Design a Father's Day Card in Adobe Photoshop

Hey, everyone, this is Giselle again. And in this tutorial, I'll show you how to make a Father's Day card. Before I start, everything I use here comes with Photoshop.So you don't need to go looking for brushes or textures. I'm trying to keep this really simply instead of showing you how I'd make the card if I worked on it really hard, because that would take an eternity. So I'm trying to keep this tutorial simple, and all the resources here are found in Photoshop. That's how I do my stuff (LOL, that sounds really stupid)...

 

 

The first thing we're going to do is create a new document. The size of my new document is 703px (width) X 517px (height) at 72 px/in (pixels per inch).

 

The next thing we're going to do is fill the background with a color. I choose a blue color (part I, 1:22); I don't know why, I just do...

 

Next, we're going to make vertical stripes on the right side of the card (I, 1:32), and fill the stripes in with color.

 

Then we're going to select the eraser tool, to use on the stripes, and try to find a good brush; I'm going to use the "Brush on Light Weave" brush. Its Opacity is set pretty low (12%), so we're going to raise it up a little bit, but not too much (to 31%). You don't want to erase the stripes a lot; or maybe you do want to erase a lot, but I don't. So keep erasing the stripes however much you want to. Let's make the tool a little bigger...Once again, I click on the stripes (with the tool) a lot, just to make the erasure more precise, so don't mind my clicking. Go over the stripes and just keep clicking on them to give you some nice transparency circles. The one I'm making now looks better than the original that I made (I, 2:48)...

 

After you've done all of the click-erasing that you desire, you can add a gradient if you like. My Gradient is green, with a Blend Mode set to Color, a Style of Reflected, and an Angle of 90 degrees. I actually like this (duplicated) Layer better than the other one, so I'm going to use this one (I, 3:18).

 

The next thing we're going to do is apply a texture. The Pattern I'm using is Gouache Light on Watercolor. So this is what we have right now (I, 3:56)...Blend Mode for this texture layer will be set to Soft Light. Then you can duplicate the layer, and remove the strips section from the duplicated layer if you choose to. So with this nice duplicated texture layer, you can use the eraser tool to your liking. And this is what we come up with (I, 4:32). There's a lot of overlaying and duplicating of layers in this tutorial; that's pretty much all you need to know (when adding new elements)...

 

 

Next comes the picture. My original picture is kind of ugly - not ugly, plain. I'm going to pump it up by adjusting the Brightness and Contrast. Then I go to the Curves menu item (Ctrl+M shortcut) to make it a little brighter. This is just because my photo is messed up. You don't have to do this if yours is okay, but it's good to know all of the options here in Photoshop. It's like a treasure trove of stuff, LOL...

 

The next thing we're going to do is select a rectangle shape in the corner of the picture that you want to peel back, like so (I, 5:50). Isn't that cool...? So select your corner. Then, selecting the Gradient Tool, we're going to set a gradient of white to black. We're going to draw a line diagonally from the (preferred) corner of our picture to the opposite corner of the selected rectangle. Note, the white color should flow to black as you approach the center of the photo. Hopefully, that made sense...After you've done that, you hit Ctrl+D or click anywhere outside the rectangle to deselect the rectangle. Then we're going to go to Edit >> Transform >> Warp. I made my gradient rectangle a little too big...Now we're going to click-hold and drag the vertex at the photo's corner to the diagonally opposite corner of the gradient rectangle. Extend, diagonally, a little beyond that opposite corner. What you're trying to do is get rid of the appearance of most of the gray color of the rectangle (by folding over it), but it looks cool if you let a little of the color show. It might take a few tries to get the photo to "peel" the way that you want it. Previously, it took me a lot of practice, at first, then it became easy. So I must have been doing it wrong the first time...Anyways, you should get something like that (I, 7:30), OK? This is without the effects, and with some smudging; because the area around the peeled corner was a little gray, I smudged the area a little bit. So everything right now looks pretty cool.

 

The next effect we're going to apply to the image is Drop Shadow. I colored my shadow, but you don't have to do that (to yours), obviously. For the Drop Shadow, the parameters you use should be the default, but with slight variations: the Opacity is 22%, the Blend Mode is Multiply, the Angle is 119 (degrees), the Distance is 34px, and the Size is 21px. OK. Now that we have the picture, things are starting to get in place...

 

Pale boxes, etc.

 

Next, we do the boxes. The first box you create - in a new layer - is a rectangle that is below the photo and slidden partly underneath it (part II, 0:12). The rectangle has a black to white gradient that starts from the left and goes to the right. Not so hard, is it? No...We're just going to set the layer of this new rectangle to Soft Light; that just adds a little something. 

 

The next box we're going to create is a border. Originally, I was going to make a wooden border, but I didn't like it. Let's go with a prettier one...If you want to work with a wooden border, then go ahead. But I don't have the time to make a wooden border pretty...What we're going to use to make this border is the Polygonal Lasso Tool. We're going to take the tool and go around and around just inside the borders of the entire card, until we complete a rectangle. Then, we're going to click Select >> Inverse (Shift+Ctrl+I). We fill the border with color by selecting the Paint Bucket Tool, choosing Foreground from the dropdown menu, and clicking anywhere in the space between the rectangle and the card perimeter. You can really do whatever you want to do with the border. What I did before (with a previous version of this card design) was use the following values under the Effects menu of the border layer, just in case you want to use the same ones (II, 1:59):

 

Inner Shadow submenu - Blend Mode is Overlay, Opacity = 32%, Distance = 5px, Size = 5px;

Outer Glow submenu - Blend Mode is Screen, Opacity = 75%, color is white;

Bevel and Emboss submenu - Depth = 31%, Size = 5px, Technique is Smooth, Style is Inner Bevel, Direction of Up;

Satin submenu - Opacity = 13%, Distance = 11px, Size = 14px, Angle = 19 (degrees);

Gradient Overlay - Gradient is black-to-white, Opacity = 100%, Angle = 90 (degrees).

 

Almost all of the parameter values are the default settings, to be honest...And I just lowered the Opacity on the entire border layer to 57%.

 

The next shape that I create on this Father's Day card design is this white one (II, 3:11), which is easy. Just go around with the Polygonal Lasso Tool again, then fill the shape in with a white color. Give this shape's layer a Soft Light setting, and an Opacity of 55%. 

 

Next is a long rectangle completely underneath (and not touching) the imported photo, using the same Lasso Tool.

 

I then add a square bracket to cover either side of the rectangle (II, 3:45). What I do to get them is create another rectangle - using the Selection Tool - a little bigger than the long rectangle, fill it with color, go to Select >> Modify >> Contract, and set the Contract By value to 4px (or however many pixels you need for reduction). Then I select an area of space in the middle of the bigger rectangle (i.e., still in this bigger rectangle's layer), followed by Ctrl+X to cut the section out. Ta da! There are your square brackets...I lower the Opacity of the brackets to about 40%.

 

Next comes the text. The text is so easy. You can choose whatever font you want. For the "Happy" - in "Happy Father's Day," written in the white shape to the right of your photo - the Effects I used were Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, Inner Glow, and Stroke. Here are the settings for each effect, which, once again, are the default settings (II, 4:41). To make the word appear as if it's jumping off the page, I chose a Stroke border color that kind of blends in with everything else; the word would look extremely different without that color. Also, it would look extremely different without Drop Shadow. So those 2 effects need each other. This is the word without Inner Shadow (II, 5:13)...How I made my words bend a little bit - in the "Happy," you can't really tell - is by clicking the Warp Text icon above the work space. In the pop-up box, you can select any Style that you want...It's really cool... I selected Arc. I added a little bit of Bend, and went down a little in Horizontal Distortion (from the defaults).

 

For the "Father's Day" text (in another layer), I used pretty much the same effects (except one) as in "Happy" but with slightly different values: Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, and Stroke. And I warped the text using the Style of Rise, a Bend of 16%, and a Horizontal Distortion of -23% (that's minus 23 percent).

 

In the long rectangular box below the photo is regular, plain old text with a color kind of matching the background, but not fading into it (II, 6:18). There is where you type your "amazingly cool awesomeness message" or whatever you want to type there.

 

And that's pretty much it to this tutorial. The extra stuff that I put in was pretty darn easy (II, 6:41)...So just using a bunch of shapes and gradients, you can make a Father's Day card. I hope that was easy enough. It's really simple to do; you just have to do it to your own liking. What probably takes the most time here is erasing...I hope you guys enjoyed the tutorial...I hope that you guys have a wonderful day, and that your dads have a great Father's Day, whether it already passed for you or whether it's coming soon...Goodbye!

 

 

Videos: Father's Day Art - A Photoshopped Card, part 1 of 2, Father's Day Art - A Photoshopped Card, part 2 of 2