Since I added the LittleLines.com website to my Featured Sites list, I’ve had a few of you ask for a lesson on creating a similar website navigation concept in Photoshop, so In this tutorial I’ll show you how to create a clean navigation layout based on the LittleLines site.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… One of the best ways to learn and grow in Photoshop is to deconstruct and attempt to recreate designs that inspire you. So in that spirit, lets jump in and take a closer look at the LittleLines.com navigation to see what we can learn about how they initially created their lovely little nav bar.

Notice all the details in the expanded view below, the borders, gradients, sizes and colors. In instances like this, the zoom tool can be your best friend.

Lets jump right in and open a new Photoshop document. For illustration purposes I’ll make my document 540×200px at 72ppi, but obviously if you were creating a website concept you’d want to have a document size large enough to design the whole site rather than just the navigation.

For the moment, lets ignore the wooden background texture and set a solid color for the background of the navigation. Click on the Foreground swatch at the bottom of the Tools palette to open the Color Picker, then pick a complimentary color for the background. I chose a nice orange color #e07814.

Create a new layer by clicking on the Create New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. When the new layer appears double click on the layer’s name to rename it Nav Background. From now on when I tell you to Create a New Layer and give it a name, this is what you’ll do.

(*note: If the Layers palette isn’t visible, bring it up by choosing Window>Layers from the main menu.)

Now lets create a selection by pressing the M key to switch to the Rectangular Marquee tool. As we know from the closer look from Step 1, the navigation background measures 50px in height. I like to keep the Info palette visible so I can see the exact dimensions of my selections (Window>Info from the Main menu), this way as I click and drag my selection I can watch the sizing and always get the selection I’m after on the first try.

Once your selection is created, simply press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill the selection with your newly selected foreground color. With your selection filled with color, deselect by pressing Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D).

(*note: You can also use the Fixed Size option in the Marquee Options bar at the top of Photoshop to create a perfectly sized selection, but I find that using the Info palette is quicker.)

Now lets set the stage for our buttons. Create a new layer called Button Background, set your foreground color to #47361f, and create a selection above the Nav Background that’s 38px in height and sufficiently wide to accommodate the buttons you wish to create (*note: you can always narrow the area if it’s too wide to begin with). Fill the selection with the new foreground color by pressing Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Delete) and deselect by pressing Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D).

Now lets add a light gradient to the Button Background. Create a new layer called White Gradient and set your foreground color to white by either using the Color Picker as we’ve done before, or simply by pressing the D key to reset the foreground and background colors to black and white respectively and then by pressing the X key to switch white to the foreground.

Switch to the Gradient tool by pressing the G key, and choose the Foreground to Transparent swatch from the Gradient picker in the Gradient Options bar at the top of Photoshop.

Before we apply the gradient, lets create a Clipping Mask from the White Gradient layer to the Button Background layer by Control-Clicking (PC: Right-Clicking) on the White Gradient layer in the Layers palette and choosing Create Clipping Mask from the menu. This will make it so that only the pixels from the White Gradient layer that overlap the Button Background layer will be visible. You will know a clipping mask has been created because the layer will indented with a small arrow pointing to the layer it is clipped to.

(*note: An easy way to create a clipping mask between two layers is to hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key and then moving your cursor to the line between the two layers in the Layers palette, at which time the cursor will change to what looks like two overlapping circles. When the cursor changes, simply click your mouse to create the clipping mask.)

With the layers clipped together we can go ahead and add the gradient. To do this, simply click and drag downward with the Gradient tool from the top of the brown button background area to about 50% of the distance from the top to the bottom.

(*note: Holding down the Shift key while you click and drag your gradient will constrain it to a completely vertical line.)

Obviously the effect of our newly created gradient is much too strong, so lets go over to the Layers palette and lower the White Gradient layer’s Fill to 20% and change it’s Blend Mode to Color Dodge.

Next, lets create the double border at the top of the brown buttons. Create a new layer called Double Border and set your foreground and background colors to #644239 and #866d53 respectively.

Locate the Rectangular Marquee tool at the top of the Tools palette and Click and Hold your mouse on it to reveal it’s fly-out-menu. Choose the Single Row Marquee Tool from the list and click on the stage at the top of the brown button background to create a single pixel horizontal selection on the stage. Don’t worry if your placement isn’t perfect, you can always move the border up or down once we’re done creating it.

With your single pixel line selection made, press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill the selection with the foreground color we set in the last step. Press the Down Arrow key on your keyboard once to move the selection down one pixel, then fill the selection with your new background color by pressing Command-Delete (PC: Ctrl-Backspace). Now you can deselect by pressing Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D).

If your lines aren’t in the right place, switch to the Move tool by pressing the V key and then move it up or down with your mouse (or the arrow keys) until it’s covering the top two pixels of the brown button background. I’ve zoomed in below so you can see exactly how things should be shaping up.

The last thing we need to do is add our Double Border layer to the clipping mask we’ve already created down to the Button Background layer, so just like we did before, Control-Click (PC: Right-Click) on the Double Border layer in the Layers palette and choose Create Clipping Mask from the menu.

With the background now complete, switch to the Type tool by pressing the T key and lets prepare the font and style. The LittleLines website uses the Lucida Grande font which is an Apple system font found native on the OSX operating system, but Windows users, don’t fret, just read on. We’ll setup our type by first making sure the Character Palette is visible (if it isn’t, choose Window>Character from the Main menu).

Windows Users: The Lucida Grande font was Apple exclusive until the release of the Safari browser for PC in which Apple included both the Lucida Grande and Lucida Grande Bold fonts. Since this is an Apple font, I can’t give it away in my lesson download, but if you want this font, you can download and install the Windows version of the Safari browser from the Apple’s website and then navigate to the Program Files > Safari > Safari.resources folder where you’ll find both the standard and bold versions of the font. You can then drag those files to the Windows Font Manager in the Control panel to install them. (*note: You may have to restart Photoshop to refresh it’s font list.)

From the font drop-down menu at the top left of the Character palette find the Lucida Grande font and select it, if for some reason your computer doesn’t have Lucida Grande installed, you can use a similar sans-serif font like Verdana, Arial or Helvetica to achieve a very similar effect. Set the font weight to Bold, the size to 11pt, the color to #bcb19b and the anti-aliasing style at the bottom of the palette to Crisp.

Click onto the stage to start a new text instance and type out your links. When mocking up a site like this I use spaces to separate the links and in this case I used 9 spaces between each link item. When you’ve finished your text, click on the little Check Mark icon in the Text Tool options bar at the top of Photoshop (or simply hit the Enter key). You’ll notice that a new Text layer has been created for you in the Layers palette.

With the Text layer still selected in the Layers palette, hold down the Command (PC: Ctrl) key and click the Add New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. This will add a new layer below the current layer. Name this new layer Button Current.

Press the M key to switch to the Rectangular Marquee tool (*make sure you switch it back to the Rectangular Marquee tool from the flyout-menu if it’s still set to the Single Row Marquee tool that we used to create the horizontal lines) and create a rectangular selection from the upper left corner to the center between the first two buttons as shown below.

Press the D key to reset your foreground and background colors to black and white respectively, then simply fill the selection with white by pressing Command-Delete (PC: Ctrl-Backspace). You can no deselect by pressing Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D)

Next we’ll use Layer Styles to add the gradient and outline to the Button Current layer, but first, click on your foreground color swatch in the Tools palette and change the color to #c8a282.

Open the Layer Styles dialog box by Control-Clicking (PC: Right-Clicking) on the Button Current layer in the Layers palette and choosing Blending Options from the menu. Then set the following Layer Styles, being careful to check each setting with the ones below. Notice that in the Gradient Overlay style options area, when you click on the Gradient Picker, the foreground to transparent swatch is using the foreground color you just set. This way we avoid having to create a custom gradient with that color.

(*note: If your gradient doesn’t seem to be positioned where you like it, you can simply click and drag it on the stage to the position you want.)

If you did everything right, your menu should now look like the one below.

The current button on the LittleLines site has black text on the current state, so lets switch to our Text layer, press the T key to activate the Type tool, select the text of the first button and change the color to black by changing the color of the selected text in the Character palette.

The final step in the button preparation is to add the black divider line between the remaining buttons. Click on the Double Border layer and then create a new layer above it called Divider Lines. Create a Clipping Mask for the the Divider Lines layer by Control-Clicking (PC: Right-Clicking) the new layer and choosing Create Clipping Mask from the menu. There should now be 3 layers clipped to the Button Background layer as shown below.

To create the black lines, lets press the D key to reset the foreground color to black, then from the Rectangular Marquee tool fly-out menu choose the Single Column Marquee tool which will make 1 pixel vertical selections.

From the original example we can see that the little black vertical dividers are only placed at the left border of each button, so click on the stage between the second two buttons to create a single pixel selection, nudge it left or right with your arrow keys if the placement isn’t perfect, then fill the selection with black by pressing Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Delete). Continue this process until you’ve divided your remaining buttons and don’t forget the one at the far right edge of the last button. Press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect when you’re done.

For those of you who wish to go the distance and add the wood texture to the background, I’ll explain that here as well (since I know I’ll get 50 emails about it if I don’t!).

First, you’ll need to find a wood texture you’d like to use, I think the defcon-x site is one of the best places for these sorts of textures and they’ve got a wide variety of high-resolution wood textures to choose from. I’ll use this texture incase you want to follow along at home. Command-Click (PC: Right-Click) on the image and choose Copy Image, then return to your Photoshop document.

Click on the Nav Background layer to select it (It’s the one with the orange stripe on it), then simply press Command-V (PC: Ctrl-V) to paste the copied texture into the document. A new layer will automatically be created which I will rename Wood. The wood texture now fills the entire document, so lets clip it to the Nav Background layer by Control-Clicking (PC: Right-Clicking) on the new Wood layer and choosing Create Clipping Mask from the menu just like we’ve done before.

(*note: If you feel like you’re not seeing enough of the wood grain because of the high resolution, you can always use the Free Transform tool to shrink the texture to a size the suits you.)

The final order of business will be to add a slight black to transparent Gradient Overlay layer style to the Nav Background layer, so Control-Click (PC: Right-Click) on the Nav Background layer and choose Blending Options from the menu, then set the following Gradient Overlay Layer Style.

And that’s it folks, your navigation is complete. I hope you learned a little something along the way!

I’ve had few noobs ask about installing Brushes, Shapes in Photoshop, so in this tutorial I’ll demonstrate how to install new Photoshop Brushes and also discuss a few techniques that will help you keep your additions organized and safe.

We’ll be talking specifically about Photoshop Brushes in this tutorial, but the process is exactly the same for adding and managing Swatches, Gradients, Styles, Patterns, Contours and Custom Shapes as well, so just know that even though I’m talking about brushes, the information shared here applies the all these. Before we get into the meat of the lesson, lets start by taking a quick look at how Photoshop stores and uses these things.

Photoshop allows us to keep as many brushes in the Brush palette as we’d like, but the more stuff you pack into the palettes the slower those palettes will load (because every brush takes a little memory) and the harder it’ll be to find the brush you’re looking for. I find that organizing and properly naming my brush sets in an external Brushes folder and then loading only the brushes I need for a specific project makes my life much easier.

By default, Photoshop keeps it’s extras and plugins inside it’s program files folder structure, and although you could simply load everything into Photoshop’s default folders, I find it’s useful to create a folder set of my own to keep additional Brushes etc. inside. There’s nothing more frustrating than spending hours and hours searching for and downloading the perfect brushes only to loose them accidentally when upgrading or re-installing Photoshop.

I keep a folder called Photoshop Extras in the Documents folder of my computer, and in that folder I have sub-folders for all the different kinds of add-ons that Photoshop can use. I keep all my downloaded brush sets there. To make Photoshop see the contents of this extra folder, all you have to do is create a shortcut to this additional folder in Photoshop’s default brushes folder and SHAZAM! the brushes from both folders will appear in the Preset Manager.

Like I said, this step isn’t necessary, and it’s just fine if you want to put your new brushes in Photoshop’s default Brushes folder, but this what I do because it makes it easy to backup, restore and even share all my 3rd party stuff. Plus, it satisfies my obsessive compulsive need for excess organization.

Ok, with my compulsive organizational speech out of the way, lets go ahead and find a set of brushes to install. There are a ton of great places to find free Photoshop Brushes on the internet, but probably the most comprehensive and FREE brush site I’ve found is BrushKing.eu (at this moment the site has 239 Brush sets containing an astounding 4285 Brushes). And I’m proud to have them as a sponsor of the site this month, so please take some time to check out their huge brush selection. Did I mention they’re free?

If you want to follow along at home, I’m downloading a brush set called "Unreal Brushes v.4", and once it’s downloaded I’m going to put it into the Photoshop Extras> Brushes folder that I mentioned above. You’ll notice that sometimes these brush sets download with funky names, so I always rename them with a description that I’ll recognize, in this case I’ll call them "GlowingLight.abr" because that’s what the screenshot for the brushes looked like.

(*note: For this example I’ve cleared out my Brushes folder so it’s easy to see the new brush set.)

Now that the new brush set has been moved to our Brushes folder and renamed, lets open Photoshop and load it into our Brush Picker!

Although you can load brushes from the Brush Picker itself, let me show you another way. From the Main menu choose Edit>Preset Manager. The Preset Manager allows you to manage all your presets from one place and I’ve found it seems to work a little faster than working directly inside the Brush picker.

Choose Brushes from the drop-down menu at the top.

Inside the Preset manager you’ll notice a little circle with an arrow inside it at the top right side of the display area, and if you click it with your mouse it will open up a menu that has been populated with all the available brushes from Photoshop’s Brushes folder (as well as the brushes from the secondary Brushes folder that we talked about earlier if you chose to create it). You can see in the example below that my GlowingLight brush set is listed.

When you click on one of the brush sets, Photoshop will give you two options, to either add this new brush set to your existing brushes or to replace the existing brushes, click Append to add them, or OK to replace them. For my example I just clicked OK to replace the existing brushes with the new set.

(*note: Photoshop builds a cache of available brushes when it first opens, so if your new brush set doesn’t show up and you already had Photoshop running, you may need to restart the program to get it to appear in the list.)

You can now see that the stock brushes in my Preset Manager have been replaced with the new GlowingLight set I chose.

On a side note, while inside the Preset Manager you can click and drag brushes to re-order them and you can delete a brush from the manager by Option-Clicking (PC: Alt-Clicking) on it. Deleting a brush from the picker is non-destructive and if you reload that brush set, the brush you deleted will re-appear (unless of course you resave the brush set over itself, and in that case any changes you’ve made will obviously be permanent).

And that’s it folks, the brushes are loaded and available for use and now you know how to add Brushes (as well as Shapes, Gradients etc) to the Photoshop Preset Manager and hopefully you’ve picked up a trick or two about file handling and organization along the way.

In this Photoshop tutorial I’ll show you a cool technique for adding dimension to a background pattern as well as how to change and adjust the colors of an existing image to suit your needs all rolled inside a cool photo frame idea. Sounds like fun… right?

I will be moving at a decent pace and there won’t be a lot of hand-holding on this one. Noobs, jump in at your own risk.

I came up with this process while creating a holiday photo card for Mrs. Hero and thought you all would get a kick out of it (and hopefully be able to find a practical application for the technique in your own work too).

Because the original was made for a 4×6 photo card, lets just stick with that theme. If you’re going to follow along at home, open a new Photoshop document that’s 4×6 inches at 300ppi. And the first thing we’ll do is add the background texture which I’ve lovingly prepared in both a .jpg version which you can just download here or as a pre made repeating pattern as a .pat file in the .zip download at the end of the lesson. If you use the .jpg version, you can manually tile it across your background and then merge all the layers into a single pattern layer. If you’re using the .pat file, just create a new layer above the background and fill it with the pattern (once you’ve loaded it into your patterns picker).

Throughout the tutorial I’ll be insetting my layers palette into the frame. (*note: I’ve obviously had to shrink my actual image to fit the space inside the tutorial, so I’ll add a zoomed area when needed.)

Since the color of this background pattern isn’t all that festive lets go ahead and implement phase 1 of the our color shift. Open up a new Hue / Saturation adjustment layer by clicking on the Create New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette (it’s the half black - half white circle), set the Hue to 0, the Saturation to 15 and the Lightness at around -19. Make sure the Colorize checkbox is checked and click OK. I always like to make these sorts of adjustments as Adjustment layers incase I need to tweak them later.

The second step of the color shift is next, again with an adjustment layer. This time, we’ll use curves to increase the contrast and vibrancy of the pattern. Add a Curves adjustment layer, dragging both the white and black endpoints toward the center as shown below.

In order to create the 3D edges of the texture we need a way to define the edges. If you’ve got the time, feel free to trace every little line on your own, but if you’re like me, you’d probably prefer a little shortcut right? … yeah, I knew it, you big slacker!

Ok, lets start by creating a new layer at the top of the document, press Command-A (PC: Ctrl-A) to Select All, then copy everything at once by either choosing Edit>Copy Merged, or by using the keyboard shortcut Command-Shift-C (PC: Ctrl-Shift-C). Then just past it all onto the new layer by pressing Command-V (PC: Ctrl-V). Yeah, I know YOU all know these shortcuts, but I’ll mention them incase a few determined noobs might have made it this far. Oh, and I know that one of you clowns will inevitably make some comment about why I didn’t just use the Apply Image function here… so let me just say I do it this way because it’s faster, the end result is the same and I can do it with a few quick strokes of the keyboard.

You’ll notice nothing visible has changed, but that the entire adjusted pattern is now living on your new layer. No need to name it because we’ll just delete it in a minute.

Now that we’ve got the merged layer onto a new layer lets go to work on it. First lets desaturate the layer by pressing Command-Shift-U (PC: Ctrl-Shift-U).

With the layer desaturated we want to get it as close to just black and white as possible, which we’ll do in two steps. We’ll start with Levels, so press Command-L (PC: Ctrl-L) to bring up the Levels dialog box and then drag the black and white point markers towards the middle until they are at their respective edges of the histogram as shown below.

To complete the isolation of the blacks and whites we’ll use the Levels function a second time by pressing Command-L (PC: Ctrl-L) and this time we’ll drag the sliders together. The idea here is to drag the white (right) slider to the left until the whites are pure white, then pull the black (left) slider to it. If you simply enter the numbers I’ve entered below the histogram, you’ll get my exact result without having to do your own guesswork.

Now all we need to do is isolate just the black, and for this I love using Channels. First, select the entire canvas by pressing Command-A (PC: Ctrl-A), then Cut everything from this layer by pressing Command-X (PC: Ctrl-X).

Switch over to the Channels palette (which should be a tab inside your Layers palette, but if not, simply choose Window>Channels from the Main Menu to access it). Create a new channel by clicking the Create New Alpha Channel icon at the bottom of the Channels palette (it looks like a page with it’s corner turned back). Then simply Paste the layer content we just Cut by pressing Command-V (PC: Ctrl-V).

Invert the contents of the Channel by pressing Command-I (PC: Ctrl-I), this will essentially swap the black and white areas. Now lets select the contents of this Channel (the now white bits) by holding the Command (PC: Ctrl) key and clicking on the thumbnail for this Channel in the Channels Palette.

Now that we’ve got the selection made, click on the RGB channel to switch back to the standard Channel configuration and then switch back to the Layers palette where the layer we just Cut from should still be the active layer.

Press the D key to reset the foreground color to black, then simply fill the selection with it by pressing Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace). You can now deselect by pressing Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D), and while we’re here, lets go ahead and rename this layer 3D. Yes, the whole thing should now look like crap, but don’t worry, we’ll fix that in the next step.

For the 3D effect to work, we’ll first lower the layer’s Fill to 0% in the Layers palette, then add the following Bevel and Emboss Layer Style by Command-Clicking (PC: Right-Clicking) on the layer in the Layers palette and choosing Blending Options from the menu. Now just select Bevel and Emboss from the list at the left and enter the following settings.

Because we lowered the layer’s Fill to 0%, the effects can be added to a layer without any of its actual pixels being visible, allowing us to overlay the Bevel and Emboss layer style onto our pattern as shown below in the before and after versions of the effect.

Now it’s time to add our photo. I’ll use this lovely family I found at iStockPhoto.com. If you’re using CS3 or higher you can Place the image as a smart object by choosing File>Place from the Main menu, but in the interest of backward compatibility lets just say that you’re going to open your photo in Photoshop, select the photo by pressing Command-A (PC: Ctrl-A), copy the photo by pressing Command-C (PC: Ctrl-C), and then switch back to your working document where you’ll Paste the photo into the file by pressing Command-V (PC: Ctrl-V). At the point feel free to close the photo file.

If you’re photo is too large, this would be the time to resize it using Free Transform. Simply press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to invoke the Free Transform tool and then click and drag the corners of the photo while holding down the Shift key to constrain the photo’s proportions. When your transformation is complete, hit the Return (PC: Enter) key to commit it and rename the layer Photo.

Since we’re going for a photo frame effect, I think it’d be nice to round the corners of the image a little. For this we’ll use the Rounded Rectangle tool to create a path, then we’ll convert the path to a selection and add a layer mask.

Begin by grabbing the Custom Shape tool by pressing the U key, make sure the Rounded Rectangle option is selected from the Options bar across the top of Photoshop and that the Paths option is selected as well. Set the corner radius to 20px and click and drag a rounded rectangular path where the photo area of the frame should live (this should be the size of your newly resized photo or a touch smaller).

Next we’ll convert the path to a selection by pressing Command-Return (PC: Ctrl-Enter). You’ll know it’s been converted to a selection because the thin line of the path will now appear as the "marching ants" of an active selection.

Now that we’ve got the selection made, just click on the Add Layer Mask icon (it’s the one that looks like a black circle inside a white rectangle) at the bottom of the Layers palette to convert the selection to a layer mask.

Lets now add some Layer Styles to the Photo layer that will really start to bring things together. Let me explain what we’ll be doing.

Outer Glow: By changing the color to black and the blend mode to Linear Burn we can add a dark shadow around the perimeter of the photo opening which will give the frame depth.
Inner Glow: We’ll also change the color of the Inner Glow to black and the blend mode to Normal. This will give shading around the inner perimeter of the photo.
Stroke: A 4px Stroke set to 0% Opacity ads the inner lip to the opening.

Double Click on the Photo layer to bring up the Layer Styles dialog box (Or Command-Click (PC: Right-Click) on the layer and choose Blending Options), and add the following three layer styles. Be careful to check each and every setting as many have been changed from the default values.

If you followed along successfully, your file should be looking like the one below… if not, then get yourself back to Step 15 and do it again!

Lets add just a little more dimension to the photo opening. Create a new layer below the Photo layer and call it Opening Edge. Load the layer mask of the Photo layer as a selection by holding down the Command (PC: Ctrl) key and clicking on the layer mask.

Make sure your new Opening Edge layer is the active layer in the Layers palette and then fill the selection with any color your little heart desires… except purple of course. Then simply lower the layer’s Fill to 0% and add the following Bevel and Emboss Layer Style.

Again, if you followed along successfully, your file should resemble mine. Notice the depth that was added to the top and left edges of the photo opening.

Lets add one more of these invisible layers with layer styles right above the Pattern layer called Frame Effects. Fill the entire layer with foreground color by pressing Command-A (PC: Ctrl-A) to Select All, and then by pressing Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill the selection with color. Press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect, drop the Fill to 0% and add the following Inner Glow (set to black again) to add depth to the outside edge of the frame, followed by a Satin effect in white to add highlights.

Which will bring us to to our finished product. I hope you’ve had a little fun and were able to learn something along the way about using Channels to isolate tone and create selections, and how you can use layers with a 0% Fill opacity to add Layer Styles in situations where such effects wouldn’t be possible otherwise.

I added a little metal plate to the front of the frame which of course isn’t covered in this lesson but since it’s become a tradition for me to mess with you by throwing in polishing elements without an explanation, I figured I’d keep with tradition here as well.

In this Photoshop tutorial we’ll be creating a scrap of notepad paper like the ones you’ve probably seen used in popular websites and blogs. Throughout the lesson I’ll also be discussing the things I take into consideration when preparing a graphic like this for the web.

Lets begin by opening a new document in Photoshop by selecting File>New from the Main Menu. My file size is 540×300px at 72ppi for those of you following along at home. Because our notepad paper will be white, lets begin by changing the document’s background color.

With the new document open, click on the foreground swatch in the Tools palette to bring up the color picker. Pick a background color that you like and that will be easy to see the white paper against (I chose #e9dfb8, which you can type in the box at the bottom of the color picker). Now simply press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill the Background layer with this new color.

Lets go ahead and assume that we’re going to use this scrap paper to hold a note to our readers in the sidebar of our imaginary blog. The most important thing we’ll need to know is the actual width of the sidebar in question. Since I’m a fan of running ads in my sidebar and my ad size of choice is 250px wide, and lets say that we want to have 20px on each side of that ad worth of padding, our sidebar width is going to be a total of 270px. Lets also say that we’re going to want to add a nice little drop shadow to our paper that will be a maximum of 5px… this means that our actual paper will need to be 265px wide. Whew… math lesson complete.

Create a new layer by clicking the Create New Layer icon at the bottom of your layers palette. (If the Layers palette isn’t visible, choose Window>Layers from the Main Menu.) Then double-click on the new layer’s name in the Layers palette and rename it Paper.

Now it’s time to create the initial shape of the paper. If your Info palette isn’t visible, bring it up now by choosing Window>Info from the main menu (we’ll be using this in just a second)

Choose the Rectangular Marquee tool from the Tools palette by pressing the M key, then drag out a rectangular selection onto the stage. Watch the Info palette we just opened as you create the selection to make sure your selection is exactly 265px wide. The height of the selection just needs to be tall enough for the note, so make your own decision here (mine is 250px tall).

Press the D key to reset the foreground and background colors to black and white respectively, then simply press Command-Delete (PC: Ctrl-Backspace) to fill the selection with the background color (white). Press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect.

Now we’re going to create the holes and tear-lines at the top of the paper using a combination of a circular and rectangular selection at the same time. I’ll try to go slowly here so even the noobs will get this.

You should still have the Rectangular Marquee tool selected, but we want to start by creating a circle, not a square, so you can either click and hold your mouse on the Rectangular Marquee tool to reveal the fly out menu where you can choose the Elliptical Marquee tool, or you can simply press the keyboard shortcut Shift-M (this shortcut toggles between the Rectangular and Elliptical Marquee tools when you have the Marquee tool selected in the Tools bar).

Again watching the Info palette to make sure your selection size is correct, click and drag a 12×12px selection onto the stage. Remember that by holding down the Shift key while you drag will constrain the proportions to a perfect circle. Once the selection is made, drag it into position where you think the line of holes should live on the top of your paper. As a rough guide, it should be about as far from the edge as it is around (approximately 12 px from the edge).

At this point in the process it may will help to zoom in on your selection by pressing Command-+ (PC: Ctrl-+).

Now that you’ve got the hole selection made, it’s time to add a rectangular selection to the top of it to represent the line where the paper tore through at the edge.

Switch back to the Rectangular Marquee tool (remember Shift-M), hold down the Shift key (this lets Photoshop know you wish to add to the current selection) and click and drag a tall narrow selection from the top of the circle upward.

If you need to move your rectangle around after you begin to create it, simply press down the space bar which will allow you to move the selection around while you’ve still got your mouse button pressed.

All that’s left now is to remove the area inside the selection, move it to the right a few spaces and do it again.

Start by pressing the Delete (PC: Backspace) key to delete the white area inside the selection, then move the selection to the right 20px by holding down the Shift key and pressing the Right Arrow key twice. Holding the shift key allows you to move the selection 10px at a time instead of just 1. Press Delete (PC: Backspace) again, and repeat the process until all the holes are made, then press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect.

Before we go any further, lets add a small shadow to the paper to give the document a bit of depth. Control-Click (PC: Right-Click) on the Paper layer in the Layers palette and choose Blending Options from the menu to bring up the Layer Styles dialog box.

From the list of styles on the left, click on the words Drop Shadow (be sure to click on the words and not just the checkbox, otherwise you won’t see the options for the Drop Shadow layer style, it will just apply the default settings). Set the Drop Shadow to match my example below and click OK to commit the style to the layer.

Now we’re ready to add some lines to the paper. Create a new layer (just like we did in Step 2) and name it Blue Lines. Click on the foreground color swatch in the Tools palette and change the color to a nice blue like #97c7df.

From the Rectangular Marquee tool fly out menu, choose the Single Row Marquee tool (the one that looks like a 1px horizontal selection). Click anywhere on the stage to create a full width 1px horizontal selection, use your up and down arrow keys to get it into position for the top line and press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill it with blue. Hold down the Shift key (again so we can move the selection 10px at a time) and press the Down Arrow 3 times to move the selection down 30px then fill it with blue again and repeat until you get to the bottom of the paper. Press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect.

Instead of selecting and deleting the lines that extend past the edge of the paper, we’re going to create a clipping mask that will mask the Blue Lines layer to the Paper layer.

Control-Click (PC: Right-Click) on the Blue Lines layer and choose Create Clipping Mask from the menu. You’ll know that the layer is clipped to the one below because it will now be indented with a little down-pointing arrow on it.

Many notebooks also include a set of red lines on the left of each page, so lets add those as well. Create a new layer called Red Lines. This time we’ll be grabbing the Single Column Marquee tool from the Marquee tool fly out menu. Change your foreground color to #c74f4f and just like we did before, click on the stage to create a selection, move it into place and press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill the selection with red. Using the arrow keys (without Shift this time) move the selection 3 pixels to the left and fill it with red again, then deselect.

And just like we did with the blue lines, create a Clipping Mask for this layer as well (this will clip the layer with the Blue Lines layer to the Paper layer). Lets also lower the layer’s Opacity to around 30% to make the lines fit in a little better.

Next we’re going to add some wrinkled paper texture to our paper by using the Brush tool. I have included the brush I’m using in the download at the end of the lesson, so if you’re playing along at home you might want to go ahead and download that now. The brush set is called WrinkledPaper.abr and once you’ve downloaded and unzipped the lesson you’ll need to install the brush by doing the following:

1) Press the B key to switch to the Brush Tool.
2) Click on the Brush thumbnail in the options bar at the top of Photoshop to open the Brushes Picker.
3) Click the little arrow at the top of the Brush Picker and choose Load Brushes from the menu.
4) Navigate to wherever you put the unzipped lesson download and select the WrinkledPaper.abr file.
5) Click OK to load the selected brush set into the brushes palette.
6) When the add/replace dialog box pops up, choose Append.

That’s it. The wrinkled paper brush is now loaded into your brushes palette and is ready to use, so continue to Step 14.

Create a new layer in the Layers palette called Texture and add a Clipping mask to the Paper layer just like we did with the Red and Blue Lines layers.

Click on the Brush thumbnail in the Brush Options bar at the top of Photoshop (just like you did in Step 13), but this time scroll to the bottom of the brushes window and choose the last brush (which should look like a tiny rectangular piece of wrinkled paper).

Make sure your foreground color is set to black by pressing the D key, then align the brush over the paper so that the upper left corner of the brush covers the paper as shown below.

Click the mouse once to paint the texture onto the paper. Obviously we don’t want to see the full weight of the brush on the paper because it looks like a big black mess, so lets lower the Texture layer’s Fill opacity to 10%.

Things are starting to look pretty nice, and we could just leave things the way they are, but lets go a little further and distress our paper even further.

Click on the Paper layer in the Layers palette to make it the working layer, then add a Layer Mask to the layer by clicking the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette (it’s the one that looks like a little circle inside a gray rectangle). By adding this layer mask, it will allow us to distress the Paper layer without actually erasing any of it’s pixels. If you’re not familiar with Layer Masks, you’ll see what I mean as we go along.

Notice that the Layer Mask is selected by default on the Paper layer (denoted by the small black brackets around it).

You should still have the Brush tool selected, so lets go back to the Brush Picker and choose the one called Chalk 60px. Make sure you’re foreground color is still set to black. By painting on the mask with black, we can effectively hide areas of the layer without actually deleting them, which is great if you screw up because all you have to do is paint over those areas with white to bring them back.

Paint a jaggy edge along the bottom of the paper to make it look like it’s been torn. Notice that you can see the black area you painted appear in the Layer Mask thumbnail.

You may also want to paint away little chunks of the top edge to make it look like they were torn off when the page was removed from the notebook. You can increase or decrease the size of your brush using the bracket keys [ and ]. You may want to switch to another brush if this one doesn’t suit your needs.

The last bit of distressing we’ll do is to add a little depth to the bottom edge with a little white paint. Create a new layer at the top of the layer stack called Torn White Edges and clip it to the rest of the layers attached to the Paper layer.

Press the X key to switch white to the foreground color and using the same Chalk 60px brush, lightly brush along the bottom torn edge of the paper to give the torn edge a little more flavor. A little goes a long way here so don’t overdo it.

Now, if I wanted to put this paper into my sidebar and use HTML to add the text, I’d simply write my CSS with a line height of 30px (since that’s how far apart the lines on the paper are), and I’d have a nice dynamic note in my sidebar. But since we’re playing with Photoshop, and since this isn’t a CSS tutorial website, lets go ahead and add some text right here in Photoshop using the Type tool.

Click on the Red Lines layer in the Layers palette so that the new text layer will appear just above it in the layer stack and it will by default be clipped with the other layers to the Paper layer. Press the T key to switch to the type tool and in the Characters palette (Window>Characters from the main menu), choose a font that you like. I chose a font called Violation which you can download for free from DaFont.com. By setting the Leading (line spacing) to 30px, the font is placed on each of the little blue lines perfectly.

Click on the canvas to set the start point for your text (don’t worry if the placement isn’t exact, you can adjust it with the Move tool when you’re done typing if needed). I also lowered the opacity of my text layer to around 75% which seemed to make it fit a little better.

We’ve come to the end of the lesson. I hope you learned something useful along the way.

For my final image, I also added a lifted edge and custom shadow effect, you can learn how do to each of those here to!

To learn how to pull the corner off the paper, visit my Sticker Edge Peel tutorial.
To learn how to create custom shadows that add depth to your images check out the Adding Depth With Shadows tutorial.

This week’s tutorial comes by way of request from Bostjan in Slovenia who asked for a lesson on creating the peeled back sticker effect from the OnWired website (they’re great designers by the way so check ‘em out). Although I don’t usually favor the "how’d they do it" type lessons, quite frankly my creativity well is running a little low this week so what the heck.

Lets jump right in and open a new document by selecting File>New from the main menu or by pressing the keyboard shortcut Command-N (PC: Ctrl-N). The size of my working document for this lesson is 540×300 at 72ppi.

Create a new layer by choosing Layer>New Layer from the main menu or by using the keyboard shortcut Shift-Command-N (PC: Shift-Ctrl-N) and call the layer Sticker. Click on the foreground swatch in the Tools palette and set the color to #e0dac7. Now lets grab the Elliptical Marquee tool (which is in the Rectangular Marquee tool fly out menu) and while holding down the Shift key to constrain, click and drag a circular selection onto the stage. If you’re following along at home and want yours to be exactly like mine, my selection is 95×95px.

(*note: To create a new layer without the Layer Properties pop-up message use the keyboard shortcut Shift-Option-Command-N (PC: Shift-Alt-Command-N))

Fill the selection with your newly set foreground color by pressing Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace), then deselect by pressing Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D)

Now lets go back to that Rectangular Marquee tool fly-out menu and re-select the Rectangular Marquee, or do it the easy way and use the keyboard Shift-M to switch back and forth between the two.

Drag a nice sized square selection onto the stage (don’t forget to hold Shift to constrain the proportions). Next lets rotate the selection by choosing Select>Transform Selection from the main menu. This will give you the Free Transform controls that you’re used to, but the transformation will only be applied to the selection (not the stuff on the layer). Using the Options bar at the top of Photoshop enter 48° into the rotation field and hit Enter to commit the transformation.

With the Marquee tool still selected, click and drag inside the selection to position it over the corner of the sticker that you want to be folded back.

Now lets use a tricky keyboard shortcut to cut the selected area out of the current layer and place it on it’s own layer above. Press Shift-Command-J (PC: Shift-Ctrl-J) and watch the magic happen. Rename this new layer Residue by double clicking directly on the layer’s name in the Layers palette. Now duplicate the Residue layer by making sure it’s selected as the active layer in the Layers palette and then pressing Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J). Name this new layer Peel. Note that at this point nothing on the stage looks any different.

For the moment, lets turn off the Residue layer by clicking on the little eye icon at the left of it’s thumbnail in the Layers palette.

Lets lighten the corner of our circle that lives on the Peel layer. With the Peel layer selected, click on the Lock Transparent Pixels checkbox. Change your foreground color to a lighter shade of the same color, something like #efe4d0 should due nicely. Since the pixels are locked, all we have to do is fill the layer with color by pressing Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace).

While we’re at it, lets go ahead and rotate the Peel layer so things are oriented correctly before we continue. We can do this easily by choosing Edit>Free Transform>Rotate 180° from the main menu (if for some reason this places the Peel somewhere other than where it ought to, simply press V to switch to the Move tool and move the little sucker into place.)

Before we get onto the body of the sticker, lets add a few layer styles to the Peel layer to complete it’s effect. Control-Click (PC: Right-Click) on the Peel layer in the Layers palette and choose Blending Options from the menu to bring up the Layer Style dialog box. We’ll be adding a Drop Shadow followed by a Gradient Overlay as shown below. Be sure to check each setting to make sure you’ve made all the necessary adjustments for the effect.

Notice in the Gradient Overlay dialog that we can get the Linear Gradient to lay perfectly onto the Peel because we know the exact angle we rotated it.

If you go it right, your Peel should now look like mine… if not, do not pass go, do not collect $200, just get yourself back to Step 7 and figure out where you went wrong!

Now that we’ve got the Peel layer out of the way, lets click back down to the Residue layer, turn it back on by clicking the empty box at the left of the layer (which brings back the little eye icon) and then lower the layer’s Fill to 40%.

Click on the Sticker layer in the Layers palette and add the following Layer Styles (just like we did in Step 7), remember to pay close attention to each setting.

And if you did it right, things should be lookin’ like this.

With the Sticker layer still selected, add a new layer above it called Orange (unless you want to use some other color, then name it that. Anything but purple is ok… you know how I feel about purple). Set the foreground to a nice orange color like #eb8206 then press the M key to switch back to the Marquee tool (if you’re not still there). Make sure that you’ve got the Elliptical Marquee tool selected and drag a nice round selection into the middle of the sticker… and don’t make me remind you about the Shift key again.

If at any point while you’re dragging out your selection you feel like you need to move it, just reach over and press down the Shift key with your thumb. It’ll allow you to move the selection before you actually let go of the mouse and commit it. Now just press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill the selection with color followed by Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect.

Now obviously we don’t want the orange sticking out past the edge we peeled back, so lets clip the Orange layer to the Sticker layer. To do this, hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key and place your mouse exactly between the two layers in the Layers palette. The cursor will change to what looks like two circles overlapping, when that happens, simply click your mouse to set the clipping mask. You’ll know the layer has been clipped because it will now be indented with a little arrow pointing down to the layer it’s clipped to.

(*note: You can also create a clipping mask by Command-Clicking (PC: Right-Clicking) on the Orange layer and choosing Create Clipping Mask from the menu.)

Now lets add some dimension to the Orange layer by adding a few simple Layer Styles. We’ll be adding an Inner Glow (which we’ll actually use to shadow the edges of the object), a Gradient Overlay to add some color variation and a Stroke to lightly define it’s edge. Follow along carefully.

If your sticker doesn’t look like mine I’m going to have to send you to detention.

The OnWired sticker has been antiqued a little, so why don’t we go ahead and beat ours up a little as well.

Start by adding a Layer Mask to the Orange layer (which should still be selected in the Layers palette) by clicking on the little icon at the bottom of the Layers palette that looks like a white circle in a gray box. You’ll notice in the Layers palette that a new thumbnail has been added next to the original one. This is the layer mask. By default when you add a Layer Mask, Photoshop selects the mask and you can tell it’s selected because it’s got little black brackets around it.

Using a layer mask will allow us to mess with the layer without actually damaging any of it’s pixels. It’s a great alternative to using the Eraser tool because you can always alter it later.

Reset the foreground color to black by pressing the D key, then press the B key to switch to the Brush tool. I’m going to use a grunge brush that looks like splatters to help me distress the layer. I’ve bundled every grunge brush in my collection into a single brush set which is included in the lesson download at the end of the tutorial. This brush is called Sampled Brush 4 and I’m using it at it’s default 551 pixel size.

With the brush selected and my foreground color set to black, I’m going to place the brush over my orange circle and click once or twice until I get the effect I want. By painting with black on the Layer Mask I am telling Photoshop to ignore any part of this layer that is masked by black on the Layer Mask.

Now lets decorate the sticker a little. Create a new layer above the Orange layer called Circle and clip it to the layers below (just like we did in Step 13) by holding down the Option (PC: Alt) key and clicking the line between the Circle and Orange layers in the Layers palette.

With the Elliptical Marquee tool create a selection just slightly smaller than the orange circle, press Command-Delete (PC: Ctrl-Backspace) to fill the circle with the background color (which should still be set to white). From the main menu choose Select>Modify>Contract, set the size to 3 and click OK. Press Delete (PC: Backspace) to remove the color within the contracted circle and then press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect.

Lower the Circle layer’s Fill opacity to 80%.

You’ll notice that although we’ve clipped the Circle layer to the Orange layer at the bottom of the clipping stack, the entire circle is still visible even where the Orange layer has been masked by it’s Layer mask. Obviously we can’t have that, so let me show you a little trick. Hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key and click and drag the Layer Mask that’s on the Orange layer onto the Circle layer in the Layers palette. This will copy the layer mask we’ve already created onto the other layer.

How ’bout we add some text to our sticker now? Press the T key to switch to the Text tool, press the X key to switch the white color swatch to the foreground color and type in your text. I’m using a font called Chicago House which will also be included in the lesson download. Click onto the stage to set your text field and type your message… mine’s LOVE, because, as you know… I love you.

Clip this text layer to the layers below just like we did in Step 18, then copy the layer mask from the Circle layer onto the text layer as well.

Lets use an Outer Glow Layer Style to make our text pop a little more. You know the drill…

Your sticker is now complete! Add some background elements, some more text… go nuts!

And yes, for those of you who are wondering how I did the background, it’s all in the .PSD file download at the end of the lesson. Enjoy!

Being election season in the US, I’ve had quite a few requests for a tutorial on creating political style buttons in Photoshop. I thought maybe I’d skip this one because there are a few very good tutorials on the subject already out there (I personally prefer the version by Collis over at psdtuts). One loyal reader however, requested a tutorial based strictly on creating the effect through a single set of Layer Styles, which is what we’ll be doing in this lesson.

(*note: This lesson is written for the noobs, so you advanced users might want to skip most of the hand-holding.)

Lets begin by opening a new document in Photoshop by selecting File>New from the main menu. My file size for this lesson will be 540px x 350px at 72ppi.

The first order of business will be to create the circular background where our layer styles will live, so lets create a new layer by clicking on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. Double click on the layer name and rename it Button.

(*note: If your Layers palette isn’t visible, choose Window>Layers from the main menu at the top of Photoshop.)

Because the Layer Styles we will be applying later in the lesson will be relative to the size of the button we create, it’s important that your working on a button that’s the same size as mine. To ensure all our buttons are the same size, we’ll be setting a fixed size for our selection.

Press the M key to switch to the Rectangular Marquee tool in the Tools palette, then either click and hold your mouse on the Rectangular Marquee tool to access the flyout menu where you can choose the Elliptical Marquee tool, or simply hold the Shift key and press M again (this keyboard shortcut will switch you back and forth between Rectangular and Elliptical marquee tools on the fly).

With the Elliptical Marquee tool now selected lets direct your attention to the tool options bar at the top of Photoshop. From the Style drop-down menu choose Fixed Size, then click in the Width and Height fields and type "300px" for each. You have now set your Marquee tool to create a fixed 300×300px circle, so go ahead and click on the stage to create the selection. Once the selection is made, you may have to click and drag it to a nice central location on the canvas.

We now need to fill the selection with color, but since we’re going to be adding highlights and shadows via Layer Styles in the preceding steps, lets fill the selection with 50% Gray. From the main menu choose Edit>Fill to bring up the Fill dialog box. From the Use dropdown choose 50% Gray and make sure that the Blending Mode is set to Normal and that the Opacity is at 100% then click OK.

We’re now done with the selection, so simply press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect.

Here comes the fun part where we add the effects that will make this flat gray circle pop! Be sure that you pay special attention to each and every setting in the following dialogs as many of the default settings have been changed.

In the layers palette Control-Click (PC: Right-Click) on the Button layer and choose Blending Options from the menu. This will bring up the Layer Styles dialog box. We’ll be adding styles progressively over the next set of steps, so don’t click OK until we’re finished.

Lets begin by adding a drop shadow. Click on the Drop Shadow link in the left side of the Layer Styles dialog to bring up it’s options (*note: In the Layer Styles dialog you always want to click on the text links in the sidebar and not the checkbox because checking the checkbox will turn on the default settings for the style but won’t take you to the options window.) Set your Drop Shadow to these settings and continue to Step 5.

(*note: Make sure the Preview box is checked on the right side of the dialog (under the OK/Cancel buttons) so you can see the styles as they are applied.)

The next effect we’ll add is shading to the entire inner edge of our button using the Inner Glow style. Click on Inner Glow in the effects list on the left and use these settings.

Next we’ll add the rounded edges of the button with the Bevel and Emboss setting, so go ahead and click on Bevel and Emboss in the list at the left. This effect will be added in two stages, first the basic Bevel and Emboss and then the Contour sub-setting in Step 7.

Add the following Bevel and Emboss settings then proceed to the next step. Notice that both the Highlight and Shadow settings are colored white and both have a blend mode of Screen. This creates the upper highlight as well as the muted highlight at the bottom of the button. In the next step we will refine the shape of the Bevel using the Contour sub-setting.

Now lets click on the Contour sub-setting below Bevel and Emboss in the list on the left. The default contour is a Linear contour which looks like a straight line from the lower left to upper right corner. Click directly on the little picture of the contour to open the Contour Editor. Grab the bottom left point with your mouse and drag it half way to the right, then grab the upper left hand point and bring it down about 4/10ths of the way as shown in the image below. Once those two points are set, click along the line to add a new point, then drag that point up and left to create the curve as shown. Click OK when you’re done to return to the Contour options.

The final effect we’ll be using for our button is the Satin style, so go ahead and click Satin in the list on the left to bring up it’s options. Using the settings below we’ll use the color white to add the slightest bit of light reflection through the middle of the button. If you want to see the difference between the effect with and without the Satin effect, simply set the style settings below, then click the Satin checkbox on the left on and off to see the effect in action.

When you’ve set the options below, go ahead and click OK in the upper right hand corner of the Layer Styles dialog box to commit the styles to your layer and return to the file.

If you were a good student and followed along with each step correctly your button should now look like this.

Now that the Button layer has all the required Layer Styles applied, it’s time to get busy decorating the button. For the time being lets leave the Button background color gray. Create a new layer by clicking the Create New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette (just like we did in Step 1). Rename this layer Red.

Since this is a political button, lets add some red, white and blue action to it. Click on the foreground color swatch in the Tools palette to bring up the Color Picker. Pick a nice red color like #b11515 and click OK.

Press the M key to switch back to the Marquee tool (if you’re not already there). If the Elliptical Marquee is still set as the active Marquee tool, switch back to the Rectangular Marquee with the keyboard shortcut Shift-M. With the Rectangular Marquee tool now active, drag out a nice sized rectangle around the top of the button and press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill the selection with red.

Obviously this Red rectangle layer needs to be modified to interact correctly with the Button layer, so lets press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect and then simply Control-Click (PC: Right-Click) on the Red layer and choose Create Clipping Mask from the menu. This will cause the Red layer to be masked to the Button layer and it will inherit all the layer styles we applied to the Button layer as well. You’ll know the layer is being clipped to the Button layer because it will be indented in the Layers palette with a little arrow pointing to the layer it’s clipped to.

Repeat Step 11 a second time to create a new layer called Blue, draw a rectangle around the bottom of the button, fill it with a nice blue color like #152bb1 and clip it to the Button layer by choosing Create Clipping Mask.

(*note: Creating a Clipping Mask on a layer above a layer that’s already clipped to a preceding layer will clip that layer with the previously clipped layer as well. See below.)

It’s time to get rid of that 50% gray we’re seeing in the middle of the button, don’t you think? Click on the Button layer in the Layers palette and then click the Create New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to add a new layer above it. Notice that the new layer is automatically added inside the clipping mask because the layers above it are already clipped to the Button layer. Name this new layer White, press the D key to reset the foreground and background colors to black and white, then simply press Command-Delete (PC: Ctrl-Backspace) to fill the entire layer with white.

Now it’s just a matter of adding some text and other graphics to the mix to get the desired look. Remember to clip every subsequent layer so that the layer styles from the Button layer will be applied to them as well.

Thanks for playing along, I hope you learned something about the flexibility of Layer Styles!

In this Photoshop tutorial I’m going to show you how to create a cool photo effect while you learn a thing or two about gradient masks, and a few stock Photoshop filters.

Let me remind you before we begin that I’m working on a 540×540 pixel file that’s at 72ppi, so if you’re applying this process to a higher resolution image you’ll want to increase the strength of the filters accordingly to get the desired effect. Let me also state the obvious and say that photo effects work better on some photos than others. As any good photographer will tell you, this sort of effect is very much determined by personal taste, and you should experiment with each of the settings to decide what looks best to you. Some of my coolest photos and photo effects have been created while experimenting with different filter and layer combinations.

(*note: You should have at least Photoshop CS2 for this tutorial as some of the filters used were not present in earlier versions.)

Here’s a lovely photo of a striking young man that I think will be perfect for this effect (although this particular photo effect can also work well on still life and landscape photos as well). A few factors that make this photo ideal are the nice lighting conditions and the lack of distraction in the background.

The first few steps will serve to soften the details and smooth out the tones, but lets first duplicate the background layer by pressing Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) so if we screw up we can just delete the copy and start over without effecting or original image. This also creates an easy way for us to compare the original to the final product.

We’re going to use the Reduce Noise filter to do a preliminary smoothing of the working surface. Select Filter>Noise>Reduce Noise. All we’re asking this filter to do is to take out tiny variations in tone so use the settings below.

(*note: The Reduce Noise filter is relatively new to Photoshop, so if you’re using an older version and don’t have this in your Filters menu, don’t worry, you can skip this step and still end up with a nice effect.)

Now that we’ve reduced the small variations it’s time to do some real smoothing. Choose Filter>Blur>Surface Blur from the main menu and set both the radius and threshold to 5. This will add an almost painted look to the photo because the large areas of similar tone have been blended so well.

Now lets bring back a little bit of crispness by using a powerful addition to the Sharpen menu called Smart Sharpen. Choose Filter>Sharpen>Smart Sharpen and adjust the sliders until the areas of your photograph with the largest amount of contrast have crisp edges again (like the eyes and hair in my photograph).

If you want to see the difference these filters has made, simply turn the working layer on and off in the Layers palette by clicking on the little eye icon to the left of the layer’s thumbnail.

Here’s what my photo looks like so far. Notice that the skin has been smoothed extensively but there is still a significant level of sharpness in the image overall.

Here comes the fun part where we create the color-shift that defines the look of this effect. First press the D key to reset the foreground and background colors to black and white respectively.

We’ll be using an Adjustment Layer, so click on the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette (it’s the one that looks like a circle with one half black and the other white) and choose Gradient Map from the menu. When the dialog appears, click ON the gradient to open the Gradient Editor where we’ll create a custom gradient in the next step.

(*note: The Gradient Map adjustment layer does exactly what it says, it maps a gradient to the tonal range of the image.)

We’ll begin by selecting one of the Photoshop default gradients, in this case the one that goes from black to white (this is the first of the default gradients in the gradient picker).

Now that we’ve got the basics in place it’s time to look down to the bottom of the Gradient Editor. The black and white endpoints of the gradient have already been set so now we need to add a few custom markers in the middle to give us the desired effect.

Click anywhere just beneath the gradient to add a new point at that location (the color will be set by default to the exact color at that point in the existing gradient). With the new point added, click directly on the point to access it’s color and location options. Set the first point to #412C08 and change it’s location to 20% then add a second point to the right of the first and set the color to #ACA79A and it’s location to 60%. When you’re done click OK to set the gradient and then click OK on the original Gradient Map dialog to commit the adjustment layer to the document.

Things should now look like my example below. Notice that a new layer has been created above our working photo layer called Gradient Map 1. If at any time you wish to adjust the Gradient Map adjustment layer, simply double click on the layer’s icon to re-open the dialog exactly as you left it.

Next we’re going to add some punch to the tones with another Adjustment Layer, so just like in Step 6, click on the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette and this time choose Channel Mixer.

Normally the Channel Mixer is used to adjust color mixture on a per-channel basis (ie Red,Green & Blue). It’s quite useful, but we won’t be using it that way today. What I want you to do is go into EACH of the respective colors in the Output Channel drop down and give that color 100% and the other two channels in that color 0%… So in the Red output channel red would be set to 100% and Green and Blue both at 0%… do the same for the Green and Blue output channels and then click OK. If you do this correctly absolutely nothing in your image will have changed when you’re done.

Lastly lets add one final Adjustment Layer to add a touch more contrast to the image. From the Adjustment Layer menu we’ve been using at the bottom of the Layers palette choose Curves this time. When the Curves dialog box appears choose Linear Contrast (RGB) from the Preset drop down menu at the top and click OK.

(*note: You should feel free to play with different presets as well as custom curves to create different effects.)

Remember, each photo is different and what works perfectly with one set of instructions can look like crap on another, so don’t let yourself get tied to exact formulas and prescribed steps. Experiment with each setting and learn what each filter and adjustment layer does, that way you’re only limit is your own creativity. Something as small as rearranging the order of the adjustment layers in this exercise can make a substantial difference in your end result.

Oh, and if you really want to have some fun, play with the colors in the Gradient Map! The sky is the limit!

In my final image I lowered the opacity of the Gradient Map adjustment layer to around 80% to let a little of the original skin tone show through which added a bit of warmth to the composition.

It seems like the big thing to do these days is play handmade objects and ideas from the physical world into graphic and web designs, so in this tutorial you’ll learn how to add pencil drawn elements into your designs.

But what if you’re person who can’t draw a stick figure to save your life? Do you always loose at Pictionary? No problem! I’ll show you how to cheat your way through to awesome results even if you’re crap with a pencil!

(*note: If you’re going to play along at home, you’ll need a printer and scanner.)

So how about I stop pointing out your stick figure shortcomings, and lets get started.

First things first… you’ll need to decide what sort of hand drawn element you want to add to your design. Whether it’s a simple bit of handwritten text or a complex drawing, knowing what you want is the first step. I’ve decided to draw an old banner style element, but like you I’ve spent too much time with a mouse and too little time with a pencil lately, so here’s what we’re going to do:

Open up a new Photoshop document by pressing Command-N (PC: Ctrl-N). When the New Document dialog appears choose US Paper from the Preset drop-down menu, change the ppi setting to 150 and click OK.

With this new document we’re going to create a graphical version of what we want to be drawn into our design. We’re doing this because we’re going to take a step back to high school art class and do some tracing in the next step.

I’m going to use one of the custom shapes from my popular Heraldic Shapes custom shape set, but you can use anything you’d like. Feel free to add text, shapes, even photos if you’re feeling ambitious. My only pointer here would be that this is easiest if your design is in black and white. Make your design nice and big so it’ll be easy to trace (you can always shrink it to fit your design).

I also rotated my canvas so that I could work horizontally by choosing Image>Rotate Canvas>90° CW from the main menu. If you do this, don’t forget to rotate it back before moving on to the next step.

When you’ve got your design all done, choose File>Print from the main menu to print out a hard copy.

With the printed out design in your hot little hands, grab a blank piece of paper and some tape and go find yourself a window that has light coming through it (unless of course you’re one of the cool kids that has a light table at home). Tape the paper with your printed design onto the window at a level that will be easy for you to draw then tape the blank paper over the top and SHAZAM! you’ve got a light table of your very own!

Sharpen up that #2 pencil and get to tracing! When you’re done, pull your mess down from the window, remove the tape from the edges and move on to Step 4.

Ok, now take that beautifully traced page over to the scanner (I told you you’d need one, remember?). Scan the page using the scanner’s "Photo" setting, this will ensure that you capture all the levels of gray that your pencil put down and will give the depth to the final result to be convincing. Save the scan as a .jpg or .tiff at at least 150ppi.

Now back to Photoshop where you’ll need to open the design you want to place your pencil drawing into as well as the pencil drawing we just scanned. Since I want to be able to show you a full scale version, I’ve created a small file with an aged paper background. If you’re interested in how to create one of your own, check out my Creating Old Paper With Custom Brushes tutorial.

Arrange your two photoshop windows so that you can see them both, press the V key to switch to the Move tool, then click and drag your scanned pencil drawing into your design document.

It’s quite possible that your drawing is way too big when you get it into your design document so press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to activate the Free Transform tool. Holding down the Shift key to constrain the dimensions of your pencil drawing, click and drag from the corners until you’ve got it sized correctly then commit the transformation by hitting the Return (PC: Enter) key on your keyboard.

Obviously all that white background needs to be dealt with now, and this is the easy part. Make sure that the layer with your pencil drawing is active in the Layers palette and change the Blend Mode of the layer to Multiply. Depending on your background you may want to lower the layer opacity a little as well.

(*note: The Color Burn and Linear Burn blend modes can also produce good results depending on your background.)

And there you have it! You’ve just added a pencil sketch into your design AND you’ve made people think you actually know how to draw!

It’s always fun to get an email from a reader with a very specific request. In this case the request was for a tutorial based on the the car stereo style navigation bar used in Volkswagen’s website. Rather than reinventing the wheel, we’re going to work straight from an example file of the original.

This tutorial assumes that you know your way around Photoshop enough not to need too much hand-holding. You should know your way around the Layers palette and know how to add Layer Styles, use Custom Shapes and Clipping Masks without much explanation.

(*note: This is a tutorial about creating the navigation of this piece and not about creating the Volkswagen logo. I have however included the layers used to create my final product in the .PSD download at the end of the lesson if you’re curious about how I did it.)

Lets begin by taking a look at the original navigation bar on Volkswagen’s website. At this point I’ll take a screenshot (screen capture) of the navigation and past it into my new working document so that we’ve got a constant reference to work from as we go. My working file is 540×250 pixels at 72ppi, as always if you decide to work at a different resolution you’ll need to adjust your layer styles accordingly.

(*note: As luck would have it, Volkswagen’s website was built in Flash and it loads the navigation before the rest of the page, so with a little lucky timing you can capture the navigation bar before the background image has loaded.)

Obviously our first layer will be the one created when we paste the original Volkswagen nav into our document, so lets create a new layer called Base and with the Custom Shape tool set to Rounded Rectangle with a corner radius of 12px and set to Fill Pixels draw a rectangle over the original object ending at the curve on the left side. Use any color you’d like because we’ll be covering it with a layer style a few steps from now.

With the Custom Shape tool still selected switch to the Ellipse and draw in the circle on the left side. I’ve used a darker color so you can see the overlap, but again, color makes no difference.

Switch to the Move tool by pressing the V key and drag the new shape upward until both the original and the new Base are visible.

Now lets add some Layer Styles to the Base layer to get it looking like the example. We’ll be using a Gradient Overlay to get the black to gray effect, an Inner Glow to create the outline and a Drop Shadow. Use the colors #000000 and #A8A8A8 in the Gradient Overlay and be sure to pull in the sliders like in my example below.

With the Base complete lets move on to the cutout where the buttons live. Create a new layer called Button Background. In the example the corners of the area are slightly rounded so lets grab the Custom Shape tool set to Rounded Rectangle but this time with an edge radius of just 3. If it helps you to get things sized correctly feel free to drag your shape onto the stage directly over the top of the example just like we did before, then move it up into position when you’ve got it right. Again, color here doesn’t matter because we’ll apply another set of Layer Styles in Step 7.

As promised, here are the layer styles for your Button Background layer. Pay special attention as we work through the layer styles in this tutorial because often I’ve unchecked the Global Light setting to achieve a certain effect. The colors for the Gradient Overlay are #484848 and #000000 with the sliders left in their default positions.

Your Button Background layer should now look inset into the Base layer as shown below.

Now lets get started creating the buttons that will sit inside the Button Background. We will first create one button completely, then we’ll group the layers and duplicate the group to create the other buttons. But first things first, create a new layer called Button and again using the Custom Shape tool drag a Rounded Rectangle with an corner radius of 2px. Again feel free to draw over the original example to get your button just the right size, then drag it into place when you’ve got it right. At the risk of sounding like a broken record… color doesn’t matter this time either.

Here are the layer styles for your Button layer. Your Gradient Overlay colors from left to right are #000000, #74767a and #535558. Be sure to pay attention to slider placement. You may also want to work with the midpoint sliders between the color sliders to adjust the transitions to your liking.

The Button should now look something like this (I’ve zoomed in so it’s easier to see).

Next we’re going to make a selection of the Button by holding the Command (PC: Ctrl) key and clicking on the Button layer’s thumbnail in the Layers palette. With the selection made, create a new layer called Button Sides and click the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to create a Layer Mask on the new layer using the selection.

We’re going to draw in the right and left sides of the button now. Switch to the Brush tool by pressing the B key and choose a round soft edged brush that’s around 8 pixels in diameter, make sure that the hardness is set to 0%. Set the foreground color to #4A4B4B and then starting at the top left corner click once then holding down the Shift key click a second time at an angle into the button where the black gradient meets the gray, then while shill holding Shift click on the lower left corner. This should create a nice angled edge as shown below. Do the same to the right hand side and fill in any areas that you may have missed at the edges.

Create a new layer called Shadow Highlight directly below the Button Sides layer we just worked on. We’re now going to create an area where we can paint in a highlight and shadow without effecting the other areas.

Grab the Custom Shape tool once again by pressing the U key, select the Rounded Rectangle with a corner radius of 4 pixels but this time make sure the Paths option is selected. Click and drag a path onto the stage in the center of the button from one edge of our newly created Button Sides to the other. Press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to Free Transform the path then Command-Click (PC: Right-Click) on the path and choose Perspective from the menu. Grab one of the top corners and drag it outward to expand the top of the shape until the sides line up with the Button Sides as shown below then press Return (PC: Enter) to commit the transformation.

Convert the path to a selection by pressing Command-Return (PC: Ctrl-Enter) and then press the Create Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to create a mask on the Shadow Highlight layer using the selection.

Switch back to the Brush tool by pressing the B key and using a foreground color of white paint a small highlight into the lower right corner of the button. Once the highlight looks right to you, switch the foreground color to black and paint a little shadow into the left hand corner. Adjust the layer’s Fill opacity down to about 30% or as looks best to you.

(*note: I used a round soft edged brush with the Eraser tool to soften the edges a little further once I got the basic highlight and shadow in place.)

Create a new layer at the top of the layer stack called Light Off. Set your foreground color to #98999A and using the Custom Shape tool set to Fill Pixels, Rounded Rectangle and 2px create the little light indicator onto the button as shown below.

Add a slight Inner Shadow to the Light Off layer to add a little depth.

Add your text to the button by switching to the Type tool by pressing the T key and setting up your font and color in the Character palette. I’m using the font Apple Symbols though Arial and Helvetica are pretty decent substitutes. I’ve adjusted the Tracking to -10 to more closely mimic the original.

Now that we’ve got the button completed select all the layers that make up the button in the Layers palette and press Command-G (PC: Ctrl-G) to