Realistic Ribbons in Photoshop

With all of the Digital Scrapbooking websites out there, I got curious the other day and decided to check out how their digital wares are merchandised. What I found were websites with pictures of products good enough for the shelves - except that they aren't "real". They're 100% image ... and I fell in love.

This guide walks you through the process of creating a realistic card of ribbons. You might never need this image, but you'll learn several cool tricks and effects if you work through it. Promise. And what you wind up with will make you proud enough to want to try more.

To follow this guide, you'll need a copy of Adobe Photoshop (versions 7 through the current CS3 will work fine). I'm using CS3 as this guide is being written, so some of the tools may be located in different places in your version - but they're all there.

Ribbon Card in Photoshop - The Steps

We'll be working this out by creating pieces for the card, and assembling it when all the pieces are ready. So the pieces we'll be working with are staples, ribbons, and a metal grommet (the thing that products are hung by on the shelves). Each of these will go on a "card" that makes it look like the ribbon is wrapped around it.

The Staples

1. New Canvas - Open a new canvas (File, New) in Photoshop that is sized about 200 x 200 pixels in RGB mode with a white background. Then, set your foreground color to light gray and your background color to black.

2. Rounded Rectangle - We want the corners of our staple to be just a bit rounded. Select your rounded rectangle shape tool (it hides behind the rectangle shape tool - just right-click the icon to select the correct one) and then look up. Under the main toolbar is a second toolbar that holds all the options for the tool you're using. Locate the box that says "Radius" and enter "5 px" inside it. Then, draw a long thin shape across your canvas to represent a staple. Right-click the layer when you're done and choose "Rasterize Layer".

3. Apply Styles - Now we're going to make this rectangle look like a staple. To start, you'll need to access your Layer Styles. Go to "Layer", choose "Styles", and click "Stroke".

In the Stroke dialog, set the color to pure black (#000000). Change the Opacity to 47%, the Position to Outside, and the Size to 1 px. Then, click the "Bevel and Emboss" box.

In the Bevel and Emboss dialog, choose the "Rolling Slope (Descending)" Gloss Contour. Set the Highlight Mode to Scree, its color White, and its Opacity to 75%. Set the Shadow Mode to Multiply, its color to Black, and its Opacity to 75%. The Angle needs to be 120 and the Altitude is 30. The Style is Inner Bevel, Technique is Chisel Hard, and the Depth is 100%. Set the Direction to "Up", the Size to 5 px and the Soften to 0. Then, click the "Drop Shadow" box.

In the Drop Shadow Box, go to the Angle and set it to 120. Then, set the Distance to 1, the Spread to 0, and the Size to 1. The Contour should be the "Half Round" option. Then, click "OK".

At this point, you might want to save your staple just in case.

The Grommet

1. New Canvas - Open a new canvas (File, New) in Photoshop that is sized about 200 x 200 pixels in RGB mode with a white background. Then, set your foreground color to light gray and your background color to black.

2. Perfect Circle - Our circle needs to be perfectly round. Select your circle shape tool and hold your shift key down on your keyboard while you drag the circle out to fill most of the canvas. When your shape is drawn, right-click its layer and choose "Rasterize Layer".

3. Cut Out - We want to cut out everything in the center of our circle to make it look like a fairly thin frame. Grab your circle marquee tool and again hold your shift key down on your keyboard while you draw the circle out. Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to get the marquee centered, and then hit the backspace key on your keyboard to delete what you have selected.

4. Paste Style - To make life easy, go back to your staple image. Then, right-click the staple's layer and choose "Copy Layer Style". Return to your grommet image, right-click your cut out circle, and choose "Paste Layer Style". Easy peasy.

Again, you might want to save your progress just in case.

The Ribbons

1. New Canvas - Open a new canvas (File, New) in Photoshop that is sized about 300 x 100 pixels in RGB mode with a white background. Set your foreground color to black and your background color to something bright - pink, for example.

2. Rectangle - Choose your regular (not rounded) rectangle tool and draw a line across the canvas that is about 1/3 the height of your canvas. When it's drawn, right-click the rectangle layer and choose "Rasterize Layer".

3. Drop Shadow - This is a quick layer style. Go to your drop shadow dialog (Layer, Styles, Drop Shadow) and leave all settings at their default except the Size and Distance. The distance should be set to 1, and the size to 3. Click OK.

4. Ovals - Our design on these ribbons will be simple. We're going to do simple ovals across the ribbon. Switch your foreground and background colors by clicking the double-ended arrow right above them, and use your bright color to draw an oval shape on your ribbon. When it's drawn, right-click its layer and choose "Rasterize Layer". Right-click it again and choose "Duplicate Layer". Select your "Move" tool and then use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard to slide the layer over. Repeat this duplicate and move process until your ribbon is filled across with ovals.

5. Duplicates - First, merge all of your oval layers into a single layer. What you should have now is the Background layer, the Ribbon Rectangle layer, and your Ovals layer. You'll want to duplicate the ribbon and ovals layers 6 times and then apply a color overlay (Layer, Style, Color Overlay) to change the look of each ribbon. You'll have 7 ribbons in all. When your 7 ribbons are made, merge both layers for each ribbon so that you have 7 ribbon layers.

6. Duplicate and Rotate - We want our ribbons to look like they've been wrapped around a card, not like they're just sitting there flat and sterile. So we want a second strand of ribbon in front of the first, and we want both of those strands to be a little crooked. To do this, go through each of your ribbon layers and duplicate them once. Then, click "Ctrl" and "T" on your keyboard at the same time. Use the corner handles to rotate each layer just a bit so it isn't so centered.

At this point, you should have each of the elements shown in Illustration 01. Save your work just in case, and get ready to work it all onto the card.

The Card & Assembly

1. New Canvas - Open a new canvas (File, New) in Photoshop that is sized 300 x 430 pixels in RGB mode with a white background. Set your foreground color to a very, very (almost white) light gray and your background color to black.

2. Two Rectangles - Now you'll draw two rectangles. The first one is easy - just right-click your background layer and choose "Duplicate Layer". The second one needs to be the same width, but shorter. Go ahead and duplicate your background layer again, and use your marquee tool and the backspace key on your keyboard to remove the lower 3/4 of that layer.

3. Layer Styles - We'll apply both an Inner Shadow and a Drop shadow to these layers really quick. First, apply the Drop Shadow. Leave all the settings at their default except Size and Distance. Size needs to be 10 and Distance should be 3. Then, go right to your "Inner Shadow" box. The only setting you'll change is the Opacity - set it to 4%, and click OK. Go ahead and copy-paste this layer style on the other card layer.

4. Enlarge Canvas - Now we want our canvas to be a little bigger. Go to "Image", choose "Canvas Size", and set it to 325 x 455 pixels. Click OK.

5. Assemble the Pieces - This is easy - just start dragging your elements on to your card. The staples go in the bottom corners of the short, "folded over" part of the card and the grommet in the center top of it. Resize the elements as needed. Reference Illustration 02.

6. Embellish - The last step is very simply to add your own text and logo or anything else you think would be perfect on the top of the ribbon card.

Save your work and show it off!