Make An Elegant Card for Valentine’s Day With Illustrator

Create an elegant looking Valentine’s Day card for your sweet heart using Adobe Illustrator.

Create a New Document 5.5″ x 8.5″

Open your version of Illustrator and create a new Vertical document at 5.5″x8.5″ (half of an 8.5″x11″ so you can fold the card in half when you’re done!).

Creating a Polka Dot Background

There’s many ways to achieve the same effect, it all depends on whether or not you want each of your “dots” to be editable. In this case, I want my dots all the same color, so follow this tutorial to create your polka dot background: Make a Dot Pattern Using Swatches. If you want to edit the dots later on follow this tutorial instead: Editable Polka Dot Pattern.

You should now be at this stage:

Since I don’t want a white background to my card, I need to create another background layer (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+B) and fill it with a color. I chose: #542C06.

You should now have a nice chocolate background with polka dots.

Adding a Ribbon

I want a ribbon to go across the top part of my card, so grab the Rectangle tool, click on your canvas and enter in 396p x 90p (roughly 5.5″x1.25″) and click OK. Place this about 2 polka dot lines down from the top of your document (we may need to adjust it later). Fill it with a light brown color (or any other color of your choosing). I used: #905B34.

Now create another band, by selecting the Rectangle tool, clicking on your canvas and this time making the rectangle wider – 396p x 120p or (5.5″ x 1.75″) and click OK. Send this one behind the previous one (Ctrl+[ ). Fill it with a dark chocolate color (the same as your polka dots) or any other color you prefer. I used #3A2315. You can adjust the position of your ribbons by clicking and dragging them or using your arrow keys. I like to position mine so that they touch the edges of the polka dot instead of running through it.

Optional Steps

If you want your ribbon to have stitching in it, follow this step:

Stitching

Take your Line Segment Tool and draw a horizontal line (hold the shift key down while dragging) just below the top edge of your inner ribbon. In your Stroke palette (Window > Stroke) select the Dashed Line option and play with the dash / gap numbers to get the stitching effect you like the most. I used a dash of 4pt a gap of 6pt and selected the Round Cap & Join options. Fill wise, I selected one shade lighter than the ribbon. For the light brown inner ribbon I used #A67746 and for the other ribbon I used #5E422D to get the following look:

A Lacy Edge

If you want to take it even further and have one or both ribbons have a lacy edge, follow these steps: Grab your Ellipse tool and draw a small circle while holding the Shift key, now draw another much smaller and place it in the center. Select both and hit Horizontal & Vertical Align center, now hit Divide in the Pathfinder (Window > Pathfinder). Ungroup the circles (right click > ungroup), select the center circle and hit Delete on your keyboard to remove it. Take the remaining ring and place it along one side of your document, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V and place the new circle at the opposite side of your document. Select both and Vertical Align Center. Now go to Object > Blend > Blend Options; select Specified Steps > enter in 12 (you may need to adjust this based on the size of your ring), hit OK. Then Alt+Ctrl+B. Place the line of rings so that they are hiding behind the top of your first ribbon but not the second, now Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V and drag/drop the new rings so they are at the bottom of your first ribbon. If you want you can repeat these steps so you have a ruffle on both ribbons.

Since it’s a Valentine’s Day card, I’m going to put some stitched hearts on mine. Follow this tutorial to learn how to do this: Stitch a Heart in Illustrator.

Now you can choose your favorite font and write your saying! Then you’re all done your elegant Valentine’s Day card.

How’d it turn out? Post a link to your card, we’d love to see it!

Related articles

• Valentine’s Day 2012 (valentine2012.wordpress.com)
• 10 Lovely Looks For Valentine’s Day (bellasugar.com)