Below is the final image we’ll be creating in this tutorial. You can see the full-size version here.

Prepare Background

Press Ctrl+N to create a New Document. Set width to 1150px and height to 860px. Set your foreground color to #dac9a4 and press Alt+Backspace to fill the “Background” layer with this color.

Next, create a new layer (press Ctl+Shift+Alt+N) and name it “Background Pattern”. Use a Paint Bucket Tool to fill it with your favorite pattern. If you don’t have any, just do a Google search for “free Photoshop patterns” and you’ll find plenty of wonderful patterns. Fill your pattern with this color #c8b690 (make sure your “Background Pattern” layer is active and press Shift+Alt+Delete).

Here is how your background should look like (Fig. 1.1):

Figure 1.1 – Background Pattern

Frame Background

Now let’s start creating our frame. Use Rectangle Tool to create a new rectangle with the dimensions of 950px by 630px. Name this layer “Frame Background”. Fill it with the color #4e432d. Duplicate the layer by pressing Ctrl+J and fill it with a bit lighter color, something close to #b4a879. Right-click this layer and select Rasterize Layer. Name it “Frame Noise”. As you probably understood from the layer’s name we’re going to add some noise to it.

Go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Set noise amount to 8%, distribution to Gaussian and make sure that Monochromatic box is checked. Press Ok. Set the Blending Mode to Hard Light and drop Opacity to 55% (Fig.1.2).

Figure 1.2 – Frame Noise

Content Background

Next, we need to create a background layer for our future content.

Use Rounded Rectangle Tool to create a rectangle with dimensions of 930px by 610px and radius of 30px. Fill it with the color #38301f and rename it to “Content Background”. Let’s add a 1px border to this layer.

Double-click the “Content Background” layer to bring up the Layer Style dialog box. Use the following settings (Fig. 2.1):

Figure 2.1 – 1px Border Settings

Now let’s add some highlights to the frame background.

First, Ctrl-click the “Frame Noise” layer thumbnail to load a selection. Next, create a new layer (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+N) just below our “Content Background” layer. Then go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal Selection to add a layer mask to our newly created layer. Name the layer “Background Highlights” and set its Blending Mode to Overlay (Fig. 2.2).

Figure 2.2 – “Background Highlights” Layer Mask

Set the foreground color to #fffbca and use a soft-edged brush to draw some random highlights (Fig. 2.3).

Figure 2.3 – Random Highlights

Now your frame should look similar to the image below (Fig. 2.4):

Figure 2.4 – Frame With Highlights

Frame Details

Let’s start adding the frame details. We’ll begin from the top part, but first you need to prepare your vector elements (if you don’t have any, then just use Google, there are lots of great elements on the Internet available for free). Here are the elements I’m going to use (Fig. 3.1). Both elements are from Vecteezy.

Figure 3.1 – Vector Elements

Top and Bottom Borders

Create a top border of the frame by duplicating and moving our vector elements. For some people it may be easier to do this part of tutorial in Adobe Illustrator, so if you’re familiar with this software you can use it as well.

Take a look at my top border (Fig. 3.2):

Figure 3.2 – Top Border

Set the foreground color to #c6a730, fill your top border element with this color (Shift+Alt+Delete) and name the layer “Top Border”. Then, double-click the layer to bring up the Layer Style dialog box and enter the following settings (Fig. 3.3):

Figure 3.3 – Bevel and Emboss Settings

Next, Ctrl-click the “Top Border” layer thumbnail to load selection. Go to Select>Modify>Contract and enter 2px. Create a new layer (Chtrl+Alt+Shift+N) and fill selection (Alt+Backspace) with the color #fffaa9. Name this layer “Top Border Highlights”.

Here is how your top border should look like by now (Fig. 3.4):

Figure 3.4 – Top Border With Highlights

Let’s group the top border layers together.

Select layers “Top Border” and “Top Border Highlights” and press Gtrl+G. Name the group “Top Border”. Then, right-click the group and select Duplicate Group. Name the new group “Bottom Border” and position it at the very bottom of our frame. Now, go to Edit>Transform>Flip Vertical. That’s it, we’re done with the top and the bottom parts of the frame. Let’s move on to the right and left sides now.

Left and Right Borders

Below is the element I’m going to work with in exactly the same way as we did it in a previous step (by duplicating and moving it vertically to achieve a desired form) (Fig. 3.5).

Figure 3.5 – Left Border Vector Element

Once you have your border ready, position it on the left side of the frame and fill it with the same color as a top border (#c6a730). Name the layer “Left Border”. Next, right-click the “Top Border” layer and select Copy Layer Style. Paste the copied styles to the border layer by right-clicking it and selecting Paste Layer Style (Fig. 3.6).

Figure 3.6 – Left Border With Layer Styles Applied

Let’s add some highlights to the left border in the same manner as we did it with the top one.

Load selection by Ctrl-clicking the layer thumbnail, then go to Select>Modify>Contract and enter 1px. Create a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+Alt+N) and fill it with the color #fffbd9. Reduce Opacity level to 80% and change the Blending Mode to Overlay. Name the layer “Left Border Highlights” (Fig. 3.7).

Figure 3.7 – Left Border With Highlights Added

Now let’s create a right border in exactly the same way we created a bottom one. Duplicate the left border (don’t forget to group the layers), move it to the right side of the frame and flip horizontally (go to Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal). Change the group name to “Right Border”.

Great, now we have all four borders ready (Fig. 3.8).

Figure 3.8 – All 4 Borders

Inner Border

Now let’s add the border around our content area so it’ll blend in more nicely.

Use Rounded Rectangle Tool in the Paths drawing mode (Fig. 3.9) to create a path with dimensions of 930px by 610px and radius of 30px (Fig. 3.10). Position it just above the “Content Background” layer.

Figure 3.9 – “Paths” Drawing Mode

Figure 3.10 – Work Path

Create a new layer (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+N) and name it “Content Border”. Next, select Brush Tool and go to Window>Brushes to bring up your brush settings window and enter the following settings (Fig. 3.11):

Figure 3.11 – Brush Settings

Set your foreground color to #7d6000. With the Pen Tool active right-click the path and select Stroke Path, select Brush from the drop down menu and click Ok. Press Delete to remove the path.

Let’s add some highlights in exactly the same way as we did it earlier.

Create a new layer and name it “Border Highlights”. Load selection by Ctrl+clicking the “Content Border” layer thumbnail. Go to Select>Modify>Contract and enter 1px. Fill selection with the color #fff5d5 (Fig. 3.12).

Figure 3.12 – Content Border

Now we need to add a 1px border on top of the “Content Border” layer.

Create a new layer and name it “1px Border”. Then load selection by clicking on the “Content Background” vector mask thumbnail (notice the difference, in order to load a selection for the vector object in Photoshop, you need to click a vector mask thumbnail not a layer thumbnail). Set your foreground color to #38301f and go to Edit>Stroke. Set width to 1px, location to Inside and then press Ok (Fig. 3.13).

Figure 3.13 – 1px. Content Border

With the selection still on, create a new layer and go to Select>Modify>Expand, enter 1px and click Ok. Now, use Edit>Stroke command once again only this time with the lighter color (#debd54). Press Ctrl+D to deselect (Fig. 3.14).

Figure 3.14 – 1px. Content Border

Our next step will be adding some vegetation to the frame sides.

Vegetation

Here are the stock images I’m going to use (Fig. 4.1):

Figure 4.1 – Vegetation Stock Images

Use the Magic Wand Tool or Quick Selection Tool to eliminate white background. Then, combine different plants by duplicating them and moving around. Use hard-edged Eraser Tool or Lasso Tool to remove parts you no longer need.

Try to get your vegetation look like the image below (Fig. 4.2):

Figure 4.2 – Left Border Vegetation

Select all plants layers and press Gtrl+G to group them together. Name the group “Vegetation Left”. Right-click the group and select Duplicate Group, name new group “Vegetation Backup”. Make it invisible and move it to the bottom of your Layers palette.

Now let’s make our plants a bit more vibrant by increasing contrast. First, right-click the “Vegetation Left” group and select Merge Group. Then, go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Curves and create a new adjustment layer. Make sure you have checked the “Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask” box.

Draw the curve like on the image below (Fig. 4.3).

Figure 4.3 – Curve Settings

Take a look at our vegetation with the Curves adjustment layer applied (Fig. 4.4).

Figure 4.4 – Vegetation With Curves Applied

Now that we’re happy with our Curves layer, you can merge it with the “Vegetation Left” layer. Just select both layers and press Ctrl+E.

Let’s add the shadow our plants cast on the frame. Double-click the “Vegetation Left” layer to bring up the Layer Style dialog box and enter the settings as shown on the image below (Fig. 4.5).

Figure 4.5 – Drop Shadow Settings

We’re done with our left side, so now let’s copy and move vegetation to the right side. Right-click the “Vegetation Left” layer, select Duplicate Layer and name the new layer “Vegetation Right”. Move it all the way to the right and flip horizontally (Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal).

Take a look at the result (Fig. 4.6):

Figure 4.6 – Right Border Vegetation

We’re almost done, all is left is to add some minor touches and the frame shadow.

Final Touches

Let’s add some elements to our left and right frame borders, so they won’t look exactly the same. Here are the images I’m going to use (Fig. 5.1):

Figure 5.1 – Stock Images

Remove the white background in the same way we did it earlier (using Magic Wand Tool or Quick Selection Tool). Position these elements on each side and resize them using Free Transform Tool (Ctrl+T) as needed (Fig. 5.2).

Figure 5.2 – Our Borders With New Elements Added

Now let’s add a highlight to the top part of our background. Create a new layer (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+N) and position it just above the “Background Pattern” layer. Set your foreground color to #ffebc0 and using Gradient Tool draw a radial gradient as shown on the image below (Fig. 5.3). Set the Blending Mode to Overlay and reduce Opacity to 70%.

Figure 5.3 – Top Background Highlight

Let’s create a frame shadow.

Group (Ctrl+G) all frame layers together (excluding background) and merge them by clicking Ctrl+E (don’t forget to create a backup copy). Name the layer “Frame” and duplicate it by clicking Ctrl+J. Name new layer “Frame Shadow” and position it directly below the “Frame” layer.

Set the foreground color to #372a00 and fill your “Shadow” layer with it (Shift+Alt+Delete). Set the layer Blending Mode to Multiply and reduce opacity to 30%. Apply Gaussian Blur filter by going to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Set blur radius to 1.6px. Now go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur and set the following settings (Fig 5.4):

Figure 5.4 – Motion Blur Settings

That’s all. Now you have the beautiful frame you can use for your next website. Here is our final image. You can see the full-size version here.

I hope you learned some new techniques in this tutorial and if you have any questions I’d happy to help you.

First, take a look at the texture examples that you can easily create in a matter of minutes. First column is the original texture and the second one is a texture with the Lighting Effects filter applied.

Create a new document with the dimensions of 500px by 500px and apply Noise filter (Filter>Noise>Add Noise) with the noise amount set to 50%.

Now use command Select>All (Ctrl+A) to select and copy (Ctrl+C) your entire layer. Then go to Channels palette and create a new channel. Default name should be “Alpha 1″, you can leave it as it is. Next, you need to paste the layer you copied earlier into this channel, in order to do that you can simply press Ctrl+V. Great, now we have our texture channel ready.

Let’s apply the Lighting Effects filter now.

Go to Filter>Render>Lighting Effects, that’ll launch the Lighting Effects dialog box. Enter the following settings (make sure you selected the Alpha-channel you created from the Texture Channel dropdown menu):

That’s it, now you have your realistic-looking texture. Experiment with different settings for this filter and I’m sure you’ll get some interesting results. Also, try to combine different filters while creating your map for the texture channel (Noise, Different Clouds, Motion Blur etc.).

Take a look at the two images below. The first one is the original image from Fotolia that I’ve used in one of my projects, and the second image is the final result we will get by the end of this tutorial.

1. Remove Background

First, let’s get rid of the white background. Double-click the “Background” layer to convert it into the regular layer. Then draw a path using a Pen Tool (Fig. 1.1). It may look pretty complex to make a selection like this at first, but all you need is a bit of practice. Pen Tool is a great tool that gives you a huge amount of control over your selection. Follow this great tutorial at PSDTuts, and you’ll be a Pen Tool Master in no time.

Figure 1.1 – Work Path

After your path is ready, right-click the image and choose Make Selection from the menu. Set 0.2px as a Feather Radius and click Ok. Press Delete button to remove selected area, and then Ctrl+D to deselect. Let’s take a look at what we’ve got (Fig. 1.2):

Figure 1.2 – Image With Partially Transparent Background

Now we need to get rid of the remaining background. You can do it the same way as we did it in a previous step, using a Pen Tool, or you can use any other tool you prefer (Magic Wand, Quick Selection Tool etc.). I’m a big fan of a Pen Tool (I believe you already got that), so I will use it here again (Fig. 1.3).

Figure 1.3 – Selecting Remaining Background

2. Increase Contrast

Now that we have our image on a transparent background, let’s increase the contrast and make the colors more vibrant.
First, create a new layer (Press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+N) and fill it with the gradient (set the colors to: top #fffaeb and bottom #eee1c0). Position this layer below the current one and name it “Background”. It’ll help us to see the changes we make more clearly.

Next, go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Curves and create a new adjustment layer. Make sure you have checked the “Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask” box (Fig. 2.1).

Figure 2.1 – Adding Curves Adjustment Layer

Create the curve as shown on the image below (Fig. 2.2):

Figure 2.2 – Curve

Take a look at our image with the Curves Adjustment Layer applied (Fig. 2.3).

Figure 2.3 – Image With the Curves Adjustment Layer Applied

You can already see how our image has improved. Next, let’s change the mortar texture.

3. Change Texture

First, you need to find a decent wood texture. You can do a quick Google search for the term like “free wood texture”, or just buy one. Here is the texture I’ll be using (Fig. 3.1):

Figure 3.1 – Wood Texture

Now let’s create the mask for our new texture. Use your Pen Tool to select the mortar. We are not going to change the texture on the top of it, so there’s not need to select that part.

Create a new layer (Press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+N) and position it just above our Curves Adjustment Layer. Name this layer “Mortar Mask”. Make a selection from your work path in exactly the same way as we did it in the beginning of this tutorial (you can also press Ctrl+Enter to do that). Fill your selection with the red color (Fig. 3.2).

Figure 3.2 – Mortar Mask

Place your texture on top of the mask we just created. Use Free Transform Tool (Ctrl+T) to resize it as needed. Then go to the Layer>Create Clipping Mask or just press Ctrl+Alt+G. See the result below (Fig. 3.3):

Figure 3.3 – Texture in Place

Now we’re going to use a Warp Transform Tool to distort the texture so it’ll look much more realistic than it is now.

Go to Edit>Transform>Warp to bring up the Warp Tool. Distort the Warp grid to get the grid similar to the image below (Fig. 3.4). Press Enter to apply transformation.

Figure 3.4 – Applying Warp Tool

Next we need to adjust the texture color so it’ll match our original mortar.

Make your texture layer active by clicking on it in the Layers palette. Then go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Curves and create new adjustment layer. Create the curve as shown on the screen shot below (Fig. 3.5).

Figure 3.5 – Apply Curve

In the next step we’re going to merge all texture layers (“Mortar Mask”, “Texture” and Curves Adjustment Layer) into one layer, but first let’s create a backup copy of all these layers. It’s a good practice to create a backup of the essential layers you’re going to change.

Select all 3 layers (Fig. 3.6) and press Ctrl+G, that will group all your layers together. Name the group “Texture”. Right-click the group and select Duplicate Group, name it “Texture Backup”. Click Ok and make the backup group invisible, by clicking the eye icon next to the layer’s thumbnail. You can also move it to the very bottom of the Layers palette, so it won’t distract you.

Figure 3.6 – Grouping Texture Layers

Now let’s finally merge the texture layers. Right-click the “Texture” group and select Merge Group, you can also press Ctrl+E to achieve the same result.

Next what we’re going to do, is to blur the top edge of the texture out a little bit, so it’ll blend in better with the original image.

Select the Blur Tool, set Strength to 30% and blur the top edge, just a touch. You can also use a soft-edged Eraser Tool for the areas where you feel you need to erase some parts.

Okay, let’s now take a look at our image (Fig. 3.7):

Figure 3.7 – Image With Merged Texture Layers

We’re almost done with the texture. Let’s just add some shadows/highlights to it.

Create 2 duplicates of the Texture layer (Press Ctrl+J). Name first layer “Texture Shadow” and the second one – “Texture Light” (Fig. 3.8).

Figure 3.8 – “Texture Shadow” and “Texture Light” layers

First, let’s work on the “Texture Light” layer. Add new Curves Adjustment Layer in the same manner as we did it before. Create the curve as shown on the image below (Fig. 3.9). Then merge the “Texture Light” layer with the Curves layer. Select both layers and press Ctrl+E.

Figure 3.9 – “Texture Light” Layer Curve

Let’s move on to the “Texture Shadow” layer. First, make the “Texture Light” layer invisible, so we can see our Shadow layer. Then add a new Curves Adjustment Layer. Draw a curve like on the image below (Fig. 3.10). Merge the “Texture Shadow” layer with its Curves layer, by selecting layers and pressing Ctrl+E.

Figure 3.10 – “Texture Shadow” Layer Curve

Here is how your layers should look like (Fig. 3.11):

Figure 3.11 – “Texture Light” and “Texture Shadow” layers with Curves applied

Let’s add the layer masks to our layers. Select the “Texture Light” layer and go to Layer>Layer Mask>Hide All. Do the same with the “Texture Shadow” layer (Fig. 3.12).

Figure 3.12 – Layer Masks

Now all we have to do is to take white soft-edged brush and draw on respective layer masks, depending on where we want the shadow and the highlights to show up. Use your common sense and our original image as a reference. Take a look at the masks below (Fig. 3.13).

Figure 3.13 – “Texture Shadow” and “Texture Light” Masks

Below is our image with the layer masks applied (Fig. 3.14):

Figure 3.14 – Image With the Layer Masks Applied

The very last thing we need to do with the “Texture” layer is to add some shadows from the leaves.

Create a new layer and move it to the very top of the Layers palette. Ctrl+click the “Texture” layer thumbnail to load a selection. With the selection still on, go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal Selection. Now we have a new layer with the mask for our shadows. Name this layer “Leaves Shadows” and set the Blending Mode to Multiply (Fig. 3.15).

Figure 3.15 – “Leaves Shadows” Layer Mask

Set your foreground color to #5e2a00 and draw some shadows on the “Leaves Shadow” layer, using a soft-edged brush. Again, use your common sense and original image as a reference.

Here is our image with the shadows added (Fig. 3.16):

Figure 3.16 – Image With the Shadows Added

4. Enhance Details

Details are always very important. In our case if we’re trying to enhance the overall look of the image we should definitely be attentive to details.

First, let’s merge all our layers except the background. Don’t forget to group them and make a backup copy, as we did earlier with the “Texture” layer. Merge the layers by pressing Ctrl+E and name the new layer “Mortar”.

Now select the Dodge Tool, set Range to Highlights, Exposure to 10% and draw over the existing highlights or parts of the image you’d like to emphasize (Fig. 4.1).

Figure 4.1 – Areas to apply Dodge Tool

Take a look at our image with the Dodge Tool applied (Fig. 4.2):

Figure 4.2 – Image with the Dodge Tool Applied

A few more things and we’re done. Last step on this tutorial will be the adding shadow to the whole image.

5. Add Shadow

Adding a shadow should be a simple task for you by now. Create a new layer, set Blending Mode to Multiply and name it “Shadow”. Position this layer just below the “Mortar” layer. Set the foreground color to #625738 (use a bit darker color for the areas where object touches the ground), and draw shadow with the soft-edged brush. Make sure to study the shadow on the original image.

Quick Tip: If you look closely on the original shadow you’ll notice that it changes the color depending on the object that casts it (it’s greener under the leaf, more reddish near the red berry etc.). To change the color of your shadow you just need to create a new layer on top of your “Shadow” layer and set its Blending Mode to Color. That’s it, now you can paint on this layer with whichever color you like and the shadow will change the color as well.

Here is how your “Shadow” layer should look like (Fig. 5.1):

Figure 5.1 – “Shadow” layer

Below is our final image:

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and learned something useful from it. Please feel free to ask any questions in the comments section below.