Welcome to the very first Pledge For Moms Photoshop tutorial. Today we are going to explore some basic steps in creating a Cause Button using Photoshop functions and, of course, your imagination! Essentially, you’re going to work with an image layer and a “styled” top layer which creates the button look – you can use any background underneath the styled layer (photos, plain text, posters, or just colors). Feel free to download the pre-made template to follow along… or to skip right through to the fun and Download PSD Button Template HERE

Here is the end result we are looking to achieve with this tutorial:







Let’s get started!

1. Open a new file in Photoshop by selecting File (upper left) > New… Your dimensions can be of any size, but for the purpose of the tutorial I am going to use 500px by 500px. Color the background any color you wish.






2. Set up a grid and rulers so that you can easily create a good looking circle (this is really up to you; you can skip this step if you want) – go to View > Show > Grid. You may also set your rulers to help you with your circle – go to View > Rulers. You will see the Rulers pop out of the Top and Left margins of your interface; to use them, simply click on the white ‘ruler’ area and drag down (from the top margin), or to the right (from the left margin). Rulers will show up in light blue by default. I set up my Rulers 1 inch from the edge of each margin in my 500X500 space. This will allow you to draw a pretty good looking circle. Ctr + H to get rid of guidelines. Your circle can be of any color as the Style settings will override it – make sure that you work with a color background though, because that’s the color that will ultimately show through.





You’re done with the hardest part! From this point on, it’s just a matter of making several Layer Style adjustments and customizing your message. Follow this tutorial for the last steps.




3. Drop Shadow:
   
   
   
   Inner Shadow:
   
   
   
   Inner Glow:
   
   
   
   Gradient Overlay:




4. Make an elliptical selection and drag a white/clear gradient from top to bottom (adjust Opacity to about 40%). Use the Transform function (Ctrl + T) to rotate about 45 degrees and move towards the upper right corner. Using the pen tool draw and trace the two highlights as shown below:




5. Add a text layer with your message and you’re done!

If you missed the button template at the beginning of the tutorial, you can Download the PSD Button Template HERE.



Sign up for the RSS feed to receive frequent tutorial updates. The next tutorial will encompass the image and HTML aspects of making your button interactive, and I hope to publish it in the first week of June.



Thanks for visiting the Pledge For Moms project – and happy posting!