Illustrator newbie here- how to create stationary?

hi guys
im a housewife doing a lot of handmade art (oil painting, watercolor, etc.) but trying my hand at using Adobe Illustrator for designing simple paper products like invitations and stationary. it's the only way i can help my husband, so im pretty determined to be the least bit knowledgable about it.
anyone here who can teach me how to create a super simple stationary like this:
http://ny-image1.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.253005569.jpg
i'm referring to the "shape" enclosing the word "hello" - like, how can i create that shape on a blank document?
any help would be greatly appreciated.

Here's a little picture to explain how your example was done.
The dotted lines are ruler guides, dragged from the rulers.
If you don't see any rulers it's Cmd-R on a Mac and probably Ctrl+R on Windows.
From the top:
1) With your pen tool draw a curve. Click and drag to produce those handles. The fewer clicks (anchor points) the smoother the curve.
Note that you can alter curves afterwards by dragging on those handles with the white arrow tool (A) or by holding down Cmd as you draw with the pen.
2) Once you are satisfied with your curve, double-click on the the reflect tool (O). Use the dialogue to reflect-copy your curve. Move as necessary, snap the 2 ends together and Join them (Cmd+J).
3) Reflect-copy the double curve and join the ends. Now you've got your basic frame. The others are produced by Option/Shift dragging vertically.
Now you can experiment with colouring. You may need to re-arrange the objects. The one coloured pink here should be at the back.

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I am using Windows 7 and I am
familiar with PSElements 8 where creating a slide show is easy. I just
want to create a slide show in CS5 (in Bridge?? View>Slideshow
Options?) using vacation photos from several folders, and I want to
order them manually.
First, I can't figure out how to
display more than one folder in the Content panel in Bridge. Second, I
can't figure out how to create and intersperse "blank" slides with
text.   Third (and I haven't even gotten this far yet), how do I save
the slide show and burn a VCD? This was all so easy and intuitive in
PSE8, I can't believe it seems nearly impossible in CS5!
As
an alternative, should I simply re-save the photos as JPEGs (they are
PSDs now), export them to a Desktop folder, open them in PSE8 and create
the slide show there instead?   Thanks for any help and suggestions!
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Illustrator newbie here- how to create stationary?

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