Beach Weddings – Invitation Tutorial III

So far in our beach wedding invitation tutorials, we have made a funky 70s sunset invitation and a fun ocean floor invite, both in Illustrator. Today, we’re making a very simple and traditional invitation using Microsoft Word (you need Vista to be able to do one of the steps).

This is the invitation we’re making:

and here’s how to do it:

1. Download the shell illustration here. Just select PNG full size under the image, and then right click on it and do a Save Image As (you want it to be a PNG file) and put it somewhere on your computer where you can easily find it.

2. Open a new document in word and make sure you save it as a Word Document, not in any previous version. You need the Vista format in order to re-color the shell.

3. Go to Insert – Picture and find the shell. You’ll see that it’s upside down, so the first thing you need to do is select it, right click and go to Text Wrapping. Select In Front of text. Then go to Picture Tools – Format – Rotate and rotate it vertical.

4. To change the color of the shell, right click on it and go to Format Picture. A new window pops up, and you want to go to Picture (next to last in the menu on the left hand side). There, click on Recolor and you’ll get a drop down menu of color choices. I went with the blue in Light Variations, but you can make it any color you want of course.

5. Next, go to Insert – Shapes and select the rectangle tool. Draw a box, any size you want, and then right click on it and go to Format Auto Shape to change the size and look. I wanted to make my invitation a 5×7, so we need to make the border a little bit smaller than that. To do so, go to the Size tab and just type in your dimensions (make sure Absolute is selected for both values. I made mine 4.7 x 6.7.

6. To make the borders look nicer, go to the Colors and Lines tab. Make sure the Fill Color is set to No Color and change the Line Color to a matching blue. You also want to change the Style and Weight. I chose the next to last option in the Style drop down menu, and left the weight at the default, 4.5 pt.

7. Now we need to add the text. Go to Insert – Text Box and in the drop down menu select Draw Text Box. Draw one any size you want, we’re going to adjust it later anyway. Type in your text and change the fonts and colors. I used ACaslon RegularSC 12pt black for the text and ShelleyVolante BT 24pt Bold in a matching blue for the bride and groom. (If you want to use these fonts but don’t have them, read my How To Add Fonts To Your Computer post.)

8. Next, we need to make this mess look good. Right click on the text box and set the Fill and Line Colors to No Color. Drag the shell over to where you want it on the invitation and drag the handles to size it. Pull the text box to where you want it. If something disappears behind something else and you need it to show up, select it, right click, go to Order and select the appropriate option. Once you like the way it looks, you’re done!

I would print this on nice heavy cardstock and trim it to size. Or if you have bought printable 5×7 sheets, just change the size of your word document to 5×7 and print away.

Filed under Beach Wedding, Microsoft Word, Tutorial, Wedding Invitation | Comment (0)

Make Your Own Engagement Announcements using Windows Vista

This starts a series of tutorials for those of you who recently got engaged (Congrat-ulations!). Now you have to let the world know your big news! First out is a step by step instruction to making your own engagement announcements using Microsoft Word (Windows Vista).

These instructions are to make a card that looks just like mine. If you want it to be a different size and color, just play with it until you like it.

1. Open a new document (letter size) and save it as a Word Document (important: don’t save it as an earlier or different version of word – some of the tricks we are going to use are only available in the Vista version).

2. Go to Insert – clip art. In the search window, type hearts and click on go. You will see a bunch of images with hearts, and this particular one is the 9th one down on the right (on my computer). If you don’t see it, you can download it at Microsoft Office’s clipart site. The name of the image is j0440320.jpg.

3. The first thing you want to do when you have the picture in your document, is to right click on it, go to Text Wrapping and select “Behind text”.

4. Now, click on the picture again, and go to Picture Tools – Format (In your menu on the top of the page) and select crop. The picture handles will change to thick lines. Grab the bottom one and crop it until you like the way it looks. Then click outside of the picture to de-select the cropping tool.

5. To change the size, right click on the picture and go to Size. Enter the size you want. It will stay relative, and what I did was put in 5.88 in the height and clicked ok. I then clicked on the picture again and pulled the right hand side in until it was 3.99″ across.

6. The picture is a tad bright, so the next thing is to right click again and go to Format Picture. You’ll see a list of options on the left hand side and you want to click on Picture. You’ll see a drop down menu up top called Recolor. Click on the arrow and select the color you want (I used the pink option under Light Variations). I also upped the brightness 6%.

7. Now we’re ready to add text and the photo. Go to Insert (in the menu up top on your screen) and select Text Box. A menu of options will drop down, select Draw text box at the bottom of it. This will give you a crossbar tool, and you will draw your text box over the background picture by holding down the left mouse key and dragging. It defaults to whatever settings you used last, but don’t worry if it looks bad or is in the wrong spot – we’ll fix that soon. Right click on it, go to Format Text Box and under Layout select “In front of text”. Type in your text (I wrote We’re Engaged using LT Oksana, 24pt, bold). Click outside the textbox and go back to Insert and draw another text box. In this one, you will put the other text (in my case, the names and date, again using LT Oksana, 12pts, bold). Click outside the box. (If you want to use LT Oksana but don’t have it on your computer, check out my earlier post about adding fonts.)

9. We need to format the text boxes. Right click on one of them, and go to Format Text Box. Under Colors and Lines, you want to make sure to select No Color and No Line.

10. Now the photo! Go to Insert, Picture and select the photo you want to add. Right click on it, go to Text Wrapping, and select “In front of text”. Then, click on it again and by dragging one of the handles, reduce it to the size you want. (tip: to keep it proportionate, hold down the shift key while dragging). Time to have some fun with the photo. There are so many options for pictures in Vista and you can get some very creative results by playing around a bit. I wanted my photo to be black and white, so I right clicked on it, went to Format Picture, Recolor and clicked on the grayscale option under Color Modes. It can sometimes make the photo a bit washed out, so play with the brightness and contrast until you like what you see.

11. Next, I wanted rounded corners and a frame, so I clicked on it again and went to Picture Tools – Format (up top in your word menu). Under Picture Styles, I selected an option I liked, and that was it. So once you’re happy with the picture, it’s time to line everything up. Click on the background, and while holding the shift key down, click on the photo. This should select both of them, and now you want to go to Picture Tools – Format – Align and select Align Center. Then click on the text boxes and do the same. With the text boxes still selected, press the arrow keys until they’re centered above and below the photo.

That’s it! I put two of them together on one sheet, but if you want to make them smaller, you could get 4 of them on one sheet and save some paper. Once they’re printed, you just need to cut them to size using a paper trimmer. I think rounded corners look nice too, and you can easily add that by using a corner rounding tool (available at any craft or office store).

My next post will be another Microsoft word tutorial. We’ll make another engagement announcement with a different look using other tools and presets.

Filed under Design, Engagement, Microsoft Word | Comments (2)

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)