Create a Stunning Merry Christmas Background with Red Baubles for Greetings Card

November 2nd, 2011 by admin Posted in Adobe Photoshop, Designing, Drawing Techniques

Set Fill to 65% for this layer and change the Blending mode to Screen.

Now let’s create a bokeh effect on the background, choose the Ellipse Tool (U) to make a small circle.

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

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.

We’ve got the next result:

Make now many copies of the last made layer and choose the Free Transform (Ctrl+T) command to change the copies’ sizes, placing them as on the next picture. Use a different value for Opacity and Fill options. Place the circles’ layers above the background’s layers, but lower than the balls’ layers.

Using the same tool, try to represent more circles:

Apply a different value for Opacity on the layers, make copies of them and choose the Free Transform (Ctrl+T) command to change the copies’ sizes, placing them the same way demonstrated below. The circle’s layer should be placed lower than balls’ layers.

Take the Ellipse Tool (U) now to represent a circle on the bottom part of the background.

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

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.

We’ve got the next result:

Make many copies of the last made circle layer and select the Free Transform (Ctrl+T) command to change the copies’ sizes, placing them as below. Choose a different value for Opacity on the made copies and place them under the balls’ layers.

Create a new layer and select the Soft Round brush.

Use this brush to represent the balls’ glow, using the color #FFAAA6 (brush Opacity – 10%).

Set the Blending mode for this layer to Color Dodge.

On the next new layer we’ll select a Soft Round brush.

Use this brush to represent the glow effect on the baubles’ supports. The brush’s color is #F89000 (brush Opacity – 20%).

Set the Blending mode for this layer to Screen.

Next we have to draw a shining star on the baubles. Choose the Pen Tool (P), set the drawing mode on Shape Layers in Options bar and draw a vertical ray of white color.

Make a copy of the last made layer and select the Free Transform (Ctrl+T) command to place the copy as it is shown below:

Make copies of the recently made rays’ layers and choose the Free Transform (Ctrl+T) command to change the copies’ sizes, placing them the same way from the picture below:

Create a new layer and select the Soft Round brush of white color.

Use this brush to draw a glow effect as shown.

Take the Ellipse Tool (U) to insert a small circle of white color.

Set Fill to 17% for this layer.

Combine in a group all the layers composing the shining star (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). Make now eight copies of the got group and apply the Free Transform (Ctrl+T) command to change the copies’ sizes, placing them as below. Several layers containing the rays we’ll place under the balls’ layers.

Insert the message text for greeting card. Select the Horizontal Type tool (T). Select a font, size and color in the Character panel.

Click in the canvas and type ‘Merry Christmas’. Press Enter to apply the text.

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

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.

We’ve got the next result:

Create a new layer and select the Soft Round brush of white color.

Use this brush to represent the shining effect on several decorations.

Set the Blending mode for this layer to Overlay.

On the next layer we’ll add more brightness for some card’s fragments. Use the Soft Round brush of white color (brush Opacity – 20%).

We’ve got the next result:

Set the Blending mode for this layer to Overlay.

Click 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.

We’ve got the next result:

Our Merry Christmas Background with Red Baubles for Greetings Card is finished!

Happy New Year and Merry Christmas!

View full size here.

Download free Layered PSD file.

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Tags: abstract, background, ball, bauble, card, celebration, christmas, decoration, design, festive, gift, glow, golden, greeting, happy, holiday, Illustration, merry, ornament, red, season, snow, snowflake, star, winter, xmas, year