Original Gangsta bling diamonds Photoshop Tutorial

How to make the Bling Rap Diamonds in Photoshop tutorial

Step 1

Begin with the text you want to turn into the gold and Diamond “Iced Out” effect.
Right click on the layer panel and choose Rasterize Type (Rasterize Layer on older versions)

This will make the text editable.

Step 2

Make a selection around the text (Hold down Ctrl/CMD and click on the layer thumbnail)

Press “D” to reset to default colors

Filter>render>clouds

If the render menu is not available make sure you are in RGB mode.

BLING letters selected and filled with gray Clouds texture

Step 3

Now this is where we create the diamond effect.

Filter>FilterGallery

When the filter gallery opens, choose Distort category and and click on glass (Filter>Distort>glass on older versions)

Glass filter dialog with Tiny Lens texture, Distortion 20 and Scaling 55%

Choose the tiny lens from the texture options

and scale it down.

Use the settings as shown here.
(You may have to play with the scaling and distortion to match the size of the image you are working on, but the distortion should be high and the scaling low)

BLING letters covered in a glittering diamond-like texture from the Glass filter

Click OK to apply

3.5

Choose Curves (Crtl/Cmd+M)

Grab the top right point (or the white triangle at the bottom) and drag it across to the left until your diamonds look like the bright ones here. If your diamonds already look like the image, skip this step.

Step 4

We now have the diamond covered look to the text. Its common to have a golden border with this effect.

Diamond-textured BLING letters still selected

Step 5

Apply a layer style to the layer, choose stroke.

The important things here are:

Position = Center
Fill type: Gradient, choose the default copper setting
Make the size 10 (or larger for thicker gold)

Stroke layer style at 10 px with a copper gradient fill

Step 6

Click on the Bevel and emboss option

Choose “Stroke Emboss” this will apply the bevel to the stroke we just made.

Crank the Depth up and set the size for the same as the stroke:10

Change the gloss contour until you get something that looks nice and metallic.

Click OK

Bevel and Emboss set to Stroke Emboss, Smooth, Depth 880%

Step 7

Here we have our basic effect. We just need to adjust the color to make it look more like gold.

BLING with diamond-textured letters and a shiny copper beveled border

Step 8

Apply a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and push the saturation all the way up to 100

Tweak the hue until you get a nice gold color.

Hue/Saturation with Hue +21 and Saturation +100 to turn the border gold

Step 9

Last thing we need to do is add some sparkles.

Load the assorted brush set that comes with Photoshop.

Click the arrow at the top of the brushes presets panel (brushes panel in earlier versions) and choose assorted from the menu. When prompted select “append”

Choose the small starburst. (change to list view if you need to make it easier)

Make white our foreground color

Step 10

Create a new layer and “dab” in the sparkles with the paintbrush tool.

Here I added a gradient background to set it off.

Have fun with this one and don’t keep the neighbors up!

15 comments

BEELMANAIRE October 12, 2015

Would love to know which font was used in this great tutorial.

Reply
1. Colin Smith Author October 12, 2015
  
  I think it was just impact
  
  Reply
  1. BEELMANAIRE October 13, 2015
    
    Danke, danke.
    
    Reply
    1. Sarfaraz November 22, 2015
      
      Danke means?
      
      Reply
      1. Colin Smith Author November 22, 2015
        
        Ii means thank you
        
        Reply
        
        Sarfaraz November 22, 2015
        
        OK, g
        
        Reply
    2. Colin Smith Author November 22, 2015
      
      you’re welcome
      
      Reply
MANOJ MEHTA September 2, 2017

WHAT A NICE AND SIMPLE TUTORIAL
THANK YOU VERY MUCH GUY

Reply
no one October 5, 2018

it doesnt work

Reply
George Joschko November 20, 2020

This tutorial is outdated and does not work as described.

One cannot make a selection of Rasterized text in PS CC (19.1) by Ctrl/CMD and clicking on the layer thumbnail. No amount of searching describes how this can be done.

Reply
1. Colin Smith Author November 27, 2020
  
  Make sure you didn’t flatten your image
  
  Reply
Peggy Mac April 1, 2022

Just atarted with Photoshop Elements 2022 and Elements+. Enjoyed this tut.
thank you.

Reply
Chad David Wolf March 25, 2024

Using Adobe Photoshop 2024. Can’t find a copper gradient in the preset ones. Do you know the settings for a copper gradient so I could create one.

Thanks

Reply
1. Colin Smith Author April 9, 2024
  
  Its in legacy gradients from the Gradients panel
  
  Reply