Creative christmas cards

I’m going to show you how use custom shapes and Layer styles in Photoshop  to create a creative Christmas illustration. Let’s get started!

 Final Image Preview

 Start working by creating a new document (Ctrl+N) in Adobe Photoshop CS3 with the size 1280px by 1024px (RGB color mode) at a resolution of 72 pixels/inch. Take now the Rectangle Tool (U) and draw a rectangle on the whole canvas as shown.

 Click on Add a layer style icon from bottom part of the Layers panel and select Gradient Overlay.

 Click in the color bar to open the Gradient Editor and set the color stops as shown. Click OK to close the Gradient Editor dialog box.

 We’ve got the next result:

 Next we’ll represent the snow hills, use the Pen Tool (P), set the drawing mode on Shape Layers in Options bar and to draw the next shape as shown.

 Click on Add a layer style icon from bottom part of the Layers panel and select Inner Glow.

 Add Gradient Overlay

Click in the color bar to open the Gradient Editor and set the color stops as shown. Click OK to close the Gradient Editor dialog box.


 We’ve got the next result:

 Select the Custom Shape Tool (U) in the Tools bar, in the Options bar click the Shape to open the selection menu. Find Tree at the bottom of the menu, and then double-click a shape thumbnail to select it.

 Drag to draw the tree having the color #003274.

 Make seven copies of the tree’s silhouette and select the Free Transform (Ctrl+T) command to change the copies’ sizes, placing them the same way demonstrated below:

Using the Custom Shape Tool (U), let’s draw a lot of snowflakes, having different sizes:

 

We’ve got the next result:

Continue representing the snow hills, selecting the same Pen Tool (P) draw tha next shape having the color #A7FEF6.

Click on Add a layer style icon from bottom part of the Layers panel and select Inner Glow.






























We’ve got the next result:

Draw another shape using Pen Tool (P).

Click on Add a layer style icon from bottom part of the Layers panel and select Inner Glow.




Add Gradient Overlay:






Click in the color bar to open the Gradient Editor and set the color stops as shown. Click OK to close the Gradient Editor dialog box.

We’ve got the next result:

On a new layer (Create new layer) we’ll select the Soft Round brush from Brush Tool (B), set Opacity to 20% in Options bar.


Use this brush to represent the shadows on the snow hill as shown.

 Next we’ll use the Ellipse Tool (U) to represent a snow ball reserved for a snowman.

 Click on Add a layer style icon from bottom part of the Layers panel and select Inner Glow.

Add Gradient Overlay:

Click in the color bar to open the Gradient Editor and set the color stops as shown. Click OK to close the Gradient Editor dialog box.






We’ve got the next result:

Make two copies of the layer containing the snow ball and select the Free Transform (Ctrl+T) command to minimize the copies’ sizes, placing them as it is represented next image:

Applying the Ellipse Tool (U), it’s possible to draw the buttons on the snowman.

Set Fill to 0% for this layer and click on Add a layer style icon from bottom part of the Layers panel and select Drop Shadow.

Add Gradient Overlay

Click in the color bar to open the Gradient Editor and set the color stops as shown. Click OK to close the Gradient Editor dialog box.

Settings for Stroke:

Select Fill Type – Gradient and click in the color bar to open the Gradient Editor and set the color stops as shown. Click OK to close the Gradient Editor dialog box.


We’ve got the next result:

Using the previous tool, it’s possible to draw the snow man’s nose:

Set Fill to 0% for this layer and click on Add a layer style icon from bottom part of the Layers panel and select Inner Shadow.

Add Gradient Overlay

Click in the color bar to open the Gradient Editor and set the color stops as shown. Click OK to close the Gradient Editor dialog box.


We’ve got the next result:

 reate a new layer and select the Hard Round brush from Brush Tool (B). The Foreground color is black.

Use this brush to draw the eyes and the mouth, belonging to the same snowman.

 Using the Line Tool (U), it’s time to draw a twig that will represent the snow man’s arm. The color in this case is black too.

 Put together all the layers composing the twig into a single layer. Hold Ctrl button, select the twig’s layers from Layers panel and press then Ctrl+E to Merge Down. Next we’ll make a copy of the new layer that we got and apply Free Transform (Ctrl+T) command to turn over the copy, make the copy smaller and put it on the picture the same way shown below:

 We’ve got the next result:

Create a Greeting Card for Christmas and New Year

I am  very detailed tutorial where i will show you how to create a greeting card for Christmas and New Year. This Photoshop tutorial is very simple but the result looks so beautifull.



Final Image Preview

 Step 1
 Create a new document with size of 800 x 600 pixels and fill it with black color.

Step 2

Now I would like to create abstract snowing on the picture. We can do it by using the Pen Tool. But before we can start, we have to change some presets of the Brush Tool which we will be using in the future. Select the Brush Tool, a soft round brush about 15 pixels and opacity at 61%.

 Then click the button “Toggle the Brushes Palette” on the Options Bar to open brush preset window or go to Windows > Brushes. Here we can see a couple of presets.

 

Step 3

 Set foreground color as white (#ffffff). Create new layer, after that select Pen Tool (you need to make sure you are working with Paths instead of Shape Layers). Draw out one straight line using paths:

 

Click on start point to close path. Then right-click and select Stroke Path:

 A little dialog box will appear as in the screenshot. Choose Brush and make sure there is a tick next to Simulate Pressure. This is important as it will give your line tapered ends which will make it.

 

 The picture will be similar to mine:

Step 5

 Next right click again and select Delete Path. Then add more lines on the same way.

 

Step 6

 You can change brush size, so the picture will look more interesting:

 

Step 7

Duplicate current layer (Ctrl+J) and apply Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur with next parameters:

Step 8

 We are finished with creating snow; let’s move to the next step.
Create new layer above, then select the Gradient Tool and fill this layer with Spectrum linear gradient (this is one of standard Photoshop gradients).

 After thart change layer mode to Soft Light for this gradient layer and you will see total difference in coloring.

 

Step 9

 Before we start adding text, we have to make some dark mat to divide text from the background. For this effect, select the Rectangular Marquee Tool to create selection similar to mine on screenshot below and fill this selected area with black to transparent linear gradient on the new layer.

 

Step 10

 Remove selection with Ctrl+D. Now is time to add the text. Get out the Horizontal Type Tool and write out some text with white color in two lines. For this Photoshop tutorial I´ve used Arial (60 pt, Normal, Black, Crisp) font which is one of standard Windows fonts. 

 

Step 11

 Then we have to add the year, but I want to put it in a small box. Use the Rounded Rectangle Tool (Mode: Shape layers, Radius: 5px) to create small box above the text with white color also.

 

Step 12

 After that select the Horizontal Type Tool again and add the year with the same font (Color: Black, Size: 16 pt, Black, Crisp).

 

Step 13

 Now you can add one more text line:

 

Step 14

 Change opacity for this layer to 40%.

 

Final Image

 We are almost finished with creating our greeting card. The last one thing that we have to add a little bit visible white circles. Select the Brush Tool (Opacity: 20%) and a hard round brush to add different size circles to the greeting card canvas.