I’ll be creating a large icon to show off the details, but it’s more likely to be used at around 32 by 32 pixels.

Set up a new document: my size is 256 by 256 pixels. Display rulers (View > Rulers) and drag a line over to the center so we know exactly where it is.

Step 2

Select the Pen Tool (set on ‘paths’) and add three points. Make sure that the two on the left line up with our center line. Don’t be too concerned with the precise co-ordinates of these points as we will adjust them in the next step.

Step 3

Select the Convert Point Tool and move the points around if you wish. To form the curved shapes: click and drag the points. Two more points appear and you can now drag these to form asymmetric curves. The following three images are for each three points we made in Step 2. It may take a while to get the hang of the pen tool, so just play around with it for a while if you have time.

I’m sure you’ll come up with a better heart-shape than me, but you get the idea!

Step 4

Now we want to convert the outline to a selection: right click > make selection with no feathered radius.

Step 5

Fill the selection with red. We now want to make the other half so duplicate the layer, flip horizontally and move over to the left of our original. Finally merge the two layers.

At this point you’ll probably find that you don’t like the shape of your heart and want to adjust the pen points slightly. Undo (Ctrl + Z) your changes to get back to the Pen Tool stage.

Step 6

Now that we have the shape down we just need to add some finishing touches. We’ll start with adding a gradient overlay to our heart using layer styles. I’ve used a linear gradient from a darker red (#d43d2c) to a lighter red (#e7876c).

Step 7

Next we’ll add a radial shine: I used the radial gradient tool from white to transparent and set my layer style to soft light. Read my tutorial on Shine Effects to add gradients if you’re having troubles. Remove the excess outside the heart by following my Delete Outside Selection quick tip.

Step 8

Now we’ll add a couple of strokes to our heart (the pun may have been intended…). The first one is as a layer style: 2 pixels dark red (#d24e33); definitely just one pixel if it’s for a small icon.

The next one is from selection, Edit > Stroke 2 pixels white (#ffffff), and set that layer style to soft light and 80% opacity.

Step 9

Lastly we’re going to work on the outer glows and shadows. I’ve applied a light outer glow using layer styles. For the shadow, I’ve used the Elliptical Marquee Tool to select almost a straight line underneath the heart, filled with black (#000000) and then applied a Gaussian Blur (two pixels) with 15% opacity.

Last Words

It’d be unlikely to require an icon this large. If you scale it down it may lose ‘crispness’ because the image is pixel-based; but Photoshop does a pretty good job of this as you can see below. Alternatively you can create icons on illustrator if you require many different sizes of the same icon. This was my first time trying out creating icons, so I hope you learnt as much about it as me :)

Related posts:

1. Christmas Ball Decoration
2. Badge Buttons
3. Simple Professional Logo

Create a new document (I’ve chosen 600 by 420 pixels) and fill with a dark radial gradient – I’ve used the colours #2e2e2e and #1b1b1b.

Step 2

Create a new layer and select the elliptical marquee tool and make a fixed size selection in the middle of the document 180 pixels wide and 180 pixels high.

Step 3

Select the gradient tool and set your foreground colour to #c21e18 and background to #831212. Fill the selection with a radial gradient.

Step 4

Now apply the following layer styles by right clicking the layer and clicking blending options.

Result:

Step 5

Next we are going to be adding a shine effect to our badge, so on a new layer select the area of the button by going Ctrl + Click the layer’s thumbnail.

Step 6

Select the gradient tool again and set it on radial. Apply a gradient to the top right of the selection from white to transparent so you have something like this.

Step 7

Set the blend mode to Overlay and the opacity to 80%.

Step 8

Now set the red layer’s fill to 0% – this means that you can not see the red, however because the opacity is at 100% the layer styles are still there.

Step 9

Find a picture (maybe of some one or some thing you know / like) and stick it in behind this button layer. I’ve just chosen to stick a previous tutorial’s outcome in. Make sure that you cover the entire of the button layer styles (you might have to enlarge your image if its quite small by going Edit > Transform > Scale).

Step 10

Because my image I put in was square the and the button is round we have some overlapping areas, to get rid of these we want to select the area of the button (like before – Ctrl + Click the layers thumbnail) and invert the selection (Select > Inverse) and hit delete (make sure you have the image layer selected).

Step 11

Here are some other buttons – play around with the opacity levels on the shine and layer style settings to get the right balance for the image.

Related posts:

1. Christmas Ball Decoration
2. Christmas Star Decoration
3. Heart Icon

Firstly we need to create a new document – File > New, the size is 600 pixels wide and 420 pixels high. Fill the background with a radial gradient using the gradient tool. The two green colours I have used are #86a722 and #2d380d.

Step 2

Create a new layer and select the custom shape tool from the tool box (under the rectangle tool – left click and hold to see). Go to the list of shapes and choose a star shaped one and set the colour to white. Make the star shape in the middle of the document.

Step 3

Apply the following layer styles to the star. To access the layer styles window right click the layer in the layers window and go blending options.

Result:

Step 4

Now we are going to be applying a shine effect to our star, so create another new layer and select the area of the star (Ctrl + Click layer’s icon).

Go Select > Modify > Contract by 3 pixels.

Select the gradient tool and set it to linear and white to transparent. Fill the selection with this gradient so you have something like this.

Lower the opacity to 75%.

Step 5

As a finishing touch we are going to be adding a starburst effect in the background so create a new layer above the background layer and make a shape using the ‘registration target 2′ shape so that you can’t see the outside of it.

Set the blend mode to Overlay and the opacity to 10% and you are complete.

Related posts:

1. Christmas Ball Decoration
2. Badge Buttons
3. Vista Styled Text

Create a new document and fill the background with a green radial gradient. The colours I’ve used are #86a722 and #2d380d.

Step 2

Create a new layer and select the elliptical marquee tool. Make a selection 200 by 200 pixels just below the middle of the document and fill with a red radial gradient using the colours #980204 and #400001.

Step 3

Most christmas ball decorations seem to have a texture to them (at least the one I’m basing this tutorial off), so we’re going to add some noise to our sphere. Duplicate the ball layer (Ctrl + J) and go Filter > Noise > Add Noise.

We don’t want it quite that strong so lower the opacity to 50%.

Step 4

Create a new layer and make a selection using the elliptical marquee tool similiar to the one below.

Fill the selection with a radial gradient from white to transparent. Start from near the top and drag to below the bottom of the selection to get that cut off look.

Set the blend mode to Overlay and the opacity to 40%.

Step 5

Create another new layer and make a selection nearly covering the entire ball like this.

Fill this selection with another radial gradient from white to tranparent. This time start at the top and drag towards the bottom (but release before the edge of the selection so it fades out smoothly).

Set the blend mode to Lighten and the opacity to 20%.

Step 6

Now for the last shine effect create a new layer and select the area of the ball (Ctrl + Click layer’s icon).

Use the radial gradient tool again and apply a gradient in the bottom left of the selection.

Set the blend mode to Overlay and the opacity to 80%.

Step 7

On a new layer make a rectangle selection above the ball and fill with the colour #720202.

Move this layer below the ball (in the layers window).

Step 8

On a new layer use the pen tool to make this shape and fill with white.

Step 9

Apply these layer styles to the top part. Right click the layer and select blending options to access the layer styles window.

Result:

Step 10

Set your foreground colour to white, the brush size to 2 pixels and create a new layer. Using the pen tool make a path like below and right click the path and go stroke path with brush.

Apply a gradient overlay to this layer.

Step 11

Create a new layer and select all of the objects (Ctrl + Click the layers icon and then Ctrl + Shift + Click the others). Fill this selection with black.

Set the blend mode to Multiply and move it below the other layers. Shift this shadow layer up and across to the right by 3 pixels.

Set the fill to 0% and apply this outer glow.

Step 12

Duplicate this shadow layer and remove the layer styles (right click > clear layer styles). Set the fill to 100% and the opacity to 50%. Go Filter > Blur > Guassin Blur and enter 5 pixels.

Result:

Related posts:

1. Christmas Star Decoration
2. Badge Buttons
3. Shine Effects with Gradients