Introduction

Hello, everyone. You've probably seen them, the "Greetings from..." postcard designs. They are very easy to make, and today I'll be teaching you how to do them in CSP. Before you start, think about what place you want the card to be from. I choose the moon because I thought it would be funny. When you have the place you want, get pictures from them. I will be using NASA space pictures, because those are Public Domain.

You're going to need 2 fonts, a handwritten one and another one that's wide. You'll use the handwritten for the "Greetings from".

After you type the words, remember to convert them into Raster layers. To do this, you can right click on the text layer and select Rasterize, or do it in the Layer drop down menu.

We'll do almost nothing to the "Greetings from" and the "THE", it's with "MOON" with which we'll play around. I'll refer to the main word as "MOON" throughout the tutorial for simplicity's sake, but yours will obviously be whatever place you choose to make the postcard about.

 

Well, let's begin!

Borders

First, duplicate the "MOON" layer. In the [Filter] menu, select [Correct line] > [Adjust line width] to give "MOON" a border. It's best if this first border is a light color. Then duplicate this new layer and give it an even wider border.

3D Effect

Take the widest border, duplicate it, and move it down and to the side. We'll use this for creating a 3D effect. To make it easier, we'll change the color with the [Change the layer color] option. You should be able to find it in your layers panel. This way, we can differentiate between the layers without disrupting the color.

In a new layer, connect the borders from each letter, like this:

When you are done, you can click [Change layer color] again on the bottom layer, and merge it with this one to put the 3D effect on the same layer. It should look something like this:

[Change the layer color] of the top border now. Then, on a Clip mask, select the bottom planes of the words to give it a darker color. I used the Polyline tool for this, in the Figures section, with a darker color than the rest selected. In my examples you can see me select the side and top planes instead, but that's because I'm not the smartest gal. Work smart, not hard, people.

It should look something like this:

Inner shadows

We'll make an inner shadow for the letters. I want to create the illusion of a shadow being cast on the photos by the white border. For this, right click in the layer with the black "MOON" letters, and select [Selection from layer] > [Create selection]. Go to the layer with the white border and delete this area. That way you can put it on top without changing the design.

Duplicate the "MOON" layer and create a selection. Move it down and to the side, and delete this portion of the new layer. Change the color so as to not get confused.

To finish this layer, depending of the name of your place, you may notice that there some corners where the drop shadow doesn't connect with the border.

We'll fix it with the Polyline tool:

Alright, let's put each letter of the "MOON" layer into a separate one. We'll need this for when we're clipping the pictures to them.

Mesh Transformation

Go to [Edit] > [Transform] > [Mesh Transformation...] to transform the design.

You can change the amount of horizontal/vertical lattices in the [Tool propriety] menu.

Clipping the pictures

Insert the images you want in separate layers. You should put them on top of the letter you want and start stretching and moving it as you see fit. When you are done, make the picture a clipping mask. Do it for every letter.

You can see I changed the color of the 3D layer. I was very indecisive, but I settled for red after all.

 

For the "Greetings from" and "THE" layers, I just duplicated the layer and put it a little down and to the side.

Finishing thoughts

Here's the finished result after I played around with gradients, textures, and Gradient maps.

You can use the same techniques for several things. Like here, where I made a graphic design:

Or for this Middle Earth Postcard, where I used old paintings for the letters. Instead of doing a 3D effect, I just made a duplicate, like in this tutorial's "Greetings from":

If you do a design following this tutorial, I would love to see it! You can tag me in Instagram at @apey.art . If you have any question, don't hesitate on telling me, I'd love to help!