How to Create Personal Stationary Using Digital Products

Letterhead Stationary Tutorial

by Di Hickman, Creative Team Member

In this day and age many of us had family and friends in different states, or even (like me) countries, and even though sending the occasional email is great it is still nice to receive letters in the mail, or by snail mail as it's called these days! One of the things I do is send a letter periodically to family and friends back home in England. It really doesn't take long to type up (or handwrite) a letter and pop it in the mailbox, and if it's the recipients birthday or a holiday you can send a card too!

In this basic tutorial we'll make a letterhead for use in a word processing program.

• First open a new document in photoshop, my preference for these is 7 inches x 2 inches (remember to account for your margins in your word program), having the image narrower than the letter size page means the page looks more uniform.

• Using the text tool, chose the font and color you wish to use and type your header. For this example I kept it the same font and colors as my blog.

• In keeping with my blog I wanted the row of dots, I did this by choosing a round brush and altering the spacing to 150%

• Open an image you wish to use, this is a flower I created, I used this on my business cards so having it on the letterhead also ensures continuity.
  
• You can see here too that I changed the dots to brown instead of the turquoise. I did this by adding a layer style> color overlay, and choosing a brown. Simple way to instantly change the color without having to bucket fill each dot!
  
• I also changed the alignment, moving things around till I was happy with a design.

• Underneath the dots I could add my address, website address, phone number, email or a tagline.
  
• Imagine the main header said "Merry Christmas", the tagline could read "and a happy New Year".
  
• This is where you save your image as a jpg file.

• To use the jpg in a word processing document, here I use Open Office (http://www.openoffice.org/), a free download word processing program.
• Simply: insert>picture , you'll may need to move it around a little, and you can resize it should you need to.
  

• I changed my side margins to 3/4", just my personal preference and my top margin I made 2 1/2 inches to allow for the header.

• You can choose to add a footer with either your address or tag line or website url.

• You can see an example page filled out below.
• You could get real fancy with digital designs but remember that the more colors you put in the more ink you are going to use when printing! This could really add up if you are printing off 100 Holiday letters for family and friends.
  
• Imagine the possibilities for your Christmas letters, thank you letters, baby announcements, achievements and more!

Please let Di know what you think of this free tutorial she has provided! Thanks!!!
Be sure to be signed up for our newsletter to get your free REALLY BIG digital kit created by the EDS Creative Team for our big birthday bash October 1st - 5th!!! Look for it in the newsletter on October 7th and celebrate with us!

How to Create Shaped Journaling for Scrapbooking

Using Illustrator and Paint Shop Pro to Create Shaped Text
Digital Scrapbooking Tutorial by
Maggie Lamarre, Creative Team Member

Supplies used
Irresistible kit from Oscraps.com
Leaves from the Element brushes from Dragonflaire.com

I am currently reading Designing for the Nondesigner by Robin Williams.
This book emphasize the use of font and placement.
The study of typography to convey mood and balance.

I wanted to convey a fun atmosphere and show fun on the lo, I use a vibrant colour of Coral and subdued mocha to balance it. Journaling on your lay out doesn't have to be a square. You can use shapes such as Arrows, stars, brackes etc..

For this Lo in my graphic software I have a fun arrow but it didn't bend as the shape I wanted to be.

I imported the shape into Illustrator did a live trace, expand, then select object and simplify and adjust the shape to my liking.

Once done the next step is I imported the shape into Paintshoppro as a bezier.



Then select the type tool, selected the font and size then type the journaling.
Once done turn off the shape and Voila very easy.
Have fun
Creat your ART.
Maggie
PS We would love to see what type of shape you come up with :)

Mlamarre

How to Create a Pattern for Hand-Cutting Titles: A Hybrid Scrapbooking Tip

Creating a Pattern for Hand-Cutting a Title Using Adobe Photoshop CS2
by Sue Kristoff - Creative Team Member

One way to create a custom title for your layouts is to hand cut the letters. This allows you to use any size letter, any paper and any font with enough weight to hold up to the cutting process. This tutorial will show you how to quickly and easily create a cutting pattern using Adobe Photoshop CS2. I love to handcut my titles because I can create titles that really mesh well with my layout. I don't have to search for die cuts that match, or limit myself to certain sizes.

The first step is to select a font and create your text. I generally start with a 8.5"x11" canvas at 72 dpi. High resolution is not required for this process. It is important to choose a "thick" font. For this tutorial, I used the font Bambi Bold (available free at http://www.dafont.com). The font needs to have enough heft to maintain its shape while you cut it out. When you are creating your text, it is helpful, but not necessary to create your text in a color other than black to facilitate one of the later steps. (Figure 1)

The second step is to rasterize the type. This coverts the letters from text into shapes, which can then be manipulated in ways that text can't. This is done by Layer>Rasterize>Type.

Step Three is to create a stroked outline around the letters. This is done by Edit>Stroke. For a 72 dpi image I set the stroke at 2 pixels, on the outside of the shapes. For higher resolution canvases, increase the stroke width so it remains visible (I use 4 pixels for a 300 dpi canvas). I also change the color to black, so it is easier to see the stroke outline. (Figure 2)



Once you have your stroke outline, Step Four is to use the Magic Wand tool and select each of the letters while holding down the Shift key, until all of the letters are selected. (Figure 3)


Once they are all selected, hit the Delete key. This will clear the font and leave the stroke outline. While Steps 3 and 4 are not required, it does drastically cut down on the amount of ink or toner required to print your pattern, and if you are using very large, chunky fonts, that could be a lot of ink or toner. (Figure 4)

The final step is to flip the text so it is reversed. This is done by Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal. This step allows you to print directly onto the back of the paper you will be cutting the letters from. You can also print the pattern onto regular paper and adhere it to whatever material you will be cutting the letters from. (Figure 5)




Layout - "Let them eat cake"
Materials:
Patterned paper, tags: Fancy Pants
Paper for title: Provo Craft
Cardstock: Bazzill, Making Memories
Brad, letter stickers: Making Memories
Ribbon: Lil Davis
Font: Bambi Bold (available free at http://www.dafont.com)