Red Hat Card

Making Custom Cards

I made a Red Hat card but the directions can easily be adapted to make a cowboy hat, a Mexican sombrero or a frilly lady's hat for an afternoon tea or luncheon.

The screenshots here are from Photoshop. However a card like this could be made using just about any card or photo-editing software from Print Shop to Photoshop Elements.

You might also make such a card freehand by creating a cardboard or plastic hat template using the dimensions below and transferring the shape to card stock.

To make a hat card like mine, you'll need the following ...

Card Making Materials

• Photoshop or similar graphic software
• Digital design products of your choice - I used a flower from Scrap Girls designer Syndee Nuckles' French Market Collection
• 8 ½ by 11-inch white card stock - one sheet per card
• Scoring tool
• Scissors
• Clear acrylic spray such as Krylon Crystal Clear - optional

How to Make the Card

Create a new 8 ½ by 11-inch document with horizontal orientation and resolution 300. Use guidelines to divide the design space in half both vertically and horizontally.

Card Outside

Set the foreground color to bright red.

Use the Elliptical Shape Tool to draw a long narrow oval from edge to edge at the bottom of the page. Layer>Rasterize to simply the hat's brim.

To curve the brim up as in my example, Edit>Transform>Warp. Pull down with the two center handles that appear and watch the brim magically change shape. Click on the checkmark to lock in the new shape when you're happy with it.

Draw a second oval to create the crown of the hat and simplify as before. Don't worry about the excess. We'll get rid of that in a jiffy.

Click on the Layers Palette thumbnail of the brim, right click and Select Pixels (or shortcut Ctrl+left click in Windows) to get the "marching ants" outline. Select>Inverse (shortcut Ctrl+Shift+I) to choose everything outside the brim.

Click on the Layer of the hat's crown to make it active. Choose the Eraser Tool and enlarge it so that you can easily erase the part of the crown's oval that extends below the brim. Select>Deselect (shortcut Ctrl+D) to dismiss the marching ants.

Go back to the brim layer and select pixels again (Ctrl+left click). Layer>New>Layer via Copy. Set the foreground color to a nice bright purple. Select the Paint Bucket Tool and click it on the area inside the marching ants to paint the shape purple in one easy stroke. Ctrl+D to deselect.

Left click and drag the purple shape to the top of the Layers stack above the crown. Use the Move Tool to slide it up above the hat's brim positioning it to become the hat's ribbon.

Go back to the crown Layer and select pixels (Ctrl+left click). Ctrl+Shift+I to select the inverse. Return to the purple ribbon layer and activate it. Press Delete to get rid of the extra ribbon shape.

Activate the red brim layer and hold the Shift key while you click on the red crown. Layer>Merge Layers (left click>Merge Layers).

That's your basic hat. You can enhance with Styles if you like and then add any embellishments - like the purple flower I used.

Use the Type Tool to add text.

Put the card's outside into a group folder to simplify viewing and printing by selecting Layer>New>Group. Name the group something escriptive like "Card Outside".

Card Inside

Activate the red hat layer and Ctrl+left click to select pixels with marching ants. This will help you position the inside text.

Click the eye of the Card Outline group to turn off its visibility. Now all you should see are the marching ants on a white background.

Select the Text Tool and type your invitation, menu or message. If you select centered type on the text options tool bar, it will be easy to keep the text within the outline.

For most printers, it helps to Edit>Transform>Rotate 180 the text so it appears upside down as in the screenshot below. You can do a test print run on scrap paper to make sure you have it right.

Print and Finish

Print the inside text onto card stock. The turn off the visibility of the inside text and turn on visibility of the Card Outside group.

Reinsert the printed card stock into the paper feed tray and print the card's outside.

*It's always a good idea to do a test print first to make sure you know how to reinsert card stock so that the card is properly oriented.*

Fold the printed cards in half as shown below. Use a scoring tool to flatten the fold.

Hold the card by the folded edge to keep the front and back halves from slipping while you cut out the hat.

Optional: To prevent ink bleed if your cards may be subjected to moisture (as mine were when used as place cards), spray two coats of clear acrylic over the inked surfaces allowing the spray to dry between coats.