitation text in a combination of colors and sizes for a really fun layout. We used floating text boxes to add some of the text to get just the right placement of each word. Since the branch runs off the edge of the invitation, we used our printer’s borderless printing feature. We lined the Mandarin Orange envelopes in Powder Blue and added the green owl to the coordinating Custom Image StationeryStamps.

Feeling baseline shifty?
When you’re working on an Addressed Envelope, you can use the Alternate Font feature in PrintingPress Extreme 6.0 to use two different fonts for different parts of the address. Maybe you want to use a script font for the name and a block or serif font for the address, which you can learn how to do in the April 2010 Extreme Tip. But script fonts and block or serif fonts often have much different line spacing, so the address can look like it’s hanging off in space far below the name as shown in the example below.

You can easily tighten up the spacing to bring the different fonts together using the Baseline Shift control in the Character palette in the Text palette group. First you need to click on the placeholder address to select it and then specify whether you want to change the main text or the alternate text. In this case, we want to bring the serif font closer to the script font, so we made sure to select main text in the Alternate Font Options combo box.

Next, click in the Baseline Shift field and use your mouse wheel to increase the value until the text is as close as you would like it to be. We set the Baseline Shift to 8 for this month’s Extreme Fall Stationery design.

Then when you print names and addresses from your Mailing List, everything will be formatted perfectly as shown below.

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

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