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Making Novelty Postmarks


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I am a newbie and not too familiar with Photoshop cs. I was wondering how to make those novelty postmarks using cs. I have seen those novelty stamps made of rubber for things like Xmas and Valentine's day (might be worth it to score a few extra points with the wife). I was sent the following from somebody but not having elements I have no idea how to do this in CS. I tried but I kept getting lost. Aidez-moi, s'il vous plait!

Making a Novelty Postmark

Start a new blank file about 3? width by 2? height, 300 resolution, transparent background. Double click on the background and make it a layer. Add a new layer, fill it with white, and drag it below the background layer. This is to make it easier to see your work. You can easily trash the white layer at the end to keep your image transparent.

Select the Custom Shapes Tool. Choose a foreground color of your choice. Hold the Shift key and using the Circle Thin Frame shape from the ?Shapes? or ?Default? category drag a circle outline about 1.5? diameter. Turn on your ruler and it will help you size it correctly.

Copy that layer. Select the new copy with the Move Tool and while holding the Shift, key drag this circle to a smaller size and position it inside the larger circle.

Using the Text tool, with a small sized font (I used Verdana 6) type your text. In the Text Options bar, click on the Create Warped Text button.

From that dialog box, for Style, choose Arc, then drag the Bend slider to get the text so it fits around inside between the two circles. If you want text on the top and bottom, do them separately as you?ll have to bend them differently to get them to position correctly. On my example, the city/state text was at +67 and the zip code was at ?45 bend.

Then type your text for the middle of the circle and center it and drag it into position using the Move tool. I typed all three lines at once, hitting Enter to go to each new line, then from the Text options bar, clicked on the center icon.

For the cancellation lines, use the Custom Shapes Tool, and from the ?Symbols? category, select Waves1. Using the color of your choice, drag the shape out to the right of the circle. Transform it to look the way you want. I made mine about 2? long by ?? tall. Then duplicate the layer to get a second set. Position that set below the first waves.

Crop and save as a PSD file with the layers intact. Delete the white layer at the bottom, then flatten and experiment with filters to make it look like a stamp with too little ink. Post marks are seldom clear and bright. I used Filter > Brush Strokes > Spatter and a little Levels adjustment to make it look faded. Maybe you can find a better method to age or fade your postmark. Then Save for Web as a GIF and make it transparent
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