WHAT WE’RE CREATING:

Hello Design Cutters!

Jo here, with my final tutorial for you all! It’s been a real pleasure creating tutorials at Design Cuts and hopefully helping you get familiar with Photoshop as well as unleashing your own creative flair. :)

From the next bundle, Pam (the newest member of the Design Cuts design team) will be taking over from me, as I go to pursue some more non-digital projects. Please do check out the bottom of this lesson for a final farewell message from me though :).

It seemed fitting to make this tutorial a way of showing my appreciation, so we’re creating an artistic “Thank You” poster using some of the many awesome vectors available in this deal.

Quick note: In this tutorial, the term “clipping” or “clipped layer” is used a few times. This means that the layer is only visible/applies to the layer directly below it. You can very quickly do this by holding ‘Alt’ down on your keyboard and clicking between the two layers. Here’s a quick demonstration.

Ok, let’s get started!

Thank You Poster

Follow along with this tutorial: Download the freebies

As always, we have another great freebie for you to enjoy. Featuring a selection of vectors, patterns and textures from the curent deal, we hope it helps you get a feel for the variety available and how you can utilise them in your own creations.

Remember, this freebie is just a tiny sample taken from this great bundle: The Comprehensive, Creative Vectors Bundle (1000s of Varied Vectors) at just $29 (a fantastic 94% Off). You guys have been asking for a vectors bundle that brings true quality and variety. We listened, and this vast collection includes everything from decorative flourishes to vintage packs, floral designs, textures, patterns, realistic vectors, frames, shapes and themed packs!

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Step 1:

Open up a new (A4) 2480px x 3508px Photoshop document. Next, we’ll set up some guides that’ll help us with our layout during the design process. To do this quickly and accurately, go to View > New Guide in the main menu and type the following settings individually:

Vertical: 2%, 50% 98%
Horizontal: 2%, 98%

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We’ll now start to build up the background. Let’s start by downloading an extra resource (we need to link to these directly as they are additional resources which aren’t part of the bundle – this means their creators get full recognition) of a grungy paper texture:

Grungy Paper Texture

Copy and paste this on to your Photoshop canvas, scaling to fit:

Thank You Poster

From the freebies, copy and paste the halftone-3 file on to your canvas, scaling so that it fits within the guides we set up, which will leave a slight border. Change the blend mode to Multiply and reduce the opacity to 55%:

Thank You Poster

We’re going to change the colour using a clipped hue/saturation Adjustment Layer. Open up the Adjustment Layers menu by clicking the partially shaded circle icon at the bottom of your layers panel and select the hue/saturation option.

When the hue/saturation settings window opens, input the following settings:

Thank You Poster

Hue/Saturation Settings:
Colourize: On
Hue: 26
Saturation: 42
Lightness: +41

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We’ll finish off the background by adding the seamless tropical patterns5 file from the freebies to our canvas. Once copied and pasted, scale so that it fits against the guides:

Thank You Poster

For a subtler effect, let’s change the blend mode to Soft Light and reduce the opacity to 75%:

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We’ll finish off this step by grouping all the layers together in to a folder called “Background”. It just makes it so much easier to find things later. :)

Step 2:

To help build up some texture and richness, we’re going to duplicate the Grungy_paper_v_6 layer and place the copy at the top of the layer stack, making sure the blend mode is set to Multiply:

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Once in place, reduce the Opacity to 35% and lock the layer to the top so that all subsequent layers come below it.

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From the Freebie-Vectors.ai file, copy and paste the hand vector so that it sits approximately in the centre of the canvas and at a similar scale to below. Make sure the blend mode is set to Multiply:

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We’re going to warm up the colour using a clipped hue/saturation Adjustment Layer with this following settings:

Hue/Saturation Settings:
Colourize: On
Hue: 0
Saturation: 25
Lightness: 0

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Tip: When using clipped layers of any kind, I find it useful to group the two layers together to keep things easy to find at a glance, and stop the layer panel from looking too cluttered.

From the Freebie-Vectors.ai copy and paste the solid diamond (highlighted in red below) design on to your canvas:

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Once on your canvas, rotate slightly so that the image is straight and sits in the middle of the hand:

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We need to download an extra resource here, which is this great brushed-metal texture:

Brushed Metal Texture

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Copy and paste on to your canvas so that it’s positioned similar to below, covering the diamond:

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Clip the layer so that the texture is only visible on the diamond. Reposition the texture layer as required until you get a section you’re most happy with visible:

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Step 3:

From the freebies, copy and paste the BADGE14 on to your canvas so that it sits below and around the hand, then change the blend mode to Multiply:

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We’ll use a clipped hue/saturation Adjustment Layer to soften the colour to a more suitable green shade, using the following settings:

Thank You Poster

Hue/Saturation Settings:
Colourize: On
Hue: 65
Saturation: 30
Lightness: +5

Thank You Poster

From the freebies, copy and paste the BADGE3 sunburst motif on to your canvas, transforming so that it reaches the edges of the original guides. If necessary, reposition the hand, diamond and wreath layers so that they fit within the central space:

Thank You Poster

We’ll lighten this up for a more subtle effect using a clipped hue/saturation Adjustment Layer (we like these because they’re non-destructive!) with the following settings:

Thank You Poster

Hue/Saturation Settings:
Colourize: On
Hue: 0
Saturation: 25
Lightness: +90

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We’ve now got the centrepiece for our design! Let’s group all these together to keep things tidy – I’ve used the folder name “Central Design” but feel free to use any name that makes most sense to you.

Step 4:

We’ll now start to add some text to get our ‘thank you’ message across. From the Freebie-Vectors.ai file, copy and paste the banner (highlighted below in red) on to your photoshop canvas so that it’s scaled and positioned similarly to below:

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We’ll use our trusty clipped hue/saturation Adjustment Layer to change the colour to a more suitable shade for our design, inputting the following settings:

Thank You Poster

Hue/Saturation Settings:
Colourize: On
Hue: 0
Saturation: 25
Lightness: -10

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Now for some text! Use a bold and blocky sans-serif font to write “AWESOME” with the colour set as #ede1d4. I’ve used Trend Sans One (which was included in a previous Design Cuts bundle) but feel free to experiment and substitute with a typeface from your own collection. Scale as appropriate so that it fits neatly within the banner:

Thank You Poster

Next, select a simple, thin sans-serif font from your collection such as Helvetica Neue Thin (which is used in this tutorial) and type “for being” with #362f2d as the colour as it matches the banner. Make sure the layer blend mode is set to Multiply to give it some depth, and that the font size is approximately 14pt. The size will depend on which typeface you use – it just needs to be smaller than the main banner text:

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In a slightly larger, thicker version of the same typeface you used to write “for being”, type “LET’S HI-FIVE!”. The colour is still #362f2d and the blend mode should also be se to Multiply:

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Step 5:

From the Freebie-Vectors.ai file, copy and paste the starburst (highlighted in red) on to your Photoshop canvas:

Thank You Poster

Position and scale way down so that it sits centrally just below the text “Let’s Hi-Five” text, setting the blend mode to Multiply:

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Create a clipped hue/saturation Adjustment Layer with the following settings to make it a suitably golden star colour. :)

Hue/Saturation Settings:
Colourize: On
Hue: 50
Saturation: 90
Lightness: +25

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Step 6:

From the Freebie-Vectors.ai file, copy and paste the swirl border (highlighted in red below) near the bottom of your Photoshop canvas and set the blend mode to Multiply:

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For a slightly subtler effect, reduce the Opacity to 50%:

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Duplicate the layer then reposition so that it sits opposite from the original at the top of the canvas:

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Use the transform tool to rotate the layer 180 degrees so that the swirls turn downwards:

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Step 7:

From the Freebie-Vectors.ai copy and paste the open diamond image (highlighted in red below) on to your Photoshop canvas:

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Position it in the left side of the canvas, checking that it’s a similar size to below and rotating to the left so that it’s at more of an angle:

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Once you’re happy with the position, change the blend mode to Color Burn to get a nice, pinkish hue:

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Duplicate the layer, then in the main menu go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal to mirror the image and move it across to the opposite side:

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Step 8:

From the Freebie-Vectors.ai copy and paste the pointing hand image (highlighted in red below) on to your Photoshop canvas towards the top left corner. Rotate it to the right so that it’s at roughly a 35 degree angle and set the blend mode to Multiply:

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We’ll change the colour to something more in-keeping with our design, which we’ll do by creating a clipped hue/saturation Adjustment Layer with the following settings:

Thank You Poster

Hue/Saturation Settings:
Colourize: On
Hue: 0
Saturation: 14
Lightness: -5

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Group the vector and adjustment layer together in to a folder called “Left Hand” then duplicate the group, moving it across to the top right corner:

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Rename the group “Right Hand” then reflect the image as we did for the diamond by going to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal in the main menu bar:

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Step 9:

We now need to get the main message across. ;)

Using the same font as you did to write “Awesome” earlier in the tutorial, write “THANK YOU” WITH #362f2d as the colour. Set the blend mode to Multiply and scale as appropriate so that the text fills most of the space between the three hands, similar to below:

Thank You Poster

Step 10:

From the Freebie-Vectors.ai copy and paste the smudge mark (highlighted in red below) on to your Photoshop canvas:

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Position towards the left and scale so that it’s a similar size to below:

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Once you’re happy with the position, change the blend mode to Color Burn and reduce the Opacity to 65%:

Thank You Poster

We’re going to make this a lot more subtle with a clipped hue/saturation Adjustment Layer, using the following settings:

Thank You Poster

Hue/Saturation Settings:
Colourize: On
Hue: 5
Saturation: 45
Lightness: +30

Thank You Poster

Step 11:

From the Freebie-Vectors.ai copy and paste the bee image (highlighted in red below) on to your Photoshop canvas, positioning centrally above the “Thank You” text:

Thank You Poster

Set the blend mode to Multiply and reduce the Opacity to 75%:

Thank You Poster

Again, we’ll modify the colour with a clipped hue/saturation Adjustment Layer to make it fit in better with our colour scheme. Here are the settings you’ll need:

Thank You Poster

Hue/Saturation Settings:
Colourize: On
Hue: 65
Saturation: 30
Lightness: +5

Thank You Poster

Step 12:

From the freebies, select the 16-deer-antlers-freebie.png file and copy and paste on to the left side of your canvas, scaling and positioning so that it’s similar to below and setting the blend mode to Multiply:

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We’ll soften this slightly by dropping the Opacity to 50%:

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Duplicate the layer and rotate 180 degrees so that the antler points down. Then, move it to the right hand side of the canvas and position slightly higher, so that it’s similar to the image below:

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Step 13:

Finally, from the freebies copy and paste texture_2.png on to your canvas, scaling so that it meets the edges of the original guides:

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We want this to be the very top layer, so unlock the grungy paper texture layer we’ve had at the top until now, and rearrange the layers to accomodate this.

Finally, change the blend mode to Soft Light:

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And we’re done!

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I hope you enjoyed completing this tutorial, and that it’s set off some creative sparks on how you can use the wonderful variety of resources in the current bundle. Everything included is so versatile, we’re sure you’ll be using them in your designs for years to come!

Also, I just want to take this opportunity to say “thank you” in written form to everyone in the Design Cuts community. It’s been an extremely humbling experience to receive your feedback and see how you have been taking what you’ve learnt in the tutorials and really making them your own. I hope you all have many creative adventures to come, growing in skill and confidence. :)

Remember to share your designs on the Facebook page too, as we love being inspired by the way you make these tutorials your own!

Hopefully this tutorial showed you a small example of the variety of the resources available in this comprehensive bundle. Remember, you can get this great deal for a fantastic 94% off this week! Grab it below, while you still can:

The Comprehensive, Creative Vectors Bundle (1000s of Varied Vectors)