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I have been pretty slow with holiday tutorials lately and I was going to do a Thanksgiving Wallpaper. But it seems my form of humor is not like everyone elses. So instead I chose to do an ethereal multinational Christmas Wallpaper. And again this is created for 1680×1050.
Open a document and fill it with black. Then add a gradient overlay, set the starting color to #2e0000 and the ending to #921c1a.
Make a new layer and also fill it with black. Now set the fill to 0%. Next open a new document 4×8 pixels, set the background as transparent. Then grab your single column marquee tool and fill in the two left most selections with black. Now go to Edit > Define Pattern… call the new pattern verticle scan. Hit OK. Close that document and go back to our wallpaper. Then go to our 0% fill layer and add a Pattern Overlay. Finally set the blend to Soft Light, the opacity to 40%, and the scale to 50% and hit OK.
Make a new layer, with your pen tool draw out a small hill at the bottom of our wallpaper. Then go to the Path palette and CTEL+Click the Work Path layer. Now go back to the layer pallette and fill the selection with black. Set the fill to 0%. Then add a gradient overlay that goes from Transparent to White. Finally go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur > and set the radius to 10 – 15 pixels and hit OK.
Duplicate this layer.
Make a new layer. Now using the pen tool make your best version of a basic Christmas tree shape. Make a selection of your path and fill it with white. Add a 15 – 20 pixel gaussian blur. Now add a gradient overlay starting with color #00250f and ending with #1d9d38.
Make another new layer and click the work path in the paths palette. Now we are going to make a new brush. Next open a new document at 15×15 with a transparent layer. Then in your custom shape tool select the 5 pointed star shape. Then make a selection leaving a few pixels from the edge on all sides. Fill the selection black. make sure the center is filled as well. Set the fill opacity to 50%. Then right click the layer to open the blending options and select Stroke. Set the Stoke to inner and the color to Black with 2 – 3 pixel width. Finally go to Edit > Define Brush. Name the new brush Star and close that document you will not need it again. Now go back to our wallpaper and select the brush we just created. Now we are going to set some new Presets open the Brush Presets Palette. Select Shape Dynamics and set the Size Jitter to 100%. Then select Scattering and set the Scatter to 1000%. Finally select Other Dynamics and set Opacity Jitter to 50%. Change the forgoround color to White. Now that we have our dynamics reselect the pen tool and right click, choose Stroke path and make sure simulate pressure is not selected.
Here is where you can use some creative license. Using the pen tool draw lines around the tree like tinsel. Using the same brush technique as before make a circle and square brush. To make this simple once you make one pass at the tree select out of the work path and back in to make seperate subpaths. When you have enough and you are happy highlight the work path so all the subpaths show. Make a new layer and choose your square brush. Stroke path and make sure simulate pressure is not selected.
With the work path still highlighted go to Edit > Transform Path > Flip Horizontally. Make a new layer and stroke the path with your circle bursh. Make sure to use the brush dynamics on the square and circle layer just as you did with the star layer.
For the star at the top I found a very cool brush set on deviant art. Just search for “Star Brush” and you will find a ton to work with. Once you have selected your brush set install it to photoshop and choose a large star burst. Make a new layer and place the burst at the top of the tree. Using your best judgement add a Radial gradien overlay in a golden copper tone. Set the layer fill to 50%
Now select a smaller star burst and make a new layer. Select a White Color. Place the second burst over the first and center them together.
Now that we have our tree we can move on to the Ornaments. Make a new layer and add three 3px lines coming down from the top left with various heights. Then add a slight inner and outer gold color glow (#eed45e).
Now we are going to build our first ornament that we will duplicate for the other two. Grap your Eliptical Marquee Tool and hold shift Draw out a circle 210×210 pixels. Make a new layer and fill the selection with black. Then add a Radial Gradient Overlay starting in #26a3ff and ending in #12438f.
CTRL+Click this layer to make a selection. Then go to Select > Modify > Contract and contract the selection 5px and hit OK. Then again select you Eliptical Marquee Tool and hold ALT and drag out a selection over the current to make a slim cresent at the bottom of our ornament. Make a new layer and fill the selection with white. Add a 5px Gaussian Blur. Finally set the layer blend to Overlay.
Follow the sames step as before only this time make a large cresent select at the top of the ornament. Once you have the new layer filled with white set the layer fill to 0% and add a Transparent to white gradient overlay. set the overlay to mode to Overlay and the opacity to 40%.
Make a new layer. Grap your Eliptical Marquee Tool and And make a circular selection roughly ¼ the size of the ornament. Fill the selection with white. Now using the perspective tool or warp tool make the top of this circle more narrow and fatten up the bottom. Add a 5px Gaussian Blur. Center this shape with the main ornament then move it so it is 20px from the top edge. Then CTRL+click the layer and remove the overlap from the top cresent layer. Finally set the small circle to Color Dodge.
CTRL+Click the main ornament layer and make a new layer. Then go to deviant art and find a nice “starfield” brush set. Then with the select still active add a star field. Then go to Filter > Distort > Spherize set the amout to 100% and hit OK. Set the layer fill to 30% and the blend to Opacity.
Highlight all the layers of the blue ornament and hit CTRL+G. This will put all the highlighted layers in to a group folder. Now highlight the group and go to Edit > Transform > Scale > and scale it to 75%. And move it to one of the other ornament string. Then expand the new group and select the base gradient and adjust it to any color you like.
Follow these same steps on the third ornament.
Now go back to the brush you used as your tree topper. Now scale the size of the brush so it looks like a flare on the edge of the ornaments. Make a new layer and add a star at 11 and 5 o’clock on the ornaments.
Now grab your Text tool and type out “Merry Christmas”. Now we are going to adjust the text formatting set the font size to 100 px, set the text tracking to -25, and set the font style to “Bickham Script Pro”. Now Center the text at the top of our wallpaper.
Duplicate the layer and rasterize it. Then add a 5 – 10 pxel gassuian blur. Then move the blur text to the right and down 10 pixels. Next move this layer below the actual text layer. Finally set the layer to Overlay.
This next part is a bit tricky. If you do not know the language on your own go to Google Translate and type in “Merry Christmas” into there interface. Then choose 5 or 6 different languages you want it translated. Then for each language follow the same steps as on the large version. just make them fit comfortably between the tree and the ornaments.
And there you go a multinational Christmas wallpaper. What did you come up with? Send me a link and I will post your version here under Reader Submitted!
