Creating custom gifts - short tutorial

So, this time we thought we’d tickle your imagination a bit by exploring various possibilities that Photoshop brushes offer.

For instance - birthday presents! OK. We all, usually, just run to the store and get something we think is suitable.

In my opinion presents are particularly precious and valuable when the one who gives spends some time into creating the present. So, when we spend some time to make a present, it is a special sign of appreciation.

I know, many of you think “Noo, it’s too time consuming.” or “I don’t have enough skills for that.” But none of it is true. It is not too time consuming (although it’s not as fast as buying a finished present.) and yes - you do have skills.

So, we’ll show you, in this issue, how to design your own, custom gift in 8 steps and make something special for that someone special of yours :)

In this example we will make a design for a mug, although it could be just - anything.

So, here is a short cheat-sheet on creating your own mug on, say, Zazzle.com:

Before starting make sure you have the font that you need.

For this tutorial I used the font named 28 Days Later from DaFont.

So, in Photoshop:

1. Start new file: 1732 x 650 (200ppi); transparent background (you could even save preset for future mugs here)

2. Press B (to activate brush tool); Press F5 (to load brushes palette) and select one of the Hearts Photoshop Brushes Set (32) (sample size 1025px) Brush tip shape: Angle; -20

3. Set foreground color

4. Put the brush on the image area (click with the brush 3-4 times at the same position in order to remove any transparency from it)

5. Select 28 days later font and enter some cool text (Like: “The luv mug”)

6. Don’t forget to re-emphasize the personal touch. So, in this case I added “Made by: DG for SBG” just to make sure that there are no mistakes about who made it and for whom it was made.

7. Save as .png (in order to preserve transparency)

8. upload the .png file to http://www.zazzle.com/cr/design/pt-mug

Done! (The .psd file is available for download here ->)

Your custom gift is ready to be dispatched. Now, how hard was that?

I hope you liked this article and that you will inspire you to make your someone special happy!

Have fun creating!

P.S.

In this sample we used Hearts Photoshop Brushes Set (32).

Regular price for this brush is $9.99, but did I mention that there are only 2 days left to get ALL of my PREMIUM PS brushes for 1/2 the price AND get additional $10 bonus on the top of it all? Find out more ->