In this tutorial we'll be creating a text effect that replicates the effect of spilled Jam on the kitchen counter. It will be a bit difficult to create this from scratch, so we're going to be using a font to create the bulk of the text, then we're going to warp and skew the letters in order to make it look more organic. We'll then add some layer styles and texture effects to complete the image.

Set up your Canvas

First create a new canvas in Photoshop that's 1500x1000px.

Grab the Donut image (found HERE) and import it into your stage, sitting it in the top left corner of your canvas. Grab the Gradient Tool (G) and on a new layer, make a radial gradient using the colors #ffffff and #e7e7e9

Name your layers appropriately and use a large, soft Eraser brush to blend the edges of the donut photo into your background.

Write your Text

Grab a smooth, simple font like Hobo Std and write out what you want to 'Jamify'. We used Hobo Std set to 200pt and changed its mode to 'Smooth'. Make sure each word is on a different layer.

Select each word you've written and press CTRL/CMD+T and rotate them a little bit.

Start to Modify your text

Grab the Text tool (T) and Right-Click on the text and select 'Create Work Path' from the drop down menu.

Hide the Text Layer from view so you only have the Path in view.

Use the Add and Delete Anchor Point Tools to get rid of pointy edges and exaggerate the outline of the text into a more flowing motion.

Use the Path Selection Tool to select Anchor points along the text and tweak/play around with them until you get the text looking like it's all one piece, which assuming it was made of jam, it would be.

Once you're happy with your paths, Select them all using the Path Selection Tool and Right-Click>Make Selection. Feather the Selection by 1px and make sure that Anti-Aliasing is checked, this will help smooth any leftover hard edges.

Hit Ok and you should have something that looks like this:

Color it and and some Styles

Click the 'Create New Layer' icon in your Layers palette and and fill your selection with #771b22.

Press CTRL/CMD+D to deselect. Right-Click the Layer that we've just filled and select Blending Options. Create a Drop Shadow with the following options: Blend Mode: Overlay, Opacity: 81%, Angle 120 (Use GLobal Light unticked), Distance 31px, Spread 0%, Size 14px.

Next we'll add a Bevel and Emboss with these settings: Style: Inner Bevel, Technique: Smooth, Depth: 271%, Direction: Down, Size: 10px, Soften: 0px, Angle: -20, Altitude: 75. Click on Glass Countour and select 'Cone - Inverted' from the drop down menu, press ok.

Next we'll add some Texture. Tick Texture in the Layer Styles panel and in the pattern drop down menu select 'Grayscale Paper', hit Append.

Now you'll have some new patterns in the panel, if you hover your mouse over them for a bit, you'll see what each one is called, we want the pattern called 'Fibers 1'. Then set the Scale to 501% and Depth to -6%.

Now, select Pattern Overlay and select the same 'Fibers 1' pattern from the list. Set the Blend Mode to Lighter Color, Opacity to 10% and Scale to 358%. These effects will give the text a more uneven 'Jam-like' texture.

Liquify

The text is looking a little bit too uniform to be realistic, real spilled Jam would be messier and not so smooth, so we're going to use Liquify to fix that. With the text layer selected go to Filter>Liquify. Change the brush size to approximately 200px and make sure the Turbulence tool is selected.

Once you've gone over the whole word and you're happy with the results hit ok. You should have something similar to this:

Rinse and Repeat

Repeat these steps for all the words on your canvas. So that you don't have to go through all the styles one by one again, simply Right-Click on the first words layer and select 'Copy Layer Style' then Right-Click on the next words layer and select 'Paste Layer Style'.

Add some Finishing Touches

Now create a new layer, Right-Click it and select 'Paste Layer Style' to paste in the jam style we copied earlier. Next grab the Brush Tool (B). Pick a brush about 60px big and set the hardness to 95%. Open up the Brushes palette (Window>Brushes), select Shape Dynamics and set the Size Jitter to 12% and set Control to Fade.

Draw some Jammy stains around your text, the brush will taper off due to the effects we added in the Brushes palette. Play around until you have some splats that you think look good!

Your final image should look something like this:

As always the PSD for this file is available for download below.

Now you can get that beach text effect right from the comfort of your chair in Photoshop! In this tutorial we'll be learning to use the clone tool, masks, layer styles and filters to recreate this cool sandy beach text effect. Here are all the resources that you'll need to complete this tutorial:
Background Image

Sand Brush Pack

This is the image that we'll be creating

Set your scene

Firstly, grab an image of the beach to use as your base, the image we used can be found here:

Beach Image

Open this up in photoshop, Right click on the layer and select 'Duplicate Layer' hit Enter. Set the duplicated layers mode to Multiply and lower its Opacity to 50%.

This will give your image a little more depth. Right click on the top layer and select 'Merge Down'. Rename the merged layer 'Sand'.

Write out your text

Create a Folder and name it 'Text'. To make it easier later, separate every word onto a different layer within the folder. Use a handwritten style font. We used 'Hannibal Lecter' which can be found HERE. Use your judgement in regards to the size required. I used 200pt for the large text and 100pt for the smaller text. Also, use the kerning tool and your judgement to increase/reduce the space between letters so that they flow together nicely.

Right click the 'Text ' Folder and select Duplicate Group. Then hit CTR/CMD + E to merge the duplicate group onto a single layer. Hide the 'Text' folder from view.
Go do Edit>Transform>Perspective and give the text some depth.

CTRL/CMD Click on the layer we just skewed to make it a selection.

Go to the Channels tab (Window>Channels) and select Create New Channel at the foot of the palatte. Fill your selection with white. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and apply a blur of 5px.

Select the RGB channel at the top of the Channels palette and return to the Layers Palette (Window>Layers). Copy the 'Sand' Layer by Right Clicking on it and selecting Dupicate Layer. Rename the Duplicate layer 'Inner Sand'

Start to build the texture of sand

Disable visibility of the all text layers and with the 'Inner Sand' layer selected go to Filter>Render>Lighting Effects. Apply the following Light Effect: Light Type: Directional, Negative 28, Gloss -31, Material -40, Exposure 0, Ambience 8, Texture Channel: Alpha 1, Height 100. Make sure 'White is High' is unticked.

Now Select the Magic Wand Tool, make sure contiguous is unticked, go to the Channels Palette (Window>Channels) and highlight all the black in the Alpha 1 channel. Now select the RGB channel and head back to the Layers Palette (Window>Layers). Click on the 'Inner Sand' layer and go to Layer>Layer Mask>Hide Selection

Download and open up the Sand brush pack which can be found HERE. Open up the Brushes Palette (Window>Brushes) and Apply the Following Changes

CTRL/CMD Click the Merged Text layer to get a Selection again,  go to your Channels Palette (Window>Channels) And create a new channel. Now go to the paths palette (Window>Paths) and select the Make Work Path at the Bottom of the window.

Now make sure the channel we just created is selected in your Channels Palette (Window>Channels), Select your Brush Tool, make the Sand brush 10px, Opacity 100% and Flow 80%. Go to the Paths Palette (Window>Paths). Right Click the Work Path we create and select Stroke Path. Use the Brush and make sure the color is white.

Right Click the Work Path and select Stroke Path again. Now use the brush tool to brush a bit around the edges that weren't covered by the Strokes we just made.

Select the RGB layer in the Channels Palette (Window>Channels) then go back to the Layers Palette (Window>Layers). Duplicate the Sand Layer again and name it 'Outer Sand'. Go to Filter>Render>Lighting Effects and Apply the same lighting filter as before except this time under Texture Channel select 'Alpha 2' and make sure that White is High is ticked.

Now our sand effect is starting to take shape! By now you should have something that resembles this:

To Finish off the Image we're gonna apply a Levels Adjustment, go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels and apply the below adjustments. Also, select the 'Inner Sand' layer and lower its Opacity down to 70%.

That's it! We're Done! I'd love to see what variations you guys can come up with!

As always the PSD to this tutorial can be downloaded below.

Before the days of Photoshop and digital editing designers used good old fashion pen and paper to realize their designs. Then along came the 60s and the Etch-a-Sketch. A popular little toy that let you draw on the screen using two knobs at the base of the machine. It was generally clumsy and difficult to get anything looking good on the Etch-a-Sketch. I remember having one and failing miserably at creating anything decent.

Here is a collection of 16 Etch-a-Sketch Masterpieces. Maybe they'll give you some inspiration on your upcoming projects:

Tiger Woods Sketchafied

Obama

Jack of Spades

Old School Stars

Vegas Baby

Abstract

Chicago Bulls

BioShock

Iron Man

Triangle

House

Feline in the Wild

Michael Jackson

Why so Serious?

Will Smith

'Round the Neighbourhood

A seamless pattern on the other hand, is a pattern that can repeat infinitely and fill and image area without showing a join.
In this tutorial we'll cover the use of the patter maker filter to create seamless patterns that you can use in your day to day design!

Step 1 - Create your canvas and Shape Library

Create a New Canvas, 800px by 800px,

Select the Custom Shape tool (U). Now in the Options bar at the top select the Shape Down Arrow and while Holding ALT click on all the shapes to delete them (don't worry, they're not permanently Deleted.

Make sure View>Snap and View>Snap To are ticked, and place horizontal and Vertical Rulers along the center of your image

Step 2 - Create your First Shape

With shape layers selected and the ellipse tool drag out an ellipse from the centre of the image (making sure it snaps to the guides). Then, make sure the shape layer is selected and grab the Pen Tool (P), holding down ALT/CMD and dragging the anchor points of the shape to a shape that you desire.

Use Subtract from Shape Area to modify your shape.

Select the Shape using the Pen Selection Tool (A) and Hold down SHIFT while clicking on our shape to select its path, then press CTRL/CMD + C and CTRL/CMD + V.Then hit CTRL/CMD + T and drag the Anchor point down to the center of the Image, and Rotate the selection using the degree Option at the top (Remember there are 360 Degrees in a circle, so you need to Rotate the selection by a number that goes into 360 evenly!).

Repeat the process until you've gone full circle.

Repeat the steps again until you have an intricate shape, remembering to use the Subtract from Shape Area so that the entire shape remains on a single layer.

Now we'll add this shape to our library. Go to Edit>Define Custom Shape and name your shape.

Save the .psd just in case you want to make changes later. Use the Steps you've learned to make 2-3 more shapes similar to the one we've just created.

Now Select the Custom Shape Tool, Hit the Drop down Menu and select Save Shapes, name the set of shapes whatever you like.

Step 3 - Creating the Pattern

Now we're going to combine all of these shapes together to make an intricate seamless pattern. Create a new canvas, 800px by 800px. Set down Rulers Like we did before, Select one of your Flower shapes and place it in the center, creating a starting point for the pattern.

Now use your other shapes and place them equally around the center point, using the same techniques we learned in Step 2: Moving the Anchor points to the center and rotating it.

Highlight all of your shape layers, right click them and select Merge Layers. Now with the merged layer highlighted go to Filter>Other>Offset. Now our Canvas is 800px by 800px so we want to offset the layer by 400px on both the vertical and Horizontal lines, make sure Wrap Around is Ticked.

And that's all you really need to do to get a working pattern, this design will already tile seamlessly, but it's a bit bare, so let's add a little bit more detail. I've added another shape to the center of the pattern, as well as some shapes that are in the default shapes in Photoshop. Also, delete the white background layer so that the pattern has a transparent backdrop.

Merge your layers by highlighting them all, Right Clicking and selecting Merge Layers. Now go to Edit>Define Pattern, name the pattern whatever you wish.

Now you've got the pattern saved in your patterns palette and can use it whenever you wish. For Example, Create a new Canvas, 1000px by 1000px and fill a layer with blue. Right Click the Layer, Select Blending Options>Pattern Overlay. Select your new pattern from the drop down menu and move the Scale slider to an appropriate level.

And there you have it! The pattern will scale indefinitely and can be used on any number of projects, you can spruce it up any way you like, with some gradient overlays, Layer Styles and filters you can get some pretty cool looking results:

I'd love to see what patterns you guys can come up with!

I think we all have at some stage and the answer is simple: they painted it frame by frame.

Now I'm not sure to the techniques used in painting film frame by frame, but I can sure help you out with your black and white photographs! Ever had a photograph you wished was in color? Read on and find out how to color it in using nothing more than the Brush Tool and Curve Adjustments.

Step 1 - Scan your Image and Open up in Photoshop

Scan in your black and white image and open it up in photoshop, or if you're going to be following along with this tutorial (which I assume you are) then you can download our starting image HERE, or click on the image below to be taken to the photographers website:

Step 2 - Create your First Curves Adjustment

With our black and white image on our canvas we're going to go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Curves. Name this layer Skin. Now, on the curves Panel (If you can't see it, go to Window>Adjustments) Click the dropdown menu and instead of RGB, Select Red. To create the skin color we're going to Push the slider for Red up slightly, then use the dropdown menu to navigate to Blue, and push the slider down.

Now Click on the Mask contained in the Skin Adjustment Layer and hit CTRL/CMD+I to invert the mask, this will mask the color we just created.

Step 3 - Start to paint

The way masks work is simple, Anything that's painted white on the mask, will show the content of the layer, while anything painted black will hide it. Press X to reset your color palatte to black and white and use a soft brush with 0% Hardness and 100% Opacity to Start painting the skin color onto the figure. Hit X to swap between black and white if you need to erase parts that you've accidentally colored in.

Color in all parts of the skin, making sure to avoid, eyes, lips, hair and clothing. Change the size of the brush as needed (Use hotkeys [ and ] to make the brush larger or smaller). Make sure to use a small brush when painting in detailed areas.

When working close to the hair, try not to paint over too much of it, otherwise it will get tedious when it's time to paint the hair in.

Once you've filled in all of the skin, you'll have something like below, don't worry if the skin colors not spot on, we'll tweak it later.

Step 3 - The Lips

Create a new Curves Layer (Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Curves) and name it Lips. Now, like before we're going to push the Red curve up, and push the Green and Blue curves down.

Click on the Lips Mask, and Press CTRL/CMD + I to invert it, use the same technique to paint the lips, adjusting the size of the brush as needed.

Step 4 - Hair

By now you should be getting the hang of this process. Create a new Curves Layer (Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Curves) and name it Hair. Adjust the Red, Green and Blue like below to get the desired color (or you can experiment with your own color!).

Again, select the hair mask, and press CTRL/CMD + I to invert the hair mask and begin painting the hair, adjusting the brush size as needed.

When painting the stray and thin hairs, simply use a tiny brush and set it's Opacity to 50%.

Once you've finish the hair you should have something like this

Step 5 - Eyes

Now We'll color in the eyes, Create a new Curves Layer, name it Eyes. Push up the blue a lot, and push down the Red and Green a little, make sure the blue is over the top.

Invert the Mask and paint over the eyes.

Simply lower the Opacity of the Eyes layer until you have an eye color that looks natural.

Step 6 - Fill in the Details

Now use the steps you've learned above to color in the remainder of the image. I used the red Lips layer to color in the figures nails, bow on her bra and the center of her cross.

Create a new Curves layer and Name it Gold, play around with the Red, Green and Gold curves until you get a golden color, use it to color in the chain.

Create a new Curves layer, make it a pink color and use it to color in the bra

We're nearly done! All we need to do is tweak a few of the Curves layers. Select the skin layer, and if you want to give the figure a tan, simply push down the RGB curve a bit. If you want the figure to be a bit paler, simply push the RGB curve up.

Play with all the other RGB curves to finish up your image. I've lightened the figures skin tone and darkened her hair, I've also applied some Opacity to the Gold layer to make it less extreme.

As always, the PSD to this tutorial is available for download below.



Designers and bloggers have been releasing freebies and icon sets for ages now, they're everywhere. Here we've collected as many social media icon packs as we possibly can. This really is the only place you need to go to find the social media icons you need!

Be sure to check on the designers website for their terms of use before using them for commercial purposes!

Social Media Icons no.4

Color Stroked Free Hand Icon Set

Bottlecap Icon Set

Hand Drawn Handycons

Dellifeed

Heart

The Leaves Fall

Social Bookmark Iconset

Social Icon Set no.2

Social Icons Hand Drawn

3D Social Media Set

Hand Drawn Doodle Icon Set

Socialize Icon Set

Social Bookmark Icon Set

Social Media Icons Pack

Origami Icon Set

Web2 Icons

Social Icons Made of Wood

Jeans Social Media Icon Pack

Aquaticus Social Set

IconTexto 2.0

Lontar Icons

Cloud Icons

Bevel Dark Social Icons

Massive 180 Icon Set

Premium Quality Social Network Icons

Truck Social Icon Set

Fresh Social Media Set

25 Free Social Networking Icons

Premium Icon Set

Web Social Icons

White Magik

Social Vector Set

TurboMilk Icons

Social and Web Icons

Social Buzz Icon Pack

Speech Bubble Icon Pack

3D Social Media Icon Set

Social Network Icon Pack

Vector Set

SocialClean Icons

Shiny Set

Wood Icons

Cafe Icon Set

Social Post Stamps

Bottled Social Icon Set

Just for you! Icon set

Polaroid Set

Nobody really talks about the atrocious websites that are still up today and look like they've been churned out by a monkey on acid sometime in the late 90's. Here are 10 websites that will make you laugh, hurt your eyes and your soul, simultaneously.

Lingscars

This site is hilarious and a little bit racist. Ling, leases cars in the UK, and her website is absolutely covered in flashing gifs and pictures of her own face saying 'WAH!' Now I'm not asian, but I still find that a little offensive. While researching this post, I found out some more info on Ling, she actually manages to sell about 20 million pounds worth of cars per year! What are he profits though? She doesn't know because she 'doesn't keep a book' but she 'thinks' it's around $100 000.

Forever Forgiven

Words really can't describe this, be weary if you have epilepsy when viewing this one. The funniest thing about this is this quote 'Best viewed with Internet Explorer, forget all the other browsers and down with the Web 2.0 net police!'

Ron Oslund

Flashing gifs? Page counters? Tiled backgrounds? Hell yes! I love the first line 'Like all good websites this one's under construction too! Watch for potholes!' classic.

Havenworks

This is a 'news' website, but it's all over the place. Complete disregard for any intuitive navigation system or we of letting visitors decipher what the hell is going on here.

Capital Business Machines

I'm not sure what kind of machines these guys are selling, but I do know this site looks like it was made 20 years ago and hasn't been changed since.

Fabric Land

With a laughable navigation bar on the side and a conflicting color scheme, I wonder how this business has survived for the 25 years it claims it has.

Ingenfeld

This honestly has to be a joke, this site is so full of gifs and moving images it makes me want to cry.

The Web 'King'

This guy calls himself a 'web designer'. Read through his page for a good laugh, and laugh harder when you see his prices!

FRNZ

The title for this webpage is C:\WINDOWS\NETSCAPE\USER\FRANZ. If that's not professional enough for you, he's got gif's everywhere, text on top of text on top of pictures on top of more text.

Northbridge Police

Can this actually be a police stations website? I mean really?

Have I missed any really bad web designs? I'm sure there are TONS out there, post some that you've found in the comments.

Well it's not just you, everybody suffers from productivity issues in any field from time to time. Here are a few tips to help you increase efficiency and productivity when using Photoshop

Have a clear idea from the beginning

So many time's I've sat down to make something in Photoshop without a final result in my mind, this just leads to countless hours wasted on screwing around with the software and not knowing where your image is going. Before you sit down at your computer, write out a clear plan on how you're going to approach the project and what steps need to be taken to get there.

Sketch out a Template

Doing some graphic design work? Sketch it out with pen and paper first! Drawing sketches of your ideas with pen and paper can really help you visualize what you're trying to achieve. When you're done, simply scan your sketches in and use them as the framework for your image.

Learn to use Hot Keys

This is one of the most important tips in this article. How annoying is it when you're switching from the Brush Tool to the Eraser Tool and back again, and again and again? Well if you knew that the hotkey for the Brush Tool was 'B' and the Eraser Tool was 'E' then it instantly quickens the process by a few seconds. Now you may not think that a few seconds matters; but with Photoshop nearly everything has a hotkey or has the ability to have one assigned to it. If you count out the amount of times you're changing tools/ using filters/ applying Layer Styles then you'll quickly find with the help of hotkeys a 4 hour job quickly becomes a 3 hour job.

If you want to learn Photoshop Hotkeys, check out 58 Essential Photoshop Shortcuts

Learn to use Actions

Photoshop has a neat little feature called Actions, which allows you to predefine a number of steps, hit play, and Photoshop will execute them in the order you specified. Make actions for those 3-10 step operations that you repeat often and you'll save a huge chunk of time.

Take a break

Been at it for hours? Can't see an end in sight? It's probably because you're too close to the project. Save and shut down Photoshop and go have a coffee, make a sandwich or go for a walk. Sometimes stepping away from the project for a little while will help get you the idea you need to finish the job.

Listen to Music

Listening to music can help you concentrate on the task at hand. I know if I've got a TV blaring in the background while I try to work, it distracts me easily; but working in silence bores me. Listening to music can help you knuckle down and finally start to concentrate!

Unplug your router

If I had a quarter for every time I told myself 'ah ill just read one more article then get back to work'. The internet is a MASSIVE distraction and can impact greatly on your efficiency. It's all too easy to get lost in websites like Facebook or youTube for hours on end. If you're really having trouble focusing, unplug your router or turn your browser to 'Offline Mode' and set yourself a time limit or a goal before you're allowed to turn it back on.

Utilize just one or more of these tips in your daily Photoshop routine and you'll be increasing productivity in no time.

Many, if not all web developers first draw up their websites Photoshop/Fireworks before actually getting into the coding. This helps us to better visualize the end result, as well as creating all the images we will need during the coding process.
This layout is a simple design I've been playing around with today, it's themed around a manila folder placed on a desk, with the different tabs that the folder has acting as menu items along the side. I'm pleased with the end result and if you've got some spare time on your hands, you can have one too!

Here are all the resources you'll need to get the job done:

Firstly, set up your canvas, when working with website layouts it's important to keep in mind the average screen size of people who browse the web. As such I'm going to make the image rather large - Width: 1200px and Height: 1500px.

When making layouts I generally leave a width of 800px MAX for content, and the stuff around the edges is just 'extras; that people with larger screen sizes can enjoy. So let's set up our stage, turn on Rulers by pressing CTRL/CMD+R and turn on snapping (View>Snap). Now get your background image, rotate it and place it on your canvas on a layer named background. Click and drag from the Rulers to bring up some guides. We're doing this to center our layout and to keep us from making things too big/small. Get two horizontal Guides, one 150px from the top, the other 100px from the bottom. That's where our head and footer will go. Next we'll want three vertical Rulers, two of them 200px in from either side, and the third 150px from the right side. This is the outline for our content and sidebar menu.

Now that we've got our rulers set up, we'll draw our folder, Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool (U) and set the Radius to 15px, make sure 'paths' is selected in the shape type and drag out your rectangle from the top left edge of the rulers to the bottom right edge. Select the Pen Tool (P) and right click your path, click Make Selection and make sure the Radius is 0px, hit ok.

Create a new layer, name it 'Folder main' and fill the selection with a Linear Gradient (G) #f7edc2 and #f6e6a8 from left to right.

Now, below the Folder Main Layer create a Folder and Name it Buttons (Little folder button at the base of the layers palette), within this folder create a new layer and name it 'home'. Now grab your Rounded Rectangle Tool (U) and make a path similar to the one below, make sure you haven't changed your settings from the previous step.

Now, as we did before, select the Pen Tool (P) and right click your path, click Make Selection, Use the Paint Bucket Tool (G) and Fill the selection with #f6e7a9.

Now Right Click your 'Home' layer and click Duplicate layer and name it 'Folio'. Duplicate the layer 2 more times and name them 'About' and 'Contact'. Now use the Move Tool (V) and spread out the Home, Folio, About and Contact layers like the image below.

Right Click on the 'Folio' layer and click 'Blending Options'. Add a color overlay to the layer using the color #dacb8b. At this point, we can remove our guides, simply click and drag them off the screen.

Right Click the 'Folio' Layer and select Copy Layer Style, then Right Click on the 'About' layer and select Paste Layer Style, do the same for the 'Contact' layer

Now create a new layer inbetween the 'Home' layer and the 'Folio' layer, name it 'Menu Shade'.

Now get a large Soft Brush, set the Opacity down to 40% and hold down Shift while brushing along the part where the buttons meet the rest of the folder.

Now hold down the Shift key and select the 'Home' 'Folio' 'About' and 'Contact'. Right Click and select Duplicate Layers. Place these duplicated layers in a new folder called 'Shade'

Apply a Color Overlay Layer Style to each of the duplicated layers.

For each of the layers in the 'Shade' folder, do to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and apply a 15px blur,

We're going to repeat the same process for the main part of the folder. Right Click on your 'Folder Main' layer and select 'Duplicate Layer' , Apply a Black Color Overlay and a 15px Gaussian blur. Name this duplicated layer 'Folder Shadow' and place it directly above the 'Background' layer.

With the Main Layout done, lets move on to the header. Download the CreamPuff font and write out whatever you want on your header, if you're going to use two words, make sure each word is on a separate layer, I used 'Joe' and 'Designer'

Right click the 'Joe' layer and select Blending Options. Apply a Drop Shadow, Bevel and Emboss, Gradient Overlay #3c3939 to #716e6e, and a 7px white Stroke.

Apply a Drop Shadow, Bevel and Emboss, Gradient Overlay #10c30b to #17cf13 and a 7px Black Stroke to the 'Designer' layer.

With the above Layer Styles applied, you should have something that looks like this

To add the finishing touches to the text, we'll apply a shine to it. Highlight the 'Joe' and the 'Designer' layers select Duplicate Layers. Now remove the Drop Shadow Layer Syle, and Right Click and select Rasterize Type. Right Click again and select Merge Layers. Name this new layer 'Shine', place it above the text. With the 'Shine' layer selected, grab the Pen Tool (P) and make a path similar to the one below.

Right Click the Path and go to Make Selection, now hit CTRL/CMD + SHIFT + I (Or go to Select>Inverse) and hit delete. Right Click the 'Shine' layer and go to Blending Options, Apply a Gradient Overlay. Make both ends white (#ffffff) but lower the Opacity on the left side to 0% and on the Right side to 80%.

You should have something similar to this

Create a New Layer, name it 'Thingy'. Get your Pen Tool (P) and draw out a selection similar to the one below (Hold down the Shift key to help you draw straight lines.

Right Click the Path, Click Make Selection, press OK. Fill this selection with a Gradient (G) #10ab0c to #25c421.

Apply the following Layer Styles, Drop Shadow, Bevel and Emboss and Stroke.

With those Layer Styles applied, you should have something resembling this

It looks a bit bare doesn't it? Let's add a little sparkle to the corner of the
'thingy' that we've created. Grab a large, soft brush and set the opacity down to around 50%. On a new layer click it on the top right hand corner of the 'thingy'

Now grab the Pen Tool (P) and draw a line like below

Next, set your Brush to 5px thickness, 50% Opacity and hard. Right click on the Path and select Stroke Path. Make sure you tick the box that says 'Simulate Pressure'

Now, Duplicate the layer, rotate it 90 Degrees (CTRL/CMD + T) and Merge the two layers together (Hod down the Shift key to rotate more accurately). Then, Rename the Layer 'Sparkle'.

You should have something that looks like:

Finally, We'll write a Tagline for our Website, it can be whatever you want, I used Helvetica font, 14pt and bold. Place it above the Logo and apply the following Layer Styles: Drop Shadow and Gradient Overlay #c2bdbd to #dcdada.

Now download the Twitter and RSS icons, open them up in Photoshop and Copy/Paste them into your project, resizing them and placing them in the top right corner of the canvas

Place all the header layers in a folder and name it 'Header'. Next, create another folder and name it 'content'. Grab the Rectangle Tool (U) and draw out a rectangle path in the center of the content section

Select the Pen Tool (P) and Right Click the path and click Make Selection. Fill this selection with white.

Add a Drop Shadow Layer Style

Press CTRL/CMD + T and rotate the white box to a slight angle like below

Download the Sticky Tape .png and Copy/Paste it into your canvas twice, position it like below.

Set the Sticky tape layers to Screen, Opacity 80% and apply a Drop Shadow Layer Style

Now grab an image of your choice and place it over the top of these, use CTRL/CMD + T to resize and rotate it to fit. I just used one from Google images.

Next, fill out your content. I used Helvetica font of various sizes. Head over to lipsum.com for some filler text to use as the bulk of the content (or fill it with some of your own!)

Now, create a New Folder, name it Menu Buttons. Now, on separate layers write out the text for the different menu items: 'Home', 'Folio', 'About' and 'Contact'. We used white Helvetica Bold font, size 24pt. Use CTRL/CMD + T to rotate the text onto its side and align it with the tabs.

Apply the following Layer Styles to the 'Home' text: Bevel and Emboss, Color Overlay #ffe11b, Gradient Overlay #e5ca4c to #ceb543 and a Stroke #6b6868

Now apply these Layer Styles to the other four layers: Bevel and Emboss, Color Overlay black, Gradient Overlay #b7ac80 to #9b926a and a Stroke #6b6868

With all of these Layer Styles applied you should have something that looks like this

Now we'll finish our design off with a simple footer, write out whatever you think a footer should have (ie: links, Copyright etc) with a white font

Just apply a light Drop Shadow to the text and you're done!

Hope you guys enjoy it! View the final Image below

And as always, if you can't be bothered with all these steps, or are simply stuck somewhere, we've got the PSD available for download below.

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