Whee!!! My first tutorial! I feel special. ^-^

This tutorial works in Photoshop 7 but I personaly used Photoshop Elements, don't know if that'll make any real difference...
Anyway, today you are gonna learn how to go from:

 to

In Ten easy steps.

1. First off, open up your image as usual and of course resize it to 100x100 pixels. I chose to use a picture of Idina Menzel for my base.


2. Now, more likely then not you will have to Sharpen the image at least once. In my case I had to do it twice but it's not necessary. You can decide if you think it needs to be sharpended twice.


3. Next, duplicate the first layer three times. On the lowest copy set it to Screen with 100% Opacity.


4. Now go to the second copied layer. Set it to Soft Light at 100% Opacity.


5. Go to the top most copy layer and set it to Pin Light, again at 100% Opacity.


6. Now for the texture. I chose a texture by inxsomniax .


7. Take the texture and copy and paste it ontop of your image. Set it to Multiply at 100% Opacity.


8. Now create a new layer. Click Ctrl > Alt > Shift > E in order to merge all the layers into the one. Now set the layer to Darken, 100% Opacity as usual.


9. Time to add text. Whatever you want. For mine I simply wrote Idina Menzel. Your best option would be to use White font color. Font style doesn't really matter but I used Carpenter. You may not be able to see the text because it is vertical off to the side but it is there.


10. Final step! Now create one final layer ontop of all the previous ones. As before you must now press Ctrl > Alt > Shift > E to once again merge the layers into the one. Now set the layer to Hue with 100% Opacity. Now flatten the image, save it and viola! You are done!


Now wasn't that easy? I thought it was...

Comment if you found this tutorial helpful and remember it is my first tutorial so sorry if some things don't make sense. If you make any icons using this tutorial I'd like to see them to see how it works. Enjoy and good luck!