In this design tutorial you will learn how to design a playing card with a nautical theme in Photoshop. We will be using a lot of vintage elements, textures, and effects to create this beautiful and fun design!

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Here’s a look at what we’ll be creating:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Follow along with this tutorial: Download the freebie files

This freebie pack includes samples of some fantastic vector elements including banners, ribbons, and some awesome grunge textures and nautical themed imagery.

The freebie pack is just a small sample of what you will find in the The Ultimate Vector Design Bundle for just $29! This bundle contains a massive collection of incredibly detailed vector design assets. This is an absolute must-have for anybody looking to save hours of work while making your designs look better than ever.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 1: From the Deep Playing Cards

Begin by opening Adobe Photoshop and create a New Document that is 1418 x 2126 pixels with an RGB Color Mode and a Resolution of 300 ppi. Let’s also take a moment to name our file – here I will be calling it ‘from-the-deep-playing-card-design’ but feel free to call it anything you would like. Once you have set that up go ahead and click on the ‘Create’ button at the bottom right of the dialog box to make your document.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Notice that once your new file has been set up there is only a single ‘Background’ layer with a small lock icon next to it. Double click on the layer to unlock it and you will be prompted with a dialog box asking you to name your New Layer. Let’s call this ‘BACKGROUND’ in all caps and then hit ‘OK’ to apply the change and unlock the layer.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

After renaming and unlocking the layer, click on it and then select the small folder icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette to put the layer into a new Group Folder. Double click on the folder name and change it to ‘BLACK BG’ as shown here:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 2: The Grid

Open ‘Chart_Grid_1.eps’ file from the freebies for this tutorial in Adobe Illustrator.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Press Command/Ctrl+A to Select All and then Command/Ctrl+C to copy the pattern. Next, return to Photoshop and press Command/Ctrl+V to paste the object. You will be prompted with a dialog box asking you how you want to paste your object – here we will choose ‘Smart Object’ and then press ‘OK’ as shown below:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Press Command/Ctrl+T to initiate a Free Transform and then hold the Alt/Option+Shift keys and drag outwards from any of the four corners of the bounding box to scale it up until it covers the entire canvas area, then press ‘Enter’ to apply the transformation.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Double click on the layer name and change it to ‘CHART GRID 1’ as shown here:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Double click on the layer itself to bring up the Layer Style options and check off ‘Color Overlay’ from the list to the left.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

For the fill color let’s enter a hexadecimal value of #484848 as shown here:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Press the ‘Enter’ key twice to apply the changes and close out of the dialog box. Reduce the opacity of the layer to ’80%’ by dragging the slider to the left or simply pressing the number ‘8’ on the keyboard.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Select the Smart Object and then click on the small folder icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette to place it into a new Group Folder. Conversely, you could use the keyboard shortcut Command/Ctrl+G while the layer or layers are selected. Next, double-click on the name of the folder and change it to ‘MAP MAKER PATTERN’ as shown below:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 3: Border Patrol

Open ‘celtic-pattern-brush-13.eps’ file from the freebie folder.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Select the border, press Command/Ctrl+C to copy it, return to Photoshop, and then press Command/Ctrl+V to paste it as a Smart Object.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 4: Border Patrol

This time when you paste your Smart Object it should fit nicely in your document with a bit of room or padding around all of the sides. Double click on the name of your new Smart Object in your Layers Palette and change it to ‘CELTIC BRUSH BORDER’ before expanding the ‘MAP MAKER PATTERN’ folder below by clicking on the small arrow icon to the left of the folder.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Hold the Control Key and click on the small ‘fx’ icon next to the ‘CHART GRID 1’ Smart Object and you should then see a dropdown menu. From the list, choose the option that says ‘Copy Layer Styles’ as shown here:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Select the ‘CELTIC BRUSH BORDER’ Smart Object while holding the Control Key to reveal the dropdown menu once again, and this time choose ‘Paste Layer Style’ from the list.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Your border color should now be the same as the grid in the background, but we want to make sure that the opacity of this layer is all the way up.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Select the ‘CELTIC BRUSH BORDER’ Smart Object in your Layers Palette and click on the folder icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette (or press Command/Ctrl+G with the layer selected) to place it into a new Group Folder. Double click on the folder name and change it to ‘CELTIC BORDER’ as shown in the image below:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 5: Double Up

Before moving on, let’s go back inside of our ‘MAP MAKER PATTERN’ folder and select the ‘CHART GRID 1’ Smart Object. Press Command/Ctrl+J to duplicate the layer one time to boost the visibility and contrast of the layer so that the grid stands out more.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 6: Vintage Frame

Next, open the ‘vintageelements_2_frame.eps’ file in Illustrator from the freebies folder. Select the frame and press Command/Ctrl+C to copy it and then return to Photoshop and paste it as a Smart Object as we did with our previous Smart Object files.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Once you have pasted the file, before pressing ‘Enter’ to apply the changes, hold the Control Key and click on the shape to reveal a dropdown menu. From here we want to choose the option that says ‘Rotate 90º Clockwise’ and then drag outwards from any of the four corners of the bounding box while holding the Alt/Option+Shift keys to scale the frame up proportionally until it’s a bit larger.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

After applying the transformations double click on the layer name and change it to ‘VINTAGE FRAME’ as shown below:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Hold the Control Key and click on the layer and choose ‘Paste Layer Style’ to apply the same gray fill color that we used in the previous steps. Once again make sure that the opacity is set to ‘100%’ before moving on.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Select the Smart Object layer once again and place it into a Group Folder by pressing Command/Ctrl+G and rename the folder ‘VINTAGE FRAME’ before moving on so that we can keep everything organized and easy to find.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 7: Adding the Banner

Next, open the ‘vintageelements_2_banner.eps’ file from the freebie folder for this tutorial. Select the file and copy it by pressing Command/Ctrl+C, go back over from Illustrator to Photoshop, and then paste the banner as a Smart Object by pressing Command/Ctrl+V.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Double click the Smart Object name in your Layers Palette and change it to ‘RIBBON’ as shown below:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Hold the Control Key and click on the ‘RIBBON’ layer in your Layers Palette to reveal the dropdown menu. From here, select ‘Paste Layer Style’ once again to change the ribbon to a gray color.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Double check to make sure the opacity of the layer is all the way up at ‘100%’ and place it into a new folder named ‘RIBBON’ as shown in the image below:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 8: Banner Text

Expand the ‘RIBBON’ folder and create a New Layer just above the Smart Object by pressing Command/Ctrl+Alt/Option+Shift+N on the keyboard. From here, press ’T’ to switch to your Type Tool and then type out the words ‘FROM THE DEEP’ in all uppercase using a font called ‘Franchise’ that can be downloaded for free at either FontZone.net or Fonts2U.com.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

With your Type Tool still selected, double-click inside of your text to highlight it and then click on the small ’T’ icon with a curved line below it in the top toolbar. Here is the icon highlighted by the yellow box in the image below:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

You should now have a ‘Warp Text’ panel that pops up and we want to click on the dropdown menu next to the ‘Style’ as shown here:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

From the dropdown, choose the first option (Arc) from the list.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

For the settings here we want to make sure that we have a Horizontal Bend of about ’18+’ before pressing ‘Enter’ to apply the changes so that your text bends with the ribbon below it.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 9: Drop It Like a Drop Shadow

Select your text layer in the Layers Palette and press Command/Ctrl+J to duplicate the layer. Next, press Command/Ctrl and the left bracket to move the layer down one spot so that the copy is below your original layer like this:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Double click on the duplicate text layer to bring up the Layer Style panel and check off the ‘Color Overlay’ option.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

For the fill color we want to use a solid black so enter a hex value of #000000 before pressing ‘Enter’ two times to apply the changes and close out of both dialog boxes.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Select your duplicate text layer and tap the down arrow a four or five times to create a nice sharp drop shadow.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 10: In Da Club

Open the ‘Club_w_Map_Maker_Brush.psd’ file from the freebies folder.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Click and drag the ‘Club’ Smart Object into your working document and place it in the center of the canvas and at the top of your Layers Palette.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 11: Adding Some Grunge

Next, open the ’15.png’ file from the freebies folder.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Click and drag the grunge texture into your document, hold the Control Key and click on the layer and then choose the ‘Convert to Smart Object’ option before renaming the layer ’15.png’ and place it above the ‘CLUB’ Smart Object as shown below:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Double click on the ’15.png’ layer to bring up the Layer Style dialog box and check off the ‘Color Overlay’ option.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

For the fill color we will enter the same hex value from earlier – #484848. From there, press ‘OK’ twice to apply the changes and close out of both dialog boxes and then press the number ‘5’ on the keyboard to change the opacity of the texture layer to 50% as shown below:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 12: Grunge Mask

Press ‘W’ to switch to your Magic Wand Tool, and then click inside of the black area of the ‘CLUB’ Smart Object on your canvas. You should now see the marching ants indicating a selection as shown here:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Go to the Select Menu and choose ‘Modify > Contract’ as shown in the image below:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

When the ‘Contract Selection’ box appears, enter a value of ’12’ for the amount and press ‘OK’.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Select the ’15.png’ Smart Object layer and then while your selection is still active click on the ‘Add Layer Mask’ icon shown at the bottom of the Layers Palette. Your grunge texture should now be masked to the inside of the club shape with a 12 pixel border around it like this:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 13: Ace of Clubs

Create a New Layer at the top of your Layers Palette and switch to your Type Tool (T) before typing out the words ‘ACE OF CLUBS’ in all uppercase using the same ‘Franchise’ font from earlier.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Double click on the layer to bring up the Layer Style dialog box and check off the ‘Color Overlay’ box.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

For the fill color enter a hex value of #D02F2F and then press ‘OK’ two times to apply the changes and close out of both dialog boxes.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Use your Type Tool (T) to click twice inside of your text phrase and highlight all of the copy. From there, click on the ‘Warp Text’ icon found in the top toolbar, indicated by the yellow highlight box in the image below:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

From the ‘Warp Text’ dialog box, choose the ‘Style’ dropdown menu and select ‘Arc Lower’ as shown here:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

For the settings choose a ‘Horizontal Bend’ of ‘-18 %’ as indicated by the image below:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Once you’ve applied the warp, press Command/Ctrl+T to initiate a Free Transform and then hold Alt/Option on your keyboard while dragging either of the side handles of the bounding box inwards towards the center to make the text appear more condensed. After that, move your cursor over either the top or the bottom handle and drag outwards to make the text a bit taller.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 14: Dropping the Ace

Select your warped text layer and press Command/Ctrl+J to make a copy of it, and then press the Command/Ctrl key along with the left bracket key to move the copy of the layer below the original.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Double click on the layer to bring up the Layer Style dialog box and check off the ‘Color Overlay’ box before applying a solid black fill. Once you have done that press ‘OK’ twice to close out of both boxes and apply the changes. From here, select the duplicate text layer and tap it down five or six times using the down arrow on your keyboard to create a drop shadow effect.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 15: What the What?

Open the ‘vintageelements_4_the.eps’ file from the freebies folder.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Copy the word in Illustrator by selecting it and pressing Command/Ctrl+C and then return to Photoshop and paste it as a Smart Object (Command/Ctrl+V). Place the Smart Object at the top of your Layers Palette as shown below:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Double click on the layer to bring up the Layer Style dialog box and check off the ‘Color Overlay’ option.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

For the fill color use a solid white (hex value #FFFFFF). From here, press ‘OK’ two times to apply the changes and close out of both dialog boxes.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 16: The The Folder

Select the top layer in your Layers Palette (should be ‘the’ Smart Object) and then hold the Shift Key and select the ‘ACE OF CLUBS copy’ layer so all three layers are selected at the same time.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Press Command/Ctrl+G to place the layers into a new folder. Double click on the folder name to change it to ‘ACE OF CLUBS’ as shown here:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Repeat this for the next two layers, placing the ’15.png’ layer and ‘CLUB’ layer into a new folder named ‘CLUB SYMBOL’.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 17: Scaling Mountains

Open the ‘Map_Maker_Mountain_Symbol.eps’ file from the freebies folder for the tutorial in Adobe Illustrator.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Copy and paste the shape as a Smart Object from Illustrator into Photoshop and scale them up a bit by dragging outwards from any of the four corners of the bounding box while holding the Shift Key. Place the mountains towards the bottom of your ‘ACE OF CLUBS’ text running across the bottom. From here, double-click the layer to bring up the Layer Style options and add a solid white fill.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Once you’ve added the white ‘Color Overlay’ go ahead and click on the layer thumbnail icon while holding the Command/Ctrl key to activate a selection around the shape.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Go to the Select Menu and choose ‘Modify > Expand’ as shown below:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

When you are prompted with the dialog box enter a value of ‘6 px’ and press ‘OK’ to apply the changes.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Return to the Select Menu and choose the ‘Inverse’ option to invert your selection.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Select ‘THE ACE OF CLUBS’ folder and then while your inverted selection is still active, click on the ‘Add Layer Mask’ option at the bottom of the Layers Palette. You should now have something like this:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 18: Corner Clubs

Expand the ‘CLUB SYMBOL’ folder and then press ‘W’ to switch back to your Magic Wand Tool. Make sure that the ‘CLUB’ Smart Object layer is selected and click inside of the shape on your canvas with the Magic Wand Tool to activate a selection around the inner part of the shape.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Press Command/Ctrl+Alt/Option+Shift+N to create a New Layer. Alternatively, you can just select the ‘New Layer’ icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette. From there, click on the foreground color in the toolbar and change the color to #D02F2F as shown here:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Press ‘OK’ and then select your new layer and press Alt/Option+Delete on the keyboard to fill the selection with your red color. After that press Command/Ctrl+D to deselect everything and move the layer to the top of your Layers Palette. After that, click on the layer while holding the Control Key to reveal a dropdown menu. From this list choose the ‘Convert to Smart Object’ option.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Double click on the layer name and change it to ‘RED CLUB’ and then press Command/Ctrl+T to apply a Free Transform. Hold the Shift Key and drag inwards from any of the four corners of the bounding box around the shape to scale it down proportionally until it roughly matches the size of the red club in the image below:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 19: All A’s

Create another layer above your ‘RED CLUB’ Smart Object and switch to your Type Tool (T). Type out the letter ‘A’ using a light font such as ‘Gotham’ or you can use something similar such as Avenir or Helvetica. Place the letter above the red club as shown here:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Select the ‘A’ in the Layers Palette and then hold the Shift Key and select the ‘RED CLUB’ layer below so they are both selected at the same time.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

With both layers selected, press Command/Ctrl+G to put them into a new folder and rename it ‘CLUB SYMBOL TOP CORNER’ as shown below:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Select the ‘CLUB SYMBOL TOP CORNER’ folder and press Command/Ctrl+J to duplicate it. Press Command/Ctrl+T to initiate a Free Transform and then click on the letter and shape on your canvas while holding the Control key on the keyboard. You should then see a dropdown menu where you will want to choose ‘Flip Horizontal’ and then click again and choose ‘Flip Vertical’ so your letter and shape now appear to be reflected.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Move this upside-down copy to the lower right corner and then double click on the folder name in the Layers Palette and change the name of the folder to ‘CLUB SYMBOL BOTTOM CORNER’ and you should now have something like this:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 20: Setting Sail

Open the ‘Ship-6.png’ file from the freebie folder in Photoshop.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Drag the file over into your document and convert it into a Smart Object before changing the name of the layer to ‘Ship-6.png’ or something similar that will make it easy for you to identify.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Double click on the layer to bring up the Layer Style options and check off ‘Color Overlay’ as shown below:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

For the fill color enter a hex value of #484848 before pressing ‘OK’ twice to apply the changes and close out of both dialog boxes.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Press Command/Ctrl+T to initiate a Free Transform and then hold the Shift Key and drag inwards from any of the four corners of the bounding box to scale the ship down proportionally in size. Move the ship to the lower left hand corner of the layout as shown here:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Press Command/Ctrl+T to initiate a Free Transform once again and then click on the ship while holding the Control Key. Choose ‘Flip Horizontal’ from the menu that appears.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Hold the Control Key and click once again, and this time choose ‘Flip Vertical’ to flip the ship both ways before pressing ‘Enter’ on the keyboard to apply the transformation. Next, move this copy to the upper right hand corner of the layout.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

After placing both copies of the ship, select the top copy in your Layers Palette, and then hold the Shift Key and select the copy directly below it. You should now have both copies of the ship selected as shown here:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

While both layers are selected, press Command/Ctrl+G to place them into a new folder and change the name of the folder to ‘SHIPS’. Feel free to do the same thing for the loose ‘Mountains’ Smart Object by placing it into a folder called ‘MOUNTAINS’ or use a similar name of your choice.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 21: Getting It Kraken

Open the ‘03.png’ file in Photoshop.

NOTE: This freebie is unfortunately not available.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Click and drag the image into your document and then hold the Control Key and click on the layer in the Layers Palette. From the dropdown menu we want to choose the option that says ‘Convert to Smart Object’ and then double click on the layer name to change it to ’03.png’ or another name that will make the layer easy to identify.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Select the layer and press Command/Ctrl+T to initiate a Free Transform. From here, hold the Control Key and click on the creature to reveal the dropdown menu. From here we will choose the option that says ‘Rotate 90º Counter Clockwise’ before pressing ‘Enter’ on the keyboard to apply the changes.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Once your sea creature is vertical, move the Smart Object layer above the ‘MOUNTAINS’ folder as shown below:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 22: Inky Squid

Double click on the ’03.png’ Smart Object layer to open it in a new window. Click on the ‘Adjustment Layer’ icon found at the bottom of the Layers Palette and then choose ‘Black & White’ from the list as shown here:

NOTE: This freebie is unfortunately not available.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Return to the Adjustment Layer icon and this time choose ‘Levels’ from the list that appears.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Once the properties are shown, move the left hand slider in towards the right so that it’s set to about ’72’ as shown here:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

After you’ve applied both of these Adjustment Layers within the Smart Object file, press Command/Ctrl+S to save the changes. You can now press Command/Ctrl+W to close the tab and return to your main document where you should now see the changes taking reflected in your main PSD file.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 23: Squid Mask

Position the squid so that you have a cool looking part of the tentacles overlapping the bottom ‘stem’ of the club shape. Once you have done that click on the ‘Add Layer Mask’ icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette.

NOTE: This freebie is unfortunately not available.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Use a solid black foreground color and switch to your Brush Tool (B) and paint over the entire squid except for the part of the tentacle near the stem. What we want to do here is create the illusion that the tentacle is coming from behind and then in front of the club shape so once we paint out most of the creature we can hold the Command/Ctrl key and click on the layer thumbnail icon of the ‘CLUB’ Smart Object to activate a selection around it. From there we can paint out the parts of the tentacle that we want to go behind the stem of the club shape.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

After tweaking the positioning slightly you should now have something like this:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 24: Squid Copy

Select the ’03.png’ Smart Object layer and press Command/Ctrl+J to duplicate it.

NOTE: This freebie is unfortunately not available.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Hold the Control Key and click on the mask attached to the duplicate layer and then choose ‘Delete Layer Mask’ as shown below:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

We are now going to place this copy below the ‘CLUB’ layer as shown here:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Next, click on the ‘Add Layer Mask’ icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette to attach a new mask to this copy of the sea creature Smart Object.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Reposition the squid so that you can get another interesting part of the tentacle positioned behind the club shape and then paint out everything except for that one section using a hard round black brush. Here is what I wound up with:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 25: The Main Squeeze

Select the ’03.png copy’ Smart Object layer and press Command/Ctrl+J to duplicate it. Repeat the step for deleting the Layer Mask by clicking on it while holding the Control Key and choosing ‘Delete Layer Mask’ from the dropdown. After that, press Command/Ctrl+T to do a Free Transform and rotate or flip the squid to add some variation.

NOTE: This freebie is unfortunately not available.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Here I am looking for a part of the tentacle that will overlap the top of the club shape.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Attach a new Layer Mask and once again paint out all of the squid with a black round brush except for the top piece that we want to overlap the main club shape. Hold the Command/Ctrl key and click on the layer thumbnail icon of the ‘CLUB’ layer to once again activate a selection around it. Next, paint out the area indicated by the yellow circle in the image below:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

It should now look as though the tentacle is coming from behind the club shape and overlapping it in the front. You may wish to add one or more copies either in front or behind the main club shape, but the process for painting out different sections or pieces of the squid will be the same.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 26: Kraken Outlines

Once you are happy with the shapes and have a few copies to work with, double-click on one of the ’03.png’ Smart Object layers to bring up your Layer Styles. Check off the ’Stroke’ option and apply a 2 pixel stroke set to ‘Outside’ using a solid white fill color as shown below:

NOTE: This freebie is unfortunately not available.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Once you’ve applied the stroke you may notice a few stray bits that we might have missed that are now more obvious. We will want to go back in and paint these smaller areas out.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

After you have painted out any unwanted areas from the layer, hold the Control Key and click on the small ‘fx’ icon and then choose ‘Copy Layer Styles’ from the dropdown menu.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Hold the Command/Ctrl key and click on all of the remaining copies of the ’03.png’ layers so they are all selected at the same time.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Hold the Control Key and then click on any one of the remaining duplicate layers and you should see a dropdown menu. From here we want to choose the ‘Paste Layer Style’ option in order to copy the same stroke settings to all of the remaining copies. Repeat the process for masking out any stray pieces that may now be more visible because of the white stroke that we have added.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 27: Kraken Folders

After applying the thin white stroke to all of the tentacle shapes and cleaning up any stray segments, hold the Command/Ctrl key and select the copies that are in front. Press Command/Control+G to put those copies into a new folder and name it ‘KRAKEN FRONT’ and then do the same for the copies behind the club shape and put them into a folder called ‘KRAKEN BACK’.

NOTE: This freebie is unfortunately not available.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Your layers should now look like this:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 28: Thunder Textures

Open the ‘Grainy-and-Gritty-Vector-Texture-07.png’ file along with the ‘Grainy-and-Gritty-Vector-Texture-08.png’ and ‘Grainy-and-Gritty-Vector-Texture-17.png’ files in Photoshop.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Click and drag each of the three texture layers into your main Photoshop document and place them at the top of your Layers Palette. Rename each of the layers and convert each one into a Smart Object so you end up with something like this:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Step 29: True Grit

Hold the Command/Ctrl key and select all three of the texture layers before putting them into a new folder named ‘THUNDER-PIXELS-CO’ based on the artist who created them. Now you can go into the folder and apply a Free Transform (Command/Ctrl+T) to each of the three textures in order to scale them up or down, rotate them, or reposition them however you like in order to add a nice layer of grit on top of our design.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

Once you are happy with the size and positioning of each of the textures, double-click on the ‘THUNDER-PIXELS-CO’ folder to bring up the Layer Styles for the whole group. Check off the ‘Color Overlay’ option as shown here:

From the Deep Playing Card Design

For the fill color enter a solid black (#000000) and then press ‘OK’ twice to apply the changes and close out of both dialog boxes.

From the Deep Playing Card Design

We have now completed our ‘From the Deep’ playing card design! We have layered up a lot of different textures, patterns, and shapes along with some customized text in order to achieve the desired result. I hope that you have enjoyed this tutorial and hopefully learned some new techniques along the way. With so many great vector elements to choose from, this bundle is sure to help you step up your designs and take your work to the next level. I can’t wait to see what you guys do with it!

From the Deep Playing Card Design

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 Ultimate Vector Design Bundle with tons of best-selling vector design assets based on our community’s most requested items all for the price of $29!