I bet you thought I was going to forget my promise of a tutorial, nope I have it all ready for you now. Today’s Photoshop CS4 tutorial covers how to create a custom Entrecard background. If you know anything about Entrecard you know that there generic backgrounds are not all that appealing to look at.

For Entrecard you want to open your Photoshop CS4 and create a new document that is 125X125 pixels in size at 72 dpi;that translates to 1.736X1.736 inches at 72 dpi. If you have a custom template from another site then open that and then choose Select>All; go to the Edit menu and choose Copy. Choose your blank document by clicking on the tab at the top of your workspace, go to Edit>Paste and you will have a new Layer that is a copy of that template.

Now you want to add the name of your Blog and whatever type of description you may choose; do this by selecting the text tool, this is the button that is a capital T on the far left tool bar that runs from top to bottom along your workspace. Choose your choice of Font from the Drop-down menu of the horizontal tool bar located just under the Image and layer buttons. You will need to test your choice of font, some are not legible on documents this small and the results are very blurry.

Select your workspace by left-clicking with your mouse and begin typing. If you do not see your words then your font size is too large or it is not compatible with a small document, try changing the size and if you need to chose another font. If it is not centered properly you do not need to erase it, move your mouse away from the text until it goes from the capital I to the small arrow and you will be able to left-click and move your text to a better location. Once you are satisfied with the text placement we will now add Layer Styles to create a look of depth that will make the text stand out from the background.

On the lower left-hand side of your screen there is a box that contains your Layer, Channel and Path selections; choose the Layer tab and double left-click the second text layer, do not click the T icon itself choose the area of blank space just to the right of that icon. This will pop-up the Layer Styles box where we will add a Bevel and embossing as well as a Drop Shadow.

The left side of this box contains a list of blending options, choose Drop Shadow and then double-click the word Drop Shadow, this will pull up the customization screen off to the right. When this screen appears under the Structure section change the Angel to 131, the Blend Mode to Difference, Opacity to 100%, Distance to 5 px, Spread to o% and Size to 5 px. I did not change anything listed under the Quality section but this is your design so I encourage you to play around with the settings just to see if you like like effects. Remember you can change the color of the Shadow as well as add a texture or Gradient. Now choose the Bevel and Emboss as well as Contour and Texture, each of these can be double clicked and customized as we did in the Drop Shadow section. The last thing in the list to the left is Stroke and this was where I made it appear as if my text were outlined in heavy black ink. Hit OK and this will apply your Styles to the text. Make sure to save it as a .png file otherwise you will not be able to use it.

Now go to your Entrecard dashboard and scroll down to the section that is labeled Your Entrecard and click Edit. Select Entrecard Style: Uploaded Image and then click the Browse button to upload your image. Voila, you have a custom background instead of the generic ones that everyone else may be using.

Well, kiss your babies!