let's make chevrons!

If you're looking to make a bold graphical statement with your invitations, a pattern is a pretty good way to do that. So I'm going to share a little chevron pattern tutorial. We're going to be doing this the dumb way -- there is a way to make patterns in Illustrator, but my directions will work in Word.

1. Start with a filled rectangle shape. Depending on how thin or wide you want the chevrons to be, adjust your rectangle's size. Then rotate it. I do 45 degrees, but this is also a personal preference thing.

2. Now make a copy of the rectangle and paste it. Reflect it vertically.

3. Zoom into your screen for this next part. We're going to shimmy the second rectangle up into a flush angle with the first one. Pro tip: it's a lot easier to see where they align if your rectangle is not outlined.

4. Select our new angle and copy it. Paste! Shimmy into place.

5. Copy the whole thing. Paste. Shimmy. If your page isn't filled yet with a whole row of chevrons, repeat step 4 again.

6. Select the whole row and center it the way you want it. Copy the row. Paste. Scooch it down, depending on how much space you want between rows.

7. Copy your two rows. Paste. Scooch. Repeat over and over (i.e. copy and paste 4 rows, then 8 rows, etc) until you fill the page.

8. Now you have a pattern! For my save the dates, I just copied a chunk of them into InDesign. In Word, you should be able to group them into one object and create your invitations too.

You could also use this pattern as an envelope liner!

Chevron 2: engaged.*

Now be free with your chevrons!

*Stargate reference. Sorry.