July 2006
We want to start out something like the text below. America is separate from the above text. I increased the size of the first and last letters of the bottom word. The fonts are Quiggly Wiggly and Impact.
I added in a background to the card so that you could see the white of the lettering. All you do here is duplicate the text and turn it white.
Start by converting the text to outline. For the word America, I first changed it's color and then used Warp Options and chose Flag on the horizontal. Bend is set to -47% and Horizontal is set to -38%. Choose Expand Appearance.
Make a copy of America and set it aside.
Create a third copy and change it's color. Move to the left.
Under Blend Options choose Specified Steps and set to 30.
Create a gradient like the one below.
Grab the spare lettering that we made a copy of earlier. Apply a light yellow stroke to the lettering. Ungroup lettering. Select one letter at a time and select the Gradient tool. Drag upwards slightly at a slant. Play with the gradient until you have each one correct.
Drop it on a new background. Adjust the placement of the top lettering and it's done.
Copyright (c) 2006, Jacquelin Vanderwood, All Rights Reserved
