A Card is Born

Hi there. How are you? 

I love sending and receiving "snail mail." Who doesn't, right? Finding a handwritten note in your mailbox amongst the bills and junk mail is so gratifying! I'm pretty good about writing and mailing birthday cards and thank-you's to friends and family. I'm not so good at sending cards/letters just to say "hi" and catch up. In fact, I don't remember the last time I sent a "just because" letter to a friend as I did in the days when we didn't have email in the palm of our hands. 

A recent drawing in my sketchbook

There Was a Need

I have a couple of old friends that I've been thinking about, but haven't talked to in a while. I wanted to reach out to these old pals to say "Hi there. How are You?" Sure, I could email, but I wanted to make a little more effort. I decided to make a new card just for this reason.

If you follow me on Instagram, you've seen that I have been drawing a pattern a day in my sketchbook. I've been brainstorming ways that I can put these patterns to use in my work. I was particularly taken by this one below.

A leaf pattern I drew in my sketchbook

The Process

I scanned my drawing and cleaned it up in Photoshop. Then with the nifty "image trace" feature in Illustrator, I turned my drawing into vectors. (A vector drawing is a collection of points and lines- all of which are based on mathematical expressions—to represent images in computer graphics.)

Using Illustrator to turn a drawing into vectors

Vectorized

I played around with several different colors and configurations of this pattern. Working with Illustrator and vectors is such quick way to work. In just a matter of mouse clicks, I can change the size, shape, and colors of each line and leaf of this pattern. If I don't like something, it's very easy to change!

Anytime Greeting Card by Jennifer Johansson. Click to purchase!

A Card is Born

After much Illustrator tinkering, my Anytime card was born! It's sweet and friendly and could be sent anytime to anyone. It's a card for the masses! 

I ended up working with a very Swedish color palette. (Maybe, I'll do a version with the text in Swedish too???) Eventually, I may also produce this card in a green color palette, but for now I'm quite taken with this card. And, now it's for sale! Click the button below to add to your cart.

Well friends, that's all for now. I'm off to do my daily sketchbook drawing. I'll talk to you again next week!

Ta-Ta!