Creating a New Document

Create a new document (File > New). In order to have some workspace, make it 600×400 pixels at 72 ppi. If you are going to use this in print, you might want to increase the resolution to 200-300, depending on where it will be used.

Drawing the Base Rectangle

Select the Rectangle Tool (U) from the toolbar and draw out a rectangle at the size you wish to have the postit.

Colorize into PostIt Colors

To make it look more like a postit, double click on the color icon next to the shape layer in the layers panel. This will bring up the color picker. Set the color to a light yellow, #fffdb9 (R: 255, G: 253, B: 185).

Transform into PostIt Shape

Go into Free Transform by using the shortcut Command + T (PC: Control + T). Right-click inside of the canvas and select Warp.

With the Warp mesh over, drag the top and bottom handles on the left and right sides to create a curvature as indicated. Also click in the middle of the middle box at the bottom and drag it slightly upwards to create a curvature there as well.

When you are finished, click the Enter key to apply the edits.

Adding Some Style

Right-click on the shape layer and select Blending Options.

Apply a drop shadow with a 9% opacity, an angle of 143°, a distance of 5px and a size of 4px. This will add just a slight drop shadow below the note.

Final Result

This yields the final effect that by adding some text (in the example the font Kelly Script is used), can be used in your design elements.

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Creating the Canvas

Start off by creating a blank canvas. For this example, I am using 500×300 pixels at 72 ppi as the size with a background color set to white.

Adding in an iPhone

Let’s next grab a photo of the iPhone from Apple. They have many photos on the PR website part (apple.com/pr) that you can download. Place it on the right hand side of the canvas.

Duplicate to add a second

Duplicate the first layer with the first iPhone (Mac: Command + J, PC: Control + J) and place it to the left of the first, just slightly overlapping. Also move it down about ten pixels.

Adding the “Editable Regions”

Select the main display and create a new copy of the contents of the selection (Mac: Command +J PC: Control + J), which will put it up on its own layer. These two layers (Layer 2 and Layer 3 here) will be the ones that we replace with the individual app screenshots.

Converting to Smart Object

To make these two areas easy to replace with any file, we are going to right-click on the previously extracted bit (Layer 3) and select “Convert to Smart Object”.

Repeat this for Layer 2.

Replace Contents…

On both of the extracted placeholders, you can now that you have converted them to smart objects, right-click and select replace contents. This will use the same funciton as the Place command and place the screenshot into the same area, fitting it without reshaping it, into the area you have set up.

Final Result

Replacing the placeholders with actual app screenshots (here from Billings Touch), this look will be achieved. Remember that this is a template that once saved can be used to make these layouts quickly for a new app.

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Create the File

First, create a file that is 960×800 pixels at 72 ppi (pixels/inch). Make sure it is in RGB Color and as 8 bit. Background contents do not matter.

Making the Background

Set your background color to #1e1e1e and click OK to dismiss the color picker. Use the keyboard shortcut Command + Backspace (PC: Control + Backspace) to fill the background with the selected color.

Next, go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and set the amount to 2% and the distribution to be uniform. Make sure to tick the monochromatic checkbox at the bottom to make the noise black and white. Click OK.

Content Box Design with Fold and Cover

Create a new layer. Drag out a selection using the rectangular marquee tool from the left side to the right, leaving a little gap at the top, right and bottom of the document edges (as is shown in the image above). Fill it with white.

Right-click on the layer and select Blending Options. In its menu, choose Drop Shadow and use the settings shown in the image above. This will make it stand out a bit from the background.

Selet the white box layer and duplicate it by using the shortcut Command + J (PC: Control + J). Bring up Free Transform (Command + T, PC: Control + T) and drag the left edge over to the right to create a narrow column with a width as shown in the image. Click enter to get out of the Free Tranform and apply the transofmration.

In the layers panel, Command-click (PC: Control-click) on the layer thumbnail for the copied layer (Layer 1 copy, here) to load it as a selection. Fill this with the color #804c00.

Create a new layer. Grab your Rectangular Marquee Selection Tool and drag out a selection on the left side of the content box from top to bottom, leaving enough room for a sidebar between the line and the left edge. Fill this with black.

Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and add a blur with the Radius of 8.0 pixels. After you have clicked OK to apply the blur, reduce the opacity of the layer down to 20%.

Next, create another new layer and still with the Rectangular Selection Tool, drag out an approximately one pixel wide line, in the middle of the shadowed area we just created, spanning from top to bottom of the content box. Fill this selection with white (#ffffff) and reduce the overall opacity of the layer down to 80%.

Finally, select the two layers making up the fold and press Command + G (PC: Control + G) to group them together into one group. Name this one “Fold”. This will make the layers panel less messy.

Adding a Bookmark

Create a new layer yet again. Make a selection that starts just a little above the white content box and doesn’t quite reach to the bottom of it, rather stops a little above. Fill this selection with a red color (#9e1313).

Again, create a new layer and put it below the bokmark we just created. Zoom in to the top part of the bookmark and with the Polygonal Lasso Tool, click in the top left corner of the red rectangle and while holding down the shift key (ensuring a 45° angle) making a selection which will add a little triangle to add depth. Fill this selection with red.

When you zoom back out and deselect, this will look like the bookmark is actually wrapping around the page.

Select the Custom Shape Tool in the toolbar (grouped under the Rectangular Shape Tool) and select the Triangle shape. start in the left corner of the red rectangle (now zoomed in at the bottom part) and drag it up and over to the right to draw the rectangle.

Now to turn it the right way, bring up the Free Transform by using the Command + T (PC: Control + T) shortcut again. Right-click which will bring up the contextual menu for the tool and there, select “Flip Vertically”. Move the triangle into place and fill it with the same red color.

Finally, you can select the three layers that make up the bookmark and group these together (Command/Control + G) into a group that you can name “Bookmark”, for better organization.

Adding a Site Title

Using the font “JaneAusten” at a 48pt size, type in the name of the site (here, fictionally, Newsbook). Make sure the text is set to white in color and move it to within a few pixels of touching the content box.

Final Effect: With Some More Content

Adding some more content to the sidebar and main areas (shapes using custom shapes available in Photoshop) you can fill it with your content. I recommend using the font Georgia in different variations as it is a common system font that gives a book-like feel to the design.

You should, after this tutorial, have a good structure that you can continue to fill with type and content.

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Step 1: Adding the Text

After creating your new document, grab the text tool and type in the text that you want. Here, I am using the font Impact at a size of 100pt.

Step 2: Setting up the Brush

Select the “Scattered Maple Leaves” brush from the default brushes in Photoshop (circled in red above). Set your foreground color to #60ac37 and your background color to #367016.

Go into your Scattering settings for the brush. Reduce the count to 1 and set the scattering to about 250%. This should give us a nicely spread out wave of leaves.

Step 3: Painting the Brush Strokes

Create a new layer ontop of the text layer and drag some strokes with the brush we have set up to create the leaves.

Step 4: Masking out Leaves

First, add a new layer mask to the leaves layer. Then, command-click (PC: control-click) on the text layer icon to load the text as a selection. This means that when we are masking, we can only affect the area of the text and not outside.

Finally, make sure the foreground color is set to black and that you have a rounded brush selected. Paint over the areas where you do not want leaves to show through.

Final Effect

Just adding a greenish gradient background, faded into white (using the same base colors as for the leaves), you get this final result.

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Bringing up the Image

Open up the image that you want to use for the effect.

Selecting the Window

Take the Magic Wand tool. Click in one of the window pieces to select it. Hold down the shift-key and click on the rest. This will add to the selection, making it all one, big selection.

The Base of the Light

When you have the selection active, use the shortcut Command + J (PC: Control + J) to copy the window contents up on its own layer. After that, click Command + T (PC: Control + T) to bring up Free Transform. Right click anywhere within the canvas and select Flip Vertical. After that, click enter to apply the transformation.

Applying the Light

Command-click (PC: Control-click) the layer thumbnail for the copied window contents, to activate it as a selection and then copy it. Make a new layer. After that, go to Filter > Vanishing Point.

Make a perspective grid (by clicking in the corners of the floor) that will help place the window light in perspective. Once that is done, just paste in the window copy. Drag the image that gets pasted in, down into the perspective grid. You will see it be transformed to fit the perspective we have dragged out.

When you have placed it where you want it to be, just click OK to apply it.

To finish off the effect, set the layer blend mode (of the floor light) to Overlay, and the Opacity to 70%.

Final Effect

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Opening the Image

First off, open up an image that you want to apply the effect on. Images that are shot from the side, in a relatively simple environment, works best for this specific effect.

Convert for Smart Filters

Convert the layer for Smart Filters by going to Filter > Convert for Smart Filters.

Adding Motion Blur

Go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur. Depending on the angle of the driving car, the angle setting will change. In this example, it is driving relatively horizontal, making 0° a good setting. Distance varies too depending on the resolution of the image. Here, I have set it to 30px. It should blur the background enough without leaving big trails in front and back of the car.

Masking Out the Car

Now it is time to mask out the car so that it is still in focus.

Click on the white smart filter icon to make sure you have the smart filter layer mask activated. Then, make sure your foreground and background colors are reset (press D) and then set black as your foreground color (press X which switches background to foreground). Take the brush tool and with a big enough brush at medium softness, paint over the car.

If you go too far out and you start to hide the effect on the surroundings, just switch back to white as foreground (press X) and paint over the area again to make sure the effect shows there.

Finishing off the Effect

There is still one more thing that is missing. The wheels look like they are still. To solve this, first duplicate the photo layer by pressing Command + J (PC: Control + J). Then right-click on the layer copy and select Rasterize Layer.

Make sure the layer copy is selected. Select the Elliptical Marquee Tool from the toolbar (under the Rectangular Marquee Tool). Click right in the center of the wheel, hold down Shift (which is going to make sure it stays a perfect circle) and Option/Alt (which is going to scale it from the center) and drag out to make a selection around the wheel.

Go to Filter > Blur > Radial Blur. The amount here will again vary depending on your resolution. In this case, an amount of about 20-25 works great. Make sure the mode is set to Spin and Best quality.

Repeat for the other wheel.

Masking The Wheels

To take most advantage of the smart filter (being able to change the motion blur whenever), we want to mask out the wheels from the top layer, so only them are shown from the top layer.

Add a layer mask to the copied layer, fill it with black, then grab your brush tool and paint out (using white as foreground color) the wheels themselves.

The Final Effect

A special thank you to Elenor Bengtsson for letting me use one of her photos for this tutorial.

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Creating a New Document

The first step is of course to set up a new document where we are going to create the icon in. I like to have some space around when I create icons and chose a 200×100 pixel size, at the web resolution 72ppi.

Making the Box

First, create a new layer ontop the currently white background layer. Then, select the rectangular marquee tool from the toolbar, drag out a box at the size that you wish to have your button. Fill this selection with white (Edit > Fill or press D to reset your foreground and background colors, then use the shortcut Command + Backspace (PC: Control + Backspace) to fill).

Finally, you can deselect by clicking Command + D (PC: Control + D).

Brining up Blending Options

Right click on the layer with the white box that we just created. Select Blending Options from the contextual menu.

In the Blending Options panel, click on Gradient Overlay and then on the little gradient preview box, curently showing a black to white gradient. This will bring up the gradient editor.

Setting up the Background Gradient

Here, first click on the little color holder on the left side. This activates its options (shown just below) where among the different options have Color. Click on the color box and set it to #d13c18 (R: 209 G: 124 B: 24).

Repeat this with the right side only this time, set the color to #f59826 (R: 245 G: 152 B: 38). Then click the OK button at the top of the dialog box to apply the changes.

You will, if you look at the image behind, see that we have got a gradient going in a top to bottom direction, using the colors we have set here.

Modifying the Gradient

To make the background of the button look a little bit better, we are going to change the angle of the gradient to about -16° and the scale to 110%. This will make the gradient go from the top left corner, to the bottom right one.

Don’t forget to click the OK button when you are done to save the changes.

Adding an Inside Border

Next up, we are going to add an inside border to the button, to give it some depth. Create a new layer, then command + click (PC: control + click) on the layer thumbnail for the box layer. This will load it as a selection.

Go to Select > Modify > Contract. Enter 2 pixels as the value and click OK. This will contract the selection by two pixels.

Right-click anywhere within the canvas and from the contextual menu, chose Stroke.

Here, enter 1px as the width, set the color to white (#ffffff) and the location to Inside. Click OK.

Deselect by clicking Command + D (PC: Control + D).

Finally, on the new layer with the stroke, drop the opacity down to about 50%.

Applying a Slight Shadow

Let’s also add a slight shadow below the icon to give it some depth to the website it is on. Create a new layer and drop it just below Layer 1 (the one with the box). As before, hold down the Command-key (PC: control key) and click on the Layer 1 thumbnail icon to load it as a selection. Then, with the new layer now selected, fill it with black.

Deselect by clicking Command + D (PC: Control + D).

Bring up the Free Transform tool by using the keyboard shortcut Command + T (PC: Control + T). Grab the middle top handle and drag it, almost all the way to the bottom, leaving a small rectangular shape.

Right-click anywhere within the canvas to bring up the contextual menu for the free transform tool. There, select Perspective from the list.

While holding down the Shift-key, click on either of the top-corner handles and drag them outwards, to have the top-corners extend out from the box, creating a perspective.

Finally, click the Enter key to apply the changes.

Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Enter a radius of about 1.5 to 2.0 pixels and click OK.

Finally, drop down the opacity of the shadow layer to about 30% to make it just subtle behind.

Adding the RSS Elements

Grab the typical “RSS Logo” from somewhere and if it isn’t already, fill it with white. Position it down in the bottom-left-corner of the icon.

Grab the Type Tool and enter the text RSS. Use the font Myriad Pro (or similar), at 22pt size and bold. Set the anti-aliasing to Sharp.

Position it in the top-right region.

Final Result

Now we have the final result! A modern and stylish RSS icon that can be used as a template for other social media websites. Just changing the icon on it and the gradient color can make it a perfect icon for anyone.

You can also make it in a smaller size to just contain the “RSS logo” itself if you want!

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Opening The First Image

To get started, go to File > Open to open your first image.

Opening the Second Image

Go to the File menu, then come down and click on the Place item. We will be placing the image that is to be blended using this method, ontop of the other image. Just find the image you wish to blend into the background on your harddrive and select it in the file browsing window.

Unlocking the Background Layer

I have a habit when working with documents like these, where I may want to edit the bottom most layer (in this case the first photo), to unlock the background layer. This is simpoly done by holding down the Option (PC: Alt) key, while double-clicking on the layer you wish to unlock.

Adding a Layer Mask

Next up, we will add a layer mask to the top layer, which we wish to blend in. To do so, click the new layer mask icon (circled in the screenshot in the previous step). When you have successfully added a mask, it should look like in the image above.

Picking the Right Gradient

Select your Gradient Tool (G) and from the gradient selector, chose a black to white gradient. You can use any type of gradient that you wish, linear, radial, reflected etc. with different results, depending on how you want it. I find the linear and radial to be the best for blending.

Applying the Gradient

Make sure that you have the layer mask selected. To do so, click on the mask icon (the white one) next to the layer icon in the layers panel (as can be seen above).

Drag out, using the gradient tool any type of gradient that you wish. When using a black to white gradient, you can always redraw as you like. The gradient before a new will be replaced.

The Final Result

When using a good gradient and dragging it out at a length that greatly differs from image to image as well as situation to situation, your result might look similar to the one above here.

All Images are copyrighted their respective owners at iStockPhoto.com.

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Step 1 – The Document

Create a new file. I made mine 500×200 to give me some space to work with, at 72 pixels per inch resolution. Fill the background to white.

Step 2 – Frame

Create a new layer and draw a rectangle, about the size I’ve done below with the Marquee tool (Keyboard shortcut M). Fill that with a light grey such as #dddddd.

Step 3 – Stroke and Shadow

Hit deselect (Ctrl + D on PC, Command + D on Mac). Then go into Blending Options and apply a Drop Shadow with an opacity of 25% and a 8px White, inside, Stroke.

Step 4 – Duplicate and Rotate

Duplicate the layer with the box on (Ctrl/Command + J) and then bring up the Free Transform tool (Ctrl/Command + T). With the free transform in place, rotate the image around -5 degrees (to the left), until it looks like my image below. You can also use a little rotate on the box on the layer below, using the same way but to the right.

Step 5 – Dropping Your Photo

Open a photo you want to use. I’m going to use one of a garden that I took myself. In your frame file, select the top layer by Ctrl/Command clicking on the layer icon of the top layer. Then drag it over to the file with your image in, you will get the very same selection over there. Then copy and go back to your frame file and press paste. You will now have a third layer on top of the other two.

Step 6 – Copying Styles

As you now see, the layer doesn’t have the layer styles we created before (the drop shadow and the white border), so to make it look right, right click on the frame layer or its copy, and copy the layer style. Then select the top layer with your photo and press paste. Also delete the layer copy, since we don’t need that one, now that the photo has taken its place. It should now look like below.

Step 7 – Making It Glossy

We could stop here, since we have the basic frame, but we also want it to have a glossy look to it. So open up the blending options for the photo layer and under Gradient Overlay, add a foreground to transparent (making sure foreground is white) gradient, make sure the white is on top of the photo and lower the opacity to about 50%. That will leave us with a glossy looking photo in a frame, hopefully looking as the below one.

I hope you have enjoyed the tutorial and learned something from it. This can of course be used with many different images inside and it suits great on websites on any background.

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