Serj. Freelance Web Designer.

In this tutorial I will show you how to create a beautiful frame using only free vector elements. Hopefully you’ll learn some interesting and useful techniques that you can apply to your next project.

Below is the final image we’ll be creating in this tutorial. You can see the full-size version here.

Prepare Background

Press Ctrl+N to create a New Document. Set width to 1150px and height to 860px. Set your foreground color to #dac9a4 and press Alt+Backspace to fill the “Background” layer with this color.

Next, create a new layer (press Ctl+Shift+Alt+N) and name it “Background Pattern”. Use a Paint Bucket Tool to fill it with your favorite pattern. If you don’t have any, just do a Google search for “free Photoshop patterns” and you’ll find plenty of wonderful patterns. Fill your pattern with this color #c8b690 (make sure your “Background Pattern” layer is active and press Shift+Alt+Delete).

Here is how your background should look like (Fig. 1.1):

Figure 1.1 – Background Pattern

Frame Background

Now let’s start creating our frame. Use Rectangle Tool to create a new rectangle with the dimensions of 950px by 630px. Name this layer “Frame Background”. Fill it with the color #4e432d. Duplicate the layer by pressing Ctrl+J and fill it with a bit lighter color, something close to #b4a879. Right-click this layer and select Rasterize Layer. Name it “Frame Noise”. As you probably understood from the layer’s name we’re going to add some noise to it.

Go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Set noise amount to 8%, distribution to Gaussian and make sure that Monochromatic box is checked. Press Ok. Set the Blending Mode to Hard Light and drop Opacity to 55% (Fig.1.2).

Figure 1.2 – Frame Noise

Content Background

Next, we need to create a background layer for our future content.

Use Rounded Rectangle Tool to create a rectangle with dimensions of 930px by 610px and radius of 30px. Fill it with the color #38301f and rename it to “Content Background”. Let’s add a 1px border to this layer.

Double-click the “Content Background” layer to bring up the Layer Style dialog box. Use the following settings (Fig. 2.1):

Figure 2.1 – 1px Border Settings

Now let’s add some highlights to the frame background.

First, Ctrl-click the “Frame Noise” layer thumbnail to load a selection. Next, create a new layer (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+N) just below our “Content Background” layer. Then go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal Selection to add a layer mask to our newly created layer. Name the layer “Background Highlights” and set its Blending Mode to Overlay (Fig. 2.2).

Figure 2.2 – “Background Highlights” Layer Mask

Set the foreground color to #fffbca and use a soft-edged brush to draw some random highlights (Fig. 2.3).

Figure 2.3 – Random Highlights

Now your frame should look similar to the image below (Fig. 2.4):

Figure 2.4 – Frame With Highlights

Frame Details

Let’s start adding the frame details. We’ll begin from the top part, but first you need to prepare your vector elements (if you don’t have any, then just use Google, there are lots of great elements on the Internet available for free). Here are the elements I’m going to use (Fig. 3.1). Both elements are from Vecteezy.

Figure 3.1 – Vector Elements

Top and Bottom Borders

Create a top border of the frame by duplicating and moving our vector elements. For some people it may be easier to do this part of tutorial in Adobe Illustrator, so if you’re familiar with this software you can use it as well.

Take a look at my top border (Fig. 3.2):

Figure 3.2 – Top Border

Set the foreground color to #c6a730, fill your top border element with this color (Shift+Alt+Delete) and name the layer “Top Border”. Then, double-click the layer to bring up the Layer Style dialog box and enter the following settings (Fig. 3.3):

Figure 3.3 – Bevel and Emboss Settings

Next, Ctrl-click the “Top Border” layer thumbnail to load selection. Go to Select>Modify>Contract and enter 2px. Create a new layer (Chtrl+Alt+Shift+N) and fill selection (Alt+Backspace) with the color #fffaa9. Name this layer “Top Border Highlights”.

Here is how your top border should look like by now (Fig. 3.4):

Figure 3.4 – Top Border With Highlights

Let’s group the top border layers together.

Select layers “Top Border” and “Top Border Highlights” and press Gtrl+G. Name the group “Top Border”. Then, right-click the group and select Duplicate Group. Name the new group “Bottom Border” and position it at the very bottom of our frame. Now, go to Edit>Transform>Flip Vertical. That’s it, we’re done with the top and the bottom parts of the frame. Let’s move on to the right and left sides now.

Left and Right Borders

Below is the element I’m going to work with in exactly the same way as we did it in a previous step (by duplicating and moving it vertically to achieve a desired form) (Fig. 3.5).

Figure 3.5 – Left Border Vector Element

Once you have your border ready, position it on the left side of the frame and fill it with the same color as a top border (#c6a730). Name the layer “Left Border”. Next, right-click the “Top Border” layer and select Copy Layer Style. Paste the copied styles to the border layer by right-clicking it and selecting Paste Layer Style (Fig. 3.6).

Figure 3.6 – Left Border With Layer Styles Applied

Let’s add some highlights to the left border in the same manner as we did it with the top one.

Load selection by Ctrl-clicking the layer thumbnail, then go to Select>Modify>Contract and enter 1px. Create a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+Alt+N) and fill it with the color #fffbd9. Reduce Opacity level to 80% and change the Blending Mode to Overlay. Name the layer “Left Border Highlights” (Fig. 3.7).

Figure 3.7 – Left Border With Highlights Added

Now let’s create a right border in exactly the same way we created a bottom one. Duplicate the left border (don’t forget to group the layers), move it to the right side of the frame and flip horizontally (go to Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal). Change the group name to “Right Border”.

Great, now we have all four borders ready (Fig. 3.8).

Figure 3.8 – All 4 Borders

Inner Border

Now let’s add the border around our content area so it’ll blend in more nicely.

Use Rounded Rectangle Tool in the Paths drawing mode (Fig. 3.9) to create a path with dimensions of 930px by 610px and radius of 30px (Fig. 3.10). Position it just above the “Content Background” layer.

Figure 3.9 – “Paths” Drawing Mode

Figure 3.10 – Work Path

Create a new layer (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+N) and name it “Content Border”. Next, select Brush Tool and go to Window>Brushes to bring up your brush settings window and enter the following settings (Fig. 3.11):

Figure 3.11 – Brush Settings

Set your foreground color to #7d6000. With the Pen Tool active right-click the path and select Stroke Path, select Brush from the drop down menu and click Ok. Press Delete to remove the path.

Let’s add some highlights in exactly the same way as we did it earlier.

Create a new layer and name it “Border Highlights”. Load selection by Ctrl+clicking the “Content Border” layer thumbnail. Go to Select>Modify>Contract and enter 1px. Fill selection with the color #fff5d5 (Fig. 3.12).

Figure 3.12 – Content Border

Now we need to add a 1px border on top of the “Content Border” layer.

Create a new layer and name it “1px Border”. Then load selection by clicking on the “Content Background” vector mask thumbnail (notice the difference, in order to load a selection for the vector object in Photoshop, you need to click a vector mask thumbnail not a layer thumbnail). Set your foreground color to #38301f and go to Edit>Stroke. Set width to 1px, location to Inside and then press Ok (Fig. 3.13).

Figure 3.13 – 1px. Content Border

With the selection still on, create a new layer and go to Select>Modify>Expand, enter 1px and click Ok. Now, use Edit>Stroke command once again only this time with the lighter color (#debd54). Press Ctrl+D to deselect (Fig. 3.14).

Figure 3.14 – 1px. Content Border

Our next step will be adding some vegetation to the frame sides.

Vegetation

Here are the stock images I’m going to use (Fig. 4.1):

Figure 4.1 – Vegetation Stock Images

Use the Magic Wand Tool or Quick Selection Tool to eliminate white background. Then, combine different plants by duplicating them and moving around. Use hard-edged Eraser Tool or Lasso Tool to remove parts you no longer need.

Try to get your vegetation look like the image below (Fig. 4.2):

Figure 4.2 – Left Border Vegetation

Select all plants layers and press Gtrl+G to group them together. Name the group “Vegetation Left”. Right-click the group and select Duplicate Group, name new group “Vegetation Backup”. Make it invisible and move it to the bottom of your Layers palette.

Now let’s make our plants a bit more vibrant by increasing contrast. First, right-click the “Vegetation Left” group and select Merge Group. Then, go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Curves and create a new adjustment layer. Make sure you have checked the “Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask” box.

Draw the curve like on the image below (Fig. 4.3).

Figure 4.3 – Curve Settings

Take a look at our vegetation with the Curves adjustment layer applied (Fig. 4.4).

Figure 4.4 – Vegetation With Curves Applied

Now that we’re happy with our Curves layer, you can merge it with the “Vegetation Left” layer. Just select both layers and press Ctrl+E.

Let’s add the shadow our plants cast on the frame. Double-click the “Vegetation Left” layer to bring up the Layer Style dialog box and enter the settings as shown on the image below (Fig. 4.5).

Figure 4.5 – Drop Shadow Settings

We’re done with our left side, so now let’s copy and move vegetation to the right side. Right-click the “Vegetation Left” layer, select Duplicate Layer and name the new layer “Vegetation Right”. Move it all the way to the right and flip horizontally (Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal).

Take a look at the result (Fig. 4.6):

Figure 4.6 – Right Border Vegetation

We’re almost done, all is left is to add some minor touches and the frame shadow.

Final Touches

Let’s add some elements to our left and right frame borders, so they won’t look exactly the same. Here are the images I’m going to use (Fig. 5.1):

Figure 5.1 – Stock Images

Remove the white background in the same way we did it earlier (using Magic Wand Tool or Quick Selection Tool). Position these elements on each side and resize them using Free Transform Tool (Ctrl+T) as needed (Fig. 5.2).

Figure 5.2 – Our Borders With New Elements Added

Now let’s add a highlight to the top part of our background. Create a new layer (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+N) and position it just above the “Background Pattern” layer. Set your foreground color to #ffebc0 and using Gradient Tool draw a radial gradient as shown on the image below (Fig. 5.3). Set the Blending Mode to Overlay and reduce Opacity to 70%.

Figure 5.3 – Top Background Highlight

Let’s create a frame shadow.

Group (Ctrl+G) all frame layers together (excluding background) and merge them by clicking Ctrl+E (don’t forget to create a backup copy). Name the layer “Frame” and duplicate it by clicking Ctrl+J. Name new layer “Frame Shadow” and position it directly below the “Frame” layer.

Set the foreground color to #372a00 and fill your “Shadow” layer with it (Shift+Alt+Delete). Set the layer Blending Mode to Multiply and reduce opacity to 30%. Apply Gaussian Blur filter by going to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Set blur radius to 1.6px. Now go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur and set the following settings (Fig 5.4):

Figure 5.4 – Motion Blur Settings

That’s all. Now you have the beautiful frame you can use for your next website. Here is our final image. You can see the full-size version here.

I hope you learned some new techniques in this tutorial and if you have any questions I’d be happy to help you.