Graceful Christmas Card Photoshop Tutorial

December has started. Preparations for Christmas and New Year are on full swing. So get ready for yet another exciting Photoshop Tutorial by Designing Mall. In this you can learn the use of brushes and layer effects to create a graceful Christmas Card.

Step 1:

In Adobe Photoshop, create a new file, with the usual dimensions (choose different according to requirement, some people want a big ecard).

Step 2:

Set foreground color pure yellow (C: 0, M: 0, Y: 100, B: 0)

Set background as orange type (C: 5, M: 25, Y: 100, B: 5)

Choose Gradient Tool, select its type Radial Gradient (from property bar) and here you are free to use it. Try different flows to get good looking Gradient. For ease and understanding I drag from top right to left bottom, diagonally and got this result.

Step 3:

Create a new layer (Shortcut key Ctrl + Shift + N). Select Rounded Rectangle with Radius 10px and be sure that Fill Pixel from property bar is enabled. Draw a little bit up on the canvas. If you hold the shift key while drawing, the height and width proportion will remain the same. I hope you will manage a suitable size for this rounded square.   

Step 4:

Select Pen Tool, Draw a wave shape lines on the square and end up from the outer side as shown below.

Sometimes it looks very difficult to have a smooth wave shape. But it becomes so easy if you follow these steps. Just select Pen Tool and do a click (very first one on the left side). Almost in the center of the square, Click and Drag on the right side to get a smooth effect (handles). Then Click rest of the dots and complete the selection.

Right Click on this path and Make Selection with Feather 0 px.

Select Magic Wand Tool, Press Alt button and Click outside the square. In this way only the smooth area of the square will left selected. As shown below

Step 5:

Set Foreground color white. Select Gradient. Use second type “White and Transparent”

from left to right. Then the result will be like this (variation expected)

Step 6:

Apply layer styles. Outer Glow

Then Inner Glow

Then the result will be like this

Step 7:

Write “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2012” with font “Script MT Bold” and size 30pt. Adjust colors accordingly

Step 8:

Create a new layer and by using full aesthetic sense, apply brushes which you can down load from following

Brush_Set_1

Brush_Set_2

Brush_Set_3

Brush_Set_4

Method to download and Use: After downloading the (*.ABR) files, extract if zipped and place in Photoshop Preset folder (C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS3\Presets\Brushes). Next time when you start Photoshop these brushes will be loaded. Or You can load them from Photoshop as well.
I have used only two brushes Floral7, 1252 and Floral4, 1359.

Step 9:

Bring this layer back to square and your Christmas Card is ready.

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