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Creative christmas cards

Today, I’m going to show you how use custom shapes and Layer styles in Photoshop CS3 to create a creative Christmas illustration. Let’s get started!

Final Image Preview

Create creative christmas cards in Photoshop CS3

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.

Create creative christmas cards in Photoshop CS3

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

Create creative christmas cards in Photoshop CS3

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.

Create creative christmas cards in Photoshop CS3
We’ve got the next result:
Create creative christmas cards in Photoshop CS3

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.
Create creative christmas cards in Photoshop CS3

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

Create creative christmas cards in Photoshop CS3

Add Gradient Overlay
Create creative christmas cards in Photoshop CS3

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.

Create creative christmas cards in Photoshop CS3
We’ve got the next result:
Create creative christmas cards in Photoshop CS3

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.

Create creative christmas cards in Photoshop CS3

Drag to draw the tree having the color #003274.

Create creative christmas cards in Photoshop CS3

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:

Create creative christmas cards in Photoshop CS3

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

Create creative christmas cards in Photoshop CS3
We’ve got the next result:
Create creative christmas cards in Photoshop CS3

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

Create creative christmas cards in Photoshop CS3

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

Create creative christmas cards in Photoshop CS3
We’ve got the next result:
Create creative christmas cards in Photoshop CS3
Draw another shape using Pen Tool (P).
Create creative christmas cards in Photoshop CS3

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

Create creative christmas cards in Photoshop CS3

Add Gradient Overlay:

Create creative christmas cards in Photoshop CS3

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.
Create creative christmas cards in Photoshop CS3
We’ve got the next result:
Create creative christmas cards in Photoshop CS3

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.

Create creative christmas cards in Photoshop CS3
Use this brush to represent the shadows on the snow hill as shown.

Create creative christmas cards in Photoshop CS3

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