lor and adjust the Opacity and Blur to your liking.
We'll give the letters a subtle texture by drawing arbitrary shapes using the Pencil Tool (N.) The Pencil Tool will allow you to more organically draw shapes over the letters.
Give the texture shapes a green to white linear gradient and set them to Multiply in the Transparency Palette.
To create the small vines that wrap around the letters simply use the Pen Tool to draw the basic shape. After that, draw another smaller shape inside the black shape and fill if with the green gradient. Copy and paste these vines throughout the illustration in various groups to achieve a random look.
To create the black vines in the background use the Paintbrush Tool, as we did to create the word "spring." To make the vines really skinny simply adjust the stroke weight.
We'll add other details like leaves by using the Pen Tool to draw the basic shape of the leaf.
Since the leaves are going to be small we only need to apply a stroke to the shape. There's no need to make two leaves and adjust the outline.
Place the leaves throughout the illustration.
This is what your illustration should look like right now.
Small details really enhance the overall design. To draw the ladybug start with a red circle drawn using the Ellipse Tool (L.)
Draw a rectangle over the circle and click Minus Front in the Pathfinder to cut the shape in half.
Draw a series of other ovals to give the ladybug spots. The head is just an oval that's behind the main body of the ladybug.
Use the Star Tool to draw the legs of the ladybug. When you are drawing the star press the down key on the keyboard to reduce the amount of points the star has. You'll obviously only want three points, as a triangle has three sides.
Select the ladybug's main body and the black ovals that overlap it, and then in the Pathfinder select Divide. Ungroup the objects and get rid of the unnecessary shapes around the edges that are leftover.
This is what your ladybug should look like right now.
We'll warp the ladybug to add more of a cartoon-ish look to it. Select it and go to Object > Envelope Distort > Make with Warp. Select Arc from the Style drop down and enter about 30 for the Bend.
Go to Object > Expand then click OK.
In some instances, the warp shape may be clipping the ladybug. If this is the case, use the Direct Selection Tool and adjust the points so that your entire ladybug is showing.
Now, the entire ladybug is visible.
Draw another arch shape over the top part of the ladybug and fill it with a white to transparent gradient to create a reflection.
You can further draw a black shape behind the ladybug so the style matches that of the spring letters.
To create the bee you'll predominantly use the Pen Tool. Draw the more organic shapes using the Pen Tool and use the ellipse for things like the center of the body. For the details in the wings use the Pencil Tool (N) so the lines look more random.
Use the Pathfinder's various functions as we've used previously to tidy-up the shapes that comprise the bee.
Color the bee and place it throughout the illustration. It's important to note that you should group items in clusters rather than place one bee here and one bee there. Clusters allow you to create an overall flow for your composition while one-off bees make everything look scattered. This concept applies to any elements within the illustration, bees, ladybugs, leaves, vines ,etc.
To make the clouds use the Pen and/or Pencil Tool and draw arbitrary yet visually appealing organic shapes.
Even though the clouds look very random, they do have a level of artistic quality about them. This is an important concept to note. Even though clouds are, by nature, random, just scribbling with the Pen Tool may not produce good results.
The other factor to take into consideration is that of line weight. Clouds that are farther away will have a thinner stroke, while clouds that are closer to the viewer will have a thicker stroke.
Give some choice clouds a white to transparent gradient. Apply the gradient sparingly, as overuse will make all your clouds look too 