Thursday, February 24, 2011

How To Intertwine a Monogram



I have always LOVED the look of a monogram where two letters intertwine.  I have a stamp of my initials together that I bought 20 years ago!  I bought machine embroidery patterns that will put the one on top of the other (but not "intertwined"). I have several fonts that are built to be layered but not "intertwined".  FINALLY, today I had a WELL DUH moment when it suddenly occurred to me that I just need to use layers and erase part of the layer of one letter.  HELLLLLLLOOOOO.....Yes, I'm a little slow getting there, but hey!  I finally did get it!


Here ya go:


This font is called "Museum Initials". ($12)  BUT WAIT!!!  Before you think about buying it I just found almost the same EXACT font called Burgoyne Initials for FREE at DaFont.com  .... Feeling kinda stupid now!

They start out looking like this:





To combine: 
(sorry, I tried to print screens but I'm having PC issues!)

1.Using a photo editing program, like CorelDraw or PSE,  you want to put each letter on separate layers.

2. Each letter needs to be filled with desired color (my choice was white)...because even though it looks like the letter is "filled" it really isn't, its transparent and you don't want that...you want the INSIDE of the letters to have color but the OUTSIDE of the letter to be transparent.

3. Move one of the letters on top of the other


4. Change the size of each to your liking... I stretched the B taller and made the N wider

5. Now erase the part of the top letter that you want to appear to be BEHIND the other letter...that will let that portion of the bottom letter to show through and that portion will appear to be on top. On my NB I just erased the very small portion on the top left of the N.... that's it!  (now on this one it is kinda cool that the ring around the middle of the N really kind of looks like the middle of the B - I like that)

5. I then flattened the two together and saved them as a .png file. As a .png the background stays transparent and I will be able to add it to other pictures without a big white box around it!... 



like HERE ... I modified this one a lot because I needed for it to fit onto something.

All images are modified versions of  FREE files from The Graphics Fairy (LOVE THAT SITE!)


Another  MUCH EASIER option is to use MFC Sappho Monogram Font  ($29.95) that looks like this:
All the work is done for you!  All you need to do is type one letter in lower case and the other in uppercase,  DONE!!!  How cool is that?!  However, (there's always a however) it is an OPENTYPE font  NOT TrueType so it only works with Adobe software like PhotoShop or PS Elements, it will NOT work in Word or CorelDraw, etc.


Be sure and check out all of Brian's other monogram fonts while you are there ... I have almost all of them!  LOVE!




Linked to:















lThe Graphics Fairy

11 comments:

  1. jenclairFebruary 28, 2011 at 2:05 PM

    Beautiful monogram!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Audrey PettitFebruary 28, 2011 at 8:23 PM

    Very cool! Love how your monogram turned out!
    Visiting from the Graphics Fairy. TFS!

    ReplyDelete
  3. nancybabbMarch 1, 2011 at 12:35 AM

    Thanks so much ladies! Now that I know how I want to overlap all letters! HA! Like there's time in the day for that right?!

    Again, THANK YOU for commenting and letting me know you were here! I TRULY appreciate it!
    N.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kerryanne @ Shabby Art BoutiqueMarch 1, 2011 at 6:10 PM

    Hi Nancy,
    I popped over from the Graphics Fairy and am so pleased I did. I love your monogram and learned alot from your tutorial.
    Thanks,
    Kerryanne

    ReplyDelete
  5. CarolMarch 3, 2011 at 12:35 PM

    Thanks, Nancy!
    I enjoyed visiting you.
    juno
    xx
    Juno's Place
    Cards by Carol

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousSeptember 5, 2012 at 2:04 AM

    Thank you for a great tutorial!! I can't wait to try it!

    ReplyDelete
  7. MariaSeptember 26, 2012 at 9:36 AM

    Love your monograms and initials! Spotted!

    ReplyDelete
  8. UnknownJanuary 16, 2013 at 11:40 AM

    Just wanted to let you know that if you have the newest Corel Draw, the Sappho intertwine feature works fine. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  9. nancybabbJanuary 16, 2013 at 12:43 PM

    Hi Carol, good point... CorelDraw X6 does have Opentype capabilities, I haven't upgraded yet, I'm still using X5.

    ReplyDelete
  10. UnknownMarch 20, 2014 at 4:14 PM

    I am trying to get a monogram designed I not computer graphic savvy. I need someone to do a 3 way overlap of the 3 letters CSP in a vintage font similar to Museum Initials but not as elaborate. If you could advise please help, Many thanks Cyrus

    ReplyDelete
  11. tomlinJune 1, 2014 at 8:40 PM

    Are there any machine embroidery web sites that sell such beautiful letters? Yours is gorgeous!!! Thank you

    ReplyDelete

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