Christmas Card In this tutorial, you ll learn how a Christmas card can be designed with Photoshop. You will learn how to create Christmas ball, draw snowflakes, customize brushes etc. Let s get started! Follow the instructions below to create a Christmas card, adding your own personal touches as you go. Final Image Preview Coach Christian s Example Create a new document (Ctrl+N) in Photoshop with the size 1920px by 1200px (RGB color mode) at a resolution of 72 pixels/inch. Using the Rectangle Tool (U), create a background for the Christmas card. For this rectangle we ll use the Layer style > Gradient Overlay by clicking on this layer on the Layers panel to open the Layer Style dialog box.
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. Your background should now look similar to this:
Create new layer and select Soft Round brush from Brush Tool (B). We need to customize our brush in Brushes panel (F5), select the Brush Tip Shape. Click and drag any of the sliders to change the Size, the Hardness and brush Spacing as shown. The Preview window displays the changed brushstroke.
Go to Shape Dynamics and change the settings as you see here. Also set the Scattering settings as seen below.
Change the Foreground color to #CE0000 and using our brush represent the snowflakes. It can be a different color as well. If you want to use the exact color, use the number above. On the next new layer we ll apply the earlier brush, but of bigger diameter and the same color to represent the background of the picture to be fading off.
On the central part of the document we ll insert the year 2013 using Horizontal Type tool (T). Select a font, size and color in the Character panel. Use additional layers to add additional text such as Merry Christmas. Click in the image and type the year. Press Enter to apply the text. Set Fill to 40% for this layer and select Add a layer style icon from bottom part of the Layers panel and click Outer Glow:
This is similar to what the effect should look like. Next step we ll download a decorative image from the internet to represent additional images on the card. You can search for elements as you see below, snowflakes like you see on my example, or other images that you would like to represent your card. Place the images in your document as you see below, or where you think they will look good with your design.
Create a new layer and select Soft Round brush used before and add the white color to the picture s edges. Set the Fill to 60% for this layer. Create a new layer, using here the same brush of white color to apply it again around the picture.
Choose now the Ellipse Tool (U) to draw a Christmas tree ball. You will be using the 0 in the date to create this design. Use either of the examples above to design your image. If the Christmas tree ball fits desirably into the number, do not erase the number from the text. If it does not fit exactly correct, erase the letter from the text to complete the design. You cannot use an image off the internet for this design. It has to be your own. When the design is complete and looks the way you want it to look, save the image as a Photoshop document. Make sure the name is correct, as this will be part of your grade. After it is saved, then save it as a JPEG image with the same name. Both documents need to be saved on a flash drive to get a grade. You will be graded on the items below: -were the instructions followed above -how creative was your design, does it look professional or just thrown together to get finished -the use of internet pictures to represent the image (more of your own design as opposed to internet design) -the name of the document (what it is saved as) -whether you turn in the correct documents on the flash drive. *You cannot ask any questions about how to do the above instructions. You can also not ask questions about how to get things from the internet. The only thing you can ask is if there is further understanding needed of the test. Otherwise, this is a test, and you need to do it on your own.