Hi and welcome to my blog. WeddingMonograms.blogspot.com was created to help DIY brides learn how to create Monograms and other wedding designs in photoshop. I hope that you find this blog helpful. Please feel free to email me with any questions or suggestions for tutorials at WeddingMonograms@gmail.com
Congratulations and Happy Planning,
BriannaNichole!


Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Beautiful Font



The name really hits the nail on the head, the Beautiful ES font is in fact beautiful. It also just happens to be one of my favorite fonts to use....and it is free! Actually, its two fonts, but I use them as one. They are Beautiful Caps ES and Beautiful ES. As you can imagine the Caps version only has uppercase letters and the other version has both. I typically use the Caps version for just the first letter, and then use Beautiful ES for the rest of the letters. Beautiful ES does have capital letters but they are not as pretty/fancy as the other.

The Beautiful font is actually very similar to the Bickham Scrip suite of fonts. You get a lot more fonts with the Bickham suite, but the Beautiful fonts are free. In fact I like to mix the Bickham and Beautiful fonts together since I don't like some of the Bickham letters.

You can download both fonts for free all over the web or here:
Beautiful ES
Beautiful Caps ES

Here are some monogram examples in the Beautiful fonts:




In fact, the header for this blog uses both the fonts.

I hope you found this helpful,
BriannaNichole!

Monday, January 28, 2008

Monograms for a Monday Morning

Like the use of M in my title? Ok, so I am pretty lame when it comes to creating post titles, sue me. Deanna contacted me this weekend for some monogram help. I decided not to charge her since I'm not really making them anymore. I think the monograms came out pretty well. She really had some pretty colors; Tiffany Blue and Chocolate Brown. I always enjoy making monograms more when I like the colors the bride has chosen. I have gotten some funky color combinations and they always seem to make the monogram look bad.

Anyway, here are some of the monograms I created for Deanna.



















Try to play around with different color combinations, you never know what is going to end up looking the best.

Hope some of these monograms gave you inspiration.
BriannaNichole!

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Twined Initial Monogram Tutorial.

This is by far my favorite type of monogram. There are so many ways to do it depending on the type of font you use and your initials. The twine monogram, as I like to call it, is two initials that wrap around one another. You get the 'wrap around' effect by erasing part of one letter. This tutorial can be used in most of the latter versions of Photoshop, including CS versions.

Here is my final product:


Step 1 Start by opening photoshop. Create a new canvas by hitting Ctrl + N on your keyboard, or going to File > New. I like to make the canvas big, here are my settings:


Step 2 Highlight the background layer, and then use the paint bucket tool to fill the layer with white.



Tip: I find it best to use two to three colors for the Twine Monogram. The initials need to be different colors so you get the effect of the letters wrapping around one another.

Step 3 Create a new layer using the New Layer icon.



Step 4 Select two fonts; one cursive and one block. If you need some help with finding fonts visit my font bio. I am going to use Sloop-ScriptTwo and Rutaban as my fonts.

Note Not all fonts work with all initials. You may find that you love how a B looks like in Arial, but you may hate it for a D. The best way is to play around with fonts until you get ones that you like for your initials.

Step 5 Select Layer 2, the top layer, and select the type tool.


Step 6 Type in your first letter. Create a new layer, by using the New Layer Icon. Type in your second letter on the new layer. Use move tool to place the second letter on top of the first letter.


Step 7 Right click each layer with the letters and select Rastersize Type. This will make the layer an image and allow us to erase a section.


Tip: Make sure you are not right clicking on the thumbnail of the layer or you will not get the Rastersize option.

Step 8 Ctrl + Click On the thumbnail of the layer second from the top and highlight the top layer. You will see the marching ants on the bottom letter.


Tip: To make the image appear bigger Ctrl + + sign. This will make it easier to see what needs to be erased.

Step 9 Select the Eraser tool and begin erasing sections of the top layer. I like to eraser every other section to see what looks best. If you do not like what you did you can 'step back' by hitting Ctrl + Alt + Z.


When you are finished hit Ctrl + D, to deselect the bottom letter. You are finished! Try to be create and add names, your wedding date or even your wedding location.

Here is my finished product, and some other examples of this type of monogram:


















Hopefully you found this tutorial helpful. Since it was my first monogram tutorial I would love to hear you feedback. Even if you give me something negative! :)

BriannaNichole!

Friday, January 25, 2008

Blogging in Style!

Ok, so I am not really sure what that blog post title means, but it sounded good at the time. I decided to create this blog to help other brides with their wedding paper stuff. I used to sell my Monograms, Save-The-Dates, Invitations, Ceremony Programs, Seating Charts, Table Numbers/Names, Place Cards etc. I just decided that I don't have enough time to devote to really running a business, so I thought I would take all that information and expertize and devote it to helping out other brides. So, here on my blog, you will find the following goodies:
- Monogram Tutorials
- Font Help
- Invitation Vendors
- Paper Goods
- Invitation Creation Tutorials and Tips
- Ideas
- Helpful Web Sites
- Wedding Stationary Tutorials and Tip
- And hopefully much more.

Here is some of the work that I have created for other brides:
















Thanks for checking it out,
BriannaNichole!