Google Search: How to make a banner in illustrator

It's been a while, but I'm back at it again - card making. Good thing everyone has a birthday!

Bad thing is I'm tired of googling images that only meet 75% of what I envision and cleaning them up for use. Gimp used to be my best friend for the clean up task but now that Illustrator is in my life, I feel the need to create. So, today, after I created some of the raw pieces of the dinosaur birthday card, I realized the card needed a little umph. Perhaps a 'Happy Birthday' banner will do the trick. The creator in me googled 'how to make a banner in illustrator'.

Bless Google for returning this blog as the first search result and bless the soul of The Design Playbook for such detailed yet easy to follow instructions.

Now, my creation will be complete! While I work on the banner, the cutouts are laid out to dry.

Repurposed Supplies to Christmas Gift Tags

I think it's a fair trade off. I spend a little money on my very cool Silhouette SD and I skimp on some of the silly things I can now make like gift tags and wrapping paper.

The string: Originally purchased for my DIY Greek Goddess Halloween costume, is now used to hang the gift tags.

The cardstock paper: Just look at my previous blogs. But finally, an occasion where I can go crazy with red without feeling guilty.

The stamping: A cute little set of typeface rubber stamps I happened to find in my brothers room. After a little nagging, he gave up and let me have the brand new, still wrapped, set.

The gift tag shapes: I'm finally using the $10 gift card that came with my purchase of the Silhouette SD. I figured it was time especially with the Thanksgiving Sale of 50cents per shape.

Now, if I can only get creative enough with my wrapping.

Farewell Card: So Long, Farewell

Auf Weidersehen, goodbye. Yet another co-worker departs. This time it's the Mexican Bagpiper.

Resources:

Free music scores

Anniversary & Birthday Cards: Paint the Town Red

This is what happens when all I have is a small collection of card stock colors and Anniversaries and Birthdays coming up.

First up is the Birthday Card. Totally loving the Silhouette numbers.

And here we have the Anniversary cards. Again, loving the laser cut images courtesy of my new Silhouette. You can see some of the flaws due to my impatient. Pulling vs. patiently x-acto kniving.

Anniversary Card: A new chapter in the yearbook

This weekend makes it 5 years of being with D. Happy Anniversary D.

Silhouette SD Imports: How to create custom die cuts

Thank goodness for helpful blogs like Rhonna's. I see I'm not the only one that's madly in love with my Mac and Silhouette SD.

I first read about the Silhouette machine on Twig & Thistle and after about a week of holding out, I placed my order. It's been about two weeks since I've gotten it but up until today, I've only used the Silhouette Studio. I guess it must have been perfect timing based on reading all the reviews because the compatibility with Mac is something recent.

What Silhouette Studio is still missing though is the auto trace tool. Being in the technology field, I know THERE HAS TO BE ANOTHER WAY! So the fabulous world wide web told me that using Adobe Illustrator and a nifty plugin called Cutting Master 2 Robo v1.80, I too can create my Silhouette cutouts!

Pre-requisites:

1. Install the Silhouette machine

2. Install Adobe Illustrator

3. Install the Cutting Master 2 Robo Plug-in

Steps:

1. Follow all steps up to Step 4a on Rhonna's blog

2. Drag and drop your jpg or png file to Illustrator

3. Use the Selection Tool to resize the image (TIP: Hold SHIFT when dragging from corners to keep aspect ratio)

4. Select the image

5. Go to 'Object -> Live Trace -> Make and Expand

6. After paths are automatically created, right click on one of the plot paths and select 'Ungroup'

7. Use the Direct Selection Tool to select paths created around the border of the image

8. Follow step 4c on Rhonna's blog

Here's a Halloween inspiration idea from Tim Holtz!

References:

Silhouette Studio v1.0.15 for Mac

Cutting Master 2 Robo v1.80 (Plug - in for Adobe Illustrator)

Silhouette Blog

Tim Holtz Halloween Luminaries

My configurations:

Mac OS X 10.5.8

Adobe Illustrator CS5

Cutting Master 2 Robo v1.80

**if you have Adobe Illustrator CS4, download Cutting Master 2 Robo v1.61 directly from Silhouette America's website

Welcome Home

My aunt and uncle are movin on up...

So in celebration of their new home away from home, I put my new Silhouette to work. In are a bunch of rectangles, out comes a mini condo building.

It's an 8.5" x 11" brochure paper which I printed, cut, and folded into a tri-fold. Then velum paper was glued between the first two folds. It was tough getting the paper to crease at the right places because the windows were so close to the edge. To avoid ripping the cut out window panes, I place a hard cover book over one side, then slowly folded over the free side. It's on boring white paper, but, I guess I can live with white chic for now.