lexie, Author at Wondernote

6 Hand Lettering Artists to Follow on Instagram

July 8, 2019

six hand lettering artists to follow on instagram

Today I am rounding up my favorite hand letterers to follow on Instagram, and all of them happen to be women! #girlpower

These ladies are seriously talented, and most of them are doing this for a living (#goals). So if you’re interested in developing hand lettering skills, or just looking for inspiration, make sure to check out these Instagram accounts.

6 Hand Letterers to Follow On Instagram

1. Jessica Hische | @jessicahische

The first time I stumbled upon Jessica Hische was while listening to this episode of the Creative Pep Talk Podcast.

I liked what she had to say so much that I immediately followed her on social media only to discover that I recognized so much of her work already. I’d seen it pinned on Pinterest and shared across the web hundreds of times, & usually without proper credit.

Lettering is Jessica Hische’s actual profession (hello, dream job), and she has worked with some major brands/companies. Think Starbucks, Mailchimp, Wes freaking Anderson, and my personal favorite: Jeni’s Ice Cream.

Within moments of following her, I purchased her book, In Progress, which details her lettering process from rough sketch to finished design. I haven’t finished it yet, but I love it already.

2. Lauren Hom | @homsweethom

I love Lauren Hom’s Instagram feed, full of bright colors & big murals & mega inspo. I’d say she’s the most “Instagram famous” person on this list. She’s well on her way to 200K followers, and I’m sure she’ll grow far beyond that because she’s clearly very smart and a hard worker. Lauren has a down-to-earth/open-book vibe that I love.

And spoiler alert: you’ve probably seen her work IRL. Specifically while standing in the checkout line at everyone’s favorite store: Target! Yes, Lauren Hom has designed hand-lettered gift cards for Target. I think I actually squealed when she posted it on her Instagram and I realized I’d admired her Thank You gift card hundreds of times. It just makes my heart happy to know that Target invests in artists like Lauren Hom.

Lauren’s Instagram and website is super helpful, too. She has tutorials, classes, resources, and a great FAQ page with all the answers you’re looking for.

3. Martina Flor | @martinaflor

Martina Flor is based in Berlin, and I recently started following her on Instagram. She is- of course- a super-talented letterer, but she also travels around speaking at all sorts of amazing conferences. The kind of conferences I want to attend. Like Tedx and Adobe Max, & even Apple.

Like others on this list, she has a ton of resources that can help you learn lettering – and as an added edge – she offers classes, books, and other resources in other languages besides just English.

I plan to check out her classes on Skillshare soon.

4. Becca Courtice | @thehappyevercrafter

How about some love for Canada, eh? That’s where you’ll find Becca Courtice, a master of modern calligraphy.

If you’re looking to explore lettering as a hobby, and maybe one day have your friends hire you to hand letter the seating chart at their wedding, then Becca Courtice is your girl. Her blog has tons of practical tips for every lettering scenario you can think of.

Rather than just a collection of works, Becca’s Instagram feed and her website are heavily focused on learning. She can teach you the basics of modern calligraphy, and then she’ll show you how to turn your new skill into a business.

5. Amanda Arneill | @amandaarneill

Amanda Arneill was one of the first ladies I stumbled upon on Instagram who was practicing, perfecting, and pretty soon.. teaching hand lettering.

It was her hand lettered sermon notes that first got me hooked, because I am the biggest sermon note taker. And I wanted my sermon notes to look. like. that. Plus, she shows you how to do all sorts of fancy things with pens and markers like combining colors, shading, flourishes, etc, etc. And she letters funny things her kids say.

Anyway, Amanda has a ton of courses on lettering & more. She’s teamed up with friends to offer classes on watercolor lettering, iPad lettering, illustration, and even social media.

6. Eline | @elinescreativeprojects

I haven’t been following Eline for very long, but during that time she’s already grown from 100ish followers to over 2500! It isn’t hard to see why. She’s only fifteen, creating amazing hand lettered artwork and watercolor illustrations, and making it look easy. Consider her a hand letterer to watch.

PS – after seeing her recent post I’m ready to go buy some sparkly gel pens.

Know someone who you think should be featured on this list? Let me know in the comments!

How To Fake Calligraphy – Easy Tutorial

July 7, 2019

(Skip the lengthy explanation & head straight to the Easy Fake Calligraphy Tutorial by Clicking Here.)

Hand lettering is all. the. rage. right now.

Like, when was the last time you saw someone’s blog logo that wasn’t either 1) hand-lettered or 2) typed from a hand-lettered font?

Yeah, not since 2008.

And when I say hand-lettered in this post, what I’m actually referring to is what I like to call modern calligraphy.

It looks kinda like this:

Simple Calligraphy Wedding Invites Dunkirk Designs — https://www.dunkirkdesigns.com/products/simple-calligraphy-wedding-invites-salmon-pink

And today, I’m going to show you how anyone & everyone can write like this without any special tools or skills. Yep, you heard me: ANYONE, even you!

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to easily & quickly fake calligraphy.

Tools for Modern Calligraphy

First things first: what tools do you need?

The professionals use a brush pen, or even a paintbrush. To achieve the thick strokes, they apply more pressure with the pen on the down-stroke of the letter. On the up-stroke, they apply less pressure, and they get a thinner line. The finished result looks gorgeous, but the skill takes a lot of time to master. If you want to get technical, mastering calligraphy is down to muscle memory, which requires a lot of practice, and patience, and time, and did I mention practice?

The good news is that for fake calligraphy, there is no brush pen required. And you don’t need to worry about varying pressure or muscle memory, either. You can apply the techniques I’m about to show you to any style of penmanship, print or cursive.

And – you can use any writing utensil you have.

Tools You Need for Fake Calligraphy

No. 2 Pencil? Good.
Ballpoint Pen? Good.
Crayola Crayon? Good.
Sharpie? Good.
Sidewalk chalk? Good.

Ready to get started?

Calligraphy 101

Before we start forming our fake calligraphy letters, there are three simple characteristics of calligraphy to know.

When forming letters, you move the pen up (up stroke), down (down stroke), and across (cross stroke).

Calligraphy Characteristic #1: Down Stroke = Thick Line

The down stroke is a thick line. Notice the down stroke in the letter A, as illustrated below:

down stroke thick how to fake calligraphy

Calligraphy Characteristic #2: Up Stroke = Thin Line

The up stroke is a thin line. Again, notice the thin up-stroke in the capital letter A, illustrated below:

Not all up & down strokes are as obvious as in the letter A. Think about the letter C. This one is a little tricky, but just visualize writing a letter C in your head. You’ll start in the upper right corner and move the pen up just a little, then pulling the ink left, you’ll round the top of the letter and stroke down. Finally you’ll round the bottom of the letter towards the right and do a little swoop back up. So, in the letter C, there are two small up-strokes.

letter C how to fake calligraphy up stroke thin and down stroke thick

Calligraphy Characteristic #3: Cross Stroke = Thin Line/Add Style!

And finally, the cross stroke. Cross strokes happen when you’re moving your pen from left to right, or east/west instead of north/south. The cross stroke is usually thin.

Again, I’ll demonstrate with the letter A:

It’s worth noting that a cross stroke is a great place to add style. So if you’re going to draw a fancy A, you might have a cross stroke that is both thick and thin, like the ones below:

These cross strokes don’t just move east to west, they are up and down and even loopy, so they take on the characteristics of up and down strokes, too.

How To “Fake” Calligraphy

Understanding those 3 characteristics of calligraphy strokes is going to help us understand where to draw in our thick lines and where to leave our line thin as we fake it… because faking calligraphy is all about faking the down-strokes/thick lines!

Ready? Let’s do this.

How to Fake Calligraphy Step 1: Write out the Whole Word

Write out your whole word, whether cursive or print. I’m going to write out the word “hello” in both script and print. See the two examples below:

How to Fake Calligraphy Step 2: Draw in the Down-Strokes

Think about which parts of the letters are “down” strokes, and now you’re going to draw in a line to help thicken that stroke. Below, I’ve drawn the down stroke lines in purple so it’s easy to see:

How to Fake Calligraphy Step 3: Color in the Down-Strokes/Thick Lines

Now that you’ve drawn in the down-strokes, you need to color them in to get the visual effect of a thick line. I’ve colored in the strokes in blue, so it’s easy to see what I’m talking about:

How to Fake Calligraphy: Finished Word

When you’re finished with Steps 1-3, you’ll have a finished result that looks like this:

& Voila! That’s fake calligraphy.

How to Fake Calligraphy: Letter Reference Sheets

Upper-Case Letters

For reference, here’s a list of Capital Letters in both print and cursive/script, so you can see where the down-strokes should be. For some of the letters, I left a secondary down-stroke thin, like with the letter H. This is my personal preference, but it’s up to you how to form the letters and where to put your down stroke.

Remember, your letters don’t have to look exactly like mine.

Lower-case Letters

For reference, here’s a list of all Lower-case letters in both print and cursive/script, so you can see where the down-strokes should be drawn in. Unlike with the upper-case letters, I pretty much added all the down strokes possible to these letters. Again, this is a personal preference, so if you don’t want to add another downstroke on the arch of the little “h,” that’s cool, too.

Fake Calligraphy – Numbers

Guess what? You can apply this hack to numbers, too. You’re bound to need them. Here’s a list of faux-calligraphy style numbers, so you can see where the down-strokes should be.

A Note About Making the Most of Your Handwriting

While this is an easy hack for faking calligraphy, you may not end up with wedding invitation-worthy modern calligraphy just yet. If you don’t like the way your handwriting looks, just keep practicing and let it evolve over time. Find your own style of lettering!

Free Download: Modern Calligraphy Reference Sheets

Download my FREE Hand Lettering Practice sheets, available in my Free Resource Library. You’ll need a password, but you can get it by entering your email in the box at the bottom of this post, or in the sidebar. The letters you’ll be practicing in my Lettering Guides were made with a brush pen. However, you can also use them to practice fake calligraphy. Just use the hacks we learned in this blog post!

So what words or letters are you eager to get started with? If you decide to try this tutorial out, send me a picture of what you come up with!

Happy Lettering!

FREE Printable DIY Mother’s Day Card

May 10, 2019

Mother’s Day is only 2 days away, and this FREE Mother’s Day Card is all ready for you to download and print off at home!

Perfect for when you procrastinated getting a card until the last minute and all the good one’s are gone… *story of my life.*

The inside of the card is blank, so you can completely personalize it to your mom. You can even re-purpose it. Use it for mom’s birthday, or as a thank you note, or just to let her know you’re thinking of her. No matter the reason.. be sure to tell her in lots of words how much you love her and appreciate all she’s done for you — she deserves a novel!

Follow the steps below to download, print, cut, and fold this Free Mother’s Day Card at home today!

Step 1: Download the FREE Mother’s Day Card

I hand-lettered and designed this floral Mother’s Day Card, and I’m giving it to you completely FREE! Just head to my Free Resource Library to download it now.

Hint: to access the Free Resource Library, you need the password available exclusively to my email subscribers. If you don’t have the password yet, you can request it here. I’ll send you the password immediately!

Once you’re in the Library, scroll down to the .PDF section, where you’ll find the link to download the FREE Mother’s Day Card. Depending on your internet browser, the steps to save it may vary, but either navigate to your Downloads folder on your computer, or if the card opens in a new internet browser tab, right-click and choose Save As…

Step 2: Print the FREE Mother’s Day Card

If you have a printer at home, you can print this off immediately. I’d recommend printing it on a thicker paper such as card stock, but it’s NBD if you don’t have the fancy-schmancy stuff. Just use whatever paper you have.

In your Printer Settings, print it full-scale, don’t choose scale to fit. The whole card is 10 inches wide and 7 inches tall, which will fit on a standard 8.5×11 inch page.

Now, I will say– hopefully one of the things you have is a color printer. Being the designer, I am obligated to tell you that this design must be printed in color, because these florals want to be seen in all their colorful glory. I specifically designed this card to be bright and fun, just like Mom! However, if your mom is neither bright nor fun, I guess you can print it in black and white.. but remember that lady lugged you around for nine months inside her body and then birthed you, so.. you can probably shell out some change in order to have it printed at Office Max.

Because surprise! I don’t have a printer at home… *gasp*… so I uploaded the file to Office Max and got mine printed on 110lb white card stock. So fancy. The print only cost $0.54 + tax, and picking the prints up from the Print Center at Office Max costs only mild frustration.

Frustrating because.. for one, the ladies standing at the self-service print station were engaged in an explicit medical conversation that was TMI. And for another.. after ignoring me for a solid five minutes, the girl working at the print center looked over at me standing in the queue and asked, “are you in line?” as if she wasn’t aware that all signs pointed to STAND HERE FOR HELP. She was visibly annoyed that I needed assisting, so she made me wait another seven minutes before coming to the counter. I don’t hold it against her, because speaking from experience, I know that the people in the world who need the most grace (more so than anyone else in the entire world, mind you) are retail employees.

Anyway, then this lovely employee discovers that there’s nothing there for me. Nothing at all. She just keeps repeating all the names for orders she does have, which suggests that I must not know my own name. So I called my sister to ask if she happened to pick it up earlier when I asked her to (which OF COURSE NOT), and then I kindly explained to this print-chick that I had an email confirmation. She hadn’t really planned on helping me to further solve this problem, but I finally convinced her to look around some more, and she eventually found the prints hiding under some other stuff somewhere.

But like I said, guys– it’s only a mildly frustrating experience, and I’d imagine that your mom’s pregnancy was much more than mildly frustrating most of the time.

Step 3: Cut Out the FREE Mother’s Day Card

Phew, now that we have the printed card, let’s trim it. For cutting out this free Mother’s Day Card, I’d recommend the following tools:

Cutting mat or thick cardboard to bear down on
X-acto knife
Ruler

Or, if you don’t have those tools, use:

Ruler
Pencil
Scissors

Or, if you’re already at Office Max, you can:

Use the paper cutter at the self-service print station

The finished size of the card is 5×7 inches, and the .PDF file includes guides to help you line everything up and cut it out perfectly.

Score the Fold of the Card First

Before you trim all the edges off the card, I’d recommend scoring the fold of the card lightly with your X-acto knife. There are guides to line your ruler up. If you don’t do this first, you’ll cut the guides off and have to wing it with the fold later. Use a light touch, you’re not trying to cut all the way through the paper. You’re just creating a nice crisp guide-line to fold along later.

Line Up Your Ruler Along the Guides

There are cut guides in all four corners of the card. Just line up your ruler with the guides on each end of the card to ensure a straight edge while you cut.

If you don’t have an X-acto knife, line up your ruler along the guides, then use a pencil to lightly draw a straight line from one point to another. You can then cut along the pencil line with scissors, ensuring perfectly straight edges.

Trim Off the Edges

FREE-Mothers-Day-Card-Printable-©Wondernote_6 — Be careful when cutting with your X-acto knife along the ruler!

Be careful while you make the cuts. Now that the ruler is aligned, hold it down with your free hand so it doesn’t shift around. Run the X-acto knife next to the ruler, applying pressure, to cut off the excess. Repeat on all four sides.

Fold the Card

Free Mother's Day Card Printable — Finished folded card

Now just fold the card in half. If you scored the card lightly before trimming off the edges, this step is even easier, and the fold will be perfectly crisp.

Again, the finished card size is 5×7 inches, which will fit perfectly into an A7 envelope. You can purchase colorful envelopes at your local craft store or office supply store. My envelope is from a Hallmark card I never used and totally too big, but it’s the thought that counts, right?

Remember if you want this Free Mother’s Day Card, head to my Free Resource Library to download it. Or Request the Password.

How to Cut Up Photos for an Instagram Collage

May 1, 2019

You’ve seen those Instagram Photo Collages, right?

As in.. a large photo cut up into a bunch of little squares and then posted one by one until they form the whole photo across the squares of your Instagram. When people visit your profile, they’re like “Woah! So Impact. Great. Amazing”.

Anyway. Posting these giant photo collages on Instagram is a really great way to add some creativity to your feed.

It looks like this…

Instagram Feed Large Photo Collage — @wondernoteblog

But the best part is when you spam everyone else’s feed with enlarged photos of your right ear, then your left nostril, and last but not least– your line-free (thanks, Facetune!) forehead.. all the parts that make up a giant photo of your precious face. When your right eyebrow gets more double-taps than your left, you’ll know that they know that your left arch is struggling (as you suspected) compared to the right arch.

So without further ado, let’s learn how to slice photos for an Instagram Collage, so you can find out which feature of your face your friends like the most.

Tools Needed:

Adobe Photoshop CC

For this tutorial, I’ll be using Adobe Photoshop CC, and specifically the slice tool. You can easily recreate this in older versions of Photoshop, but the steps may look slightly different.

And if you prefer to watch instead of read, check out the full tutorial in my Youtube video.

How to Cut Up Photos for an Instagram Collage Step #1: Decide your Aspect Ratio

A note before we begin cutting/slicing the photo: you need to decide on a size for your Instagram collage. The photo has to be cut into equal little squares across and down.

As you might’ve guessed, we’ve got some math to do. So if you’re one of those people who complained in Geometry/Algebra class, wondering when we’d ever use it in real life, this is the moment, my friend.

Instagram only displays 3 squares across, so you know the width of the photo needs to be divisible by 3. That’s a given. But now you need to decide how many rows (length) you want it to span. Technically you can make the photo as many squares in length as you’d like, but the best practice is to keep it between 3 – 4 squares in length. That way people will be able to see the whole picture at once when they arrive to your profile or scroll through your feed. Some phone screens are larger, so for example, I can see 5 rows at once when I start scrolling. But not everyone can.

Ratio Guide:

3:3 or 1:1 Ratio = 9 squares

This means the photo is a perfect square. If it’s 900px wide, it’s also 900px height.

900px/3 (width) = 300px and 900px/3 (height) = 300px

This ratio will post the photo over 9 squares in your profile.

3:4 Ratio = 12 squares

For this size, you need to be able to divide the width of the photo by 3 and the height by 4 and get the same value for each. If the width of the photo is 900px, the height should be 1200px.

This is because 900px/3 (width) = 300px and 1200px/4 (height) = 300px

This ratio will post the photo over 12 squares in your profile.

3:5 Ratio = 15 squares*

For this size, you need to be able to divide the width of the photo by 3 and the height by 5 and get the same value for each. We need to find a number that is divisible by both 3 and 5. (Are visions of least common multiples haunting you right now? Don’t worry, I’ll do the thinking for you.) If 900px is the width of the photo, the height is 1500px.

This is because 900px/3 (width) = 300px and 1500px/5 (height) = 300px

This ratio will post the photo over 15 squares in your profile.

______

After you decide which ratio you want to use, either crop or resize your image to the correct size.

*As I mentioned above, I wouldn’t choose a length any greater than 5 rows or your collage won’t be visible all at once.

How to Cut Up Photos for an Instagram Collage Step #2: Choose the Slice Tool

Now that you’ve decided your ratio and either cropped or resized your photo to the proper size, let’s move on to the slice tool.

Choose the Slice Tool from your Toolbar. It should be nested with your Crop Tool (click and hold the lower right hand corner on the slice tool in the toolbar to bring up more options). If you still don’t see the slice tool, check the 3 dots at the very bottom of the toolbar. The slice tool may be hiding in there. Mine was.

Once you have the Slice Tool selected, right click on your image and choose Divide Slice.

How to Cut Up Photos for an Instagram Collage Step #3: Set the Horizontal and Vertical Values

Thank goodness we did the math and got our photo cropped or resized already, because this is the part where we plug in our aspect ratio numbers.

Divide Horizontally Into will give us our HEIGHT. Divide Vertically Into will give us our WIDTH. Technically they are out of order from the way we did our math, so make sure you don’t put the numbers in backwards! Depending on which aspect ratio you chose for your Instagram Collage, use the values below:

3:3 or 1:1 Ratio = 9 squares

Divide Horizontally Into: 3 slices down, evenly spaced

Divide Vertically Into: 3 slices across, evenly spaced

3:4 Ratio = 12 squares

Divide Horizontally Into: 4 slices down, evenly spaced

Divide Vertically Into: 3 slices across, evenly spaced

3:5 Ratio = 15 squares

Divide Horizontally Into: 5 slices down, evenly spaced

Divide Vertically Into: 3 slices across, evenly spaced

Note: this step will not work out for you if you did not get your image sized right, so if needed, return to Step 1.

How to Cut Up Photos for an Instagram Collage Step #4: Save the Images Individually

Great! We’re nearly done. The last step in Photoshop is to save our Instagram Collage as individual photos.

Go to File > Export > Save for Web

Zoom out so you can see the whole image. By default, only the first square is selected, so hold down Shift and click on all of the squares so that the whole image is selected.

I’m choosing Preset: JPEG (High), then Press Save.

How to Cut Up Photos for an Instagram Collage Step #5: Post to Instagram!

Navigate to where you saved the images. They are all numbered and ready to post to Instagram! Congrats.

If you enjoyed this blog post, be sure to check out more Graphic Design tutorials on my Youtube Channel!

Color Palettes for Web, Digital, Blog & Graphic Design with Hexadecimal Codes

February 25, 2019

Digital Color Palettes

Looking for some color ideas for your next design? Click the links below to jump to specific color palettes, or keep scrolling down the page to see them all.

Bright Color Palettes
Spring Color Palettes
Summer Color Palettes
Pastel Color Palettes
Winter Color Palettes
Gemstone Color Palettes
Autumn Color Palettes

Get inspired by these hexadecimal color palettes. Perfect for all projects from websites and blogs to digital and print graphic design. Discover color combinations for every season, vibe, and mood to make your next project POP.

Pin to your Pinterest board for easy access later!

How To Use Hex Codes

When designing, type the hex code of the color into your color palette to select the custom color.
These codes can be used in most editing programs, such as Microsoft Word, Apple Pages, and Adobe programs like Photoshop or Illustrator.
The hex code starts with a hashtag followed by 6 characters such as #00A5E3

Scroll down to see them all.

Bright Color Palette for Graphic Web Print Design Wondernote — Back to Palettes List

Spring Color Palette for Graphic Web Print Design Wondernote — Back to Palettes List

Summer Color Palette for Graphic Web Print Design Wondernote — Back to Palettes List

Pastel Color Palette for Graphic Web Print Design Wondernote — Back to Palettes List

Winter Color Palette for Graphic Web Print Design Wondernote — Back to Palettes List

Gemstone Color Palette for Graphic Web Print Design Wondernote — Back to Palettes List

Autumn Color Palette for Graphic Web Print Design Wondernote — Back to Palettes List

Ready to put these color palettes to use designing your own graphics?

Check Out These Tutorials:

How to Make Ric Rac in Illustrator
How to Make Zig Zag Lines in Illustrator
How to Make a Perfect Heart ♥ in Illustrator
How to Slice A Photo for an Instagram Collage in Photoshop

How to Create Chevron in Illustrator

February 20, 2019

How to Make Chevron in Illustrator 5 Simple Quick Easy Steps with Video Tutorial

In today’s tutorial, I’ll be showing you 5 easy steps to make a chevron pattern in Adobe Illustrator.

You can watch the full video below, or scroll down for written directions.

You don’t need the pen tool to create chevron in Illustrator, and this is good news, my friends! Why? Because it is notoriously difficult to get things perfectly straight, equidistant, and symmetrical with the pen tool. In fact, the pen tool is known to induce headaches. Seriously.

So how will we make perfect chevron without it?

To create a chevron pattern, we’ll use a combination of the Line Segment Tool, the Zig Zag Effect, and the Blend Tool.

For this tutorial I’m using Illustrator Creative Cloud (which is a fancy way of saying that I’m using a cloud-based Illustrator with all the latest & greatest features), but creating chevron is a simple process that you can do in any version of Illustrator. Depending on which version you’re using, it may take you a few additional steps. Also remember that certain tools or features might be located in slightly different places.

How to Create Chevron Pattern in Illustrator

How to Create Chevron in Illustrator Step #1: Draw out two straight lines

In the toolbar, choose the Line Segment Tool. Hold down the Shift key while you drag out a line to keep it perfectly straight/level.

How to Make Chevron in Illustrator Step 1 drag out a straight line

After you have your line, make sure it’s selected and hold down Shift + Alt (Option) to drag out an identical line. Drag it to the bottom of your artboard. Now you have one at the top and one below. Next we’ll make them zig-zags.

How to Make Chevron in Illustrator Step 2 Drag an identical line to the bottom of your art board

How to Create Chevron in Illustrator Step #2: Create the zig zag shape

With both lines selected, from the top menu bar, choose Effect > Distort & Transform > Zig Zag. Make sure Preview is checked so you can see how the settings are affecting your lines.

How to Make Chevron in Illustrator Step 3 Choose Effect > Distort & Transform > Zig Zag” class=”wp-image-1255″/></figure>

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How to Make Chevron in Illustrator Step 4 adjust the size and ridges per segment to create zig zag lines

Size affects the height of the line.
Ridges per Segment will give us more or fewer zig-zags.
Make sure Corner is selected; otherwise you’ll have wavy lines.

Play around with the settings until you like what you see, then click OK.

At this stage, if you want the lines to be heavier or thinner, you can adjust the stroke up or down until you reach the desired thickness.

How to Create Chevron in Illustrator Step #3: Create the chevron pattern

Now we’re going to fill up the space between our top and bottom line with more zig-zags to create the chevron pattern. This is simple to do using the Blend Tool.

In the top menu bar, choose Object > Blend > Blend Options.

Edit your blend options. Object > Blend > Blend Options to fill in the chevron pattern.” class=”wp-image-1257″/></figure>

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In the Blend Options Menu, choose Specified Steps from the Spacing drop-down menu, and for Orientation: Align to Page.

The number you put into the box will be how many chevrons appear between the top and bottom line. For my chevron pattern, I entered 20, but don’t worry. You can always go back and edit this later.

Press OK. Don’t worry— your pattern will not appear yet. To fill in the pattern, go again to Object > Blend > Make

Choose Object > Blend > Make to create the chevron pattern” class=”wp-image-1259″/></figure>

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Once the chevron pattern has generated you can easily make adjustments

How to Create Chevron in Illustrator Step #4: Adjust the Chevron pattern

Now you can use your Direct Selection Tool to fine-tune your chevron pattern. To change the distance between each line, click on the bottom line and hold the Shift key (to keep it straight) while you drag up and down until it looks exactly how you want it. Add to or subtract from the number of chevrons by returning to Blend Options and adjusting the number you typed in the field in Step #3.

Use your direct selection tool in illustrator to drag the bottom line up and down, and notice how the space between the lines changes.

How to Create Chevron in Illustrator Step #5: Change Colors & Make Final Adjustments

Make final adjustments by changing the color of your Chevron or changing the stroke to make the lines thicker or thinner. Any changes you make will apply the same effect to all chevrons in the pattern.

You can adjust the stroke or change the number of chevrons in your pattern. any change you make will affect the whole pattern

That’s it!

If you enjoyed this tutorial, be sure to follow my Wondernote Youtube Channel, where I create graphic design tutorials using Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop & more.

Check out more of my Tutorials:

How to Make Ric Rac in Illustrator
How to Make Zig Zag Lines in Illustrator
How to Make a Perfect Heart ♥ in Illustrator
How to Slice A Photo for an Instagram Collage in Photoshop

How to Create Zig-Zag Lines in Illustrator

February 20, 2019

3 simple steps to create zig zag chevron lines in adobe illustrator tutorial screenshots video fast

In today’s tutorial, I’ll be showing you how to make zig zag lines (also called Chevron) in Adobe Illustrator using 3 simple steps. It’s super quick.

You can watch the full video below, or scroll down for written directions with screenshots.

It’s easy to create zig zag lines in Illustrator, and there’s no pen tool required. Have you ever tried using the pen tool to create something symmetrical in Illustrator? Beyond, say, a straight line? Bravo to you if you have! Personally, I find it to be a total pain in the you-know-what.

To achieve a perfect, symmetrical zig zag line, we’ll be using a combination of the Line Segment Tool and the powerful Zig Zag Effect in the Distort & Transform menu bar. So simple, fast, & easy!

I’m going to be using Illustrator Creative Cloud for this tutorial (which is a fancy way of saying that I’m using a cloud-based Illustrator with all the latest & greatest features), but creating zig zag lines is a basic process that can be duplicated in older versions of Illustrator. Keep in mind that depending on which version you’re using, it may require a few additional steps. Some of the tools, toolbars, or various features might be located in a different place, so don’t give up before you have a look around.

How to Create Zig Zag Lines in Illustrator

How to Create Zig Zag Line in Illustrator Step #1: Draw A Straight Line

Choose the Line Segment Tool from your toolbar and drag out a line while holding down the Shift key. Holding shift keeps the line perfectly straight/level.

3 simple steps to create zig zag line in illustrator step 1 draw out a line with the line segment tool easy tutorial

How to Create Zig Zag Line in Illustrator Step #2: Create Peaks

From the top menu bar, select Effect > Distort & Transform > Zig Zag. Check Preview so that you can see the changes in real-time and get the effect you want.

3 simple steps to create zig zag line in illustrator step 2 choose effect distort and transform zig zag easy tutorial

Size affects the height of the line.
Ridges per Segment will give us more or fewer peaks.
For sharp zig zags, ensure that Corner is selected. Otherwise, if you select smooth, you’ll have wavy lines (like ric rac).

3 simple steps to create zig zag line in illustrator step 3 adjust the size and ridges per segment with the corner option selected tool easy tutorial

When you’re happy with the result, click OK.

How to Create Zig Zag Line in Illustrator Step #3: Adjust the Zig Zag

Using the Selection Tool (keyboard shortcut: V), click on your line. In the top bar, you can adjust the stroke up or down to achieve your desired thickness.

*Finished Zig Zag Line in Illustrator |* Wondernote

From here, you can adjust the color, or you can select the Zig Zag effect from your Appearance Menu (if you don’t see the appearance menu, go to the top bar > Window > Appearance. Make your zig zag line taller, shorter, or increase the number of peaks and valleys.

That’s it!

If you enjoyed this tutorial, be sure to follow my Wondernote Youtube Channel, where I create graphic design tutorials using Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop & more.

Check out more of my Tutorials:

How to Make Ric Rac in Illustrator
How to Make Chevron in Illustrator
How to Make a Perfect Heart ♥ in Illustrator
How to Slice A Photo for an Instagram Collage in Photoshop

How to Create Ric-Rac in Illustrator

February 20, 2019

In today’s tutorial, I’ll be showing you how to make ric rac, or wavy lines, in 5 easy steps using Adobe Illustrator.

You can watch the full video below, or scroll down for written directions.

The good news is creating wavy lines in Illustrator doesn’t require the pen tool at all. If you’ve ever tried to use the pen tool to create perfectly symmetrical wavy lines, you probably couldn’t achieve it. And if you did, you probably ripped out most of your hair along the way.

To achieve wavy ric rac lines, we’ll be using a combination of the Line Segment Tool and the powerful Zig Zag Effect in the Distort & Transform menu bar.

In this tutorial, I’m using Illustrator Creative Cloud (which is a fancy way of saying that I’m using a cloud-based Illustrator with all the latest & greatest features), but creating wavy lines is a basic process that you can easily recreate in older versions of Illustrator. Keep in mind that depending on which version you’re using, it may require a few additional steps. Certain tools or features might be located in slightly different places as well.

How to Create Ric Rac (Wavy Lines) in Illustrator

How to Create Ric Rac in Illustrator Step #1: Draw out a straight line

In the toolbar, choose the Line Segment Tool. Hold down the Shift key while you drag out a line. Holding shift keeps it perfectly level.

Make Ric Rac in Adobe Illustrator in 5 easy steps by using the line segment tool

Make Ric Rac in Adobe Illustrator in 5 easy steps draw out a line with the line segment tool

How to Create Ric Rac in Illustrator Step #2: Create Waves

In the top menu bar, choose Effect > Distort & Transform > Zig Zag. Make sure Preview is checked so you can adjust the waves to your liking.

Make Ric Rac in Adobe Illustrator in 5 easy steps effect distort & transform zig zag

Size affects the height of the line.
Ridges per Segment will give us more or fewer waves.
To round the waves, select Smooth (rather than Corner).

Play around with the settings until you like what you see, then click Ok.

Make Ric Rac in Adobe Illustrator in 5 easy steps by adjust the size and ridges per segment

How to Create Ric Rac in Illustrator Step #3: Adjust the Thickness of the Ric Rac

Using the Selection Tool (keyboard shortcut: V), you can adjust the stroke up or down until you reach the desired thickness.

Make Ric Rac in Adobe Illustrator in 5 easy steps by choosing rounded versus corner to make waves

How to Create Ric Rac in Illustrator Step #4: Drag out More Ric Rac

If you want more than one wavy line, with the Selection Tool, click the line while holding Shift + Alt (Option).

If you want to create more lines that are the same distance apart, a quick shortcut is to press Command (Control) + D

Make Ric Rac in Adobe Illustrator in 5 easy steps by holding down command or control and D you can drag out even more lines an equal distance apart

How to Create Ric Rac in Illustrator Step #5: Change Colors & Make Final Adjustments

Select each line individually to change the color according to your liking.

With the line (or lines) selected, you can also return to Effect > Distort & Transform > Zig Zag to make adjustments to the number of ridges or the height of your ric rac.

Make Ric Rac in Adobe Illustrator in 5 easy steps you can change the color of each line individually

That’s it!

make ric rac wavy lines in adobe illustrator in five simple steps video tutorial and written directions with pictures

If you enjoyed this tutorial, be sure to follow my Wondernote Youtube Channel, where I create graphic design tutorials using Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop & more.

Be sure to check out more of my Illustrator & Photoshop Tutorials:

How to Make Chevron in Illustrator
How to Make Zig Zag Lines in Illustrator
How to Make a Perfect Heart ♥ in Illustrator
How to Slice A Photo for an Instagram Collage in Photoshop

How to Create a Heart in Illustrator

February 20, 2019

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to make a perfect heart in Adobe Illustrator in 5 easy steps. ♥

You can watch the full video below, or scroll down for written directions.

The best part of this how-to is we won’t be using the pen tool at all! And trust me, that’s good news, folks. Because I don’t know about you — but in my past I tried countless times to make a perfect heart using the pen tool. It isn’t impossible, but it nearly is. And by the time you achieve it, you’ll have a few more gray hairs on your head than when you started.

To achieve a perfect heart, we’ll be using a combination of the Rectangle Tool and the powerful Pathfinder Tool.

In this tutorial, I’m using Illustrator Creative Cloud (which is a fancy way of saying that I’m using a cloud-based Illustrator with all the latest & greatest features), but creating shapes like this one is a basic process that you can recreate easily in older versions of Illustrator. Keep in mind that depending on which version you’re using, it may require a few additional steps. Certain tools or features might be located in slightly different places as well.

How to Create a Perfect Heart in Adobe Illustrator

Make a Heart in Illustrator Step #1: Draw out a rounded rectangle.

In your toolbar, click and hold down on the little corner of your rectangle tool to select the rounded rectangle tool and draw out a shape that is longer/wider than it is tall.

Make a Heart: Draw out a Rounded Rectangle in Illustrator

Make a Heart in Adobe Illustrator Step #2: Round out the Corners of your rectangle.

With your shape still selected, In the top toolbar, bump the corner radius all the way up until your corners are as round as they can be.

Make a Heart: Adjust the Corner Radius of the Rectangle in Illustrator

Make a Heart in Adobe Illustrator Step #3: Rotate your shape 45 degrees.

Press “V” on your keyboard as a shortcut, or click on the Selection Tool in your tool bar.

Click on your shape and hold down Shift as you drag down with the mouse to rotate the shape 45 degrees. You can rotate it more or less depending on your preferences.

Make a Heart: Rotate the Shape 45 degrees in Illustrator

Make a Heart in Adobe Illustrator Step #4: Rotate & Copy The Shape, adjust depth of the “V”

In the top menu bar, choose Object > Transform > Reflect. Make sure that Vertical is selected and click Copy.

Make a Heart: Transform and Copy the Shape in Illustrator

You can probably see the heart shape already. Depending on how shallow or deep you want that dip or “V” for your heart, you can hold shift (which will keep everything at the same height) and drag the shapes closer together or further apart, like so:

Make a Heart: Adjust the Placement of overlapping V in Illustrator

Make a Heart in Adobe Illustrator Step #5: Divide & Unite with the Pathfinder Tool to Shape our Heart.

If you don’t see your Pathfinder Toolbar on the screen, in the top menu bar, choose Window > Pathfinder. The pathfinder tool will appear.

Make a Heart: Select the Pathfinder Tool in Illustrator

Using your Selection Tool (keyboard shortcut: V), click down & drag your mouse over both shapes to select them.

First, from your Pathfinder tool, choose Divide. This literally divides our overlapping shapes into 5 separate pieces.

Make a Heart: Divide with the Pathfinder Tool in Illustrator

Using the Direct Selection Tool (keyboard shortcut: A), delete the two bottom pieces you don’t want, like so:

Make a Heart: Delete Extra Pieces from Heart Shape in Illustrator

Select the three remaining shapes. In the pathfinder tool, choose Unite.

Make a Heart: Unite the 3 Remaining Shapes into a Heart with the Pathfinder Tool in Illustrator

Voila! You have a perfect heart every time.

Make a Heart in Illustrator: Change the Color of the Heart

If you enjoyed this tutorial, be sure to follow my Wondernote Youtube Channel, where I create graphic design tutorials using Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop & more.

Be sure to check out more of my Illustrator & Photoshop Tutorials:

How to Make Chevron in Illustrator
How to Make Zig Zag Lines in Illustrator
Make Ric Rac (Wavy Lines) in Illustrator
How to Slice A Photo for an Instagram Collage in Photoshop

How Much Does it Really Cost to Start a Blog?

February 20, 2019

So you’re ready to start a blog?

You have a topic in mind, and you’re ready to share your passions, your knowledge, or your product with the world wide web.

Blogs are a great way to make your voice heard. To demonstrate your expertise. To build a community of followers with similar interests. Blogs can also be a great side-hustle (read: a source of extra income).

In this article, I’m going to detail what it really costs to get your blog up and running. First things first, a disclaimer: this post is written on the presumption that you already have access to a computer (or phone or tablet, at the least) and a reliable internet connection. I haven’t included these two expenses in the total cost, because they are implied. It goes without saying, but you can’t have a blog without them.

Now, you may be thinking.. costs? I thought starting a blog was free. Well, you’re not wrong. You can technically set up a blog for completely free on platforms such as Blogger, Weebly, Wix, or WordPress.com, for example. But, you probably also know that free platforms are extremely limited.

Still, it may be worth exploring a free option before making the leap into a self-hosted blog. You’ll be able to gauge how committed you are before making any financial investments.

However, if you want blog autonomy (and you do), and you’re serious about making money from your blog, you’re going to have to shell out some cash.

Cost to Start a Blog #1: DOMAIN NAME

At the very least — even if you’re hosting on a free platform, you’ll want to purchase a custom domain name/URL to distinguish your blog. No one has operated under www.myblogname.blogspot.com since 2008. Harsh, I know. But true. A custom name that matches the name of your social media profiles is best, and it’s the easiest way for readers to search and find you online.

The actual cost for your domain name will vary, and if your first choice isn’t available– you may have to compromise by choosing a different name altogether, or a different domain ending such as .org or .net. As long as your name isn’t highly competitive, a domain name is relatively inexpensive. Think $10-20 per year.

But word to the wise: if you already know that you won’t be using a free blogging platform, and you’ll be self-hosting instead, many companies offer a free domain name when you sign up for a hosting plan.

Domain Name Cost: ~$15.00

Cost to Start a Blog #2: HOSTING

Case in point: companies like Bluehost, GoDaddy, Siteground, and Google all offer one FREE Domain name when you sign up for hosting. What is a hosting site? It’s basically where your domain name/URL & all it’s content is parked online. And you have to pay for parking.

Most of the blogs you read are self-hosted. Self hosting has an advantage over free platforms- it gives you complete creative freedom over your blog– specifically the appearance, functions & the way you choose to display ads.

Most bloggers then choose to then install WordPress.org platform (this is different from the free WordPress.com blogs) on their website. This process requires some technical skill, but there are many tutorials online about how to do this. Squarespace is another popular blogging platform, but WordPress has a long-standing reputation with bloggers, and there are hundreds of thousands of articles and plugins that allow you to optimize your blog according to your taste. I consider WordPress.org the blogger standard.

Hosting costs- as with all things- depend on a number of factors such as how many websites you are hosting, how much storage space and speed you require, etc.

Most hosts offer the new sign-up price of $3.95/mo. You’ll have to pay for a full year at once, and this allows you to host exactly one website. After your first year, the price increases to the $12/mo range. However, a great bonus is that most hosting sites now include SSL (security certificate for your site) FREE! SSL is important because it gives you that little https:// prefix, which tells users that your site is safe. It should be noted that SSL can be an added cost if you need advanced security measures or have multiple domains.

Hosting Cost: ~$47.40

Bonus: SSL Certificate Free!

If we’re being technical, you can stop right here. You can start a blog for free, or for the price of your domain, or for about $60 you can get your custom domain name/URL and hosting. If you’re using WordPress.org, you can select from a variety of free blog templates. But if you want a blog that looks really good, that you’re proud of, then you’ll probably want to spend some extra money for a website design that really represents you/your brand.

Cost to Start a Blog #3: Blog Design (Optional)

Site designs can be as inexpensive as $10 for a premade template all the way into the $1,000s for a completely custom design. I recommend shopping on Etsy for premade templates, like these by 17th Avenue Designs. These premade templates are completely customizable, meaning you can change the colors, logos, photos, etc. Installing a WordPress template requires some technical skills, and full transparency: it can be a total headache.

Luckily, you can have the template installed for you, but— you guessed it. That’ll cost extra.

Premade WordPress Template Cost: $59.00

Template Installation Cost: $39.00-79.00

Cost to Start a Blog #4: Learning & Education (Optional)

Now that you have a pretty site, and maybe you’ve even made a few posts, I’ll bet you’re wondering when the money will come pouring in.

Monetizing your blog isn’t easy. If it was, everyone would do it. It is possible, but it requires discipline and hard work. To learn how, you basically have two options:

Spend hours upon hours of your life Googling how to make money from your blog, piece together advice from a billion sources, and then implement some trial & error tactics until one catches.
Buy a course from someone else who will teach you step-by-step how to monetize your blog.

Not all courses are created equal, and there are tons of them out there. A decent course will start around $300, but there are much more expensive courses, too. Choose wisely. It’s worth it to invest in your blog if you want to start making money, but no matter what anyone promises you — no course will turn you into an overnight success. There will be a lot of elbow grease required, and you’ll only get out what you put in. More than likely, you’ll be working harder than you have in your life.

Educational Blog Course: $300+

Cost to Start a Blog #5: Marketing (Optional)

Marketing your blog could mean using paid advertisements or email blasts: basically, any service or tactic you’ll utilize for growth. You don’t have to use paid ads to grow your blog, but you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone on the internet who doesn’t emphasize the importance of an email list.

Why is an email list important?

Because you OWN your email list, and it isn’t subject to the whims of Facebook or Instagram or Google’s algorithms. You can start an email list for FREE with platforms like MailChimp or Constant Contact, but as your list grows, you’ll eventually have to pay to level-up and keep sending.

Email List (Based on Mailchimp’s Pricing): FREE (Up to 2,000 Subscribers + 12,000 Emails/mo

Mailchimp’s Grow Plan: $120/yr+

So what does it really cost to start a self-hosted, decent looking blog with the ability to profit?

Grand Total: $541.40

While $500+ may seem like a large number (especially compared to free), in comparison to the cost of starting a real brick & mortar shop or a restaurant, the start-up fees and monthly overhead of a blog is extremely small. If all you have to lose is your time and $500, there’s barely any risk involved! So the real question is: is it worth it to you?

Not sure what to blog about?

Read my Best Tips for Choosing a Blog Topic and Download my FREE Worksheet: Find Your Niche.

Want to learn Graphic Design using Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop? Check out my Tutorials: