Tutorial 1 -- PSP7
Okay this is my first ever tutorial and it might be bad because I explain things badly but I'll try my best.
We're going from this:
to this: 
in 5 100 easy steps! (not really 100)
The full sized image I used is here
My image is already bright enough but if you're using a darker image you might want to duplicate the layer and set it to screen.First crop it and position it so that CC's head is sort of off to the left.
Next go to Effects>Sharpen>Sharpen. Repeat that step.
Now make a new layer and set it to Multiply in the Layer Palette. Choose your paintbucket tool and set the opacity to 40 in Tool Options NOT in the Layer Palette. Now fill the icon with color #E1BA9B.
Duplicate that layer and set it to Overlay.
Now it should look something like this:
Now paste this gradient:
(made by me) as a new layer and set it to Hard Light. And set the opacoty in the Layer Palette to 34. You can mess around with the opacity a little if you want.
It should look something like this:
Now that's already a perfectly good icon if you want to stop but I'm going to keep going.
Merge your layers.
Paste this light texture(by
teh_indy) as a new layer. Set it to Screen. Now move the texture around until you get it where you want.
Mine looks like this now:
Now merge your layers again. I'm done so I'm going to add text now.
Make a new layer and select your text tool. I'm using the font Day Roman on 6 point in all caps. And I set the kerning to 600. You don't have to mess with kerning I just love to. I'm bad at thinking of text so I'm going to just use her name. It's best to pick a font color that is from the icon or just go with black or white. I'm going to use black.
Now place the text wherever you want. But not over anyones face. Sometimes it looks okay on the face if you do it right. But I'm placing towards the bottom. I set the opacity for that layer to 70. Mess around with the opacity for what looks best.
Now my icon looks like this:
And voila! We're done. Hope this was helpful and if you need me to explain something more detailed then ask. Don't ask about cropping though because I crop differently than pretty much everyone else and it'll just confuse you.
We're going from this:
The full sized image I used is here
My image is already bright enough but if you're using a darker image you might want to duplicate the layer and set it to screen.First crop it and position it so that CC's head is sort of off to the left.
Next go to Effects>Sharpen>Sharpen. Repeat that step.
Now make a new layer and set it to Multiply in the Layer Palette. Choose your paintbucket tool and set the opacity to 40 in Tool Options NOT in the Layer Palette. Now fill the icon with color #E1BA9B.
Duplicate that layer and set it to Overlay.
Now it should look something like this:
Now paste this gradient:
It should look something like this:
Now that's already a perfectly good icon if you want to stop but I'm going to keep going.
Merge your layers.
Paste this light texture(by
teh_indy) as a new layer. Set it to Screen. Now move the texture around until you get it where you want.Mine looks like this now:
Now merge your layers again. I'm done so I'm going to add text now.
Make a new layer and select your text tool. I'm using the font Day Roman on 6 point in all caps. And I set the kerning to 600. You don't have to mess with kerning I just love to. I'm bad at thinking of text so I'm going to just use her name. It's best to pick a font color that is from the icon or just go with black or white. I'm going to use black.
Now place the text wherever you want. But not over anyones face. Sometimes it looks okay on the face if you do it right. But I'm placing towards the bottom. I set the opacity for that layer to 70. Mess around with the opacity for what looks best.
Now my icon looks like this:
And voila! We're done. Hope this was helpful and if you need me to explain something more detailed then ask. Don't ask about cropping though because I crop differently than pretty much everyone else and it'll just confuse you.