I've been busy, busy, busy working on a couple different projects for friends. Baby shower invites, a baby quilt, and wedding invites.

I've known Ashley for so long, I can't even remember when we first met. We grew up in the same neighborhood our entire childhood and our friendship survived through several different clubs and tree forts and the collection of many stink bombs (black walnuts still in their husks). How I miss those summers...

So, given our long friendship, and the fact that her and Brett are getting married 9 years after their first date (!) I couldn't resist helping them with their wedding invites.

I hand lettered their names, scanned it in at 600 dpi, cleaned it up in photoshop (I use a Wacom tablet), dragged the lettering into a 300 dpi file (to double the size) and than brought that file into Illustrator. I use LiveTrace, tracing options, 'Comic Art' preset, and than adjust the 'Corner Angle' to 60 and click the 'Ignore White' box. I usually have minor clean up to do after vectorizing, but the lettering turns out pretty clean.