dd07: (almost) postal

the big xmas-readiness news from sunday was that i finished the design of our mailing labels in photoshop, then list-merged names and printed them out using printshop.* then i wrote out and signed all the ones that get mailed on their own; i still have to do the ones that will be sent with gifts. for that matter, i mostly have to BUY the gifts, but that's another story. to sum up: my dd06 page is the embellished postcard-sized label:

mailing label created digitally in photoshop using elements and brushes from "an icy christmas" by amber shaw and studio flergs and the "hello winter" kit by llilea designs plus damask tonal papers by katie pertiet; vogue and tabith fonts; printed on avery full-sheet labels via broderbund's printshop; real-life products: core'dinations cardstock, love my tapes washi, studio b cardinal sticker, otc snowflake brad, queen and co mini brads, stickopotamus metallic snowflake stickers, hero arts snowflake gems, and ranger white glossy cardstock

the fun thing about using vintage paper, and only working on one side of the page, is that some of my pages have a completely unrelated image on the back, like this one:

in the past i've often wanted to cover up such "distractions" but this year i'm amused by the random juxtaposition of images-- in this case a green tinted naval officer with my fancy label-- so i've just been leaving them as is. it just adds another layer of interesting, really; and there's nothing wrong with that! :)

*whereas i now do all my digital design in photoshop (because it's all about the LAYERS, baby!) when it comes to printing, i jump back to my trusty broderbund printshop; a very old graphics program that i still use because it still works. an ancient version of the same program was actually the very first piece of software i learned... on a secondhand apple ii which came from my b-i-l c.1988 or so! :) i love that it has basic templates for pretty much anything i might want to design and print (mailing labels, calendar pages, letterhead, business cards etc) so that i don't have to think about basic things like size and shape but i can import whatever graphics i'd like to use and arrange them, add text, list merge with my address book, etc etc. i'm all for learning new things but when the old things work i'm happy to stick with 'em.