In this Photoshop tutorial you will learn how to add lip gloss to an image. This process uses the Quick mask and the plastic wrap filter. I have used a free stock of lips which are available from www.sxc.hu


Add lip gloss in Photoshop

Step 1

Open an image in Photoshop you wish to add lip gloss to.




Step 2

Select the Quick mask tool (Q) and make a selection around the area where you don’t want to add lip gloss. This selection would be most of the image as shown below. Before you begin make sure you have reset the colour palette by pressing the ‘D’ as you will not see the Quick mask.




Step 3

Exit the Quick mask (Q) and you should get a selection around the lip like below. If you are unhappy the selection you can re-enter the Quick mask and make adjustments.




Step 4

Choose Select > Feather and give the feather radius of 5 pixels. This creates a more rounded selection around the lips. You can experiment with the feather radius as this might be different for your image.


Step 5

Select Filter > Artistic > Plastic Wrap and add the following settings:

Highlights Strength = 7
Detail = 5
Smoothness = 8

If you want a more defined gloss effect on the lips you can try increasing the Plastic wrap settings. You should now have lips with lip gloss.

I previously wrote a post on free cardboard textures. This time I will provide a set of free wood textures. These textures are high quality images of real life wood. To download any of these textures, simply select the image and right click and select ‘Save As’.

In this tutorial you will learn how to create a stencil image effect. This produces the results as if the image has been painted over with a cut out design. You need to use the image adjustment tools for this effect, and some knowledge of turning an image black and white is needed for this tutorial.

Stencil image effect

Step 1

Open an image in Photoshop you wish to add the stencil effect to.




Step 2

Remove the background from the image. You can use the extract tool or the eraser tool for this step depending on your image. I have used the eraser tool as there is not much background in the image.




Step 3

Convert your image into black and white by selecting Image > Adjustments > Desaturate. For more methods to turn your image black and white checkout this tutorial.


Step 4

Select Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and drag the contrast slider to +100, then drag the brightness slider to the right until you are happy with the final result. I have dragged the brightness value to +34. If you want less detail on your stencil effect you can give a higher brightness value, and if you want more detail you can reduce the brightness value.



You should now have a stencil image effect.

I previous wrote a post on free jean textures. This time I will provide a collection of high quality free watercolour textures. These textures are real image of watercolour splodges. To download any of these textures, simply right click on the image and select ‘Save As’.

In this tutorial you will learn how to create a simple text effect using various blending options. I have created shiny text with a black outline for this tutorial.

Text effect example 1

Step 1

Open a new Photoshop document with the size 640 x 480 dimensions. Then select the horizontal text tool and type your message on the canvas. I have used Arial font for my text effect, but you can choose whatever kind of font you wish.



Step 2

Select Layer > Layer Style > Blending options and add the following settings for each style. The first option you need to check is the ‘Drop Shadow’. I have left this option with the default values.

Check the ‘Inner Shadow’ option and change the opacity to 30%, the distance to 10, and the size to 2 PX.



Check the ‘Bevel and Emboss’ option and change the depth to 110% and the size to 10 PX.



Check the ‘Color Overlay’ option and change the colour to #f00000.



Check the ‘Stroke’ option and change the size to 2px and the colour to #000000.



You should get the following text effect.

Today i will provide a collection of free high quality jean textures. These jean textures are images of real life jeans. To download these textures, you simply right click on the image and select 'Save As'.

In this tutorial you will learn how to create a cross stroke border effect. You will need to use spray strokes filter for this effect. I have used a free stock image which is available from


Cross stroke border

Step 1

Open an image in Photoshop and then select Layer > New > Layer from Background.




Step 2

Select the rectangular marquee tool and make a selection around the image like below:




Step 3

Create a new layer mask by selecting Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal selection and you should get the following image below:




Step 4

Select Filter > Brushed Strokes > Sprayed strokes and you should get the following image.



You should now have a cross stroke border.