Click image for larger copy for use in tutorial

Start by duplicating the image, either by right-clicking on the image and selecting Duplicate Layer, or by simply pressing Ctrl-J.

Your Layer Palette will look like this.

1. In the Layers Palette, click the Channels tab

2. Click the new Channel Button. A new channel named Alpha 1 will appear.

2.

1. Click on the Alpha 1 channel to select it.

2. With the type tool, type something, for this example I used, Write With Water.

3. Here is what my Character Palette looked like.

4. You can use any font you like, you could also use the brush tool to draw something, either the text or add something else in, I added spots that will become drops later.

5. Anything white will become the “water” anything black will be transparent.

1. Right click the Alpha 1 channel and select Duplicate Channel. Make the new Alpha 1 copy channel visible.

2. With the new channel selected go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur.

3. Select a blur of about 6 pixels, then press ok.

4. Right Click on the Alpha 1 copy and select Duplicate Channel. Select a New Document, and name it whatever you want

5. Save the new document somewhere you will remember where it is, you will need it in the next step. You can then close that document.

4.

1. 3.

1. Go back to the Layers Palette and select Layer 1.

2. Go to Filter>Distort>Glass 3. Go to texture and click the little arrow

that points right and select load texture.

4. Find the alpha channel that you saved in the last step and click open.

5. You can use whatever settings you like, just move the sliders around till your happy with how it looks. Here’s what I used and what it looks like.

6. Its ok if you can’t really see what it says because that will come out in the next few steps.

3.

1. In the Channels Palette and Ctrl+Click the Alpha 1 channel (the writing that isn’t blurry)

2. Go to your Layers Palette and select the background layer, and then insert a new blank layer just above it. Your screen should have the outline of what was on the Alpha 1 channel selected.

3. Make sure Layer 2 is selected and go Edit>Fill and select Black as the fill color and press ok.

4. Right click Layer 1 and select Create Clipping mask. Your Layer Palette will look like this now. 4.

2.

3.

1. Now comes the fun part. Double click on Layer 2 to open the Blending options dialog box.

2. You want to add the following styles to the layer; Drop Shadow, Outer Glow, Inner Glow, and Bevel & Emboss.

On the next page I have included the setting that I used for each style, but the real key here is to play around with the settings until you find some that you really like.

For the Drop Shadow, Inner Glow, and Outer Glow, sample colors from the wood grain to pick a color, this will make everything blend together more.