Create a Greeting Card for Christmas and New Year

A very detailed tutorial where i will show you how to create a greeting card for Christmas and New Year Holidays to impress your relatives and friends. This Photoshop tutorial is very simple but the result looks so amazing!

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. Update them for current brush:

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 rock!

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 (30 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

Again add one more text line a little bit down. But before you start writing the text, just change some text presets for this text line:

Step 14

Now you can add one more text line:

Step 15

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.

Looks cool, isn’t it? That is it. Card looks amazing to you as for me? You can send this card to your friends and relatives, hope, they will be happy to get this card from you! 
Happy holidays to everyone!

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Posted in: Abstract,Photoshop Basic

Making of an Abstract Art Piece: “Lonium”

In this Photoshop tutorial we’ll be walking through the process of making an abstract artwork, using abstract 3D renders, textures, and more.

Preface

First of all, I would like to thank roxymanlol from deviantART for writing this tutorial and giving me permission to use it. Also, the resources used in this tutorial can be found below.

Before we start, you should know that if you want to make an abstract art piece like the one being made in this tutorial, normally you would have to make some 3D renders. But for this you won’t have to make your own, because on some websites such as deviantART and design websites/forums they have 3D renders that you can download for free. We’ve also included the render used in this tutorial as a free download.

• Machinery Stock/Texture Package
• Wood Texture Package
• Abstract render by roxymanlol

1. Render(s) + Background

Start by making a new document in Photoshop – something around 768 x 1024 pixels will be fine for this tutorial (learning purposes). But if you were working for print or something, you would want to make it much larger, using 300-600 resolution.

Now we need to get some 3D renders together. For this you can just download the ones we’ve used from above.

(find renders on deviantART)

2. Texture Work

Now comes the important part, called ‘postwork’ of our abstract image. First you have to find some cool textures to add into the image, I downloaded some from Resurgere (resurgere.deviantart.com).

By the way, I chose a wood texture and set the layer mode to Screen, then erased away the ‘ugly’ parts, actually the parts that were on top of the render.

So, now you’ve got something interesting like that going on, add another interesting texture. This time I’ve used a machinery stock photo from resurgere again.

After you’ve got your stock photo in there, change the layer mode to Soft Light and erase away the ‘ugly’ parts again.

Now, I placed my render in another position and placed it on top of all the other layers. Change the layer mode for this layer to Lighten and mess with the opacities, etc. You may also want to try different layer modes with this.

You may want to download the PSD file at the end of the tutorial and take a look through all of the layers.

3. Additional Shapes

Use your imagination here and add some details to your work, in this case I used some ‘lightning effect’ brushes and I added a 3D letter “S” in Photoshop, to add to the image:

4. Highlights & More

With a bright brush I made an illumination effect in the center of the image, to make a focal point of our abstract. After adding the brushing, change the layer mode to Overlay (100%):

You don’t have to be exact with this, just make a little bit of nice brushing and make it look nice 

5. Colourise

Now you can manipulate the colors as you wish. In this case I used a Blue Photo Filter, Blue/Green Gradient in Overlay and 50% opacity and Selective Color. Now I get a result like this, which I’m quite happy with:

6. Lighting Effects

Using the Pen Tool and the Gradient Tool (radial gradients), with a white color you should make some really nice lighting effects like shown below:

After you made your lighting effects, change the layer mode to Overlay, and if necessary, duplicate the layer a few times.

7. Additional Render(s)

I then added in a small abstract render that I downloaded from deviantART. For this I used Screen layer mode with 100%.

You can find free abstract renders here on deviantART.

8. Finalizing

In finishing, add some nice brushes or interesting patterns, such as diagonal lines or squares with some space between the pattern. To get a nice effect you should try to place them quite randomly. After placing your brushes or patterns, change the layer mode to Overlay and it will add a very cool finishing effect. If your effects don’t show up very well, duplicate the layer a few times.

Be sure to also experiment with the typography, try some unique fonts. Get some fonts from either of these websites: Urban Fonts, DaFont, Font Space.

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Posted in: Abstract,Effects