Engagement Announcement In Purple, White And Gray – An Illustrator Tutorial

This is part 3 in my series of tutorials for those who just got engaged (Congrat-ulations!).

In the two previous tutorials, we created Engagement Announcements using Microsoft Word, and today, we’re making one in Illustrator. You can obviously adapt this to be a Save the Date card, or even Wedding Invitations by making just a few changes (and perhaps doing a vertical instead of horizontal layout). To zoom in on the screen shots, just click on them and they will open larger in a new window.

If you’re new to Illustrator, you may want to take a look at my posts about the tools, notes and problem solvers and maybe read through another one of my Illustrator tutorials.

Today we’re making this card in two different versions:

and we’re using another vector file by one of my favorite designers, jlwDesign

This is how to do it:

1. Open a new document in Illustrator.

2. Draw a 6.25×4.5 box (which will fit in all standard size A2 envelopes).

3. Fill the box with R195, G160, B178 and make the border black.

4. Lock the layer with the box.

5. Download the Swirly Curls illustration here. (Read the License Agreement).

6. Unzip it and open the ai file. The easiest way to isolate the design element we want is to go through and click on everything we don’t want and delete it (don’t save the file after you’ve done that, just leave it open for now). Once you have only the swirly curls left, select all of them, copy and paste them into a new layer in your announcement document. While they’re still all selected, group them and then turn them 180 degrees (by right clicking and going to Transform – Rotate.) Go back and close swirly curls file without saving it.

7. On your card, pull the entire curly design as close to the upper left hand corner of your purple card as you can without too much of it going over the edge of your card.

8. Now, we need to tweak the illustration a bit, and what I did was this:

With your black arrow, click on the design and go to Object – Ungroup.

With your black arrow, click on the part of the illustration that is on the lower right hand side and drag it down into the corner.

We also need to delete a few pieces, so with your white arrow, click on the parts that you don’t want and hit Delete. I deleted these:

Now we want to make sure the design goes all the way out to the edge on the left and also that no parts are “hanging out” over the edges.

First, click with your white arrow on the leaf that’s too long on the bottom, and while it’s selected, switch to the black arrow. That puts a box around just that part of the design, and you want to pull on the handles until the leaf is inside the border.

Next, click on the white part of the design in the upper left hand corner and do the same thing, except this time, you pull the handles outward towards the border until it looks nice. You probably want to zoom in when you’re doing this, it’s pretty hard to get it perfect otherwise.

Next, click on the white part about halfway down and do the same thing.

Now, with your black arrow, drag around the entire design (except for the part in the lower right hand corner) and group it (by going to Object – Group). Make sure the layer with your purple box is locked when you do this, otherwise that’ll be part of the group. The curlies are a little bit too wide, so just grab the middle handle of the box around the design and push it to the left a little bit.

9. Lock this layer and add a new one for the text.

10. Select your text tool and type in your text. I put it in three separate boxes so that I could easily move them around. I used Bernhard Fashion BT 24pt with a 1pt border for the top box, and colored it R137, G53, B88. The middle box is Bernhard Fashion BT 28pt with a 1pt border in white, and the bottom box is Bernhard Fashion BT 21pt with a 1pt border, same color as the top box. Need help with fonts? Read my earlier posts about font ideas and how to add fonts to your computer.

11. Lastly, select your purple box and get rid of the black border (I like to have it there as a guide while I’m designing a card, but not when printing it.)

That’s it, you’re done. I would put two of these on each sheet, print them on heavy, white cardstock and trim them to size. I think rounded corners give them a nice, finished look, and it’s easy to achieve with a rounded corner punch, available at any craft store.

If you want to add a photo to the card, just create a new layer and to go File – Place and select one from your computer. What I did was place the photo on its own layer, created a new layer and drew a transparent circle. I then placed the circle over the part of the photo I wanted to show (but still on a separate layer), selected both and went to Object – Clipping Mask – Make. That turns the shape you drew into a clipping mask and you are left with just that part of the photo visible. I then added a drop shadow to make it stand out from the background a little bit. To do that, select your photo and go to Effect – Stylize – Drop Shadow. Play with the settings a little bit (with Preview checked) until you like it.

Filed under Design, Engagement, Illustrator, Tutorial | Comment (0)

Make Your Own Save The Date Cards Using Microsoft Word

In today’s tutorial, we’re using Microsoft Word to create a Save The Date card. While you can’t do as much with the illustrations in Word as you can in Illustrator, I do realize that not everyone has access to graphics programs, or have time to learn them for just one project.

For those of you who are interested in continuing to design your own cards and other items though, I think Adobe Illustrator is a very worthwhile investment. And if you’re a student (or faculty), you can get it for a really good price ($199 as opposed to $599 for Illustrator CS4). Sometimes you can get a lower price even if you’re just taking an evening course, so definitely check that out.

I’m calling today’s Save The Date card “China Dream” because that’s what the illustration we’re basing it on is called, and here how it all comes together:

1. Download China Dream by Mariannasm here. Read the License & Usage.

2. Unzip the file

3. Open a word document. Go to Insert – Picture – From File and click on the jpg of the unzipped file.

4. Right click on the illustration and go to Format Picture. In the Size tab, uncheck “Lock Aspect Ratio” and put in the dimensions you want (I made mine 4×6). In the Layout tab, select “Behind Text” in the Wrapping Styles. Click OK.

5. Go to Insert – Text Box and drag a text box anywhere on the page (it’s a little bit easier to work with if it’s not right on top of the illustration for right now). Right click on the text box and go to Format Text Box. In the Colors and Lines Tab, select No Fill and No Line.

6. Type in your text. I used Papyrus 14 pt for the text part and Adine Kirnberg Script 32pt for the bridge and groom, all aligned right. If you don’t have either of those fonts, pick others that you like, or download them for free here (they don’t have Papyrus, but they have a very similar one called Parchment).

A word on fonts: If you don’t like the fonts I used or the ones you have on your computer, look on the internet – there are tons available for free online. You just need to download the ones you want and add them to your font library. See my “How To Add Fonts To Your Computer” post if you need help with that.

7. Move your textbox over the illustration and position it where you want it. You may have to tweak the size of the type and paragraph spacing a little bit, since we can’t change the illustration in Word. Once you like what you see, you’re done!

Filed under Design, Microsoft Word, Save The Date, Tutorial | Comment (0)

Save The Date Postcards – A Step-By-Step Illustrator Guide

Making your own Save the Date cards is fun and easy, and once you know the basics of Illustrator, you can let your creativity run wild! I have designed a few different cards with step-by-step instructions for how I did them, so you can just follow along and create the exact same layout on your computer. They really don’t have to match your invitations, but if you want them to, go ahead and make them as well. You can use the same techniques for anything.

This guide assumes that you have a (very) basic knowledge of Illustrator, or have at least played around with it a little bit. Please make sure you read these Illustrator notes/problem solvers first, and you might also want to take a look at the Illustrator Toolbar.

Illustrator uses and creates vector files (which can be resized and warped without losing any sharpness at all). There are tons of free vector art available online, but before downloading anything, read through the licensing rights. It’s usually clearly stated, and while many will let you use their designs for free for your own personal use, not everyone does. And if you plan to do something else with them, make sure you know what the deal is, and play by the rules. You wouldn’t want someone stealing your work that you put all that work and time into.

OK, let’s get started on our first card, which I call Elegant Pink

For this first card, I got my background pattern from createsk8.com. It is by jlwdesign and it’s called the “Elegant Vines Pattern” (you can get it here). Read the License and Usage Info.

1. After you download your design (make sure you select the Adobe Illustrator CS download option), open the ai (Illustrator) document in Illustrator. You might encounter a few error messages: just hit OK and/or CONTINUE and/or OPEN, it doesn’t matter.

2. Select the color block you want with either the selection or the direct selection tool (for this particular design, you want to click on the tiny square you want with the direct selection tool, and while it’s selected, immediately click on the selection tool in the toolbar. This assures that you get the entire square copied, and not just part of it). Copy it by either going to Edit – Copy or by pressing Apple+C (Cntrl+C for PCs).

3. Open a new illustrator document (can be any size, we’ll worry about that later)

4. Paste your selection in your new document (by either going to Edit-Paste or by pressing Apple+V (Cntrl+V on PC)

5. select the rectangle tool (your arrow will turn into a small cross), click anywhere on the page

6. a window will pop up where you fill in the dimensions of your new box (I made mine 6″ wide by 4″ high). Your chosen pattern will automatically fill your new box. After your 4×6 box shows up, make sure you delete the tiny square you copied on the page (by selecting it and hitting Delete).

7. Make sure your new box is selected (you’ll know it is if you see tiny white squares in the corners and on the sides of the box) and set the opacity to 40

8. Add a new layer and lock the bottom layer (with your vine design box in it).

9. With the rectangle tool selected, click anywhere on your second layer to make the photo box (I made mine 2.5×2.5″)

10. To make the frame pink, make sure your new box is selected (it will probably be filled with the vine pattern, don’t worry about that), go to the color palette and make sure you’re coloring the stroke, not the fill Type in the values for the color you want (I used R 216, G 178, B 173 If your color palette is displaying something different than RGB (CMYK for example), go to the fly out menu and select RGB I used a 1 pt stroke for the width of the frame. If you want it thinner or thicker than that, go to the Stroke menu and type in the value you want To fill it with white (I find it helpful while working on the design), make sure the “fill” box is in front on the color palette and click on the little white box in the lower right hand corner

11. Create another layer and lock the others

12. Select the rectangle box again to make the pink “ribbon”. Like before, click anywhere on the page and type in the dimensions (I used 2×4″)

13. Fill with same pink as frame ((R 216, G 177, B 173)

14. Set opacity to 65

15. If you want to move it on top of the background box at this point, double check so that the layer with the background box is locked, select the ribbon (with the Selection tool) and pull it on top of the box (by pressing down your right mouse button and dragging).

16. Make a new layer and lock the others.

17. Select the Type tool and click anywhere on the page (if you want to type on top of the ribbon to see what it looks like, make sure that layer is locked)

18. Type your text (I used Myriad Pro, 14pt, bold)

19. Unlock all layers

20. Select background box and ribbon box and align them on top (”vertical align top”)

21. To add your photo, create a new layer, right underneath the frame layer and lock all others

22. In your new layer, go to File – Place and select your photo

23. Resize it by pulling the handles (hold down the shift key while dragging in one of the corners – this will keep it proportional) or by left clicking on your mouse and selecting Transform – Scale and type in a smaller value. If you know the exact size you want it to be (which we do here, since it needs to fit right underneath the frame, make sure you’re photo is selected, and up top, just beneath the File, Edit etc. headings, you will see two windows with an W and H in front. Just type in your dimensions here (2.5×2.5″).

24. Unlock the layer with the photo box

25. Select both the box and the photo and align them

26. Make the box transparent There’s your photo in the frame! Tip: to keep the photo and frame together so you don’t accidentally move one without the other, select them both (the easiest way to do this is to make sure all other layers except these 2 are locked and with the Selection Tool, pull and drag around the boxes until both are selected) and go to Object – Group (or you can left click and select Group).

This may seem like a lot of steps, but once you know it, you can put a card together in a few minutes. If, after going through the step-by-step instructions you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Filed under Illustrator, Save The Date, Tutorial | Comments (2)