Alright, right now I am designing an image to be used on a wedding invitation. Here is a picture of the inspiration, but due to budget, we decided to give it a go and attempt it ourselves:
http://ny-image1.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.135955521.jpg
So we found a similar Damask pattern, and imported it into Paint.net. We were able to change the color from black to blue, and able to erase and crop into the bracket shape. The trickiest part is creating an outline that looks professional.
I initially tried to print out a copy, outline it with a pen, scan it back in, then change the pen outline color. It still did not look all that great. The next thing, I have been working on for quite some time: My hand is not too steady, so I zoomed into about 500 and just bit by bit, used the paintbrush to draw along the outline of it. I used brush stroke size 2 at first, and while it looked pretty good in Paint.net, once it got put into Publisher, the line looked weak. So, I went back in and increased it to size 3. This is probably about right. Either way, however, it just looks......hand drawn, which technically it is. There are minor imperfections, but the overall look is that it was hand drawn, which is what we don't want. I've tried feathering; I just dunno.
If this were any other project, this would probably be "good enough," but because it is for a wedding invitation it really needs to be in tip top form. Any suggestions?