Tag: graphic

Graphic Design

Holiday printables

Jessica Smith

I just realized that I forgot to share these pretty little printables when I made them two weekends ago!

I created the snowflake background in InDesign, which I was able to use for a project at work, too!

Then I used two contrasting fonts to spread a little holiday cheer and giggles. First up: Staching through the snow. I saw this saying somewhere else and burst out laughing. What will people think of next when it comes to mustaches?

Staching through the snow

And for a classier approach: Dashing through the snow
dashing through the snow

It’s so pretty 🙂 I might need to frame it and hang it up at home for the holidays. The gray is actually a Pantone metallic silver. Oh la la! And the whole thing is blue, so it would fit in nicely at my house.

Feel free to download them and print them out for your home!

Fonts used:

  • Respective Swashes Slanted (Dashing/Staching)
  • Secret Code (through the snow)
  • Soft Ornaments (snowflakes…. each point of the snowflake is a letter in Soft Ornaments. I copied and pasted and rotated until they created these pretty little snowflakes. Then, I grouped them and turned them into an object.)
Graphic Design, Life

Football Season

Jessica Smith

 

I’m getting way more into football this year than in years past — not exactly sure why or how long it will last, but it’s been fun to watch the games so far.

This will be my last football craft for a bit, but it’s pretty funny and totally true, so I had to share.

I was in Hallmark the other day buying a card and I stumbled upon this weird little bird holding a sign that read, “We interrupt this marriage to bring you football season.”

I almost scooped it off the shelf because is it SO true (We are scheduling our anniversary dinner next week around football games), but it was a really weird flamingo-like purple bird that would have looked strange sitting around our house.

So while the Steelers were losing to the Broncos, I created this masterpiece.

Too funny, right?

*****

On a completely different note, I wanted to take a second to say that I am so proud to be an American and we will always remember those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. I also want to say “thank you” to the men and women who protect our country each and every day, whether soldiers, policemen, firefighters, etc. Our country is a better place because of all of you and I am forever grateful for what you do. Thank you.

 

Graphic Design

The only BOSS I answer to…

Jessica Smith

Guess who gets to see Bruce Springsteen again in concert on September 14th!?!?!?!?!?! If you guessed me, you guessed right. I’m extra excited for this concert and I’m pretty much listening to Springsteen 24/7. SOOOOOO… with that being said, I made myself a new background for my computer/ a new print for my craft room so I can be extra extra pumped up! I took a few screen caps along the way to kind of show the process I took to create this awesome piece of art. I am in love.

First, I created a single text box in InDesign and typed my phrase, “The only boss I listen to is Springsteen.”

I pulled up my Mac Font Book and started scrolling through the fonts, choosing different ones I thought might look nice for this piece. I probably went through about 10 of so before picking the one I ended up with (not the one below).

Then, I highlighted the word “boss” and made it all caps using the TT/caps tool in InDesign.

I didn’t screen cap this next part (sorry!). I went to everystockphoto.com and search for Springsteen photos. I found one for free that I downloaded and opened in PhotoShop. I did a quick cutout, removing the other singers and background so only Springsteen, his guitar and his microphone stand are visible. I then applied a filter to the image so it looks a little like water color paint. I really liked the effect, so I saved my PSD file and imported it into InDesign.

I also changed the wording up a bit, swapping in “answer” for “listen” and adding “Bruce.” The original saying I’d seen before (I bought my Dad a T-shirt with it on it, actually!), so I tweaked it to make it my own version.

Once I got the Boss in there, I hated the font I originally chose, so I switched to the font I ended up with: The Maple Origins.

I then started breaking my text up, creating individual text boxes for almost each word to allow me to space them the way I wanted them to look. That also allowed me to change the font size of individual words instead of groups of words.

Once that was complete, it needed something else. I created a black background and turned the text white to accomplish this look (if you look closely you can see the text boxes and guides I used).

Once I was happy with all of the spacing, I exported my file to a JPEG, and tada! Isn’t it awesome!?

If you are not a Springsteen fan, you probably won’t care much about this. But hopefully you can use some of the steps to create your own works of art using InDesign. There’s so much you can do!

What do you think? Awesome, right?

Gotta love the Boss 🙂