How to make a simple Christmas Card and Wallpaper in Photoshop

In time for the Festive Season this tutorial will help you make your own Christmas Card, and you’ll have no trouble producing good results! You can download the PSDs a the bottom!

A simple Christmas Card and Wallpaper

1. Downloads

Firstly you’ll need to download these Brushes and Images!
Brushes: Holiday – Christmas brushes.zip (2mb), and this set: Christmas Brushes!
And these two photos: Happy Christmas Bokeh by Simon and Bokeh Texture by Susan!

Holiday (Christmas & Hannukah) by Obsidian Dawn

Christmas brushes by ~coolwing

2. Making the Front Page or Wallpaper

Using Susan’s Bokeh Texture open it in Photoshop, name the layer ‘Background’
Using the Text Tool, write Merry Christmas or Seasons Greetings:
I used: Font: Gill Sans Ultra Bold Size: 54 pt, Sharp Colour: 075b8c:

Making the Front Page

3. Brushes

Create a New Layer: ‘Brushes’
Using the brushes you downloaded, place them around your text: If the Brushes haven’t shown up, then load the Brushes or restart Photoshop, save first!
The sizes vary from around 100px to 150px, experiment around:
The colour should be the same: 075b8c:

Brushes

4. Layer Blending

To give it a smoother finish we’ll use a Soft Light blending mode:
Duplicate the Background layer, and drag it to the top of the layers:
Set the blending mode to Soft Light, and set the Opacity to around 30%:
Your Wallpaper/Front Page is finished!

Layer Blending

5. Making the Christmas Card

Open a new document in Photoshop (Ctrl/Cmd + N):
With Settings: International Paper, A4, 300 pi

Making the Christmas Card

6. Christmas Card Layout

To make a card out of an A4 sheet of paper we need certain fold lines:
Make 50% Guides Vertical and Horizontal, go View –> New Guide:

Christmas Card Layout

7. Import Images

Import your front page from it’s document, on the layer *Right Click*>Duplicate Layer (firstly Flatten your Image, Layer –> Flatten Image), send to your Christmas Card.psd:
Scale the images using, Edit –> Transform –> Scale, and Edit –> Transform –> Rotate 90° CW:
Import any other accompanying images of Family or festive photos to fill in the two blank pages!

Import your images

8. Text

Use the Text Tool to write your greetings:
I used: Font: BlairMdITC TT Size: 24 pt, Sharp Colour: 075b8c:

Text - Greetings

That’s It!

Download the PSD for Wallpaper (4.3mb)!

Download Card Layout PSD (12.3mb)!

Written by Mike

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Michael Scott is the publisher and photographer behind Scott Photographics! He is very passionate about his photography and enjoys sharing the best of his experiences for others to enjoy too! Contact Mike via email!