Holiday text effect in photoshop

First let’s take a look at what we are going to make

Step 1

We start our layout with a new document of size 400×200.
Using “Myriad Pro”, Bold Codensed and 112pt size write “happy”.

Make sure that you write each letter on seperate layers i.e “h” “a” “p” on seperate layers
respectively also remember the layer order and make a new group named “happy” by selecting all the layers and pressing “Ctrl +G”.

Now using the arrow keys nudge the letters close to each other like so.

Step 2

Apply the following gradient to all the layers in the group.

So here is what we get.

Step 3

Make a new layer over the “y” letter layer and using a soft brush 35px radius with black as foreground color just click once between “y”and “a” naming it “shadow”

Step 4

Press “Ctrl + click on the layer “y” to select it.” Now goto the layer named shadow press “Ctrl+ shift + I” to invert the selection and then press delete.

Now the shadow is only on y.

Step 5

Repeat step 4 on all the remaing layers.

Step 6

Duplicate the group “happy”. naming it happy2.

Step 7

Merge all the layers in group happy2 by selecting all the layers in the group right click and click on merge layers. Name the new layer happy3. Now make a duplicate layer
of happy3 by pressing “CTRL+J” name it happy4. Goto Filter>Blur>Blur

Step 8

Use dodge and burn tool

Step 9

“CTRL+Click” happy4 layer togo select>modify>contract “contract by 1px” make a new layer and fill it with white color. Then again to go select>modify>contract “contract by 1px”
and press delete

Step 10

Using the eraser tool erase some part like so.

Step 11

Again select layer happy4 by ctrl+clicking on the layer in the layer panel. Make a new layer set the blending mode to “Vivid Light”,
togo select>modify>contract “contract by 1px” then
with foreground color black and background color white goto Filter>Render>Clouds. (Remember you can always press CTRL+F to redo the latest filter you just applied ) So you
can always press CTRL+F until you get a nice effect (note:make sure the layer happy4 remains selected.)

Step 12

Now we go back to layer “happy3″ from step 7. With arrow tool selected . Press “ALT or Command” then press “Left arrow key once then top arrow key once” repeat this step untill you get the following effect.

Conclusion

You can get different effects by just changing the gradinent in step 2 and the render clouds in step 11.
And happy holidays.