In this Affinity® Designer tutorial, we will create a simple Art Deco styled background, which will be one option for the background design for our wedding invitation suite. As with most digital patterns, we will make ours 12 x 12 inches at 300 dpi. So, this tutorial is good for those interested in creating patterns for other projects too.

1. Start a new document that is 12 x 12 inches at 300 dpi.


2. From the Menubar, click View - Show Grid.


3. With the Rectangle tool, draw a rectangle over the entire canvas. Set the Fill color to white #FFFFFF and the Stroke to null.


4. In the Layers panel, name the layer BG. Lock this layer.


5. Select the Diamond shape tool and draw a 1 inch by 1 inch diamond shape in the upper left corner of the canvas (see screenshot).


6. With the diamond still selected, set the Stroke color to #D4B921 and the Fill color to null. Set the Stroke Width to 3 pt and the Stroke Alignment to Inside.


7. With the diamond still selected, click Edit - Duplicate, from the top Menubar.


8. Drag the second diamond to the right until only the side tips are overlapping (see screenshot).


9. Repeat the previous steps to fill the entire top row of diamonds (see screenshot).


10. In the Layers panel, select all layers except the BG layer, right-click and choose Group (see screenshot).

Note: If the row of diamonds extends beyond the right edge of the canvas. Select all of the diamonds and resize the row to fit within the canvas.


11. Select the group of diamonds on the canvas and click Edit - Duplicate from the top Menubar. Drag the second row downward until the tips of the diamonds are overlapping.


12. Repeat the previous steps until the canvas is filled.


13. Select all layers in the Layers panel except the BG layer, right-click and choose Group.

Note: If the diamonds extend beyond the bottom edge of the canvas, resize to fit within the canvas.


14. Select the group layer and the BG layer. Right-click and choose group. Name the group layer Diamond Background (see screenshot).


15. Unlock the BG layer. Select this layer on the canvas and set the Fill color to black #000000.

Now we will save this document in the default .afdesign format and the .jpeg format.


16. From the Menubar, click File - Save As and save your document with the same name as the group layer, which is DiamondBackground (remove the space).


17. Now, from the Menubar, click File - Export. Export the document as a .jpeg file, with the Quality set to 100 (see screenshot).

Index - DIY Wedding Invitation Suite Template in Affinity Designer

Affinity Designer screenshots used by permission of Serif (Europe) Ltd. This article is not endorsed by Serif Ltd.