Create a bookmark ribbon in Photoshop within 5 minutes

What we will be creating

Here is a preview of what we will be working to create.

Resources

For this tutorial we’ll need to download the notebook image form the stock.xchng website. If you don't have an account at stock.xchng, you’ll need to create one, signup is absolutely free and so is the image we’re using.

Other than that, all we’ll need is a system with Adobe Photoshop installed on it and just 5 minutes of your time.

Step 1

First thing is first, open the notebook image, which we just downloaded, in Photoshop. This is going to become our base layer.

Step 2

Now create a new layer by going to Layers » New » Layer in the main menu or by pressing Shift + Ctrl + N.

After creating a new layer to work on, we’ll select the Rectangle Tool as shown in the image below. For future reference you may note that the shortcut key to select the Shape Tool is U, the shape tool contains many options so make sure to select the Rectangle Tool after pressing the shortcut key.

With the Rectangle tool selected, we’ll choose a color for the ribbon that we’re drawing, from the color swatches available on the right. Now we’ll click and drag to draw a rectangle around the area we want the ribbon to be, as shown in the image below.

To keep a track of the layers, rename the Shape 1 layer to Ribbon Base. To rename a layer simply double click on its name.

Now right click on the Ribbon Base layer and select the Rasterize Layer option. We did this so that we can edit the Ribbon Base layer.

Create a new layer by pressing Shift + Ctrl + N and Select the Shape tool by pressing U. Now select the Custom Shape Tool from the shapes menu, available at the top. Then from the Shape dropdown menu select the Arrow 2 shape.

Now press D to set the foreground and background color to default. Click and drag to draw the selected shape on the canvas.

Now press Ctrl + T to transform the Arrow 2 layer, now rotate and move it as shown in the image.

Now select the Ribbon Base layer from the layers menu and then press and hold the Ctrl key and click on the Thumbnail of the Arrow 2 layer, after that press the delete key. After that select the Arrow layer and press delete. Now we have the actual ribbon outline ready.

Step 3

Now that we have the Ribbon Base ready, create a new layer by pressing Shift + Ctrl + N, then press and hold the Ctrl key and click on the Ribbon Base layer thumbnail to select it, then go to Select » Modify » Contract. This will open a popup menu, use a 5 pixel radius and hit ok on it.

Now with the new layer selected press Shift + F5 this will open a popup menu will the heading “Fill”, simply hit ok to fill the selection with the foreground color.

Now press Ctrl + D to deselect the area, and rename this layer to Ribbon Weave. Right click on the Ribbon Weave layer and select Blending Options, then go to the Stroke section and use the setting shown in the image, then press OK.

Now go the layer fill option available just above the layer thumbnail and drag it down to 0%. At this point we have noticed that things a looking pretty neat with the weave surrounding the ribbon.

Select the Ribbon Base layer and then go to Filter » Noise » Add Noise, and when the popup menu appears, select 5% amount and hit OK.

Go to the Blending Options of the Ribbon Base layer and use the settings shown in the image for Drop Shadow and Stroke.

Select the Ribbon Base layer and then press and hold down the Shift key and click on the Ribbon weave layer to select both the layers, then press Ctrl + G to group them.

With the group selected go to Layer » Layer Mask » Reveal All, the press B to select the Brush Tool and then carefully paint on the ribbon area above the notebook leaf to hide it. This will make the extra ribbon area which is sticking above the notebook leaf disappear.

Right click on the group and select Convert to Smart Object, and then rotate it so that it looks as if the ribbon is aligned with the spiral binding shown in the background image.

Create a new layer just above the notebook layer by pressing Shift + Ctrl + N and draw a small triangle just beside the top right corner of the ribbon. This will make the viewers feel as if the ribbon is curving downwards.

The Final Result

Here is the final result of our efforts, I’ve just added some skewed text in the notebook leafs and gave it a grunge feel be erasing parts of it. Hope you liked the tutorial, thank you for reading.

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