To create this fun faux football credential, I first located a free stock image to serve as the background. Next I located images of the logos for the teams, as well as helmet artwork. (Note: the NFL owns the copyright on these images. This project is for most definitely for personal use only). I also searched around and found icons for some of the “services” the credential wearer would be entitled to.
In Adobe Photoshop, I created a document larger than my credential to give me some extra bleed for cutting.
Bleed is the artwork that extends beyond the crop/trim marks of a die line of a project. It ensures that you don’t have any white space showing after you print and trim the final piece.
My holder is about 7 inches tall by 4 inches wide, so I want the final print to be 6.75 x 3.75. With bleed, that puts me back at 7 x 4 for the background images.
I placed my stock image on a layer, and then added a layer that graduated from the green in the background to transparent and changed the opacity so that it lightly blocked some of the background image. That gave me a place to place my team logos. Finally, I added a layer effect to make the logos look embossed.
In Adobe InDesign, I created a new file that was letter size. Exactly in the middle of the page I placed a 6.75 x 3.75 rectangle that I would use as my cutting die line. On a separate layer below that die line layer, I placed my Photoshop image that I created above. I then added text to that same layer with the date of the game (you’ll want that to look more official, and also if you are using these as a keepsake of events).
On a second page in InDesign, again exactly in the center, I copied and pasted that die line from the first page. I added a background of solid color on a layer below that die line layer. This one I made blue for the Dallas Cowboys. I placed the image I had found of the helmet, set the text for “Cowboy VIP” and then added in the icons for the “services.” I duplicated this process on a third page, except here I went with the green background and helmet and text for the Packers.
You want the artwork to be exactly center on the page because it makes it line up when you double side print.
I added crop marks that matched up to the die line box (I use a script that is included with InDesign thatdoes this automagically on it’s own layer). Then I turned off the die layer and double sided printed two – both using the same front but each one having the different back.
I trimmed them with an Xacto Knife and then slid them into the lanyard.
