Knockout stroke around text CS6

Question

I am working on a logo that will be printed on a canvas bag (hence the background color) and I would like the white stroke to simply subtract from the shapes behind it, almost like padding on a text box. I don't want to be able to simply see through it, I would like the white stroke basically to create a transparent stroke around the yellow text. Thanks in advance for your help!

Answer 1

Katie,
It may be better to try the following, then go through your present artwork to make sure that you have an equivalent structure.
1) Create a grey rectangle (like the background);
2) Create a smaller blue rectangle (like the underlying letters);
3) Create some live Type (like the 2014) on top of the blue rectangle, you may keep it live or Type>Create Outlines;
4) With 3) selected, in the Appearance palette flyout click Add New Stroke;
5) With the Stroke selected (highlighted) in the Appearance palette, change its colour to white and drag it down beneath contents (adjust the Stroke weight if needed), then in the Transparency palette set the Opacity to 0, this will make it disappear;
6) Select everything, then ShiftClick the grey rectangle to deselect it, and Ctrl/Cmd+G to group the rest, then in the Transparnecy palette tick Knockout Group.
Not the stroke behind the text should knock out the blue rectangle so the grey one shows through.