In this tutorial, we are going to create a simple New Year greeting card with Xmas balls on snowflakes background in Adobe Photoshop CS6. I hope you enjoy this tutorial and you’ll try to create your own greeting card for New Year! Layered PSD file included. Let’s get started!

Final Image Preview

Start working by creating a new document (Ctrl+N) in Adobe Photoshop CS6 with the size 1000px by 1000px (RGB color mode) at a resolution of 72 pixels/inch.
Create a new layer, select the Soft Round brush from Brush Tool (B).

Use this brush to paint the bottom part of the canvas. The brush’s color is #CD9F00 (set Opacity to 15% in Options bar).

Create a new layer, using on it the same Soft Round brush mentioned above to paint the top part of tha canvas with the color #867321.

Create a new layer and select again the Soft Round brush.

Use this brush to paint the middle part of the canvas with the color #BEB300 (brush Opacity – 20%).

Continue painting the canvas by creating again a new layer, applying on it the same brush used before, this time with the color #FFE642 (brush Opacity – 15%).

Create a new layer and select on it the Hard Round brush.

Use this brush to represent many small circles of different diameter, with #FFF645 color (brush Opacity – 15%).

Create a new layer and apply the Hard Round brush used in the previous example to represent other small circles of the color #FFC835 (brush Opacity – 20%).

Make a copy now of the layer containing the last represented circles and apply on the layer the next filter: Filter > Blur > Gaussian blur.

We’ve got the next background:

Next we’ll select the Ellipse Tool (U) to represent a ring.

Set Fill to 0% for this layer and click on Add a layer style icon from bottom part of the Layers panel to select Stroke.

We’ve got the next result:

Make three copies of the last made layer and select the Free Transform (Ctrl+T) command to change the copies’ sizes, placing them the same way from below:

Combine in a group all the layers containing the rings (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).

Insert the mask on the group by choosing Add layer mask on the bottom part of the Layers panel and choose the Soft Round brush of black color (set Opacity to 30% in Options bar).

Paint in the mask using this brush to hide the rings’ elements the same way demonstrated below:

Create a new layer and select the Hard Round brush.

Use this brush to represent a small circle of the color #F8FC7D:

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

We’ve got the next result:

Set the Blending mode for this layer to Vivid Light.

Select Image > Adjustments > Curves and adjust the curve shape as shown to make a little color corrections.

We’ve got the next result:

Create a new layer and select the Hard Round brush.

Use this brush to insert several more circles of the color #FCFF7C (brush Opacity – 20%).

Make a copy of the last represented layer containing the circles and set the Blending mode for this layer to Color Dodge.

Next select the Ellipse Tool (U) to draw a Christmas ball.

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

Apply 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: