The Envelope or Cover

    In this series of tutorials, I will show you how to create a postal history of your own. In part #1, we will be building the commercial envelope pictured to the left. There are 3 essential tools. #1) A computer #2) A scanner, #3) An image creation program capable of layers. (Photoshop/Paint Shop Pro for example.) I will be using Photoshop, but the steps are essentially the same for whichever program you use. For a larger view of the finished graphic, mouse-over the thumb at left.
STEP 1: The Envelope or Cover

Open a new canvas, marquis a rectangle in the proportions of your envelope leaving a little space on all four sides. Create a new layer. Use the Filter/Render/Clouds to create a random cloudy pattern in colors that are close to your finished envelope but are contrasty enough to have an impact. Try not to use black (unless you are trying for soot in your final product).
Next, Filter/Render/Difference Clouds 3x. This layer will simulate the dirt and stains that inevitably occur on an old cover.
Create a new solid color layer, the color of old paper, kind of a pink-brown cream. Go to the Blending Mode palette and change this layer to Soft Light.
Duplicate the layer, and change the blending mode to Multiply.
Using the Rounded Rectangle Tool, set the corner radius to 40px, hold down the shift key and create a rounded corner square that fills the screen from top to bottom. Rotate this square 45degrees. Move it up, till the bottom point is sitting in the middle of your envelope. Then Edit/Transform Path/Resize till the outer corners meet the top & edges of your cover. Layer/Rasterize/Layer. Use the Crop Tool to eliminate all of the square that is outside the workspace. Trim away any excess that lies between your cover and the edge of the workspace. Use the eyedropper to get the color of the darkest place on your cover, then change the color to several shades darker. Go to Edit/Stroke, 1px, inside, Color Burn. Adjust the opacity by 35% so it is more subtle. We just created the top flap of the cover. Duplicate the layer, Select/All, Edit/Transform/Flip Vertical. We just created the bottom flap. Move that layer backward. Duplicate the layer and rotate it 90degrees to the left edge of your cover then resize it till the top and bottom line up with the edges of the cover. Duplicate the layer, Select/All, Edit/Transform/Flip  Horizontal. After lining up all the outside edges, merge the four flaps into a single layer. Change the blending mode to Darken. Make the Background layer invisible, and Layer/Merge Visible.
Use the Eyedropper Tool to pick out the lightest spot on your cover, then adjust the color several shades lighter. Use the Line Tool to draw 25px wide lines on the top flap where the gummed side would overlap. Draw two more 15px wide lines where the side flaps are glued to the bottom flap. Merge all these lines into a single layer. Go to Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur, adjust the amount to make a subtle blur. To create subtle shadows under the paper edges,  draw 2px lines using a darker shade of your cover color and repeat the above steps.  Set the blending mode to Multiply, and adjust the opacity.
We now have a pretty tidy cover. Lets send this one around the world. Scan in a seriously distressed piece of paper, ( I got this one from an end paper of a book that had been tossed in a dumpster). Copy/Paste, Rotate, and Resize till it covers your cover from edge to edge.
Trim this layer to your covers edges, and set the Blending Mode to Multiply, adjust the opacity. Once you are satisfied with the level of distress, merge all visible layers.
Stroke the merged layer just like you did when making  the flaps. Activate the Erasure Tool, set at 13px diameter/100% hardness. In strategic places around the edges, create nicks and dings. Where the folds are, make good candidates for this treatment. Gently round the corners of the cover. The illustration at right is zoomed in to the lower left corner to show you the results of this treatment. Don't be too heavy handed with the erasure, unless you want a mangled cover, then go for it. There you have it, a finished, used, (but not used-up) envelope.
STEP 2: The Stamp or Franking

Nothing simulates the perforations on a stamp better than a real stamp. Soak an old  Lick&Stick stamp off the backing paper (the new self adhesive stamps won't work for our old cover) dry and press it flat. Scan the back of the stamp at 200dpi, and send it to your image creation program.
The stamp is an opportunity for you to get creative and make this envelope YOURS. You could use the picture of a loved (or Hated) one, your house, family pet, personal hero, favorite vacation spot, or whatever, as the subject of your stamp. Stamps are seldom issued just-because. They are issued to commemorate an event. Your stamp should do the same. Choose a single image that is clear, with an uncomplicated background as your source file. Scan it in & with that in hand, you are off and running! A more detailed tutorial about stamp making follows this tutorial.
For the purposes of this demonstration, I chose an image from a heraldry site, you can see the source file in the illustration on the far left. Then using Photoshops' drawing tools, and a snazzy font, I created the frame and dressed out the stamp. A couple of color layers, that were adjusted in the Blending Mode palette, were all that were needed to complete the image. I added a text fragment and plate number to the tab (selvage), and merged all visible layers. Then using the Magic Wand Tool, highlighted all the black background, (and the perf. holes), and deleted the black background.
After you Copy/Paste the stamp into the cover image, Resize, Rotate and place it where you want it. I decided this cover required two stamps to get where it was going, so I duplicated the layer, Rotated the stamp again, and erased the selvage from the second stamp. Merge the stamps into a single layer. Now we have two brand new stamps on a worn cover. To fix that, take the Magic Wand Tool and click anywhere outside the stamps. Then go to Select/Inverse. Go to Layer/New Fill Layer/Solid Color, and fill with a brownish-cream color. Move the layer backward, behind the stamps, and change the Blending Mode of the stamp layer to Multiply. Now the stamps are suitably aged to match the cover.
STEP 3: The Cancel or Strike

The cancel is another area to explore your creativity. Every nation has used commemorative cancels to highlight important events, First Day of Issue strikes come to mind. Many cancellations are zealously sought after by collectors. Here we have an opportunity to "customize" our cover even further. I decided to save that for a future tutorial. On this cover we will create a simple cancel using the fonts and drawing tools available. Basically, it is circles, rounded rectangles, and sans-serif fonts (without the little feet on the letters) & asterisks. A made-up town in a made-up country, and it is done. Well almost.
"Back in the Day", postage was cancelled by hand. The same striker was used over and over, with only the date being changed. With time the striker became worn, the ink pad began to run out of ink, and the postal employee began to run out of enthusiasm. As a result, no two strikes are the same. We will simulate this, by dirtying-up our brand-new cancel. Set the foreground color to a very dark grey, and the background color to white. Go to Filter/Brush Strokes/Spatter, adjust the radius and smoothness if desired, (the default works quite nicely here)/OK. Then Edit/Fade Spatter, adjust the slider to about 35-40%.OK.
You can leave it where it is or you can distress the cancel further by going to Filter/Sketch/Stamp/OK. then Edit/Fade Stamp and adjust the slider to taste. Once you have the cancel to your liking, Copy/Paste it into your cover image (top layer). Resize/Rotate, then change the Blending Mode to Multiply, & BAM! There it is. Many different effects can be achieved by changing the blending mode & opacity. Try playing with these until you have what you want.
To complete our cover it needs a human touch. On my cover, I typed a line from a poem I had written years ago, in a kinda scratchy handwriting font. To simulate a fountain pen and to add a little color, I used a grey-blue, then changed the blending mode to multiply and reduced the opacity by 10%. BoltCutters' tagline was done in the same color in a mock Russian font we designed, Kremlin Kourier II, (available elsewhere on this site).  I realized that the stamp was placed over a fold in the cover, so I created the fold in the stamp. I dirtied up the edges of the cover by switching to the cover layer, going to Layer/Layer Style/Inner Glow, changing the blend mode to Multiply, the color to a golden brown, adjusting the size and range sliders, and finally adjusting the opacity slider till I had a nice subtle effect. At this point I decided to make it a commercial cover. I moved the tagline to near the bottom of the cover, and typed random letters on the top flap in a dark grey, using another of our Kremlin fonts. I changed the opacity, and blending mode to Multiply, then merged all visible layers. Done Deal. Hope you had fun. Regards, BoltCutter