Tutorial Pie

This tutorial looks at quick effective ways to produce a good looking Christmas frame. Perfect for Christmas cards to friends or loved ones. (.PSD Included at bottom)

Step 1

Find a suitable image. Open it within Photoshop.

Step 2

First we need to create a base for the frame. Create a new layer [Layer->New->Layer.. (Ctrl+Shift+N)] Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool (U), change the radius to 10. This can be found at the top of the page. Drag your rectangle to cover an area leaving gaps between the edges of the canvas. Try and make these of equal lengths from the side, although it doesn’t matter to much as holly leaves will cover it.

Step 3

Grab the Magic Wand Tool (W), select the rectangle and hit the delete key. Leave the selected area and go to [Select->Inverse (Ctrl+Shift+I)]. This should now of selected your back border. Grab the Paint Bucket Tool (G) and fill your selection green. (Preferably quite similar to your leaf color.)

Step 4

Add some layer styling to your frame layer. Double click the layer and change the settings to these:

Step 5

Try and find single holly leaves on a plain background. As this is hard to find I have provided you with the holly leaves I used.

Step 6

Open the holly leaves in a new photoshop window. Change the properties of the layer so it’s not set as “Background”. Select the Magic Wand Tool (W) and click on the white background around the holly leaves. It should auto select the white. Hit delete to remove it. Do this again where there are any white areas are present, usually between the holly leaves etc.

Step 7

Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) to select a holly leaf, copy this into your main project. Do the same for the other one.

Step 8

Now it’s a process of resizing, rotating and moving. Right click on one of your holly leaves and select “Free Transform“. This now enables you to resize, rotate and move. When done click on another tool. A box should appear asking if you want to apply. Click “Apply”.

Step 9

Right click on the holly leaf layer and select “Dublicate Layer”. Rerarrange this new leaf next to the other one alongside your border.

Do this a few times, then select all the leaf layers, right click and select “Merge Layers”. Now dublicate this layer and arrange it alongside the border.

Keep doing this same process intil you have covered the entire border. When finished, select all your leaf layers, right click and select “Merge Layers”. This will give you a nice holly leaf frame.

Step 9

Next we are going to add some effects to our leaves to make them look Christmasy. Go into Filter->Filter Gallery and select diffuse glow. I left the original settings but you can alter them if you want.

Step 10

Add a small dropshadow to the holly leaves layer. Double click the layer and set it to these settings.

Here is the PSD

Thats about it! Feel free to leave feedback,

Thanks

Danny.