How to go from
this to
in 11 easy steps.
1. Crop your image down to 100x100. In my case, the image wasn't 100 pixels wide, so I set it on top of a white background. Leave it at 100% opacity on normal.
2. Duplicate the base image, desaturate it, and set it to soft light at 100% opacity.
3. Duplicate the base image again, drag it on top of the desaturated layer, and set the new layer to screen at 80% opacity. (Or if your image is brighter, a lower opacity, if darker, a higher opacity).
4. Create a fill layer and fill it with #FF0000, then set it to hue at 50% opacity. This gives it a slight rosy tint.
5. Create another fill layer and fill it with #101235 (or any dark blue) and set it to exclusion at 100% opacity.
6. Create another fill layer and fill it with #FF00EA and set it to soft light at 30% opacity and 50% fill. This gives it a bit more of a different kind of rosy hue.
7. Create another fill layer and fill it with #FF0000 again, setting it to screen at 20% opacity and 50% fill.
8. Create a new layer, and using a soft brush (I used it at 21 pixels) and the color #F68B8B, create a spot, as big as you want, in the empty space next to Liv's head. Go to Filter->Blur->Gaussian Blur and apply the gaussian blur at a 10.5 pixel radius, then I set it to 70% opacity.
9. I thought that was too light, so I duplicated the spot layer and applied the gaussian blur again, but at a 5.5 pixel radius.
10. Apply text. I used the font
blackjack in white at a size of 14pt and wrote Liv, then rotated it by going to Edit->Transform->Rotate.
11. Then came the simple task of applying a border. Create a new layer and press ctrl-a. Then go to Edit->Stroke and stroke the inside in black, 1px.
And voila!
Let me know what you thought of the tutorial and feel free to show me your results!