Valentines Cards Part 1

With Valentine's Day coming up, I have been asked to post a tutorial on making one. I will show a few things, but it important that you also experiment in the steps I demonstrate.

Step 1 : Open a Blank White layer.

Step 2 : Click the Add New layer button in the Layers pallette and a new Layer 1 forms above the White Layer.

Step 3 : Click the Rectangle Tool from the flyout on the left panel. You will find Custom shape at the bottom of the flyout. Click to select it.

Step 4 : In the top panel click where the arrow points to. You will find a Heart shape. Click to select it.

If you cannot find it, click the small white arrow on the side. It will reveal a dropdown menu where you will find 'Shapes' . You will find the Heart Shape in it.
Step 5 : Draw out the Heart shape. It will be black.
Step 6 : This is how the Layers pallette looks like.

Step 7 : CTRL+Click the Heart shape.

Step 8 : As soon as CTRL+Click a column of marching ants will surround the heart shape.

Step 9 : Click on the Foreground color.

Step 10 : The Color Picker comes up. The Narrow column of color in the middle is called the Spectrum. You will find a slider. Drag the slider to the top where the red is. Click on a shade of red.

Step 11 : Now ALT+Back Space. This will fill the selection with the Foreground Color. In this case it is red. The column of marching ants is still there.

Step 12 : Now click on the Paths pallete and click the icon shown. Hover your cursor over it to read its name. A workpath forms.

Step 13 : Now click back on the Layers pallette.

Step 14 : Click the Horizontal Type Tool from the flyout.

Step 15 : In the top panel click where the arrow points to set the font. I have chosen Impact, which you will find in photoshop. Set the points (size) of the fonts in the next window.

Step 16 : Now I have just gone on typing 'Be My Valentine". You will find that the text is restricted to the heart shape.

Step 17 : Right click the Text layer and choose Rasterise Text. Click on Rasterise Text to rasterise the text.

Step 18 : Now CTRL+Click the Layer thumbnail of the Rasterised Type.

Step 19 : Marching ants appear around the text.

Step 20 : Now click the Gradient Tool from the flyout. Then click on the top panel as shown to bring up the Gradient Editor.

Step 21 : The Gradient Editor opens. I have clicked on one of the Gradient. The small white hand points to it. You can choose any Gradient.

Step 22 : Now drag diagonally with the Gradient Tool. The Gradient has been applied to the rasterised Text.Step 23 : Click Back on Layer 1n which contains the red heart.
Step 24 : Go to Filter>Distort>Spherize.
Step 25 : In the Spherize dialogue box drag the 'Amount' to 100%. Click ok.
This is how the red Heart looks after being Spherized.

Step 26 : Now click on the rasterised text layer.

Step 27 : Now apply the Spherize Filter to the text as in Step 23 and 24.

Step 28 : Now click the Add Layer Style Button.

Step 29: Click on Drop Shadow from the popup.

Step 30 : I will leave the Drop Shadow at the default settings. Click ok.

Step 31 : The drop shadow has been applied.

Step 32 : Click back on Layer 1.

Step 33 : Bring up the Drop Shadow dialogue box as in Step 28 and 29.

Step 34 : In the controls of the Drop Shadow I have set the Size at 21, Spread at 4 and Distance at 7. There is nothing hard and fast about the settings. You can apply your own. Lastly reduce the Opacity to 50 %.

The Drop Shadow has been applied to the heart. This is the first part.

The concluding part of the tutorial is here.