go from this to
this in 18 fairly easy steps!I'm going to use this photo of a design by Santino Rice, found on getty images.
1. Crop your image and resize it to 100x100
2. sharpen picture once, depending on your picture.
3. Darken slightly by using the levels option. colors>> adjust>> levels (input leves should be: 21, 1.05, 255)
4. Now, get a new rastar layer and flood fill it with #4f586b. Set the layer to doge @ 37% opacity.
5. merge all layers.
6. now we're going to use the unsharpen mask. (Effects>> sharpen>> unsharpen mask.) the radius should be 16. the strength is 10. and the clipping is 1.
7. add this texture:
(by 
dearest) as a new layer and set the layer to burn @ 23% opacity. this is just for a little extra color.8. merge all layers again (you'll notice i do this a lot)
9. now promote the background to layer (layers>> promote background to layer)
10. Using the magic wand tool, select the white part of the picture. now modify the selection to 'select similar' (selection>> modify>> select similar) and then feather selection by 1. (selection>> modify>> feather)
11. delete all the white
12. now, paste this texture
(i'm not sure of the maker. please tell me if you know) as a new layer and move it below the original base. set the texture layer to normal @ 65% opacity.13. merge all layers.
14. duplicate the layer and desaturate it completely (shift + h) and set the duplicate layer to soft light @ 100% opacity.
15. merge!
16. add this brush
(maker unknown here as well. please tell me if you know) in white. 17. Next add text over the brush. (I put 'beautiful' in black. the font was boring boring at 12pt.)
18. merge your layers and you're done! I added a 1px. black border brush to finish my icon off, but its not completely necessary.
the finished product looks like:
I hope you enjoyed my first tutorial as much as i did! and i also hope that everything was well put and easy to follow. please, if you have questions feel free to ask. now post yours so i can see! lol for more of my icons you can go to
shes_the_bridge 
