Is it too early to be thinking about Christmas cards? I have a confession to make. I haven’t sent out Christmas cards in a couple of years. As a result I don’t receive many Christmas cards during the holiday season. All of that is going to change. I don’t expect people to send us a card if I don’t send them one. More than that though, I really WANT to send out Christmas cards this year. So I better get a jump on it, while I’m excited about it. Or before I know it another year will have gone by.
I’m going to make my Christmas greeting card using Adobe Photoshop and Printable Art and Crafts: Worship the King. I chose this because even through it does not have the traditional red and green Christmas colors the message on the card is important: Worshiping the King by celebrating Christ’s birth during Christmas. This art print comes in five sizes, one of them being a card size, which makes it easy for me. I don’t have to re-size anything. I am going to add pictures of my children to the front of the Christmas card to personalize it.
- First I open SBA_PrintableArtCraft_WorshipKing_Card.jpg in Photoshop.
- Then I opened the files that I want to use to decorate my Christmas card. I’m using SBA_SSEmbTemp_RoundedPostage4.psd from ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Rounded Postage. These frames will be an easy way to add pictures to the front of the Christmas card.
4. To move the SBA_SSEmbTemp_RoundedPostage4.psd into the card, first select all of the layers in the layers palette (hold down the Shift key to select more than one layer). Then click on the highlighted layers, and drag & drop them into the card. Photoshop moves all its layers around via the layers palette.
5. I saved and gave my Christmas card a new name. Do this by going to File>Save As. As I worked on my card, I saved every couple of minutes. Do this by going to File>Save.
6. Once the layered frame is in the card, I re-sized and scaled it to be smaller. Again, I made sure all my frame layers were selected before doing this. One tip about this is to hold down the Shift key while dragging the corners smaller. This will keep the proportions the same. Now the fun part is dragging the frame around the card to where it looks best.
7. Add photos to the frame.
8. When the card is finished I did a final save. Then I did a File>Save As and changed the file format from PSD to JPG. JPG is the standard photo file. The Christmas card will then be in a jpg photo file, and can be sent to any printing company. I can print the card from home. I can also send our Christmas card as an electronic e-card by attaching it to an email.
Here is our finished Christmas card. It was fun and easy to put together. I’m excited about sending it out to family and friends this year. I plan on mailing it out at the beginning of December. Then sometime during the week before Christmas I’ll share it on Facebook. Have a merry Christmas everyone.
Sarah Batdorf