?In this lesson you will learn how to create a greeting card for Christmas and New Year.
The final result:
Step 1
Create a new document with the following dimensions: 800×600 px, fill it with black color.
Step 2
Next, I will create abstract snow. We can do this with a tool. Pen
(Pen Tool). But before we get started, we need to set up the brush that we apply next. Choose a tool Brush 
(Brush Tool), set a soft brush, the size (size) brush about 15 px, opacity (opacity) brush 61%.
Next, go to the bookmark Brushes (Brushes) on the settings panel to open the settings window brush or go Window – Brushes (Windows> Brushes). Set the settings for the brush, which are shown in the screenshot below:
Step 3
Set the foreground color to white (#ffffff). Create a new layer, then select the tool. Pen (Pen Tool), in the settings of this tool you need to set the mode Contours (Paths) instead of mode Layer – figure (Shape Layers). Draw one straight vertical line:
Click on the original reference point to close the contour. Next, right-click on the created contour and in the appeared window select the option Outline the contour (Stroke Path):
In the small window that appears, install the brush, and also tick the box Simulate pressure (Simulate Pressure). This is very important because simulating the pressure will give the line tapered ends, it will make them look more interesting!
The result will be similar to mine.
Step 4
Then, once again, right-click on the vertical line and in the appeared window select the option Delete contour (Delete Path). In the same way, add more vertical lines.
Step 5
You can change the size of the brush to make the picture look more interesting:
Step 6
Duplicate the current layer (Ctrl + J) and then go Filter – Blur – Gaussian Blur (Filter> Blur> Gaussian Blur). Apply a filter with the following parameters:
Step 7
We have completed work on the creation of snow; let’s go to the next step. Create a new layer on top of all layers, then select the tool Gradient 
(Gradient Tool). Fill this layer with a spectral linear gradient (this is one of the standard gradients of Photoshop).
After that, change the blending mode for the gradient layer to Soft light (Soft Light) and you will see the absolute difference in color.
Step 8
Before we add text, we need to create a dark shading to separate the text area from the background. To create this effect, select the tool Rectangular area 
(Rectangular Marquee Tool) to create an active selection, as shown in the screenshot below. Fill the selection with a linear gradient from black to transparent on the new layer.
Step 9
Cancel active selection (Ctrl + D). Now it’s time to add text. Choose a tool Horizontal text 
(Horizontal Type Tool), write the white text in two lines. For this tutorial, I used the Arial font (font color: white, font size: 30 pt, Normal, Black, Crisp), this is the standard Windows font.
Step 10
Next, we have to add a year, the only thing I want to put the year in a small window. Using tool Rounded Rectangle 
(Rounded Rectangle Tool), Mode (Mode): Layer layer (Shape layers), Radius (Radius): 5 px, create a small white rectangle above the text.
Step 11
After that, select the tool again. Horizontal text (Horizontal Type Tool). Add the year using the same font (font color: black, size: 16 pt, Black, Crisp).
Step 12
Add another line with the text slightly below the main text. But before we add the text, change some settings for the text for this line:
Step 13
Now you can add another line of text:
Step 14
Decrease Opacity (opacity) of this layer with text up to 40%.
We have almost completed the creation of our greeting card. The final touch we need to add is white, barely visible circles. With a hard brush opacity (opacity) 20%, draw circles of different diameter throughout the area of the greeting card.
You can send this card to your friends and relatives, and they will be happy to receive this card from you 
Author: Photoshop Star Staff
