HOW TO GO DIGITAL

Remember that free download I posted a few weeks ago? Well, I've created a little video on how to make a digital version on illustrator! This little post is geared towards all ya'll out there that might have access to the adobe programs. If you're not one of those people, you might find this post to be absolutely 100% the most boring--just fair warning.

Here's what I did, step-by-step, and a little video to follow along to.

1. Instead of scanning it to get the initial image, I cheat a little and just take a photo and email it to myself.

2. Then I open it in adobe illustrator and image trace it (this tool is life changing). Play with the settings in your own image trace to perfect those edges--everyone does it differently!

3. Get rid of the white background, so you're working just with the letters, then "expand" the image by hitting the button in the top toolbar.

4. No image trace is perfect the first time around. A lot of the time you'll get these weird edges and it gets all bumpy, so then I use the next best thing to image tracing: the smooth tool.

5. Before you go to town with the smooth tool, make sure you have selected your lettering with the direct selection tool, this way all your anchor points are showing.

6. Now you can get crazy with the smooth tool! Just drag it around the border of the text and all those crazy bumps and weird edges will smooth out (crazy how the smooth tool does that). The smaller the strokes you make, the better the results. If you go too big too fast, you'll loose all of the detail in your shape.

7. Ta-daaaaa!!

Still confused after the video? That's alright, too. It took me a long time to go from paper to computer, and there are lots of in-depth tutorials you can find on youtube with audio and visuals that will guide you 100x better than this little post.

Want to learn how to letter? I got you covered there too! Click here to get my hand lettering guide.