Category: Graphic Design

Graphic Design

Believe you can and you will

Jessica Smith

I love my Mac. OK, it’s not my Mac. It’s a work computer. But as I sit here on my laptop watching Iron Man 2 and messing around in Photoshop and InDesign, gah… it’s just awesome. I heart me some Adobe programs, too.

Before I go into this little graphic design project, I gotta give a shout out to my Ravens, who kicked some ass this weekend are going to the AFC Championship game next weekend. They will be playing the Patriots, just like last year. We lost at the last second, so it’s gonna be a huge redemption game for us. *Fingers crossed* This weekend’s game was probably the best, most stressful, well-played game I’ve ever seen. Holy moly.

OK, enough about football. Have you seen the printables that are meant to look like chalkboard writing? I tackled one tonight using a free chalkboard download here. They are available in three different colors from Blondie Loves. Download whichever you’d like and get to creating.

In InDesign, I messed around with the saying, “Believe you can and you will.” When I got an arrangement I liked (I used Appleberry and Clementine fonts, both are free), I copied it and dragged it into Photoshop.

Then, using the paint brush tool, I added just a few chalky accent lines.

Done-zo.

Believe you can

Check back tomorrow for a super adorable Valentine’s Day craft!

Graphic Design

Significant Dates

Jessica Smith

Mushy post alert!!

Ew, mush. I know. Just suck it up haha. This one’s quick!

I’ve seen this cute graphic design art floating around Pinterest for some time now that lists a couples’ most significant dates in their lives together. I made one a while ago but completely forgot about it. Then I opened it up and realized I didn’t like it. The white background was boring and the fonts were sorta lame-o.

This is a great inDesign project for any beginners because it is simply manipulating text boxes and choosing fonts. Nothing too crazy. I picked out our dates (I made one up because I’m not really sure when it was haha) and placed each date in its own text box. I pulled the text box edges to match the edges of the paper, then centered everything.

Then, in a smaller font, I labeled what each date was. I dragged the edges again to the outside of the frame and centered the text.

In a second layer, I added some scrolly embellishments in the corners and along the sides, fading the transparency to 20 percent.

And finally, on a third later, I added a color to the background (same as the accent text and scrolls) and faded it to 10 percent transparency.

See, doesn’t that sound easy?

Significant Dates

I definitely want to frame this one for our house. It’s simple and elegant, and it’s a eye-catching way to remind ourselves of our most special dates in our lives together. Speaking of which, 2014 will be a whole decade for us! Holy smokes.

If I find a fancy frame, I might just print it on a white background, minus the swooshiness. Here’s how that looks.

Lovey dates white

Fonts used: Baskerville (date), Albemarle Swash (explanation), Soft Ornaments Eights (swooshes)

TGIF.