Wallpaper Tutorial, Difficulty: Easy/Medium

Ok, here's a way to create a basic wallpaper. I going to use my CS wallpaper for this tutorial since I really like the way it turned out.

*Note: You're going to need a grunge brush for this tutorial.

• First, start by opening Photoshop (duh! ) and starting a new file. The sizes to use most often are either 1024 x 768 or 1280 x 1024 (in my case 1280 x 1024).
  
• Find a good background image to use and bring it into the wallpaper file.
  * Note: You may have to resize it to fill up the background.
  
  
• Next, to make a border, create a new layer and name it border. Using the Rectangular Marquee Tool, make a selection at the top of the image.
  
  
  Fill it with black. DO NOT DESELCT!
  
  With the Rectangular Marquee Tool still selected, click and drag the selection to the bottom and do the same thing to make the border.
  
  
• Create a new layer and name it Grunge. Make white your foreground color and select your Brush Tool and your grunge brush.
  
  Apply your grunge effect above where the black border is, don't worry if they go out onto you background image, it will be deleted. (If you'd like more practice with make grunge images, check out Mav's Basic Brush Tut
  
  Select your Magic Wand Tool and select the Border layer. Click in the middle between the two borders, switch back to the Grunge layer and press Delete. This will cut the extra grunge off that went into your background image.
  
  
• To color your grunge, create a new layer and name it Grunge Color. Fill it with the color you want it to be. In my case, it was a browish color so it would match my background. Change the blending mode to Color and apply a stroke of 5 - 10 black.
  
  
• The way you added your background image, do the same to add whatever renders you want. Edit the sizes to get them to look the way you want and position them where you want. If you want to add certain effects to them, you can.
  
  
• To finish it off, grab your Text Tool and type whatever text you want it to say. Add whatever effects you want to this as well.
  

This is my finished product:


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