Learn how to create a christmas windows vista wallpaper, just in time for santa.

Before we start this tutorial i suggest you download the tutorial contents file with all the required image needed to complete the tutorial.
DOWNLOAD IT HERE

Once you have downloaded the above file open up “snowflakes.jpg” and resize to what ever size your wallpaper is intended for, i shall be using a small resolution for the purpose of this tutorial.

Create a circle in the center of your canvas fill with the color #356699, Now click your circle layer whilst holding down ctrl to make a selection. Select your paint brush tool and change the settings to the ones in the picture below. Make sure your brush is 100px SOFT brush.

Now brush at the bottom of the orb. Then brush a single cirlce at the top somewhere.

Now add these layer styles.

Now set layer opacity to 75%. You should now have something like this.

Now create a white cirlce within the orb, add a layer mask and drag a linear gradient over it to blend it in. Duplicate this layer and flip it vertically and place at the bottom of the orb. So now you should have to white circles acting as hightlights. Your image should look like this.

Open up “logo.jpg” and drag the windows logo onto your canvas, with the pen tool or your desired cutting tool remove the background. Resize the logo to fit into the middle of your orb. Then add these layer styles.

Your image should look like this.

Now open up “hat.jpg” and drag to your canvas, again cut the background from the hat with your prefered cutting tool. Once you have removed the background click the layer whilst hold ctrl on the keyboard to make a selection, now goto “select > modify > contract” contract the selection by 1 pixel, then goto “filter > blur > guassian blur” blur by about 3 pixels. Now resize your hat to fit the orb like in the image below.

Now create a black circle underneath your hat to act as a shadow, lower the opacity to suit also blur by about 2 pixels.

Now select a nice looking font and add some text. Add these layer styles to your text.

Thats it all done heres mine.