The holidays are nearly upon us and our clients are going to be asking about cards! I like making mine in Elements because I love the ease of the project bin which shows me all of my open files and lets me drag and drop them with ease. The steps are below and even lower, you’ll see a video tutorial where I actually make a card! Have fun!
1. Download some snazzy digital papers. I get mine from Sassy Designs because they’ve got great faux texture and warmth and they’re super cheap.
2. Open the image(s) and digital paper(s) you want to use on your card.
3. Create a new blank document with the size requirements for whomever prints your photo & press-printed products. You can have 5x7s printed with a greeting (the cheapest way) or have purpose built press printed greeting cards done. Just make sure that you find the product you’re going to be printing and create your template to those size specifications.
4. Drag your digital paper onto your new, blank image
5. Using the custom shapes tool, drag a shape onto your template. This will be the shape of your image.
6. Drag your image onto the template. In the layers palette, drag the image layer above the custom shape layer and create a clipping mask. In Elements, this is done by typing cmd/ctrl+g. In full Photoshop, right click on the layer in the palette and click ‘create clipping mask’.
7. In the layers palette, select the custom shape and add a bevel edge or drop shadow via the effects panel (in PSE) or the layer blending options (in PS).
8. You can now add another shape on your template for your greeting to fit into or type directly onto your paper. Experiment with drop shadows, beveled edges, gradient patterns on your text and rounded corners.
9. Save as JPG and drop into your printers’ templates or post online as an e-card!
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