Represent the shadow now under the balls’ pyramid. In this case create a new layer and select the Soft Round brush.

Use this brush to represent a spot of #790B0E color. The brush’s layer must be situated under the balls’ layers (on the Layers panel).

Apply the Free Transform (Ctrl+T) command on the same spot and compress the spot element along the vertical line and stretch it out by the horizontal one, the same way demonstrated on the picture.

Cut out the shadow’s top edge on the same layer by using the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) to represent the next selection:

Press DELETE:

Next we’ll represent a small star, select the Polygon Tool (U), go to Options bar and click on Polygon Options. Set Radius – 110px, Indent Sides by – 42% and check the Smooth Corners, Star, Smooth Indents. Also set in Options bar the Sides – 5:

Click and drag to draw the star shape.

Click on Add a layer style icon from bottom part of the Layers panel and select Inner Glow.

Add Gradient Overlay:

Click in the color bar to open the Gradient Editor and set the color stops as shown. Click OK to close the Gradient Editor dialog box.

We’ve got the next result:

Place on the star’s top the layer containing the support element’s layer and the ring’s layer. These layers should be copies out of the balls’ groups.

Put together all the star’s layers to represent a rasterized layer the same way we’ve describe above. Using the Free Transform (Ctrl+T) command we should make smaller the rasterzied layer having the star on it and place it on the top of the balls’ pyramid.

Click Create new fill or adjustment layer from bottom part of the Layers panel and click to Vibrance. Set Vibrance to +21 and Saturation to +10.

We’ve got the next result:

… and the click Create new fill or adjustment layer from bottom part of the Layers panel and click to Curves to adjust the curve shape as shown to make a little color corrections.

We’ve got the next result:

Let’s represent now a highlight on the ball, using the Ellipse Tool (U) draw the next circle.

Insert the mask on the layer by choosing Add layer mask on the bottom part of the Layers panel and choose the Soft Round brush of black color (set Opacity to 30% in Options bar).

Paint in the mask using this brush to hide the highlight content to get the same result as on the picture below it is shown:

Make fourteen copies of the recently made layer containing the highlight and select the Free Transform (Ctrl+T) command to place the copies the same way demonstrated below:

Next we’ll represent a kind of ornament on the background. Create a new layer and take the Pen Tool (P), set the drawing mode on Path in Options bar and draw the next path as shown.

Select the path using Path Selection Tool (A), go to Stroke option on your Options Bar when you have a path active. These drop downs allow you to choose the Color, Width and Solid outline for path.

This way we’ll get the abstract line on the background.

Applying the same methods, we may get many different lines of different width.

Insert the mask on several of the lines’ layers by choosing Add layer mask on the bottom part of the Layers panel and choose the Soft Round brush of black color (set Opacity to 30% in Options bar).

Paint in the masks using this brush to hide the lines’ edges.

Combine in a group all the layers containing the lines (press CTRL button to select the necessary layers and hold on the left mouse’s button while dragging the selected layers on Create a new group icon from bottom part of the Layers panel). Set the Blending mode for the lines’ group to Soft Light.

Finally insert the greeting text on our holiday card. Select the Horizontal Type tool (T). Select a font, size and color in the Character panel. I used this font from FontSquirrel.

Click in the canvas and type ‘Merry Christmas!’. Press Enter to apply the text.

Click in the canvas and type ‘Happy New Year’. Press Enter to apply the text.

We’ve got the next result:

Our Christmas and New Year Greeting Card with Shiny Red Balls is finished!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

View full size here.

Download free Layered PSD file.