Hi Design Cutters! Joanna here – Eric has moved up to a new role so I’ll be stepping in. We wish him all the best and thanks for all his work creating the great tutorials!
In this tutorial, we’ll be creating a colourful, illustrated travel postcard mainly in Photoshop, but also using Illustrator a bit to create some custom shapes. To help us do this, we’ll be using a generous number of freebies from the The Versatile Textures and Patterns Collection. This is a huge collection of patterns and textures from world-class designers that’ll breathe life in to your designs, and save you a lot of time by not having to create your own for every project! Along with these freebies, we’ll be using Monsteratt, a free font you can download, to create our holiday postcard. So, if you’re ready to start dreaming of a colourful getaway, grab a nice Moroccan Mint Tea, and let’s get started.
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Here’s a look at what we’ll be creating:
Follow along with this tutorial: Download the freebie files
This freebie pack is just a small sample of what you can expect to find in The Versatile Textures and Patterns Collection for just $29! As with all our bundles, these fonts come with our extended license and at a staggering 99% off, for a limited time only!
Step 1: Setting up the Canvas
To start, create a new in Photoshop and give the file a name – I’m calling this file ‘marrakesh-travel-postcard-design’. We’ll set the dimensions to a standard postcard/A6 size of 105mm width by 148mm height, set the ‘Color Mode’ to RGB and the ‘Resolution’ to 300dpi, and the ‘Background Colour’ to white (#ffffff) once you’ve made the adjustments, go ahead and click the ‘Create’ in the bottom right to make your new document.
After creating your file you should have a single ‘Background’ layer with a small lock icon next to it, and a blank canvas ready to go. If your workspace doesn’t already have rulers round the edge, press ‘Command (mac)/Ctrl (windows) + R’ on your keyboard (or View > Rulers from the main menu) to make them visible.
We’re now going to set up some guides to help with the layout of our design. From the main menu, go to View > New Guide…
With the ‘Vertical’ radio button selected, type ‘5%’ as the value and then select the ‘OK’ button in the top right, or press ‘Return’ on the keyboard to apply the settings.
You should see a vertical guide appear to the left side of your canvas:
Repeat the process four more times using the following values:
Vertical: 95%
Horizontal: 4%
Horizontal: 85%
Horizontal: 96%
You should then see a grid similar to the following:
(Note* I’d got to Step 4 in the tutorial before noticing I’d forgotten to add the ‘96%’ Horizontal Guide, so the screenshots up to there will have the bottom guide missing – my apologies. It won’t effect the design process, though.)
Step 2: Adding a Paper Texture
We’re now going to use the first of our freebie files to add a texture that’ll apply to our whole design. It’s useful to get this in place first, so you can see how colours are affected as you go along and gives you more control, rather than getting a surprise right at the end!
From the main menu, go to ‘File > Open…’:
Navigate to your freebies and find ‘Playful Seamless Paper Texture Pack – Coconut_12x12.jpg’ (please note: your file structure may look a little different to mine). Once you’ve selected the file, click the ‘Open’ button in the bottom right corner:
The file should then appear in a new window, with the image set as a single ‘Background’ layer:
With the layer selected, from the main menu go to ‘Edit > Define Pattern…’
A pop-up box should appear asking you to name your pattern. Leave it as the default, and click the ‘OK’ button, or hit ‘Return’ on the keyboard to save the image as a pattern.
You can then close that window, and return to our working canvas. From there, go to the main menu and select ‘Layer > New Fill Layer > Pattern’:
In the pop-up box that appears, name the layer ‘Paper Texture’ and make sure the ‘Use previous layer to create clipping mask’ option is unchecked:
Then, go to the ‘Mode’ option, and from the dropdown select ‘Multiply’. Then click the ‘OK’ button, or hit ‘Return’ on the keyboard to apply the ‘Fill Layer’.
In the following pop-up box that appears, the pattern we just set should be selected by default. In the ‘Scale’ option, enter ‘80%’ to make the pattern a little smaller. Click the ‘OK’ button or her ‘Return’ on the keyboard to apply the pattern to our canvas:
You should then see the ‘Paper texture’ layer we just created, appear above the ‘Background’ layer. We want to keep this layer at the top throughout the design process.
Step 3: Screen Texture
We’re going to add a screen texture to the illustrated part of our design, to give a slightly worn, vintage effect. As this’ll affect how the colours will appear, we’re going to set this up so it’s visible whilst designing too.
First, make sure the ‘Background’ layer is selected, so that our new layer stays below the ‘Paper texture’ effect we just created.
Then from the main menu, go to ‘File > Place Embedded…’:
From there, navigate to ‘Tintype Textures – 004.jpg’ and once selected, click the ‘Place’ button in the bottom right.
The file should then appear in the centre of our canvas, with the ‘Free Transform’ bounding box active.
With the ‘Free Transform’ bounding box still active, adjust the size using the anchor points on the corners and sides so that the darker areas of the image sit slightly outside the guides.
Once you’re happy with the adjustment, click the ‘tick’ button at the top, or hit ‘Return’ on the keyboard to apply the transformation.
With the layer selected, hit ‘Command/Ctrl + I’ to invert the colours.
With the layer still selected, click on the ‘Adjustment layer’ icon, and select ‘Brightness/Contrast…’:
Change the values so that the ‘Brightness’ is set to ‘123’ and the contrast all the way up to ‘100’:
We want this adjustment to only apply to what will be our ‘Screen’ layer, so in order to do that, right click anywhere towards the right-hand side of the ‘Brightness/Contrast’ adjustment layer we just created, and select ‘Create Clipping Mask’ from the dropdown menu:
You should see a small downwards arrow appear to the left-hand side of the layer, which shows it only applies to the layer directly below it. You can also create a ‘Clipping Mask’ by hovering your cursor between the two layers, hold down ‘Alt’ on the keyboard so a downwards arrow appears, and click.
Now, going back to our texture layer, reduce the ‘Opacity’ to ‘25%’ and set the ‘Blend Mode’ to ‘Screen (the ‘Blend Mode’ is the dropdown option to the left of ‘Opacity’ – it’s just covered in this screenshot!):
This will make the layer look invisible for now, but we’ll see the effect once we start creating the design.
Finally, whilst holding down the ‘Shift’ key, select both the ‘Brightness/Contrast’ adjustment layer and the texture layer. Hit ‘Command/Ctrl + G’ to group the two layers, and name the group ‘SCREEN TEXTURE’ to help keep things organised.
Step 4: Adding the Text
Head over to Google Fonts and download the free typeface Montserrat (https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Montserrat). Once you’ve downloaded and installed the font, we’re ready to continue.
(Extra resources: How to download and install Google Fonts / How to install fonts)
With the locked Background layer selected, select the Type Tool from the toolbar.
In the ‘Options Bar’ that opens across the top, set the values to the following:
Font: Montserrat
Stylet: Bold
Size: 32pt
Text Alignment: Center
Color: #4d1412
To change the text colour, click on the ‘Colour Picker’ and enter the hex value ‘4d1413’ next to the ‘hashtag’ icon:
Then, making sure the locked Background layer is still selected, click roughly in the middle of the lower portion of the canvas, and type ‘MARRAKESH’ in all caps. Once you’ve typed that out, click the ‘tick’ icon in the upper right, or hit return on the keyboard to commit the text.
With the text highlighted, go to the ‘Character Panel’ and enter the value ‘150’ for the ‘Tracking’ . This will increase the space between the characters, so the text fills the width of the canvas better. Hit ‘Return’ on the keyboard to apply the changes.
With the ‘Type Tool’ still selected, in the ‘Options Bar’ change the following values:
Style: Light
Size: 11pt
Leaving the rest the same as before.
Click somewhere below the ‘MARRAKESH’ text, and type the following: “- Greetings from the capital of Morocco -” and click the ‘tick’ icon pin the top right, or hit ‘Return’ on the keyboard to commit the text.
You can see that our text is a bit too wide for the canvas. This is because the increased ‘Tracking’ from the previous text is still being applied. We can fix that by highlighting the text, going back to the ‘Character Panel’ and returning the ‘Tracking’ to the default by selecting ’50’ as the value from the dropdown menu.
Select both the text layers and the Background layer by clicking on them all whilst holding down ‘Shift’ on the keyboard. With the layers selected, select the ‘Move Tool’ from the toolbar and click on the ‘Align Horizontal Centres’ from the ‘Options Panel’. This’ll line up our text centrally to the canvas.
With the ‘Move Tool’ selected, use the arrow keys on your keyboard to nudge the text up/down so that the “Greetings from…” text sits on the bottom guideline, and the “MARRAKESH” text sits roughly in the middle between the other guideline, and the text below it.
Finally, to keep things organised, select the two text layers and hit ‘Command/Ctrl + G’ on your keyboard to group the layers in to a folder, and name it “TEXT”.
Step 5: Background
Now we’re ready to move on to our illustration, we’re going to create the sky background. From the main menu, go to ‘FILE > PLACE EMBEDDED…’ and navigate to the freebie file ‘Artsy Blue Watercolor Backgrounds – Background-5-12×12.jpg’. Once you’ve located the file, click ‘Place’ in the bottom right.
The file will now appear in the centre of our canvas. Click the ‘Tick’ icon in the upper right, or hit ‘Return’ on your keyboard, to commit the placement.
With the layer still selected, from the main menu bar go to ‘Edit > Transform > Rotate 90° Clockwise’
You should now see something like this:
Hit ‘Command/Ctrl + T’ on the keyboard to open the ‘Free Transform’ tool, and move/rescale the file so that the top, left and right sides go slightly outside the guides, and the overall shape has the height slightly longer than the width. Click the ‘Tick’ icon in the top right, or hit ‘Return’ on the keyboard to apply the changes when you’re happy with the position.
With the layer still selected, hit ‘Alt + Command/Ctrl + J’ to duplicate the layer (or right-click on the layer and select ‘Duplicate Layer’ from the dropdown menu). With the duplicated layer (the one on top) selected, change the ‘Blend Mode’ to ‘Multiply’.
Go to the ‘Create a new adjustment/fill layer’ icon at the bottom of the layers panel, and select ‘Hue/Saturation…’ from the menu that opens.
In the ‘Hue/Saturation’ properties panel that opens, change the values to:
Hue: 210
Saturation: 100
Lightness: -30
Colorize: checked
This’ll create a nice blue wash, but at the moment it’s applying to the whole canvas.
Let’s create a clipping layer so it only applies to the layer directly below. Right click the layer, and select ‘Create Clipping Mask’ or hover the curser between the layers, hold down the ‘Alt’ key on your keyboard, and click.
Now it only applies to our ‘sky’ area, which is exactly what we want.
Next, we’re going to fade this effect out by creating a ‘Gradient Mask’. On the ‘Hue/Saturation’ layer, click on the white rectangle – our layer mask A grey ‘frame’ will appear around it to show it’s selected.
Select the ‘Gradient Tool’ from the toolbar, and make sure the foreground colour is set to black.
Click on the image about a quarter of the way up, then whilst holding down the ‘Shift’ key, drag the cursor up to about three-quarters of the way up, and release. This should create a nice colour graduation.
Select the three layers we’ve just created, hit ‘Command/Ctrl + G’ on the keyboard and name the group ‘SKY’.
Step 6: Creating the Moon in Illustrator
This is the first of three shapes we’ll be creating in Illustrator! Open up a new document in Illustrator – I’m using an A4 Landscape artboard, but the size doesn’t matter too much.
From the toolbar, select the ‘Ellipse Tool’ with the ‘Fill Color’ set to black for easy visibility, and the ‘Stroke Color’ set to transparent. Hold down ‘Alt’ and ‘Shift’ on the keyboard simultaneously, which will allow you to draw a perfect circle from the centre. Click and drag to draw the circle.
With the circle you’ve just drawn selected, hit ‘Command/Ctrl + C’ on the keyboard, and then ‘Command/Ctrl + F’ to copy and paste the object to the front. You can also access the ‘Copy’ and ‘Paste to Front’ commands from ‘Edit’ in the main menu.
With the top shape selected, hold down ‘Shift’ on the keyboard and drag it across to the left until you can see the outline of a crescent shape, and let go of the curser.
Select both circles, and from the main menu to to ‘Window > Pathfinder’ to open the ‘Pathfinder’ panel.
Then, from the ‘Pathfinder’ panel, select ‘Minus Back’. This will ‘cut out’ the circle shape at the back, from the front shape to create our crescent.
With the shape selected, change the ‘Fill Colour’ to white (hex value #ffffff)
Then hit ‘Command/Ctrl + C’ to copy the shape, go back to your Photoshop window, and hit ‘Command.Ctrl + V’ to ‘Paste’. Choose ‘Paste As: Smart Object’ and make sure the ‘Add to my current library’ option is unchecked. Click ‘OK’ or hit ‘Return’ on the keyboard to paste the shape on to the canvas.
Click the ‘Tick’ icon in the top right, or hit ‘Return’ on the keyboard to place the shape.
Rename the layer ‘Moon’, and hit ‘Command/Ctrl + T’ to open the ‘Free Transform’ tool. Move and scale the shape so that it sits in the upper right corner, and rotate to the left so it sits at a slight angle. Click the ‘Tick’ icon in the upper right, or hit ‘Return’ on the keyboard to apply the changes.
Drag the layer in to the existing ‘SKY’ folder to keep things organised.
Step 7: Pink Walls
We’re now going to start creating our colourful temple back in Photoshop. Create a new layer and call it ‘Pink colour-block’.
Set the foreground colour to hex value ‘e8637a’
Then, with the ‘Rectangular Marquee’ tool selected, draw a small rectangle to the left of the canvas, with the left edge slightly outside the guidelines, and the base lined up with the bottom of the ‘sky’. Hit ‘Alt + Delete’ on the keyboard to fill with the foreground colour. Click anywhere on the window to release the scrolling marquee.
From the main menu, go to ‘File > Place Embedded…’ and navigate to the freebie file ‘Fairy Tiles – Geometric Patterns Collection (small) – 13.jpg’ and click the ‘Place’ button in the lower right.
Click the ‘Tick’ icon in the upper right, or hit ‘Return’ on the keyboard to place the file.
Change the layer ‘Blend Mode’ to ‘Multiply’ and hit ‘Command/Ctrl + T’ on the keyboard to select the ‘Free Transform’ tool. Move the pattern so that the bottom corner lines up with the pink shape, then hold down the ‘Shift’ key whilst scaling the shape down so that the width matches the pink rectangle.
To hide the overlap, we’re going to create a ‘Layer Mask’. With the pattern layer selected, select the ‘Vector Mask’ icon at the bottom of the ‘Layers’ panel. A white rectangle should appear next to the pattern icon.
Check the mask is selected, and the ‘Foreground Color’ is set to black. Using the ‘Rectangular Marquee’ tool, draw a rectangle over the overlapping area of the pattern.
Hit ‘Alt + Delete’ on the keyboard, to apply the mask.
Step 8: Pink Wall Details
Now we’re going to add a couple of colourful details to our wall. From the main menu, go to ‘File > Place Embedded…’ and navigate to the freebie file ‘Handrawn Ink Seamless Pattern Collection – Handrawn_pattern_border_4-01.png’. Click the ‘Place’ button in the bottom right.
Click the ‘Tick’ icon in the upper right, or hit ‘Return’ on the keyboard to place the file.
Hit ‘Command/Ctrl + T’ on the keyboard to select the ‘Free Transform’ tool. Move/Scale the file so that it fits the width, and sits along the top of the pink rectangle. click the ‘Tick’ icon in the upper right, or hit ‘Return’ on the keyboard to place the file.
Create a new ‘Hue/Saturation’ ‘Adjustment Layer’ with the following settings:
Colorize: checked
Hue: 221
Saturation: 74
Lightness: +40
Then create a ‘Clipping Mask’ the same way as we’ve done previously, so that it only applies to the layer directly below.
For our next bit of detail, we’re going to add some decorative arcs using another freebie. From the main menu go to ‘File > Place Embedded…’ and navigate to the freebie file ‘100 Hand-Drawn Seamless Patterns And Shapes – Shape 41.png’ and click ‘Place’.
Click the ‘Tick’ icon in the upper right, or hit ‘Return’ on the keyboard to place the file. Hit ‘Command/Ctrl + T’ on the keyboard to select the ‘Free Transform’ tool. Hold down the ‘Shift’ key whilst scaling to lock the proportions, and rotate to the right to snap to 90° degrees. Position the file so that it sits about halfway over the lower part of the pink rectangle. Click the ‘Tick’ icon in the upper right, or hit ‘Return’ to commit the changes.
Next, we’re going to create a ‘Layer Mask’ to hide the overlap, like we did with the pattern file in Step 7. Click on the ‘Add Vector Mask’ icon at the bottom of the layers panel. Check that the mask is selected and that the ‘Foreground Color’ is set to black, and using the ‘Rectangular Marquee Tool’, draw a box to cover the overlapping section of the file.
Hit ‘Alt + Delete’ on the keyboard to create the mask.
Step 9: Mirroring the Wall
Group together the layers we’ve just created in steps 7 and 8, and name the group “PINK WALL (LEFT)”
With the group selected, hit ‘Alt + Command/Ctrl + J’, or right click the group and select ‘Duplicate Group’ to duplicate the group. Rename the group “PINK WALL (RIGHT)”
With the “PINK WALL (RIGHT)” group selected, select the ‘Move’ tool, hold down the ‘Shift’ key, and drag the image across to the opposite side.
With the group selected, from the main menu, go to ‘Edit > Transform… > Flip Horizontal’.
The image should now be mirrored. Group together both the “PINK WALL (LEFT)” and “PINK WALL (RIGHT)” folders, and name the group “PINK WALL” to keep things tidy.
Step 10: Getting in some Greenery
Next, we’re going to add a little greenery using another of our freebies. We want this to appear behind the ‘pink wall’, so in the ‘Layers Panel’ make sure the ‘SKY’ folder is selected. This means our shape will be pasted above that group.
From the main menu, go to ‘File > Place Embedded…’ and navigate to the freebie file ‘100 Hand-Drawn Seamless Patterns And Shapes – Shape 8.png’ and click the ‘Place’ button in the bottom right.
The shape should appear on the canvas with the ‘Free Transform’ bounding box already applied. Use that to scale, move and rotate so that it sits perpendicular to the wall. The left side can be going over the guidelines.
Hold down the ‘Alt’ ket until a double cursor appears. Click on the ‘tree’ you just placed, hold down ‘Shift’ and drag across to duplicate. Repeat this until you have 7 ‘trees’ in total.
Select all the ‘tree’ layers by holding down the ‘Shift’ key, and selecting the top and bottom layers of the ‘trees stack, from the ‘Layers Panel’. This will also select all the layers in between. With the layers selected, select the ‘Move Tool’ from the tool panel and in the ‘Options Bar’, select the ‘Distribute horizontal centres’ icon.
Now that they’re evenly spaced, delete the central ‘tree’ and group the layers in to a new folder called ‘TREES’.
Step 11: Building the Blue Temple
Next, we’re going to start creating the centrepiece of our design. Check that the “PINK WALL” group is selected, as we want the subsequent layers to be above this. Then, from the main menu go to ‘File > Place Embedded…’ and navigate to the freebie file ’16 Geometric Patterns – Geometric patterns A4-14.jpg’ and click the ‘Place’ button in the bottom right.
The ‘Free Transform’ bounding box should already be applied. Keep the proportions by holding down the ‘Shift’ key, and also hold down ‘Alt’ to scale it down from the centre, so that it sits nicely between the pink walls, with a little overlap either side. Keep holding down ‘Shift’ whilst you move it downwards to match the baselines, and this will keep it central. Click the ‘Tick’ icon in the upper right or hit ‘Return’ to apply the transformation.
Repeat the process with the freebie file ’16 Geometric Patterns – Geometric patterns A4-10.jpg’ and move the layer below the one we’ve just created, so that it sits behind and sticks out about one-third of the way up, similar to the screenshot below:
Next, we’re going back over to our Illustrator document to create a doorframe shape. With the ‘Rectangle Tool’ selected, Click on the artboard and enter the following dimensions:
Width: 40mm
Height: 60mm
Then click the ‘OK’ button or hit ‘Return’ on the keyboard, and you should see a rectangle appear!
With the ‘Rectangle Tool’ still selected, hit ‘L’ on the keyboard to switch to the ‘Ellipse Tool’. Click anywhere on the artboard, and enter the following dimensions:
Width: 40mm
Height: 40mm
Using the ‘Selection Tool’ move the circle you’ve just created so that the edges meet up with those of the rectangle:
From the main menu, go to ‘Window > Align’ to open up the ‘Align’ properties panel. Make sure both the rectangle and circle are selected, and select the ‘Alight to selection’ option, then click on the ‘Horizontal align to centre’ icon.
This makes sure that the two shapes are perfectly central to each other. Next, with the two shapes still selected, go to the ‘Pathfinder’ panel (which should still be open from earlier on) and click the ‘Merge’ icon.
With the shape still selected, hit ‘Command/Ctrl + C’ on the keyboard, and return to our Photoshop Canvas. Hit ‘Command/Ctrl + V’ to paste, and select ‘Paste As: Smart Object’ from the pop-up window. Rename the layer ‘Doorframe’.
The ‘Free Transform’ bounding box should already be applied. Keep the proportions by holding down the ‘Shift’ key, and also hold down ‘Alt’ to scale it down from the centre, until it’s about half the width of the shape behind it. Keep holding down ‘Shift’ whilst you move it downwards to match the baselines, and this will keep it central. Click the ‘Tick’ icon in the upper right or hit ‘Return’ to apply the transformation.
Duplicate the white patterned layer, and move it in the ‘Layers Panel’ so that it sits above the ‘Doorframe’ layer, and then move it so that the baselines all match up.
Create a ‘Clipping Mask’ like we’ve done previously in this tutorial, so that the pattern only applies to the ‘Doorframe’ shape.
Select the pattern layer that forms the top, white part of the temple. Then, from the main menu, go to ‘File > Place Embedded…’ navigate to the freebie file ‘Handrawn Ink Seamless Pattern Collection – handrawn_pattern_75-01.png’, and click the ‘Place’ button in the lower right.
The ‘Free Transform’ bounding box should already be applied. Keep the proportions by holding down the ‘Shift’ key, and also hold down ‘Alt’ to scale it down from the centre, until it’s a little narrower than the top part of the temple. Keep holding down ‘Shift’ whilst you move it up to sit inside the top part of the temple, and this will keep it central. Click the ‘Tick’ icon in the upper right or hit ‘Return’ to apply the transformation.
Group all these layers together, naming the folder ‘TEMPLE – BLUE’
The temple isn’t looking particularly blue yet, so let’s fix that! Create a new ‘Hue/Saturation’ ‘Adjustment Layer’ above the group, with the following settings:
Colorize: checked
Hue: 225
Saturation: 100
Lightness: +51
And select the ‘Clip’ icon at the bottom of the panel to apply the adjustment to the group. Our temple should be looking a lot more colourful now.
Step 12: Adding Texture
To tone-down the colour slightly, and to add a bit of texture, go to the main menu and select ‘File > Place Embedded…’ and navigate to the freebie file ‘Playful Seamless Paper Texture Pack – Slate_12x12.jpg’ and click the ‘Place’ button in the bottom right.
Change the layer ‘Blend Mode’ to ‘Multiply’ and drop the ‘Opacity’ to ‘75%’. Click the ‘Tick’ icon in the upper right, or hit ‘Return’ on the keyboard to apply the changes.
We’re going to create a ‘Layer Mask’ so that the texture only applies to the lower portion of the temple. With the texture layer selected, click the ‘Vector Mask’ icon at the bottom of the layers panel. Make sure the ‘Foreground Color’ is set to black, and using the ‘Rectangular Marquee Tool’ carefully draw a rectangle around the lower portion of the temple.
Then, hit ‘Alt + Command/Ctrl + I’ on the keyboard to inverse the selection. This has reversed the mask so that everything outside of the rectangle we just drew, will be masked out.
Hit ‘Alt + Delete’ to apply the mask. To keep things tidy, group the texture layer, ‘Hue/Saturation’ layer and ‘TEMPLE – BLUE’ group all together, and name it ‘TEMPLE LAYER 1’.
Step 13: Temple Layer Two
We’re now going to work on the parts of the temple that sit above the ‘Hue/Saturation’ and texture effects. Going back in to our ‘PINK WALL’ folder, open the ‘PINK WALL (RIGHT)’ Folder and duplicate the ‘ridge’ shape layer.
Move the duplicated layer up above the ‘BLUE TEMPLE’ folder. The ‘Clipping Mask’ on the ‘Hue/Saturation’ adjustment that applied to the original layer will have been undone, so we need to reset that.
Move the duplicated shape to sit on top of the lower temple block.
Hit ‘Command/Ctrl + T’ to select the ‘Free Transform’ tool. Whilst holding down ‘Shift’, scale the shape so that it matches the width of the rectangle. When you’re happy, click the ‘Tick’ in the upper right, or hit ‘Return’ to apply the changes.
Create a new ‘Hue/Saturation’ ‘Adjustment Layer’ with the following settings:
Colorize: checked
Hue: 0
Saturation: 42
Lightness: 42
Click the ‘Clip’ icon at the bottom of the panel so that it only applies to the layer directly below.
Group together the ‘Hue/Saturation’ layer and the shape layer, and name it ‘RIDGE (LOWER)’. Duplicate the group and rename the duplicate ‘RIDGE (UPPER)’.
Move the ‘RIDGE (UPPER)’ group to sit on top of the upper rectangle. Hit ‘Command/Ctrl + T’ to select the ‘Free Transform’ tool, then whilst holding down the ‘Alt + Shift’ keys, scale down so that it matches the width of the rectangle. When you’re happy, click the ‘Tick’ icon in the upper right or hit ‘Return’ to apply the changes.
Let’s neaten things up by grouping ‘RIDGE (UPPER)’ and ‘RIDGE (LOWER)’ together in to one folder called “RIDGES”.
From the main menu go to ‘File > Place Embedded…’ and navigate to the freebie file ‘Handrawn Ink Seamless Pattern Collection – Handrawn_pattern_border_11-01.png’ and click the ‘Place’ button in the bottom right.
The ‘Free Transform’ bounding box should already be applied. Keep the proportions by holding down the ‘Shift’ key, and also hold down ‘Alt’ to scale it down from the centre, until it matches the width of the rectangle. Stretch the shape upwards slightly. Then, when you’re happy, click the ‘Tick’ icon in the upper right or hit ‘Return’ to apply the transformation.
With the layer still selected, hit ‘Command/Ctrl + I’ to invert the colour.
Duplicate the layer by holding down ‘Alt’ on the keyboard, and when the double cursor shows, hold down the ‘Shift’ key too and click and drag the shape upwards on the canvas. Group these two layers together, and name the folder “LINES”.
Step 14: Creating a Wooden Door
We’re heading over to Illustrator for the last time to create our Moroccan-style door. In Illustrator, select the ‘Rounded Rectangle Tool’, click on the artboard and input the following dimensions:
Width: 25mm
Height: 60mm
Corner Radius: 7mm
And Click ‘OK’.
Select the rectangle tool by hitting ‘M’ on the keyboard. Draw a rectangle that covers the lower two rounded-corners.
With the rectangle you’ve just drawn selected, from the main menu go to ‘Object > Arrange > Send to Back’ or hit ‘Alt + Command/Ctrl + [‘ to place it behind the rounded rectangle.
With both rectangles selected, go to the ‘Pathfinder’ properties panel which should still be open from previously, and click the ‘Minus Back’ icon.
This will create sharp corners for the base of our door.
Select the ‘Ellipse Tool’ and draw an ellipse the same with as the door.
Move the ellipse towards the top of the door, and so that there is some overlap between the two shapes. With both shapes selected, go to the ‘Align’ panel that should be open from earlier, make sure the ‘Align to Selection’ setting is active, and then click the ‘Horizontal Align Centre’.
With the ‘Direct Selection Tool’, click on the top anchor point of the ellipse, hold down the ‘Shift’ key and drag upwards so that the ‘dome’ is more pronounced. Then, with both shapes selected, go back to the ‘Pathfinder’ panel and click the ‘Merge’ icon.
This now gives us a single shape. Hit ‘Command/Ctrl + C’ to copy the shape.
Going back to our Photoshop canvas, hit ‘Command/Ctrl + V’ on the keyboard, and check the ‘Paste As: Smart Object’ in the popup window that appears. The ‘Free Transform’ bounding box should already be applied. Keep the proportions by holding down the ‘Shift’ key, and also hold down ‘Alt’ to scale it down from the centre, until it sits nicely in the doorframe. Hold down the ‘Shift’ key to keep the shape aligned centre, whilst moving to match the baselines. When you’re happy, click the ‘Tick’ icon in the upper right or hit ‘Return’ to apply the transformation.
Rename the layer ‘Door’. We’re now going to add a nice wooden texture. From the main menu, go to ‘File > Place Embedded…’ and navigate to the freebie file ‘Diverse Wood Textures – Wood_8.jpg’ and click the ‘Place’ button.
The ‘Free Transform’ bounding box should already be applied. Hold down the ‘Shift’ whilst rotating to the right, to snap it to 90° degrees. Keep the proportions by holding down the ‘Shift’ key, and also hold down ‘Alt’ to scale it down from the centre, until it just covers the door. When you’re happy, click the ‘Tick’ icon in the upper right or hit ‘Return’ to apply the transformation.
Create a ‘Clipping Mask’ the same way we’ve done previously, so the texture is only visible over the door shape. Move the texture around until you’re happy with how it looks, them group the two layers together and name the folder ‘Door’.
Group the ‘DOOR’, ‘LINES’ and ‘RIDGES’ folders together, and name the folder ‘TEMPLE LAYER 2’.
Step 15: Domed Roof
Now we’re going to create the distinctive dome of our temple. From the main menu, go to ‘File > Open…’ and navigate to freebie file ‘100 Hand-Drawn Seamless Patterns And Shapes – Pattern 48.jpg’ and click ‘Open’.
Use the ‘Colour Picker’ tool to select the yellow background colour, so it appears in our recent colour swatches.
From the main menu go to ‘Edit > Define Pattern…’
Click ‘OK’ in the pop-up window that appears, then go back to our working canvas
We want this to be behind the ‘Temple’ layers, so in the ‘Layers Panel’ select the ‘PINK WALL’ group, so subsequent layers are placed above there. Then, create a new layer, and select the ‘Elliptical Marquee Tool’. Hold down the ‘Alt + Shift’ keys to draw a circle from the centre, so that it sits halfway behind the temple.
From the main menu, go to ‘Layer > New Fill Layer > Pattern…’
Click ‘OK’ on the first pop-up window that appears, then scale down the pattern to about 23%. Have a play with what scale you think looks best and click ‘OK’.
Select the ‘Pattern Fill’ layer, and whilst holding down the ‘Command/Ctrl’ key select the locked ‘Background’ layer. With the ‘Move Tool’ selected, select ‘Align horizontal centres’ from the options bar across the top. This’ll make sure the dome is perfectly central to the canvas.
Create a new layer above the dome, and select the yellow swatch we took from our pattern earlier for the ‘Foreground Color’. With the ‘Elliptical Marquee Tool’ selected, hold down the ‘Alt + Shift’ keys to draw a small circle above the dome. Hit ‘Alt + Delete’ to fill the circle.
Click anywhere on the canvas to deselect the scrolling marquee. With the ‘Move Tool’ selected, hold down ‘Alt’ on the keyboard until the double cursor appears, and then hold down ‘Shift’ at the same time to drag a duplicate layer above the existing one. Rename the new layer ‘Circle small’ and the original ‘Circle large’.
With the ‘Circle small’ layer selected, it ‘Command/Ctrl + T’ to select the ‘Free Transform’ tool. Hold down ‘Alt + Shift’ to scale down the circle slightly, then nudge downwards using the arrow keys, so it sits slightly above the larger circle. click the ‘Tick’ icon in the upper right, or hit ‘Return’ to apply the changes.
Hold down the ‘Command/Ctrl’ key, and select both the ‘Circle’ layers, and the locked ‘Background’ layer. With the ‘Move Tool’ selected, select ‘Align horizontal centres’ from the options bar across the top, to centre to the canvas.
Create a new layer, and name it ‘Spike’. Make sure the yellow colour we used for the circles is still set as the ‘Foreground Colour’ and select the ‘Brush Tool’. From the dropdown options, select a small, round brush narrower than the top circle (I’ve used a 9px brush) with the hardness of ‘100’.
We want this to look hand-drawn, so don’t worry if your line is a little wobbly/off centre. Roughly from the middle of the small circle, draw a short line upwards to create our ‘spike’. Finally, group the this layer together with the two ‘circle’ layers and ‘Pattern Fill’ layer, and name the folder ‘ROOF’.
Step 16: Building on Solid Ground
For the final part of our design, we need to get our temple on to some solid ground! Select the ‘TEMPLE LAYER 2’ group, so all subsequent layers go above here. Go to the main menu and select ‘File > Place Embedded…’ and navigate to the freebie file ‘Playful Seamless Paper Texture Pack – Slate_12x12.jpg’ and click the ‘Place’ button in the bottom right.
Reduce the ‘Opacity’ so that you can just see the image underneath, and nudge the file down slightly so that it goes beyond the lower guideline. Click the ‘Tick’ icon or hit ‘Return’ to apply the changes.
With the file selected, we’re going to create a ‘Layer Mask’. Click the ‘Vector Mask’ icon and make sure black is set as the ‘Foreground Color’. Using the ‘Rectangular Marquee Tool’ draw a rectangle that covers the blank area at the bottom of the design, going over the guides slightly.
Hit ‘Shift + Command/Ctrl + I’ to inverse the selection, so that the area outside the rectangle we just drew is selected. Hit ‘Alt + Delete’ to apply the mask, then return the layer opacity of the file to ‘100’
From the main menu, go to ‘File > Place Embedded…’ navigate to the freebie file ‘Handrawn Ink Seamless Pattern Collection – handrawn_pattern_75-01.png’, and click the ‘Place’ button in the lower right.
The ‘Free Transform’ bounding box should already be applied. Whilst holding down the ‘Shift’ key, rotate the file to the right so that it snaps to 90 degrees. Click the ‘Tick’ icon in the upper right or hit ‘Return’ to apply the transformation.
Change the ‘Blend Mode’ to ‘Soft Light’.
Use the same process as we just did for the paper texture, to create a ‘Layer Mask’ over the pattern layer, so that we can only see the portion over the paper texture.
From the main menu go to ‘File > Place Embedded…’ and navigate to the freebie file ‘Grunge Metal Textures – Metal_29.jpg’ and click the ‘Place’ button in the bottom right.
The ‘Free Transform’ bounding box should already be applied. Move and scale the image so that it’s the same height as the ‘ground’ area of our design. Click the ‘Tick’ icon in the upper right or hit ‘Return’ to apply the transformation.
Change the layer ‘Blend Mode’ to Overlay, and reduce the Opacity to ‘85%’.
From the main menu go to ‘File > Place Embedded…’ and navigate to the freebie file ‘Handrawn Ink Seamless Pattern Collection – Handrawn_pattern_border_11-01.png’ and click the ‘Place’ button in the bottom right.
The ‘Free Transform’ bounding box should already be applied. Move and scale the image so that it’s stretched vertically a little, and that the top lines up and covers the base of the buildings. When you’re happy, click the ‘Tick’ icon in the upper right or hit ‘Return’ to apply the transformation.
Create a new ‘Hue/Saturation’ ‘Adjustment Layer’ with the following settings:
Colorize: checked
Hue: 38
Saturation: 50
Lightness: +33
And select the ‘Clip’ icon at the bottom of the panel to apply the adjustment to the group. We should now have a nice, sandy looking ground.
Group the layers we’ve just created together, and name the folder ‘GROUND’.
Select all the groups we’ve created, except for the ‘TEXT’ group, and then we’ll group all those together too! Name the folder “MASK”.
Select the “MASK” folder, and create a ‘Clipping Mask’ for it, the same way we’ve done previously by tracing a rectangle around the gridlines, then hitting “Shift + Command/Ctrl + I” to inverse the selection.
Hit ‘Command/Ctrl + ;” to hide the gridlines, and admire what you’ve created!
Step 17: Flattening the Design
At this point we can save our work as the main postcard design is complete! Once you’ve finished saving the file, click on the hamburger menu in the upper right corner of the Layers Palette and choose ‘Flatten Image’ from the bottom.
You should now have a single ‘Background’ layer with all of the merged artwork.
Next, go from the main menu go to ‘File > Save As…’ and save this file with a new name. I’ve added ‘FLAT’ to the end of the file name, so as not to save over our layered version.
Step 18: Creating a Framed Mockup
We’re going to display our postcard design using a framed mockup template, created by resources kindly donated by Mockup Zone. From Photoshop, go to ‘File > Open…’ and navigate to the freebie file ‘Postcard Display Mockup Template.psd’. Click ‘Open’.
Double click on the ‘Replace’ layer thumbnail.
This’ll take us to our Smart Object window.
Going back to our flattened postcard design, from the ‘Layers Panel’, unlock the ‘Background’ layer by clicking on the padlock icon on the right-hand side. Then, click and drag the layer up to the Smart Object window we just had open.
Hold down the ‘Shift’ key, and rescale the image so that the illustration sits nicely in the frame. When you’re happy, click the ‘Tick’ icon in the upper right, or hit ‘Return’ on the keyboard to apply the transformation. Hit ‘Command/Ctrl + S’ on the keyboard.
Go back to the mockup file window, and you should see the image in the frame, and that means we’ve completed our Illustrated-style Marrakesh Travel Postcard tutorial! To create our postcard we’ve used an assortment of elements from The Versatile Textures and Patterns Collection with the free font, Montserrat, and a rustic-looking mockup to present our design in a striking realistic way. Remember that the bundle elements we have used for this tutorial are just a small sampling of the high quality design resources you can expect to find in the full bundle. With packs from Lisa Glanz, Counterpart Creative, Studio M18, and many more, this collection is full of inspiring resources that you’ll not be able to wait to use in your designs!
Remember that whether it’s your outcome for this tutorial or something new you’ve made, we’d love to see your designs on our Facebook page.
Please leave a comment if you have any questions or suggestions. I always look forward to hearing from you!
There’s still time to check out The Versatile Textures and Patterns Collection providing you with a time-saving treasure trove of resources to bring your designs to life!
Thank you very much for the so helpful and detailed tutorial!
Nice work!
Yay we’re so glad that you enjoyed it Despina and I hope that you picked up some handy new tips!
You’re very welcome – I’m so glad you found it helpful. :)
The tutorial design is beautiful Joanna. The color choices are equally wonderful and harmonious and I look forward to seeing additional design ideas from you via future tutorials.
The only negative has nothing to do with the design (which I love), but did notice that the tutorial step descriptions itself had some room for improvement. I could send a sample Word document to offer ideas as to how the descriptive wording could be adjusted if you want to consider looking through the document to see if you feel it would offer any improvements.
Keep up the great work.
Hey Mara,
Thanks so much for taking the time to comment and for letting us know your feedback! This was Jo’s first tutorial in a long time, and it is awesome to hear that your found her design really beautiful!
I have just popped you over an email to get a little more information from you to get some examples of where you found the write-up has room for improvement, and please do feel free to send your sample document to us at hello@designcuts.com and our copy writers would be happy to check it out!
Hi Mara, thanks so much for your thoughtful comment. I’m glad you liked the design, and will work with the team at DC to see how we can continue to improve the write-ups so that the tutorials become easier to follow. :)
WOW Joanna-you sure have started with a BANG. The tutorial is beautiful. I can’t wait to start doing it. Do keep up the good work. All the best to you.
Hey Suresh,
Thanks so much for taking the time to leave Jo such awesome feedback!
We can’t wait for you to make a start on this and we hope you’ll love following along :)
Hi Suresh, thanks so much for your lovely comment! So glad you liked the tutorial, and hope you have fun doing it. :)
Awesome tutorial!!
And the mockup is included, no need of external downloads! Thank you!
Hey Vessto,
Thank you so much for your comment, we super appreciate the kind words and support :)
Thanks Vessto! Hope you enjoy working through it. :)
This is neat! I might give it a go! Thank you!!
Thanks so much for the awesome feedback as always Su :D
Hi Su – thanks so much! Let us know how you get on if you do try it out .:)