Learn How to Create A Gorgeous New Year 2012 Card in Photoshop

In this tutorial, we will learn how to create a gorgeous new year 2012 wallpaper in Photoshop.

Tutorial Details

Program: Photoshop CS5

Estimated Completion Time: 40-45 Minutes

Tutorial Assets

The following assets were used in the creation of this 2012 wallpaper.

Moons Stars Sparkles Brushes

Step 1

Create a new document with Width 1400px and Height 1200px. Fill the background with #120021 color using ‘paint bucket tool’.

Step 2

Create a new layer and type 2 of ‘2012’. Make sure to create a new layer for each number, meaning four layers to write down 2012. Here we are using ‘Lithos Pro’ font and 135pt font size. You can use any color as we are going to use gradient later on.

Step 3

Now click on the text ‘2’ layer to select it and go to Layer> Layer style> Blending options and use the following settings for it.

Step 4

Next, right click on this layer and select the option of ‘copy layer style’ and then right click on the rest of the number layers and select ‘paste layer style’ option to apply same effects on all of them.

Step 5

Select the four number layers by pressing ‘Shift’ key and click on the layers and then go to Layer> Group layers to collect them in one group. After that, go to Layer> Duplicate group. Place this duplicated group below the original group and go to Layer> Layer style> Stroke and use the given settings.

Copy and paste this layer style to the rest of layers in the duplicated group in the same way as we did in step 4.

Step 6

Create a new layer just above the background layer but below the text layers. Fill it with # 000000 color using ‘paint bucket tool’. Now go to Filter> Artistic> Sponge and use the following values.

Then go to Filter> Blur> Radial blur and use the given settings.

Change the blending mode of this layer to ‘screen’. Label this layer as ‘rays’.

Step 7

Create a new layer; place it above the ‘rays’ layer. Select the ‘brush tool’ and apply star brushes as displayed below.

Step 8

Create a new layer above the ‘rays’ layer. Select the ‘brush tool’, click on ‘sparkles5 Falln-Brushes’ and open the ‘brush presets’ window. Use the given settings here.

Apply the brush on the layer to get the effect as shown below.

Step 9

Create a new layer above the ‘rays’ layer and below ‘sparkles’ layers. Select the ‘hard round brush’ and open the ‘brush presets’ window. Use the same settings as used in step 8 except the size of brush, here used 70px size instead of 30px and apply the brush randomly on this new layer.

Now go to Layer> layer style> Color overlay and set # 4c028c color for these circles.

Step 10

Create a new layer above the rest of the layers. Type in ‘Happy’ here, using ‘Lithos Pro’ font and 70pt font size. After that, go to Layer> Layer style> Blending options and use the given settings here.

Next, create a new layer and type ‘New’ here and ‘Year’ on another layer. Then copy the layer style of ‘Happy’ layer and paste it on these 2 layers.

Step 11

Select the background layers by pressing ‘Shift’ key and collect them in a new group. Then go to Layer> Merge group. Select the ‘rectangular marquee tool’ and select the lower half of this merged layer.

Next, go to Edit> Clear to clear the lower half of the background.

Step 12

Collect all the layers in a new group, then go to Layer> Duplicate group. After that, go to Edit> Transform> Flip vertical and drag this duplicated group downward using the ‘move tool’ to place it just below the original group to form its reflection.

Reduce the opacity of this duplicated group to 30%.

Step 13

Next, we’ll create a shadow behind the ‘2012’.Create a new layer above the background layers of the original group. Select the ‘soft round brush’ and # 0e0e0e color.