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If you design and print invites, favor tags, etc.
What software and printer do you have? With 2 darling little girls and a mom (me) that goes overboard on parties, I would LOVE to make the invitations, favor tags, etc etc etc....
Santa brought me a Cricut and I am super excited to begin using it.... but I would also like to make the invitations.
A few issues- First, printer. I just have a simple color HP Photosmart. Am I going to blow through ink if I try to use that?
Secondly, software. I would like something simple and inexpensive. I'm not looking to make a business out of this at all... just design and print my daughters' invites, cards, and party supplies instead of buying them from etsy. I think it would be fun and maybe save me some money in the long run. However, our home computer is a 5 year old Mac. It has been updated. I have access to a PC at my office but do not have a color printer at work.... Once our Mac dies, we will probably replace it with a PC, so I don't want to get software that is only Mac compatible.
Thanks for your thoughts!!! My birthday is coming up and these would make great bday presents which is why I am asking 
Re: If you design and print invites, favor tags, etc.
I can tell you what I used for our wedding. I went overboard though, but having said that Im still using all the software regularly today. But Im not sure you can switch between mac and pc, although you can obviously get the versions for both, but that would be really expensive!
I used a mixture of adobe illustrator, photoshop and indesign (I got the design standard suite I think). But that would be an expensive way to go. You could probably do a lot in powerpoint or something like that. I also have a mac, and we would be unlikely to get a pc now. DH is big into photography and macs are better for that I think. Ive also grown up in a "mac family" and pretty much always had them at home...
For a printer we have a canon pixma 8100, we had a older version at the time of the wedding. Ink isn't terribly cheap but the quality is reasonably good. We just did Xmas cards which we printed out over 50 photos of DS and we didn't make much of a dent in the amount of ink used. Long term if you have the money and were ever to set up a business I think a laser jet is the way to go. But they are more expensive too. We are happy with what we have. Id also say it depends on what you want to print, if its just text and simple pics you won't need a fancier printer, if it is photos then you'll want a nicer printer. Although what you have is probably fine (I don't know anything about it)....
Im not sure that helps much, but that is what we use!
I use all these programs too (I got it at a student discount -- and it was still $500 for the software) but it's not really a "beginners" sort of software at all. I used Illustrator when I made our wedding invitations and use a mixture of Illustrator and Photoshop for invitations now, depending on if they have pictures (start in Illustrator, merge to Photoshop to add picture) or not (then I use only Illustrator). I really don't use InDesign all that much anymore, but I should.
I think you could probably do a lot of simple stuff using Publisher (is that the Microsoft program I'm thinking of?) if you have clip art that you want to use and are just adding text and pictures.
I don't ever print at home, but I have a Canon MP970. It does pretty well with printing, but I choose to print with Office Max because I don't want to waste all my ink (I have like 6-8 cartridges in my printer, since it's a photo printer) and because it's generally cheaper than buying paper + ink. If you can find a hole-in-the-wall, mom & pop printing company, even better. I know I had one here for awhile that was half the price of Kinko's and they included all the cuts I needed to have made. But they closed up shop and left town, so I'm back to the big corporate chains. (I only use Kinko's for things like banners because Office Max is still cheaper.)
TTC Baby #2 - BFP on 12/14/11 @ 10DPO - CP confirmed 12/18/11
BFP #2 on 1/13/12
I just checked out my word on mac, I think it is the 2008 version. The clip art is hidden if you are used to a PC. I found it under insert - picture - clipart. You could of course inset a picture file.
Yeah anything adobe will be $$$! There is photoshop elements which is a less professional version of photoshop. Im pretty sure you can try it for a month for free - at least you used to be able to!
Im sure there are other cheaper programs out there. I know mac has some card programs Ive seen them online, so you could check out the macstore - but then of course you will be using a mac program and not be able to move it to a PC!
you should definitely check out PrintingPress by Mountain Cow. I've been using it for stationery projects for 5 years now. I use it for everything! and you can download new templates each month from their newsletter. it's a very easy program to learn.
http://www.mountaincow.com/