Grunge & Sparkle Text - Photoshop Tutorial

Create a grungy gold text effect with sparkly flowers with a little retro design thrown in too. A very straightforward tutorial using many of Photoshop’s built-in tools and features.

Click on the image for full size view

Resources:

Hard Rock Font from dafont.com

Hibiscus Font from dafont.com

Swirls and Flowers Brushes from qbrushes.net

Step 1

Open a new file – in this instance the size is totally dependent upon the amount of letters required for your text input – I used size 800 x 600, 72ppi resolution, white background.

Step 2

Create a new layer

Select the Type tool, Hard Rock font set black as the foreground colour, set the size to 200pt

Type the first line of your text

NOTE: For the purposes of this tutorial my text only has one line, so you will have to repeat everything from here on for each line of text.

Right click on the layer in the layers palette and click Rasterize Type

Rename this layer ‘bottomtext’

Duplicate the layer – name it ‘toptext’

Step 3

Turn off the visibility of the bottomtext layer

Working on the toptext layer

Select the Eraser tool

Erase the outline from around the text as shown below:

Step 4

Double click on the toptext layer in the layers palette to bring up the blending options and apply the following Gradient Overlay and Bevel & Emboss settings:

Step 5

Restore visibility to the bottomtext layer

Double click on the layer in the layers palette to bring up the blending options and apply the following Color Overlay and Drop Shadow settings:

Step 6

Merge the 2 text layers together

Step 7

Create a new layer

Select the Type tool, Hibiscus font, size 90pt, foreground colour black

Place each flower on a separate layer

I used characters: lower case a, f, h, k, o

Place the flowers as required around the text

Merge all flower layers together (you will have to rasterize them first)

Rename this layer ‘flowers’

Duplicate the layer – name it ‘glitter’

Step 8

Turn off the visibility of the glitter layer

Double click on the flowers layer in the layers palette to bring up the blending options and apply the following Color Overlay and Drop Shadow settings:

Step 9

Restore visibility to the glitter layer

Change the layer mode to Dissolve

Reduce the layer opacity to 60%

Filter>Noise>Add Noise – apply the following settings:

Step 10

Merge the flower layer and the glitter layer together

Step 11

With the merged layer active

Filter>Artistic>Plastic Wrap – apply the following settings:

Step 12

Fill the background layer with red #B82323

Step 13

Create a new layer above the background layer

Select the Brush tool and Swirls and Flowers brushes

I chose the swirls without flowers – Decorative 13 and 11

With white as the foreground colour, place each swirl on a separate layer

Ctrl + T to transform the object and resize and rotate each swirl as desired

Step 14

Create a new layer

Select the Decorative 5 brush (circles)

Place the circles as desired on the canvas

Optional Step

I wanted to remove all overlapping parts of the swirls – but this is entirely optional

Turn of the visibility of the text and flowers layers

Reduce the opacity of one of the swirls layers to around 50%

With the Eraser tool, erase the parts that overlap – you will have to hop between the swirl layers – until you are happy with the result

Restore visibility to all layers

Step 15

Double click on either of the swirls layers to bring up the blending options and apply the following Gradient Overlay and Inner Shadow settings:

Copy and paste the layer style to the other swirl layer

Step 16

Double click on the circles layer in the layers palette to bring up the blending options and apply the following Gradient Overlay and Inner Shadow settings:

Step 17

Merge the 3 swirls and circles layers together

Step 18

Turn off the visibility of the flowers layer

Working on the text layer

Select the Pen tool using the following settings:

Create a path around each letter of the text, right click on or within the path and select Make Selection – be sure to check the Add to Selection option before clicking OK:

Make the swirls layer active and hit the delete key

Optional Step

If you would like to add ‘sparkles’ to the shiny bits of the image this is how:

Create a new layer at the top of the layers palette

Select the Brush tool and Assorted Brushes, foreground colour white

Select Crosshatch 4 brush

Place a ‘sparkle’ wherever required on the flowers and/or the text

Reduce the layer opacity to 80%

The finished Project. Click on the image for full size view

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