Start any day off with a cup of coffee, or any day with a cup of coffee with some nice foam and a bit if shading. 

Start off with an oval, fill with a color, no stroke on the shape.

Create a rectangle over the top of the oval, using the Pathfinder Panel, use the Minus Front action to remove the top of the oval.

This forms the base of the cup but needs a flat bottom.

Repeat the process of drawing a rectangle at the bottom of the half-oval and use the Minus Front action in the Pathfinder Panel.

Here is the cup, now we need to add a handle.

Draw an oval, add a stroke to it, same color as the cup and no fill. 

To create the foam, start with a circle and fill with a light color.

Duplicate the circle so the center overlaps to the edge of the second circle.

Duplicate the circle several times in a row.

Duplicate the row and move it up so the centers of the first row are at the edge of the second row, now move it half way over to the left or right and remove the overhanging end circle.

Repeat the process with the second row to create the third row. These stack to form a smaller pyramid of circles.

With the top center most circle, use the Direct Selection Tool to select the top most point. Use the UP arrow to move the point up. 

Click the Convert Anchor Point in the Control Bar to create a corner point.

Select all the circles and foam tip, use the Unite Action in the Pathfinder Panel to create one single shape.

Take the foam and place it behind the coffee cup.

You can adjust the height of the foam to make it fit correctly.

To create a slip shadow on the cup, duplicate the bottom of the cup off to the left.

Select the cup base and the new shape you just duplicated, then apply the Divide Action in the Pathfinder Panel. Ungroup the resulting shapes and delete the left extra shape.
Fill the left shape with a darker color.

Duplicate the new, darker shape on the left side of the cup. Copy the shape and rotate the shape 180° and place it directly on top of the cup. 

Select the flipped shape and the foam, then apply the Divide Action in the Pathfinder Panel. Ungroup the resulting shapes and delete the left extra shape.

Color the new edge of the foam slightly darker.

​Enjoy!

Here is what looks like a simple lesson, but I can tell you, there are a few tricks you can learn from this one! To get this woven paper strip look, it would seem quite easy to take the strips and place them in front or behind the other strips, but to get this effect with just 4 green and 4 orange strips, is going to take a little magic. 

Start with a rectangle and fill it with a color, no stroke on it.

Duplicate the rectangle so you get equal spacing between all 4. 

Duplicate a green rectangle, turn it 90° and fill it with a contrasting color. Take the 2nd and 4th strip of green and bring these to the front. Object>Arrange>Bring to Front.

Duplicate the orange rectangle with equal spacing between them.

Take the 2nd and 4th ORANGE rectangles and copy them. Paste will come later, so just copy at this point.

Select the 2nd and 4th GREEN rectangles and make them into a Compound shape.
Object>Compound Shape>Make. This will make them act as 1 shape, you will see why shortly…

With the 2nd and 4th green rectangles selected and turned into a compound shape, go to the bottom of the tool bar and choose the Draw Inside Mode (far right of the 3 buttons)

This will activate a "clipping" around the selected rectangles. In fact this is really a clipping mask, but in a different way of getting to it, and in my opinion, easier for some types of construction like this one.

Then PASTE the copied 2nd and 4th orange rectangles and it will paste them INTO the "clipping area"... you are in Draw Inside Mode so anything you do will appear to be inside the selected items. They may not line up so move them to the 2nd and 4th position to line up with the vertical strips.

And this is the end result! Tricky but it works great. And it may cause you to get a bit lost in the process but give it a shot.

My designer friend in Seattle, Darlin Gray (here at http://darlingray.com/) sent me a label she was working on and wanted to know how to do this cool, engraved-style on lettering on one of her projects. So here is how it is done.

If you have not used the Width Shape Tool, this is where the fun really begins!

Start with you type. Outline the fonts. Type>Create Outlines. SHIFT + COMMAND + O. Just for good measure, also Ungroup the letters.
Add a fill but no stroke around the letters.

Choose Object>Path>Offset Path. In this case I off set the path .075 cm to get the distance I wanted away from the original letter.

At first, it will look clunky. Take the newly offset path and add a .5pt stroke and no fill.

It looks much better with no fill and a slight stroke.

First select the outline with the Selection Tool and choose Object> Compound Path>Release.
​ 
Then, using the Direct Selection Tool, you will need to remove the sections of line that you don't want to taper. 

With the line removed, select the Width Shape Tool (looks like a Chicken on a Skewer)
​

With the Width Shape Tool, Select the point on the line you want to make wider/narrower.

​ It does not need to be a "point" on a line, it can be at any location on the line, not specifically a "point".

Pull away from the line to make the stroke wider, push in toward the line to make it narrower.

This is the result of using the Width Shape tool to taper the stroke down to a narrow width.

When you have single line, you will need to taper one end, then in the middle of the line, make it wider before narrowing the other end.
If you narrow both ends and not widen the middle, the line will disappear.

Here is what the end result looks like!

This is how the engraved, offset-look appears once you are done with your magic.

Create an open book with this tutorial. Simple shapes, add some curves to them and then some shading, this creates a simple, yet effect book.

Start with a rectangle, fill it with a color. No stroke.

Using the Curvature Tool (next to the Pen Tool in the Tool Bar), click on the upper middle of the rectangle and pull up. This will add a point and curve it as you pull up. 

Repeat the same process with the curvature tool on the bottom of the rectangle to mimic the top curve.

Duplicate the shape and place it to the side of the other shape.

Fill the shapes with a darker color. This will be the back set of pages, and the colors will get lighter as they stack on each other.

Duplicate the set of shapes, add a lighter color fill. With the Direct Selection Tool, select the two left points on the left shape, and move them up using your UP arrow key. Repeat the process on the other shape, moving the right points up the same amount.

This will give you pages that have less of a curve than the original curve.

Place then new shapes over the previous shapes and the book begins to take shape.

Repeat the duplicate, color change and move-point process a 3rd time to create a third set of pages, making the top color lighter than the bottom 2 colors.

Select the bottom 2 shapes and add a stroke to the INSIDE of the shape, that way it doesn't extend beyond the edge of the shape.
Go to your Stroke Panel and choose the Align Stroke to Inside button.

Select the right 3 shapes with the Select Tool.

Under the Edit Menu, choose Edit Colors>Adjust Color balance. Click on the Convert button and Preview button, then adjust the color to change the color of the selected shapes.

Copy the left page, reduce it in size the place it on the right page to create an picture box. DO the same with the right page, scale it down and move it to the left page to create another picture box.

Add a stroke around the "pictures" to create contrast.

Change the width of the pages to give it more depth and the appearance that the pages are turning.