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How to create Christmas background with snowflakes and stars in Photoshop CS5

In this tutorial, you will learn how to use brushes and custom shapes in Photoshop CS5 to create Christmas illustration in a few simple steps. It’s a simple trick to apply, but very useful. Read on to learn more.

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How to create Christmas background with snowflakes and stars in Photoshop CS5

Start working by creating a new document (Ctrl+N) in Adobe Photoshop with the size 1280px by 1024px (RGB color mode) at a resolution of 300 pixels/inch. Download from Psdgraphics the next Red grunge background and insert it on a new layer in our main document.

How to create Christmas background with snowflakes and stars in Photoshop CS5

Now download the next sets of brushes for in Adobe Photoshop, named: c130_splatter and stars_and_blinks. Create a new layer and select the next brush from c130_splatter set. The brush’s color is black (set the Opacity to 60% in Options bar).

How to create Christmas background with snowflakes and stars in Photoshop CS5

Use this brush to paint on the background as shown:

How to create Christmas background with snowflakes and stars in Photoshop CS5

Set Fill to 30% for this layer.

How to create Christmas background with snowflakes and stars in Photoshop CS5

Make a copy of the last made layer and apply on the copy the next filter: Filter>Blur>Gaussian blur.

How to create Christmas background with snowflakes and stars in Photoshop CS5

Set Fill to 30% for this layer and change the Blending mode to Hard Light.

How to create Christmas background with snowflakes and stars in Photoshop CS5

Create a new layer and select again the next brush of the color #C78987 from c130_splatter set.

How to create Christmas background with snowflakes and stars in Photoshop CS5

Use this brush to add some brushstrokes on the background as shown:

How to create Christmas background with snowflakes and stars in Photoshop CS5

On the next new layer we’ll use the same brush from the earlier mentioned set of brushes. The brush color is #903E23.

How to create Christmas background with snowflakes and stars in Photoshop CS5

Set the Blending mode for this layer to Color Dodge.

How to create Christmas background with snowflakes and stars in Photoshop CS5

Create a new layer and select the Soft Round brush of black color (set Opacity to 20% in Options bar).

How to create Christmas background with snowflakes and stars in Photoshop CS5

Use this brush to make darker the edges of the canvas.

How to create Christmas background with snowflakes and stars in Photoshop CS5

Set Fill to 50% for this layer and change the Blending mode to Multiply.

How to create Christmas background with snowflakes and stars in Photoshop CS5

Click Create new fill or adjustment layer from bottom part of the Layers panel and select Hue/Saturation.

How to create Christmas background with snowflakes and stars in Photoshop CS5

Drag the sliders to the right to increase the Hue and Saturation values of the color range.

How to create Christmas background with snowflakes and stars in Photoshop CS5

Click again on Create new fill or adjustment layer from bottom part of the Layers panel and click to Curves to adjust the curve shape as shown to make a little color corrections.

How to create Christmas background with snowflakes and stars in Photoshop CS5

We’ve got the next result:

How to create Christmas background with snowflakes and stars in Photoshop CS5

Using the Line Tool (U) with different weight value, we can represent the threads for hanging the stars. They have the color #FDF8C1.

How to create Christmas background with snowflakes and stars in Photoshop CS5

Combine in a group all the threads’ layers (press CTRL button to select the necessary layers and hold on the left mouse’s button while dragging the selected layers on Create a new group icon from bottom part of the Layers panel). Set Opacity to 70% for the group.

How to create Christmas background with snowflakes and stars in Photoshop CS5

Select the Custom Shape Tool (U)in the Tools bar, in the Options bar click the Shape to open the selection menu. Find 5 Point Star at the bottom of the menu, and then double-click a shape thumbnail to select it.

How to create Christmas background with snowflakes and stars in Photoshop CS5

Click and drag to draw a star of the color #FDF8C1.

How to create Christmas background with snowflakes and stars in Photoshop CS5

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

How to create Christmas background with snowflakes and stars in Photoshop CS5

Add Inner Glow.

How to create Christmas background with snowflakes and stars in Photoshop CS5

We’ve got the next result:

How to create Christmas background with snowflakes and stars in Photoshop CS5

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