In a few simple steps make your own silver metallic texture from scratch. Let’s begin! (For a larger view click on the images.)
1. Create a new document. Mine was 2000×2000 pixels. Unlock the Background layer by double clicking on it, name it Silver Texture and fill it with color grey #777777.
2. Convert the Silver Texture layer into Smart Object by right clicking on it and choosing Convert to Smart Object. We are doing that so we can go back and tune our values after applying Smart Filters.
3. Now we are going to apply some Smart Filters. Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise… (Amount 15%, Distribution Uniform) Now we are going to apply the second filter – go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur (Angle 0, Distance 130 Pixels).
4. Now we just need to add some light. Go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Gradient… Name that new gradient layer Light. By double clicking on Gradient Box open Gradient Editor and adjust gradient values according to the image below. On the Gradient Fill window don’t forget to set Style to Linear and Angle to 0.
5. Put that Light layer to Overlay and that’s it! You have your own metallic silver texture. As you can probably see, the edges of that image are not the very best, so I would suggest to just trim them with the Crop Tool (C).
To download metallic silver texture (.jpg) made in this tutorial click on the image and choose the download icon ↓
Well, who doesn’t love cupcakes. And with a holiday season fast approaching, I bet that a lot of you want to decorate your cupcakes with some occasional festive toppers. So, I will show you the easiest way I know to make them in Photoshop. And, at the end of this tutorial you can download the .psd file with a cupcake topper made here.
The most common size of a cupcake topper is 2 inches, so I will be making them that size. When you print them out, you can use scissors or paper punch to cut them out.
I will be making two versions of them in Photoshop: square ones and circle ones. Square ones are great if you want to make a decorative edge with a scallop punch, for instance.
Let’s begin! (For a larger view click on the images.)
1. Create a new document and make it 2“ x 2“, 300 ppi (600 x 600 px).
2. With a black color as your Foreground Color go to Ellipse Tool. Make a new layer and name it Outside Circle. With a Shift pressed make a circle 600 px in diameter (so it fits perfectly in that document). If you want to make sure it’s centered, go to Select > All, and than with the Outside Circle layer and a Move Tool selected go to Align vertical centers and Align horizontal centers.
3. Duplicate the Outside Circle layer by right clicking on it and choosing Duplicate Layer and name it Inside Circle. Make that inside circle white so you can see it better. Just click twice on the layer thumbnail and the Color Picker will appear.
4. With the Inside Circle layer selected (it’s blue) go to Edit > Free Transform Path (Ctrl+T) and with holding Shift and Alt Keys reduce the size of that inside circle to your liking. I made mine 75% of the original size.
5. And now the fun starts! Double click on the Outside Circle layer to open Layer Style window. Go to Pattern Overlay and choose a pattern for your border. I chose my Christmas Colors Patterns because I wanted to make holiday cupcake toppers. You can download them for free HERE. If you are not sure how to install and use Photoshop patterns you can check out my quick tutorial: How To Install Patterns In Photoshop You can use any pattern you wish or you can fill it with solid color.
If you have a pattern like this (stripes) and you can not see the whole outer line (for cutting the topper out), I recommend making a light inside stroke. Again double click on the Outside Circle layer to open Layer Style window. Go to Stroke, position Inside. I made mine green, size 3 px, but you can make it thicker.
6. For the Inside Circle, I left it white. You can add an inside border on the Inside Circle the same way you did it on the Outside Circle for more crisp look.
7. Now we are going to fill inside circle with a greeting or an image. I used free font called What we do all day to write Merry Christmas, and my very own Christmas Doodles Brushes for the embellishment.
To do that, first make a new layer above the Inside Circle layer and name it Greeting. Pick Horizontal Type Tool, select the font you like, and write your greeting in the center of your topper.
8. Now we can add some Christmas doodles! Make a new layer on top and name it Doodles. Load Christmas Doodles Brushes or any other Photoshop brush set you want to use. Loading brushes: Select Brush Tool and click on that arrow beside the brush size. Then click on the little „flower“ on the right side of that new window and choose Load Brushes… Then choose your brush inside the brush menu and… have fun!
Here is your 2 inches wide Christmas cupcake topper!
9. If you want your topper square, first turn off the Outside Circle layer (click on the eye beside the layer to turn off its visibility). With the Background layer selected go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Pattern. Choose your Pattern Fill and that’s it!
Don’t forget to play around and have fun with different designs!
10. Now you just need to save them as .jpg or .png, insert them into Word document and print them out! Be careful with the margins because most of home printers don’t print all the way to the edge.
To download cupcake toppers (.jpg) made in this tutorial click on the image and choose the download icon ↓
To download psd file click on the download button below.
In a few simple steps make your own chalkboard background from scratch. Let’s begin! (For a larger view click on the images.)
1. Create a new document. Mine was 1000×1000 pixels. Set foreground color to #494748 and background color to #2e2d29. Then go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Gradient. On the New Layer window click OK. When you get to Gradient Fill window first click on the gradient and on the Gradient Editor choose Foreground to Background gradient (it should be first). If you don’t see it click on the „flower“ on the right and choose Reset Gradients. On Gradient Fill choose Radial Style.
2. Right Click on that Gradient Fill layer and and convert it to Smart Object. Now we are going to apply a Smart Filter. (We are applying Smart Filters because this allows us to go back and modify our values.) Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise… (Amount: 2%, Distribution: Uniform, Monochromatic checked)
3. Next we are going to apply Pattern Overlay so that we get a more textured look on our chalkboard. Open Layer Style window by double clicking on the Gradient Fill layer and go to Pattern Overlay – Blend Mode: Color Burn, Opacity: 15%, Pattern: Stone (80 by 80 pixel) (you can find it in Artist Surfaces), Scale: 100 %. And here is our basic chalkboard texture. But we need to distress it a bit, make it look used and abused :)
4. First, we need to make some scratches. Create a new layer and name it Scratches. Pick a round brush, size 1 px, hardness 100%, color #2d2b2b and make some random scratches.
5. Now we are going to play around with some chalk stains. Make white your foreground color. Create a new layer and name it Chalk 1. Choose the Brush Tool and pick the Chalk 60 brush (it should be in default brushes), size 100 px, and make some random strokes. You don’t have to be precise because we are going to blur them. Convert Chalk 1 layer to Smart Object and apply Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur (Radius: 25 Pixels). Lower the Opacity of that layer to 3%.
6. Create another new layer and name it Chalk 2. Again select Chalk 60 brush, size 100 px, and make some strokes. Have in mind that these strokes are going to be more visible, so think about their placement. Lower the Opacity of that layer to 1%. And that’s it! Off course, you can add some more chalk layers, or play around with filter values for the best result.
Found some great Photoshop patterns and don’t know how to use them? No problem. I will show you a simple way how to install them in Photoshop. So, let’s begin! (For a larger view click on the images.)
First of all, you’ll need to download them and save them on your computer. Sometimes patterns will come in ZIP format (like these ones), so you’ll need to unzip them first. You can identify Photoshop patterns by their .PAT file extension.
Create a new document in Photoshop. Mine was 1000×1000 pixels. To install Photoshop patterns you’ll need to:
Go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Pattern. On the New Layer window click OK. That will open a Pattern Fill window. As you can see, it immediately loaded a pattern which you already had in Photoshop.
On the Pattern Fill window click on the small arrow on the right side of the pattern preview box and then click on the “flower” on the right side and choose Load Patterns.
Browse to the folder with the patterns you want to install, open it and click Load. And that’s it! You can make it bigger or smaller by playing with the scale percentage.
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