Do not worry if your layer names are not the same as mine at any point. I make my illustrations as I perform the technique, and if I change my mind about something and delete a layer to replace it, the layer names change.

Select the Magic Wand tool. Make the text layer the current layer in Layer Manager. Set up the tool options as shown in the illustration. Click in your text to select it. If there is a gap between any letters/words, as there is between 'W' and 'ord' in mine, not all the text will be selected. Select the + sign in the tool options to enable add to seection, and continue to click in each separate block until your whole text is selected.



Without deselecting your text, right click in the Layer Manager on the text layer, and delete it. This will leave the selection on your upper layer. Hit the delete key. A hole will be cut in the upper layer, letting the base layer show through.

    

Use Selections>None to remove the selection. Right click on the upper layer in Layer Manager and select Shadow. Set up the shadow parameters to give a down right shadow as shown in the second illustration below. You may need to vary the parameters depending on the size of your text and the colours you are using. A darker shade of your base image colour may be used instead of black if you prefer a less defined shadow.

  

Right click again on your upper layer in Layer Manager and select Split Shadow. The shadow will be removed from the upper layer and placed on its own layer. There will be no change in the appearance of your image, but doing this allows us to apply another, different shadow to the upper layer.

  

The final step is to apply an up left shadow to the upper layer, using a colour several shades paler than your upper layer colour. For greater emphasis you can use a value of 2 for the offsets. Your text will now look as though it is carved into the surrounding colour. You can experiment with the colours and offsets of both shadows, and the softness and transparency of the first shadow to give more or less depth to your carving.

  

You can use this technique with patterns or dingbats, with textured materials, and with a totally different material or colour showing from below. It is particulary effective when used with wood. Enjoy experimenting with it.

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©Carol Brooksbank (Carol UK) 2009

Please do not copy this tutorial to any other website. It may be downloaded for personal use, but it may not be distributed in any way, free or paid for.

You are most welcome to link to my Graphics website at
http://www.caroluk.co.uk/graphics/
where you will always find a link to the current URL for my tutorials.