Create a Custom Greeting Card in Photoshop!
Monday, January 18th 2010 @ 9:33 AM 
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Want to use Photoshop to create your own greeting cards? Here’s how! Scroll to the bottom of the article to see the video.
Making the background white
This would have been a whole lot easier if the photograph had been taken with a white background to begin with but we don’t always have that luxury, do we? This photograph was taken outside with a very busy background that didn’t fit the look that I wanted. Here is how I made it white:
First step is to put your image on top of a transparent background layer.
Click File/New
In the dialog box that pops up set the inches and resolution to match (or slightly larger than) the image you are working on. I chose 5 inches high by 4 inches wide at a resolution of 300. Make sure that you have selected Transparent. It will make your life easier as you work with the graphic design later.
Figure 1
Use your move tool to drag the image you are working on onto the new file you have created. Next create a layer mask, set your brush tool on black at 100% and start painting the background. This will “erase” the background. If you make a mistake, you can fix it easily by switching to white and painting back in.
Figure 2
When you are done removing the background, it is time to make a new file just the size and shape that you want your final card to be, with a white background this time. I chose to make mine 5x7 because it is an easy size to print and mail. It also works for attaching to emails. When I am going to print it, I usually choose 300 resolution (check with your printer for what they recommend). If it is going to be sent electronically, make it 72 resolution. I like to save it at the higher resolution and then down size it before sending or posting online. You can always make it smaller but you can’t always go bigger.
Now use your move tool to drag your photo onto the new file.
Adding hearts
Select the Custom shape tool. It is right above the hand tool in your tool bar on the left. If you don’t see it, it may be hidden behind another tool so right click on the icon right above the hand tool and see if it is there.
After the Custom shape tool is selected, go to the drop down box at the top of the screen and choose a heart shape. Click on the color box to the right and change the color to red or whatever color your heart desires. Now you can drag your mouse across the valentine card to make a heart of the size you want.
I wanted the heart behind the photograph so I dragged the layer that the heart was on below the layer that the photograph was on.
Figure 3
The heart looks flat and uninteresting so here is a way to jazz it up: Make sure the heart layer is selected.
Click on Layer/Layer Style/Drop Shadow.
Now you can adjust the distance, spread, and size of the shadow giving the illusion that the heart is floating off the page. I chose distance 40, spread 10, and size 75. Play with different settings until you like the effect.
Figure 4
To make the heart look rounded, I chose
Layer/Layer Style/Bevel and Emboss.
I set the size at 150 to get this effect.
Figure 5
Next I added the text. You can choose the font, size and color of the letters on the top bar. The font is one that I found online and downloaded, called Scriptina. I chose to have “Be” and “Mine” as separate layers so that I could move them around independently until I was happy with their placement. I also played with the size of the text using Free Transform (Edit/Free Transform.) Just drag on the corners until you like what you see. I have found that you can squish and stretch text at will to achieve different effects or make the text fit the space.
It was time to step back and see what else this design needed. I decided that it needed some framing.
For this step you will want the rulers to be showing at the edge of your image. If they aren’t, Click “View” at the top of the screen and make sure that “Rulers” is checked. Place guides on all four sides of the image at an equal distance from all four edges of the image (i.e. ¼ inch) by clicking on the ruler and dragging into the image. A guide line will appear wherever you stop.
Select the marquee tool on the left and set it for Feather: 0 and Style: Normal. Starting in the upper left corner where the guides meet, click and drag your mouse from the upper left to the lower right corner of the guides. There should be crawling ants lined up with the guidelines.
Make sure that the background layer is selected and click Edit/Stroke.
A dialog box will appear. You can choose how many pixels wide the stroke line will be (I chose 20 px) and the color of the stroke line. I chose gray. Click ok and you now have a gray stroke line. Ctrl/D will get rid of the crawling ants and View/Clear Guides will eliminate the guidelines.
It still looked a little plain so I added some more hearts of various sizes using the shape tool and the move tool to move them around until I was happy with the arrangement.
Here is the finished card:
We have only scratched the surface of all the amazing things you can do with graphic design in Photoshop. There will be more to come!
