…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Start off by preparing your document; you may use a pre-made background listed below.

Let’s begin by creating one of the sides to our pyramid. The pen tool settings are listed below the preview.

Alright.  We have one of our sides.  Let’s begin adding the indent triangle inside.  Using the same pen tool settings, create a similar shape as mine inside.

It looks a little flat because we haven’t added the base to our newly-indented side of a pyramid. Let’s do that right now

Let’s polish our original side of the pyramid.  Take out your doge tool, set it to size 180 and Exposure to 50%, and begin brushing it following the diagram below:

Let’s add an overlay and lower the opacity so that we can make the lighting stand out more.

Let’s go back to the indented pyramid and add some shadows to the base.  Following the diagram below, set your Burn tool to size 40 and begin brushing:

Looking good.  Go back to your original layer of the big pyramid and duplicate it.  Then go to Edit – Transform – Flip Horizontal.

Time for detail once again except this time, we will begin with the shadows since we need to have a set direction of light.  Take out the Burn Tool.  Set the size to 180 and the Exposure at 50%, and start brushing following the diagram below:

After that, drop the opacity to 70% and you should have something along the lines of this:

On top of the shadows, we need to fix up the light as well.  So take out your Dodge Tool and set the size to 180 and Exposure 50%.  Begin brushing following the diagram below:

Apply the same overlay as you have did in the previous step.  After that, duplicate the indented triangle and go to Edit – Transform – Flip Horizontal.  Now you’re pretty much done.  Take a look at what this pyramid came out to be:

That about wraps it all.  Hopefully it was a relatively easy tutorial to follow.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

I have already prepared a background for you, so begin by copying it over to Photoshop.

So let’s begin by creating the hard cover of the book.  Grab your Rectangular Marquee Tool and create a rectangle approximately the size shown below.  Now select your Dodge Tool and set the radius over to 150; lightly dodge the tip of the cover.

We have our foundation now.  Let’s mold some detail into our cover.  Start applying the following layer styles over the cover:

And now the shadows:

Great.  Now let’s begin with our pages.  The idea is to create almost the same dimension rectangle except with an inch cropped off from the right.  So following the example below, create a white rectangle:

The base is there, so its time to add some detail.  Go to your layer styles and apply the following:

Now the gradient overlay:

Alright.  Now we have to resize it little by little and center vertically to the original page.  Make sure that the duplicate layers of the white page go underneath the original.  That way, the shadow creates depth and volume.

And continue to do that over a few times.

Okay.  So we are practically done here except now we have to actually add some detail to the white page since it looks really dull at the moment.  Go back to your Rectangular Marquee tool and create a graphical page inside the white page.  Follow my example:

Time to add a finish and some detail to our page by the uses of a Doge & Burn Tool.  Begin by taking out your Doge Tool and setting the diameter to at least 250px and lightly dodging the tip of the brown page.

Put on the first layer of shadows as the foundation.  I used a Burn tip the size of 200 pixels

Finish it up with a second layer of shadows, except this time focus on adding more shadows to the right hand side.  In this, I used a burn tip the size of 85px.

Great.  Now you are pretty much done.  All you have to do is put all the layers into a set, duplicate it, and then Flip it Horizontally by going to Edit – Transform – Flip Horizontal.  Make sure you have the set highlighted so that you won’t have to go through every layer.

But wait, you will probably notice now that your right-hand side has a different gradient pattern on the white page than your left-hand side of the book.  No worries.  Go to the Layer Style Properties of your duplicated first white page and make sure that there is a check by Reverse:

Great, now for our final touch.  Take out the Burn Tool again and on the right-hand side layer of the brown page, add a layer of shadow.

And there you have it, a quick and easy way to design an open book that can probably be used for anything possible–whether it be a place holder for your poems or photographs this tutorial can serve your needs in a series of easy steps!

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

I have prepared a background for you; however, if you wish to make your own, please open a 500×500 Document.

Our first step is to create the foundation of the strip, which is the first layer before it bends to 3D. Following my outline and using the preferences listed below for the Pen Tool, create your own outline:

Looking good.  Now that we have our foundation, let’s add some color to it in order to create variation and spacing of colors.  Using the same Pen Tool settings, follow the guide below to create a second color inside our main strip:

Repeat the same step over twice again with the following colors (HINT: You can just duplicate and slide the layer over):

Alrighty, now we are beginning to create the depth in our strip.  We will begin by creating the corner tip at the right-hand side of the main strip.  Following the guidelines below and using the same pen tool settings, create the foundation for our corner:

Just like we did for the main strip, we need to add color to our foundation.  We have to make sure that our colors come in order, so first the beige then the light green:

Okay, now let’s do the light shade of the green using the same simple technique:

I don’t know if you guys noticed, but the idea was to pick a color a shade darker so that we can create depth.  As you can see, we managed to do that just right.  In order to save the work with the pen tool and time, using the original layer of the strip, we will duplicate it, move it up to the tip of the corner, and cut off the leftovers.  Not to get you confused, I added a preview of what should have been done before the clipping occured:

Using the same method, let’s duplicate our colored strips from the main base over to the sub-base of the strip.  In other words, here is what you should have:

Now that we have set up our colors and aligned our strip, we already can see the 3D Effect; however, let’s add some glare to it.  Take the base and change the color to white, and then Rasterize it (Make sure its a duplicate).  Now using your Eraser Tool with a diameter set to 100px, erase everything off besides the top, so it should look like a fade.  When you’re done, just set it to overlay.

You’re pretty much done.  After playing around a little, I came up with this result:

This is a quite simple tutorial; however, it gives a nice introduction to the way that you can create simple, but effective, 3D objects that can make your layout just POP.  The inspiration came from a layout that I found on Monster Templates.  Take a look below:

Let’s begin by establishing our working environment-in other words, a background.  You may use mine; however, it’s relatively simple to create.  All that I did was to grab the Dodge Tool, set the exposure to 50%, and went over the darkish blue color.  It creates a nice effect that will help us further in the tutorial.

Now, we will start by adding some faded snow drops that should adjust the contrast as we apply white and lightish blue sprinkles of snow.  Select your Brush Tool with a Hard Round Tip the size of 5, and sprinkle little snow drops all around the center and a little around the background.  Make sure that you have your color preset set to white.  Now, set the the size to 1px and the color to black.  Go over around the white dots a little, do not go crazy with it-at least, not yet.  Once you have done that, set the Opacity level to 30%.

Now that we set up our base, let’s throw some sparkle to make it a little more vibrant.  Create a new layer and grab your Brush Tool again with a white color tip, and sort of make some dust all around the shaded snow drops.  After you have done the dusty sparkle, apply the following settings to your layer style properties in the Outer Glow feature:

Results

As you can see, it seems like there is not enough sparkle, so just duplicate the layer and spread it around a little.  Now that you have done that, let’s add some darker and bigger snow drops.  So grab your Brush with a Hard Tip size of 15px, and make sure that its color is black.  Make a few black circles around the sparkles, and apply the following Layer Style Properties:

Results

Now, let’s add our little bond between the stars.  In order for you to create the lines, you will need to select your pen tool and set it to Paths.  If you are not sure, take a look at the image labeled on top with paths.  Now, decide which stars you want to connect together, and create the paths.  Once you have created the paths, make sure that your Brush is set to Hardtip 1px, and the color to #134469. Right click your path, and select Stroke Path and then with Brush Tool.  Once you have done that, you should have something like this:

Pen Path Settings

Results

Well, you are almost done.  Now, to actually create our artificially white snowdrops that are closer to the eye, grab your Brush Tool again and create a new layer.  Set the Hardtip to 16-17px, and make a nice white circle.  After that, either apply a gradient to it, or duplicate it with a greyish color and erase the top, whichever one you feel comfortable with.  Duplicate two or three of those white snowdrops, and resize them to small and smaller.  Spread them around, and you should have something like this:

You are done with your nice snowy/dreamy background.  After playing around for a little, I decided to make it a little Merry Christmas banner.

I think that even though the tutorial is relatively easy and simple, the outcome is satisfying and pleasing.

Thank you for reading once again and I hope that you enjoyed it!

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

My banner now framed!

Our first step would be creating a custom shape, which will be the Diamond Card from your Custom Shape Tool’s selection.  So grab that shape, set the background to white, and create an average size icon to the left-hand side of your background.

Now that we have our shape, let’s add some base to it so that it will look more bulky.  I have put together a list of Layer Styles that you should apply, so go to Layer > Layer Style > … and begin!

Looking good.  Our base is complete, so let’s begin to add details that will start the finish cut of our icon.  Grab the same Diamond Card Shape, and create the same icon, except smaller and inside the base of our icon.  Oh, and set the background to #ff6c00.

We are getting closer to home, so now that we have the finish cut of our icon, let’s put some more detail on it.  Duplicate the shape that you have just created, and apply the following Layer Style:

Results

Duplicate the same shape again, and clear all layer styles.  Now rasterize the shape, and grab your Burn Tool.  Start touching the left-hand side of the orange diamond.  Then grab the Eraser Tool to do some minor touch-up on the areas that stood out a little.

Results

Now let’s add some shine to it.  Duplicate the original orange diamond again, clear off any layer styles, and grab your Dodge Tool.  Set the size to 110. and touch up on the top side of the diamond. Grab your Eraser Tool, and finish touching up on the areas that stand out.

Results

We are almost in shape.  A few more details, and our icon is ready to be used.  Duplicate the orange diamond again, set the background to white, and rasterize it.  Then grab your Eliptical Marquee Tool, and cut off a nice chunk.  You can follow my guides beneath.  Once you have cut the shape, set the Blending Options to Overlay.  Use your Eraser Tool to touch up on the areas that stand out.

Results

You can give yourself a nice pat on the back as we have just completed the most difficult part of the tutorial.  Everything else should go with an ease, so let’s get to it.  Go back to your Custom Shape Tool, and from the list, select School.  Place the shape in the center of the orange diamond, and go to Edit – Transform – Flip Horizontal.

Results

Let’s add some detail to our newly-installed shape.  Go to your Layer – Layer Style, and apply the following styles:

Results

You are now done.  You can go ahead and duplicate the icons and resize them.  After playing around a little, I got this:

Now that you have done that, let’s proceed to adding details to our background.  Grab your Rectangular Marquee Tool, and put it maybe 50 pixels away from the top, and draw a nice dark rectangle (#3409005).  Following that, grab your Eraser Tool and smoothly erase the bottom of the newly-created rectangular.  This should leave you with a nice shadow effect.

Grab your Pencil Tool, and set the Size to 1 PX and color to #FFFFFF.  Make a nice line over the Shadow, directly on top.  After that, go to your Layer Settings, and set the Blending Options to Overlay.  Take a look below for the Blending Option Settings:

Now, it’s time to create the Ribbon, which is our main objective in this tutorial.  Grab your pen tool, and create a ribbon-like shape.  If you have problems creating one on your own, you can trace mine. Once you have created the shape, set the background color to #e84200.

We have the Ribbon made, but as you can see, its quite plain, so we need to detail it.  I have organized a list of Layer Styles below for you, so what you have to do is to go Layer – Layer Style, and Select Blending Options.  Once you get into that panel, start applying the following:

Drop Shadow Settings

Inner Shadow Settings

Results

Okay, so now that we have added details it’s time to do our so-called shine job.  Duplicate the original shape of the ribbon, and clear all layer styles.  Set the background to white, and raise (move up) the layer by 3-4 pixels.  Then select your Rectangular Marquee, and trim both sides at least 2 pixels.  Once you have trimmed, you should have a nice-looking duplicate, but a smaller version.  Grab your Eraser Tool, and set it to size 100, and gently brush off the top of the layer.  Your results should be along the lines of this:

Now it’s time to apply our Layer – Layer Style settings.  So go there, and apply the following:

Results

Okay, now go back to the Original Ribbon shape, duplicate it, and set the background to white once again.  After that, grab your Rectangular Marquee Tool, and cut it in half-one being white and the other one blank.  Following that, grab your Eraser Tool, and using the same settings as before, gently brush from top to bottom the right side of your newly-created layer.

So that the Shine will look a little better, let’s apply some Blending Options.

Now that your Ribbon is complete, you can detail it with anything.  I choose for it to be a discount banner for Apple Cinema Displays.  You can use it for any other purposes.  After playing around, here is what I got: