It helps to follow through with your New Year’s resolutions if you put them smack dab in front of your face. With only mild success with goal-keeping in the past, this year I decided to put five words of inspiration out in plain, but beautiful sight.
Being more “crafty” with Photoshop rather than fancy papers, I whipped up a little something to put in a frame by my nightstand. While it would take a while to teach someone a complicated new program, I figured I could break it down for someone to replicate in a program they might be more familiar with. If that doesn’t work, consider taking the similar elements and using cute scrapbook or wrapping paper.
Here’s what I came up with:
1. Start with a white background. Create a new layer and add a pattern, like this modern damask-like print. The original print was square, so I duplicated the layer (holding ctrl and alt while dragging in Photoshop) and matched up the lines to create a pattern on the whole background. Merge those layers into one to make it more manageable. Play with the opacity so that it’s light, but still visible, so that your text will stand out more. Mine’s at 60 percent, but could even go up to 75 percent, depending on your printer.
2. Create a new text layer. I chose a serif font with a little style (Budmo Jiggler) in a light gray, again to make the top text pop.
3. Choose your words and create new text layers (font is Cutie Pop) for each so you can can easily move them around. I chose some of my favorite colors (celedon, robin’s egg blue and baby pink) to make it playful but also to keep with the feminine vibe. In order to make them pop and look 3-D, add a drop shadow. Mine is almost black at 80 percent opacity.
4. Every printer is different, so be sure to print a test or two on plain paper to make sure it’s just right. I had to do this a couple times to get the background pattern to show up! Print on glossy paper and put it in a frame.
Now I fall asleep and wake up with my goals in mind. Instead of a nagging, guilt-filled reminder, it’s a motivating piece of art! Well, I use “art” loosely, but I enjoy it nonetheless and hope you might as well. Another cool idea I found was in these art decals from Bed, Bath and Beyond:
How are your New Year’s resolutions/goals working out thus far?
