www.reflectingthedesigner.com

This was another Christmas card I just did for a family who wanted a very customized look. They also needed a few different versions of the same card for their business, close family and friends, and others on their Christmas card list.

The image to the right is the family version, but you can view their business version in my gallery.

This is what they requested:

• A 4×6 and 5×7 design that is different than the average, traditional template design.
• A full color photo of the family and black and white photos of their two children incorporated into the design.
• A design that would include the true meaning of Christmas along with the text on “Our heart, Christ’s manger.”
• All of the specific text elements you see in both versions including one for their business and one just for family and friends.
• A way to tie all of their requests together into a card without making it look disjointed.

Thankfully, the photos were the easy part on this card. They were professionally taken by the very talented Kristen Gallatin. The only thing I did was to zoom into a family pic to get the requested “yawning picture” of my customers youngest son, and change both pictures of the boys to black and white.

Photoshop Tips:

• Incorporating both black and white photos into one design can sometime look sloppy or cluttered. To avoid this, I chose to create the color palette for the card to match the colors from the central photo which served as the focal point of the card. I also, faded that picture into black and white as well as faded the entire card into black and white around the edges so that all of the elements of the card have the same feel to them.
• I use a ton of layers when working in Photoshop. I make a lot of duplicate layers, especially of backgrounds, than use a feathered, and slightly transparent eraser on the top layers to create the different vignette effects used in photos and background images.
• I used the Blending option heavily on the many layers of the background I used and most especially on the image of the nativity in the upper right hand corner.

Let me know if you need some emergency help on a Christmas card going out, and I’d be happy to discuss options with you!

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