Weddingbee boards

Wow, hm... The easiest thing I could think for you that would help is to download templates from VistaPrint and get everything printed through them. Then at least you know your files will be formated correctly. You really just need to learn the tools and palettes if you don't want to do anything too crazy.

Here is a blog post with a bunch of beginner's guides. :) If you have specific questions, it would be easier to help! ;)

I also attached a screen shot of the tools palette. You use tools to create or select anything. Changes to what you create on your artboard is done through the other palettes. If the tool has a little tab on it, it means you can hold down your mouse and similar tools will pop up under that tool category.

@almergele: That would be much easier in Photoshop, TBH (if I'm understanding what you want to do). :/ Then you could Place the image in Illustrator if you really wanted. Photoshop is for photos, Illustrator is for points and paths (like logos or typography). You could try to find a picture of a damask wallpaper online. Or if you really want to use Illustrator, find a picture of damask online and trace it in Illustrator with the Live Trace tool.

Do you have paper that you're printing on like that, or do you want to create the grungy paper? It's a lot harder to create that in Illustrator than Photoshop.

Illustrator would be best for the map, yes, but as @ribbons: mentions, you might have a hard time of it. It would be easier to just take a screenshot of the map from Google Maps or something. If you want to try your hand at the pen tool, it would just be a matter of tracing the major roads and then using the type tool to name the roads.

I'll write up a quick how-to or find one for that grungy paper when I get a few minutes today. It's not too hard to do in Photoshop. :)

Here's a quick Photoshop tutorial for the invite. :)

1. Save old paper to your computer from SXC (this is a free stock photo site, and you'll need to create a free account). If you don't like old paper, just do a search for "antique paper" and you'll get some different results.
2. Open old paper in Photoshop.
3. Go to Select > All (or control/command A, depending if you're on a PC or Mac), then Edit > Copy (or control/command C).
4. Create a new document the size you would like your invite to be. File > New. Your dimension can be whatever you want to cut it down to. Here are some standard invite envelope/enclosure sizes. Your resolution should be 300 for print.
5. Go to Edit > Paste (or control/command V) to paste your old paper image into your new document.
6. Go to Edit > Free Transform (or control/command T).
7. You should now have a bounding box around the paper. Hold down Shift, click on the corner of the image, and drag out or in (depending on how large your document is). It will resize one side of the image. Press Enter to make it stick. Do the same thing to the opposite corner to resize the image the other way. If your paper image is larger than your document size and you can't see the corners, zoom out with control/command hyphen (-) and enlarge the window.
8. Save any damask wallpaper image to your computer that you want to use. I used this one.
9. Back in Photoshop, open your damask wall paper. Copy and paste it into your new document (#3 and #5). You may need to resize it with Free Transform (#6 and #7).
10. In your Layers palette, notice that there are two layers now. One with a damask thumbnail and one with the old paper thumbnail. Click on the layer with the damask thumbnail.
11. In the Layers palette, there is a dropdown box in the upper right that says "Normal". Click the dropdown and choose "Multiply".
12. Beside the dropdown you just used, there is an Opacity box. Type 50 into this box and hit Enter.

 For the text:

1. You've mostly been using the Move Tool at this point (the black arrow at the top of the tools palette). In the tools palette, click on the tool with the "T" icon near the bottom. This is the Text tool. Alternatively, you can press "t" on your keyboard.
2. Click where you want your text to appear on the artboard, and begin typing. You can click and drag if you want your type in a boundary box.
3. Notice that you have a new Text layer in your Layers palette. You can move any of the layers around by using the move tool, selecting the layer in the Layers palette, and click-dragging in the artboard.

@azure6700: Haha, thanks. :) It was my favorite movie when I was a tween.

@msstilettoheels: Hopefully it will help the OP or someone else! ;)

Good luck! Let me know if you run into any problems. :) I think Photoshop has a smaller learning curve than Illustrator, so I think you'll have an easier time of it.

Let's see... I think you're going to have to actually make the damask layer a transparent background so that you can recolorize the damask. Multiply is only an effect. It literally multiplies the layer it's applied to to the layers below it, and it's difficult to change colors with effects applied.

This might be too complicated, but here is how I would change the color of the damask.

1. Make sure you have the damask layer selected. Select > All, then Edit > Copy the damask layer (control/command A, control/command C).
2. In your layers palette, you should see a tab beside the Layers palette tab called Channels. Click on this tab. If you don't see the tab, go to Window > Channels.
3. In the Channels palette, click on the third icon at the bottom that looks like a page with a tabbed corner. If you hover over it, it should say "create new channel" which is what we're doing.
4. Your new channel should be called something like "Alpha 1". With white selected as your foreground color (click on the top box of the two overlapping boxes at the bottom of the Tools palette and select white), go to Edit > Fill... > Foreground color. This will make your alpha channel white.
5. Paste your copied damask into this channel. You may need to move the damask pattern to where you want it with the Move tool (black arrow in the Tools palette). Deselect the damask pattern once you've got it where you want it by going to Select > Deselect (or control/command D).
6. Invert the colors by going to Image > Adjustments > Invert (or control/command I). You should now have a white damask pattern on a completely black background in the channel.
7. Holding down control (PC) OR command (Mac) click on the thumbnail of your damask channel (Alpha 1). Your damask pattern should now be a selection, shown by the "marching ants".
8. Click back on your Layers tab. In the Layers palette, click on the third icon at the bottom that looks like a page with a tabbed corner. If you hover over it, it should say "create new layer" which is what we're doing.
9. Your damask should still be selected (marching ants). Change your foreground color to the color you want your damask to be. Go to Edit > Fill... > Foreground color to fill your damask selection with your chosen color. Deselect your damask (control/command D).
10. Delete your original damask layer in your Layers palette by dragging the layer to the trash can in the lower right corner of the Layers palette.

After all this, you can change the layer to Multiply again or change the opacity if you wish; it will have a different effect now that it's a color.

If you want to easily recolor your damask as well now, below the "Normal" drop down, you will see a "Lock" label and a few icons. You can click the first icon to "lock" transparency on your damask layer and Edit > Fill... any color, and it will only recolor your damask since this whole process made the background transparent. :)

It's possible to do the graphic you posted, but it requires a lot of masking and effects. If you figure out how to do the tutorial above easily (or at least without tearing your hair out), you should be able to recreate the invite you posted. They basically used a brown damask with a transparent background, mulitiplied it over the antique paper, then used a layer mask on the damask to create the vignette effect.

After writing all this, I realize it might just be easier if you purchase the background since that is what you are really looking for. For $10 or $15 you can purchase the background, then just paint over the top of it with a soft brush to create the vignette look. Damask, antique backgrounds at istockphoto.

No problem. This is what I do all day, and it's much more fun in the context of weddings. ;)

This one looks really close to the invite you're using for inspiration. Before you purchase it, save the preview image and fiddle with it. You can use the eyedropper tool to select the color of the paper (the cream), then choose a brush with a soft edge and just paint in the middle, then write your text on top of it. It may give you the effect you're looking for without all the hassle of recreating everything.

I also just realized I may be misunderstanding what you mean by recolorizing the damask. If you just want to make the center of the damask disappear so that the paper shows through, you can make a mask on the damask, by adding a layer mask to the damask layer and painting on it.

1. With your damask layer active, click the bottom button in the layers palette that is a circle in a square (to the right of "fx"). This adds a layer mask to your layer (you will see the new blank thumbnail beside your artwork thumbnail in the layer).
2. Alt (PC) or Option (Mac) click on the blank layer mask thumbnail. Your image will turn white (you are now viewing the layer mask).
3. Paint with a black brush with soft edges on this layer mask.
4. Click the thumbnail of the artwork to preview your mask applied to the artwork. What you painted on your mask should show as a transparency on the artwork.

3.5" x 5" should be fine (I think that is the minimum size to qualify for postcard rate).

The big thing to be sure you do on postcards is make sure the paper is thick enough (100 lb. should be fine, but some of the 80lb weight card stocks don't make the .007" thickness minimum). Also, on the back of the postcard, the recipient's address and the bottom of the postcard need to be clear of any graphics. The best thing to do is design it as best you can with the specifications in mind, then mail it to yourself to see if it gets through. :)

They're just larger. It looks like you might be able to get away with the Medium size if you're only doing the postcard size. If you're using it for something larger, I'd probably go with at least Large just to be safe. :) Because it's a distressed artwork and pretty grungy, it would probably scale up fairly well (to a point) without losing quality.

Yeah, if you're doing it for multiple things, I'd just get the large or even extra large version, then you're safe. It's only a few dollars more.

@bellagio - Thanks for taking the time to write this up.  I'm not the oringial poster, but it'll help me too :)  I am just starting to use photoshop - my fiance thinks that it'll be too hard for me to use.  What FI doesn't know is that there are all these wonderful bees to help me learn :)

No problem! I hope it helps you. Photoshop isn't too hard to pick up for basic things. :) PM if you need any help.