Illustrator illiterate...can do this in Photoshop but not Illustrator!!

Question

I'm working on a project that must be done in Illustrator and am having a bit of a hard time figuring it out.  I'm designing a Cycling jersey for work and what I'm trying to do is add some floral designs within the text of our logo ( it's a women's jersey ).  I'm working with an EPS file of the logo that was done a few years ago ( not by me ) and am able to open it in Photoshop, select some floral, swirly type brushes and using the Magic Wand tool I am working on each letter individually to get the look I want.  Hopefully you understand this...I am on a different computer but will try to post an image later if it helps anyone get what I'm trying to.
The problem is when I try to bring it back into Illustrator there's no paths and it's a white background, not transparent.  I've been researching this for 2 weeks now and for the life of me cannot figure out how to do it the proper way!?  Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks!

Answer 1

As a general rule silkscreen folks like CLEAN SHARP VECTOR artwork.  However, they can work from bitmap images.  Particularly if the images are HIGH RESOLUTION.  I would try and see if they would accept high resolution TIFF files of each color.  Seperate each color out into a seperate TIFF file.  You can even save the TIFFS as BITMAP files and stack them in Illustrator and color each one individually their respective colors so you can see the whole design colored the way you want it.  From what I'm seeing though it looks like you are just doing the type  in one color.
I would gently buck whoever is telling you IT HAS TO BE IN ILLUSTRATOR. 
That being said I do get frustrated with people who send me Photoshop files with a bazillion (Yes thats a highly technical term) gradients and blends in them all at 72 DPI and than wonder why I tell them we can't print the file.  Silkscreen requires EACH color of ink to be a seperate separation.  Each color needs to be presented to them in either a SPOT color or in BLACK.  So they can image film for each color.  Also go with 600 DPI if you can.  Can they get by with less?  Maybe.  But I like 1200 if I'm imaging silkscreen film from a tiff.  Keeps all the type clean and sharp.
Randy