Making a sample picture of a printed card for online display

[Chyina]

Okay, so here's the deal. I have a vintage valentine card that I want to sell as a printable. Currently though I am unable to print this out myself. The problem with this is that I can't take product sample pictures of this image in various uses. Right now I would like to create a "photo" of this vintage card as it would look if someone printed it out on card stock paper, then cut it out along the image outline. This would give a fold-able "greeting card" style, but the card would not be your typical square or rectangle, as the person would cut out the card along the image edge.


Here is the vintage valentine. It is in PNG format to preserve the transparent background.




Here is a similar example of the effect I want to create:


But I want to make the above effect, as if the valentine was cut out along the image edges, and not simply printed on a rectangular card. How would I create a product sample use "photo" with the vintage image in a cut out, standing up, card image?

I hope that makes sense.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Cheers,
Chyina

 

[IamSam]

Hello and welcome to PSG.

Do you mind if I ask where you found the "Vintage " Valentine card image?

 

[Chyina]

Hi Sam, thanks for the welcome.

I got the image off of a public domain image site. I would have to look to see which one specifically, as I have several accounts and bookmarks for image stock sites for paid, vintage and/or public domain. If you like though I can find it for you. I remember they had some great old images.

 

[IamSam]

Please understand, that we here at PSG are not the copyright police. You do not nor do I expect you to explain any further.

But since you mentioned that these were for resale, I want you to be sure that you have license for resale as most of these Free clippart sites do not allow the resale of such images.

Here is an example: http://www.clipartpanda.com/terms
Notice under license use it states that you may NOT use the material fro any commercial purposes.

Please check your source to make sure you have paid for full usage of this image so it does not cause problems down the road for you.

As for your question.......

Open both images in Photoshop.
Place both images in the same document.
Place the image layer above the card layer.

Use the transform function to adjust the size and perspective.



Set the image layer blending mode to multiply.

 

[IamSam]

Sorry, I misunderstood your question..............

 

[IamSam]

Are you referring to something more like this?

 

[Chyina]

Thanks for your concern Sam. I am a bit of a stickler for reading terms when it comes to stock images that I use. So I made sure this one was clear of any copyright, and could be used for commercial purposes. I don't even sell fan art because it is technically copyright infringement, lol. So yeah, as far as I can tell from the hours I spent looking and reading, there is no issue with selling this card.


As to your last example, it is closer to what I am looking for, but not quite there. I would like the fold of the card to be at the top, opening from the bottom. The fold would be attached at three points on the picture, the two top "humps" of the heart and the yellow "hump" of the background shape. I would need the picture to depict this, and as if standing partially opened (like my second image), if that makes sense.


Thanks for taking the time to do what you did though!

 

[ALB68]

Sam is out of town until next week. Perhaps this is what your looking for, if not, provide a bit more direction.

 

[Chyina]

Thanks for letting me know about Sam, Larry, and thanks so much for your work with the pic. It's still not quite what I'm going for, but after fiddling with the picture myself I came up with the closest thing yet to the effect I want, though it still doesn't look very realistic to me.


Here's what I've gotten so far. Any suggestions to making it look more like an actual card that's been printed out and photographed?



Thanks again for your help! It is much appreciated as I'm still learning and could use all the advice I can get.

 

[ALB68]

Your card (gray portion) doesn't look like paper. Select that part and then fill it with one of the many textures in PS that would resemble a textured paper like a card would be printed on.
Edit/Fill/Patterns/ Colored Paper etc etc

 

[Chyina]

Thanks for the advice Larry, that did help. I'll just have to work on the shadows and such to get it just right.


Here it is with a bit of texture:

 

[ALB68]

I do believe I would make the paper lighter in color though. Maybe add a drop shadow also.