How to Make Your Own Christmas Card in Photoshop
Generic Christmas cards are boring—trite messages, clichéd pictures, and cheesy greetings. Who needs any of that in their lives?
The best Christmas cards come from within. In this tutorial, we're going to be making one within Photoshop. This project is really simple, even for beginners. Hold onto your Santa hats; it's about to be a bumpy ride.
Step One: The Logistics
If you're going to go through all of the trouble of creating a Christmas card in Photoshop, the chances are you'll want to eventually print and send it.
If your home printer can't handle nice card stock, you might want to look into third-party printing services. There are many online, but your local photo store or Walmart should also have you covered.
Secondly: what is your vision for this Christmas card? Photoshop can create a double-sided postcard, a Christmas flyer, or anything else that you can think of. We're going traditional: a classic fold-out Christmas card.
Once you've decided for yourself, open up Photoshop and create a new 6" by 4" document. Use Ctrl + R to enable your rulers, and pull one vertical guide out from the left. It should snap to the center of your document.
For your convenience, we have labelled the front and the back of the card. We're printing a double-sided document, and will need another 6" by 4" document for the inside—but we'll get to that in a moment.
Step Two: Placing Your Image
Now, it's time to add the image you want to use for the card. We're going to position it so that you only see my face on the front. You can copy and paste your desired image or drag it in from another Photoshop document or from your file directory.
For this walkthrough, we'll be using this selfie that I took after giving myself the CocoMelon haircut of a lifetime. For your Christmas card, you'll likely want to opt for a photo of your family—or something sentimental like that.
Step Three: Adding a Border
Right now, this card is looking less-than-festive. Let's add a nice red border, perfectly in-tune with this mounting sense of holiday spirit.
Hit M to enable the Marquee tool. Select the front half of the card, using your guide to get a nice, crisp edge.
Once you have the front of the card selected, navigate into the Select dropdown, choosing Modify, and then Contract.
Make sure that Apply effect at canvas bounds is checked. Your border can be as thick or as scant as you want; we're going to go with 50 pixels.
Right now, we have the interior of the frame selected—what we actually want to select is the exterior. Right-click on your selection. From the dropdown, choose Select Inverse.
You should have marching ants all over the front of the card, delineating your selection. To fill it, we'll need to choose an appropriately Christmas-y hue.
With the color picker, find a nice red, green, or gold, whatever you're feeling.
Once you've got a color chosen, select Fill from the Edit menu above.
Make sure that Contents is set to Foreground Color. Once everything is in order, press OK. This function should flood the entirety of your selected area with the color that you chose.
Step Four: Adding the Text
Now, your Christmas card should be starting to look a little bit more like a Christmas card. The front is definitely missing something, however: a heartwarming seasonal message for your guests to revel in.
Hitting the T key calls up the Horizontal Type tool. You can also type your message vertically or along a path if you prefer.
What's the best part about Photoshop Christmas cards? You can festoon it with whatever you want. Simply type your message in, no holds barred. By selecting the Move tool with the V key, you can reposition the title of your Christmas card as necessary.
Feel free to play around with things like font and text weight here. The possibilities are truly endless, and your friends and family deserve nothing but the finest that you have to offer.
Step Five: Adding Snowflakes
To really drive home this Christmas theme, we're going to need some third-party assistance. If you've never experimented with importing Photoshop brushes before, now is the time. They make projects like this so much more fun.
Custom Photoshop brushes come in every form imaginable online; we downloaded this set from Brusheezy user hawksmont. In it, you'll find a smörgåsbord of high-quality snowflake brushes. If none of those float your boat, though, we've got plenty of other festive Photoshop effects to share.
To begin with these Photoshop brushes, download the .ZIP file and unzip its contents. Head back into Photoshop to import them through the Brush toolbar.
If your Brush tool isn't selected, hit the icon on the left or press the B key. Click into the thumbnail image of the brush that is currently enabled from the toolbar above. Under the Gear dropdown, choose Import Brushes.
Navigate to where you have your brushes stored and select the ABR file to pull them into Photoshop. They should now be loaded in at the bottom of your default brush options; scroll down through them until you reach the newest folder below.
Perfect. Now, onto the most important part: what's on the inside.
Step Six: Finishing the Card
If you're creating a Hallmark-style card, you've probably already got some ideas about what you want the inside of this fold-out to say. Create a second 4" by 6" Photoshop file, marking the middle with another vertical guide.
Using the Type tool again, add your desired message. You can personalize a different note for each recipient or even add more images to the inside if you want.
When the card is finally complete, it's time to get it printed. You'll want to get your ducks in a row well in advance in order to give the cards time to reach each destination before the big day arrives. Save your work and send it off to the printers, if delivering your files digitally. If you're going with Staples, Target, CVS, or Walgreens, you can bring your files in on a thumb drive or something similar.
Once you've got the physical, printed cards in your arms, the rest is easy. Stick 'em in their envelopes, lick the stamps, and send them away.
The Ultimate Custom Christmas Card: Photoshop Wizards, This One Is for You
Creating your own Christmas card is a lot of fun; it's an excellent way to connect with friends and family that you might not see very often. Whether you choose a family photo, a picture of your dog, or just a funny message, it'll make a cute keepsake that they'll be able to hang on their fridges or corkboards.
If you have kids, this will definitely be a treat that Grandma keeps in her wallet. Your yearly family portrait is going to be making the rounds as she checks out from the grocery store, and everybody behind her in line will have only you to thank for it. Mission accomplished.
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