In this session, we were joined by Kris Lauren from Pretty Little Lines. Kris is an illustrator who loves to make graphics that help others make cool creative projects.

Recently, Kris teamed up with our very own Creative Director, Matt Slightam, who worked with her to produce her Ultimate Flower and Leaf Branding Pack. During this session, Kris demoed this brand new product and showed us how to design a stunning wedding invitation. Amongst other things, she taught us how to change the colour of the flowers in Photoshop and Illustrator, creating enticing stationary fit for a very special day.

Set the Layout

On Photoshop, go to File, New and then select 5 and 1/4 x 7 and 1/4 and 300 DPI. This is the basic template to use. Bring in the Rulers, by clicking ‘Command + R’. Make sure to write the content first and then, grab the text to copy and paste. For this, we’re using the content as shown below. 

Add Text

Use the Dubiel font and add the capital R and A in black, sized at 33. Now copy and paste the entire content piece on Photoshop in Times New Roman font and size it smaller. Space the text out between the names and other texts. To make the ‘to’ fancier, use the Nicholas Script font. 

Pro tip: Don’t use more than 3 fonts in designing the invitation. This makes the content more legible to read. 

Pick and Add Florals

Open the Ultimate Flower and Leaf Pack, which has 4 collections. Pick the Versatile Collection and pick out a bunch of flowers that you like. You can simply drag and drop them. Shrink all of them down so you can see them better. Group your text together to lock it. Now, start arranging all these flowers and leaves that you picked. You can twist and turn them as you like and keep layering them on top of each other. Place all the florals as you like. For reference, please see image below.

Select the RSVP Card

Choose the Versatile Card Suites, which has all the prints, colors, and you can just go in and select any of those. These are already made, so it saves you the time to make the RSVPs of the card. If you choose to make one, start a different layer and add text and floral as added in the card. The templates are already there, so you can resize as you like, move objects or edit text, as per your liking. 

Change the Color of Objects

There are different layers of colors on the object and the pack has a lot of options to choose from. However, if you need to change any color of an object, go for it. There's an amazing level of customization, so you cannot only create your own flower arrangements, but also your own flowers. Essentially, you can combine different flowers, and customize all the colors. You can even play with the details by adding or removing lines in PSD versions. 

While using the Vector versions too, you can take out the dots and lines, and change colors as shown in the images below.

Add Watercolor and Ink

In order to try watercolor on the invite, select the Watercolor and Ink Pack. There are two color schemes within this. Select the pink, blue and rose to add in some florals. Select a number of peonies, magnolias and roses to go with for this one and copy and paste or drag onto your invite. You can also add in some blue leaves from the pack.

Pro tip: All files are organised within these packs. So in order to find peonies, for example, you can simply type the name, look for the folder and find multiple kinds of peonies. 

The PSDs also work for the watercolor and watercolor ink. You can change the color by clicking on the swatches and filling the color in. You can change each detail such as the stem and flower as shown in the image below. You can also edit the saturation level and change the versatility and control of the object.