Tutorial: Greeting Card In PSP: Index

Program: Paint Shop Pro (I used both PSP X5 and PSP 8; it should work in other versions.)

Difficulty: Beginner to Intermediate.  

This is not a hard project, but it takes some time.  I tried to include detailed explanations  and lots of screenshots for beginners, so it's a long tutorial. It uses only basic program functions, but there are lot of steps to complete the project.  If you're only interested in the front image, you can skip to Part 3. 

Translatable: Should work in any program that has a guides feature and supports layers.

A little early, but I thought that it would give you plenty of time to utilize the tutorial if you'd like to.

Info and links below.

Because there are a lot of steps to this, I broke it up into 4 parts.

• Part 1 covers how to set up a template for making a card that you can print out.
• Part 2 covers how to make a few basic seamless patterns in Paint Shop Pro.  
• Part 3 covers the creation of the front image from scratch in Paint Shop Pro
• Part 4 covers how to set up the back cover so that it will print in the correct orientation for your card.

You should be able to go through Part 3 by itself without any problems, so if you're only interested in making something like the main image, you can skip to that part.

There are a couple of card templates and some seamless patterns provided in the tutorial, along with some cloud renders which are used in Part 3.

I'm not providing a zip file because the tutorial teaches you how to make your own.  I uploaded mine as a courtesy, but my goal is to share techniques, not just give you a resource pack so that you can make carbon copies of the example card.

Okay, on to the tutorial.

Part 1|Part 2|Part 3|Part 4

Notices:

Gradients used in this tutorial are from pjentoft.com.
Texture bases in some of the examples are from buzillo-stock.deviantart.com
Brushes by  obsidiandawn.com and ladyvictoire.deviantart.com

Written Content of this tutorial is copyright Rose B. Fischer and Encompass Rose Design.  It may not be reprinted or distributed in any form without prior written permission.  You may use the extra resources provided in the tutorial for your personal, non-commercial projects or to make freebies.  For any commercial use, you must contact me by email.

Any card or design that you make from scratch with the techniques shared here is yours to use as you like.  (Copying the example image exactly or making minor adjustments is not considered "from scratch.)