Create this chocolate bar with wrapper. Make the wrapper look like wrinkles and nice squares of delicious chocolate. And of course, it is easy to build, and look cool too.

Create a square, filled with a chocolate color

Draw lines at a 45° angle so they meet precisely at the corners. The color of the stroke is not relevant as they will disappear. 

Select the lines and the square and choose the Divide mode n the Pathfinder Panel.

Ungroup the shapes after the Divide mode has been applied. These are broken apart to show the sections. 

Add a lighter or darker color to each section. 

Add a square to the top of the sections, select all the shapes and group them. 

Create a series of sections to make it look like a bar of chocolate. 

Create a new rectangle. Apply a Roughen Effect to the shape using the Effects>Distort & Transform>Roughen.

This is the result or hard corners, low size and low detail. Copy this shape for later use as well.

Create a rectangle over the bar. This is the wrapper.

Copy the roughen shape and place it over the wrapper at an angle. Choose both the wrapper and the roughen, then choose the Minus Front Mode in the Pathfinder Panel.

The result looks like a torn wrapper. 

Create a new rectangle for the gold foil. Copy the roughen shape and apply it to the foil. Select both, choose Minus Front Mode and have the foil cut off. 
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Copy the foil piece for later.

Place the foil on the bar, then the wrapper on top. Choose Object>Arrange to bring things front or back. 

To add a wrinkled paper look to the wrapper and foil, check out a former blog post HERE for the details on this. 

Copy the vector paper after you have created it. ​

Choose the wrapper, click on the Draw Inside Mode at the bottom of the Tool Bar. Paste the paper look into it. 

Repeat the process with the Foil as well. 

With the previous foil copy, fill it with a darker color and set the Opacity to 60%, Blend Mode To Multiply.

Pull the shadow shape into the edge of the bar and you are done!

Back to school, and need a back back? Build one and also learn how to easily create multiple alternate colored versions with Recolor Artwork. 

Draw a rectangle for the main body of the backpack.

Pull the Corner Widgets in slightly to round he corners. 

Add a fill and stroke. This is a 2 pt stroke. Create a duplicate of this shape off to the side, we will use this again.

For the leather patch at the bottom of the backpack, create a rectangle and corner widget the bottom 2 corners. COPY THIS!

Select the main body and click on the Draw Inside mode at the bottom of the Tool bar.

Paste the copied leather patch into the body and move it into the correct position. Click on the Draw Normal mode at the bottom of the tool bar. 

Ad a rounded rectangle for the front pouch. 

Create another rectangle, rounded top corners for the top of the pouch.

Draw filled rectangles for the straps. Open rectangles for the buckles. 

Add a simple zipper by using the Line Tool, hot dog the ends in the Stroke Panel to give the rounded cap ends. 

Add an Oval behind the bag for the handle. Object> Arrange> Send To Back. 

With that copy of the main bag you made in step 2, removed the fill and add a dark stroke. This will be the bag shadow noodle. 

Use the Direct Selection Tool to select and remove the upper right portion of the rectangle. 

In the Control Bar, click on the Opacity Link and set the Blend Mode from Normal to Multiply and the opacity to 20%.

Position the shadow noodle on the bag. Add a white highlight noodle to the top of the bag, 20% opacity, Normal Blend Mode. 

Add shadow or highlight noodles where needed to help with added dimension. Select the bag and Group it. Duplicate it to make different color versions. 

Select on of the bags, an choose Edit> Edit Colors> Recolor Artwork.
1. Choose the EDIT tab next the Assign tab. 
2. Click on the LINK ICON (to link colors together).
3. Use the Hue, Saturation & Brightness sliders to change all the colors at one time! 
Click OK when done.

Understanding Illustrators Effect Menu and the how to edit these effects can be frustrating to many. Here is a quick overview and explainer on what they are, how they work and how this will make you less frustrated using both the Effects and the Appearance Panel. This tutorial is just one of MANY things you can do in the Appearance Panel. 

There are 2 sections in the Effects Menu. Illustrator Effect which are (mostly) vector based and can be turned into shapes and paths and be edited in Illustrator. The second section is ALL filters that you can apply in Photoshop; none of these are vector based and cannot be turned into editable shapes. Some of these options may have the exact same names but choosing from the wrong section can give you different results. 

Draw any shape. 

Go to Effects> Distort & Transform> Roughen. 

This is the result. 

Open the Appearance Panel. You will see the Roughen Effect applied ON TOP of the list. You will also see the stroke color, weight and opacity (which is all editable in the Appearance Panel) as well as the Fill color and opacity.

If the result from the Roughen Effect wasn't what you wanted, and you go back under Effect>Distort & Transform and try to "change" the effect, you will get this message. 

When you click Apply New Effect you are not actually editing the existing effect, you are APPLYING ANOTHER EFFECT on top of this one. The result is TWO effects. ​
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If you truly want to edit the Effect, and not apply another effect, click on the Effect in the Appearance Panel and edit it there. 

TIP! The Effects Panel is built into the bottom of the Apperance Panel. No need to go to the Menu bar, click on the FX button and the entire Effects Menu is there. 

Why would you want to apply more than one Effect? Because you can get cool results!!
I applied a Pucker & Bloat Effect and a Warp. I got this.

I started with this shape. 

Added a Pucker & Bloat filter. This one is the Pucker to bring the points in. 

I added the Warp filter to this as well. 

I then added a Stylize Effect (Scribble) to get this. You can go on and on!

These are all JUST Effects. Which means the shape of your object is still the original shape you drew. It just gives the EFFECT you are seeing and the effect isn't directly editable as shapes. I am in Outline Mode. View>Outline to see the actual shape. 

After Expand Appearance is applied, this is what the shape looks like. Now what it looks like IS what the shape actually is, not just the Effect. 

If you want to learn more about Expand and Expand Appearance, here is a link to my blog topic HERE

There are LOTS MORE things you can do with the Appearance Panel as well. Multiple strokes as shown here. (This is only one shape with several strokes). Go HERE to see how this is done in the Appearance Panel. 

Yes, these topics are all related. In fact it is how you can create simple pie charts with the Transform Panel and you don't need a calculator to do the math; the Transform Panel will do the math for you! 

Open the Transform Panel under Window>Transform

Draw a circle. 

On the right side of the circle is a handle that when you over over with the Selection Tool, will show a pie icon.

Click on the handle and move it around the circle. A tool hint will show up giving you the angles. 

This is the result. A partial pie chart.

The handles correspond with the angles in the Transform Panel. 

I want to end up with a Pie Chart like this. I am not going to draw this or pull the handles to get it exact, I am going to use Math!

Start with your original circle and type in the first angle the Percentage of the pie you want the piece to be (60%) x 3.6. The math looks like this: 60*3.6 then press return.

For every 1% of the pie chart it will be 3.6° of a circle. 100% = 360° in a complete circle.  

The results are 60% of the Pie Chart showing. 

Now you want the missing piece of the Pie Chart. Don't draw it...

Select the original piece of the pie and click on the swap pie piece highlighted here in the Transform Panel.
(You have to click on the arrows in between the pie shapes).
This will give you the other piece BUT you will lose the first pie piece!

You want both pieces of the pie without redrawing. 

Select the piece of the pie and hold Otion or Alt and THEN click on the flip arrows and this will create a perfect opposite piece that fits perfectly in place!

Simple easy pie charts, every time!