Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Monograms!

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my super-lovely Maid of Honor and sister, Melissa! WAHOO!! 30 never looked so good!! Just kidding..she's 22. Ah, to be young...

Last week, I came upon a blog and was very inspired by her D-I-Y details, specifically her monogram, which she highlights here. I soon decided to get to work on creating my own! I started out trying to do this in Powerpoint, but after finding this "how-to" website, I was able to do it much more easily in Word. After a few hours of playing around, and downloading a free "Chopin Script" font, I finally came up with these results!:


Here it is with color:
Darker Green-

Lighter Green-

The website above helped me with its step-by-step guide, but was slightly confusing. Here's my guide, using Word 2007.

1. Open Microsoft Word
2. Choose Insert - Textbox
3. Type and format the letter the way you like. I downloaded the font "Chopin Script" from 1001fonts.com.
4.  Do that again two more times for the other wording, or letters, you prefer to use.
5. While holding down the CTRL key, click on all three textboxes to highlight them.
6. Go to Format - Text Box Style - Shape Fill - No Fill
7. Go to Format - Text Box Style - Shape Outlines -  No Outline
8. Select all letters again, while holding down the SHIFT key. Still holding SHIFT, right click anywhere on the letters.  Select "Grouping" then "Group". Now, the image is all locked together.
9. Highlight the image, and hit COPY.
10. Paste it into PAINT, where you can crop it down to the size you want. "Save As" a JPG and there is your image!

This took me several attempts to get right, and was a bit confusing. However, once I got it down, it was really simple! Now, I need your help with one thing:
I want to add this to some things for the wedding (i.e. program, or menu card or something), does anyone have any ideas how to get rid of the white background here so that I can insert JUST the text into a document? Would I need photoshop to do that?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

10 comments:

Mom said...

Here is my suggestion and remember I'm a computer wiz--NOT! Use a magic marker to make the background black or just print it, cut it out and use Elmer's Glue to paste it onto whatever you want. Helpful advise from mother? Lol! I likeit better with the lighter green but either way it looks really cool.

Manda Mack said...

I think it looks great...I love the font!

Nicole-Lynn said...

Happy birthday! :)

Great monogram! Love it!

Heather said...

They look great, and I love the design with the lighter green font best! This would be a great tutorial to post on Weddzilla for other brides. :)

Kerry said...

In SMART Notebook (a program I use with my Smart Board at school) I am able to delete the white background on pictures I paste onto the slide by selecting "Set Picture Transparency"; however, there is no way for me to save that image or copy it into another program without the background coming back. If you wanted a different color background, I could do that for you!

Mrs. Pancakes said...

i didn't do a monogram but yours look great...good job. i love DIY

Unknown said...

Good work lady!!! Off hand I'm not positive how to do it, but when I get an extra minute or two I'll take a look.

Mom said...

Kerry, I am so jealous you have a Smart Board and SMART Notebook at school.I have a white board--and that's an upgrade!

Lexi said...

Hey! I got your comment on my blog about our monogram. I did mine in publisher, which is fairly similar to word when you're talking about something like this. Our monogram consists of 6 text boxes that we grouped at the end, the same way you did. SO, I started with the purple box and that one is 3"x3". Then I made the white box that you can only see a little bit of. I think that one is something like 2.75"x2.75". Then I made the green box, and I think that one is something like 2.5"x2.5". You should be able to double clock on every text box and make a specific height and width to make it exactly what you want. I made them colored by making the outline and the fill the same color. THEN, the date is its own text box, the "C" is its own text box and our names are another text box. Another hint for you... if you want to move a text box over, tiny little bits at a time, click on the outside of box to "highlight" it and then hold down the ALT key and use your arrow keys to move it right, left, up, down, etc. until it's in the right place. Once everything is exactly where you want it, you can group them by clicking on all the boxes while holding down the CTRL key and then right clicking and grouping them.

Regarding your question about the background, if you're turning it in to a JPG file, it will have the white background. If you want to add it to something you're creating yourself, I would leave it in that grouped format in word, highlight the monogram, right click and copy and paste it to whatever you want to put it on (programs, save the dates, whatever). Your other option is to put a filled in text box behind it to put a colored background that matches whatever you're making.

I hope this helps! If you need/want anything else, feel free to email me! lchristoules@gmail.com

Saying I do said...

Lexi: Thank you SO MUCH!! I'm going to try this out, you're a lifesaver!