In this tutorial, we are going to create a greeting card for Valentine’s Day using simple techniques from Adobe Photoshop CS6. I hope you enjoy this tutorial, and will inspire you to create your own greeting card for Valentine’s Day! 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 1280px by 1024px (RGB color mode) at a resolution of 72 pixels/inch. Click on Add a layer style icon from bottom part of the Layers panel and select 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 background for our greeting card:
Using the Ellipse Tool (U), we may represent a small circle.
Click on Add a layer style icon from bottom part of the Layers panel and select 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:
Make a copy of the layer containing the circle and remove out of it the Gradient Overlay effect. Put the copy under the very first circle’s layer, go to the Mask Panel and set Feather to 172px (in case if you can find Mask Panel on the right side just activate it on main menu Windows > Masks):
We’ve got the next result:
Next we’ll draw the rays, choose the Pen Tool (P), set the drawing mode on Shape Layers in Options bar and draw the next shape as shown, placing the made layer under the circles’ layers.
Set Fill to 20% for the rays’ layer.
This way we can represent the next rays of white color, almost like on the next picture. Place the layers under the circles’ layers.
Combine in a group all the layers containing the rays (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 60% in Options bar).
Paint in the mask using this brush to hide out the rays as it is shown on the picture.
Make a copy of the rays’ group and place the copy under the circles’ layers. Remove the mask out of the copy. Using the Free Transform (Ctrl+T) command, we may turn over the copy by circle.
On the group’s copy insert the mask now the same way described above. Using the Soft Round brush mentioned above, hide out the rays the same way described on the picture.
Next we’ll represent several rings around the circle, using the Ellipse Tool (U). The rings’ layers must be situated above the circles’ layers.
In Adobe Photoshop CS6, there’s now a convenient Stroke option on your Options Bar when you have a shape active. Use drop downs to set the next Stroke options for our circle, Fill – (None), Stroke color – #FFF568, Stroke type – Solid:
We’ve got the next result:
Set Fill to 45% for this layer.
The next ring must be represented with the same Ellipse Tool (U).
The Stroke options:
We’ve got the next result:
Set Fill to 45% for this layer.
Let’s draw the next ring of the same width, applying the same tool.
The Stroke options:
Set Fill to 45% for this layer.
Continue representing the rings, using the Ellipse Tool (U).
The Stroke options:
Set Fill to 13% for this layer and change the Blending mode to Linear Light.
Now we must represent a dashed line on the central part of each ring, using the Ellipse Tool (U) too.
Set the next Stroke options in Options bar:
Set Fill to 28% for this layer and change the Blending mode to Linear Light.
