Gold Stroke Text

To begin this tutorial, I will be using "Times New Roman" (bold) for my typeface at a size of 239. The letter "a" should be suffice.

Now that you have your text, you can now right click on the text layer and select, "Blending Options...". Now click on "Inner Shadow".

Do not click OK yet... still more to do

Now click on "Pattern Overlay".

You may now click "OK."

You should now have the following image:

Now "Ctrl" click the "a" layer to create a selection around it and create a new layer. Now go to "Edit" then "Stroke." Size will be 3, color D9C11D and make sure "Outside" is checked.

Now that you have your stroke, you can now right click on the stroke layer and select, "Blending Options...". Now click on "Drop Shadow".

Do not click OK yet... still more to do.

Now click on "Color Overlay".

Do not click OK yet... still more to do.

Now click on "Gradient Overlay".

You may now click "OK."

Color settings for the above gradient.

You should now have the following image:

Now "Ctrl" click the stroke layer to create a selection around it and create a new layer. Now go to "Edit" then "Fill." Color will this time be white. Now, with the selection tool selected, using the arrow keys on the keyboard, move the selection down 2 and to the left 2 and hit delete on the keyboard. Deselect and go on.

You should now have the following image:

We will now create that twinkle. Grab the "Rectangular Marquee Tool" and draw a selection as I have done below.

Create a new layer and grab the "Gradient Tool." Make sure black is the foreground and select the gradient "Foreground to Transparent." Make sure the that "Linear" is selected and starting at the top of the selection, drag down to the bottom. Now deselect and duplicate the layer. Now go to "Edit" then "Transform" and lastly, "Flip Vertically." Line the two layers up top to bottom or black to black and merge the 2.

Now duplicate the layer again. Go to "Edit" then "Transform" and lastly, "Rotate 90 CCW." Merge again and duplicate this layer as well.

Hit "Ctrl" + "T" on your keyboard to bring up the transformer, decrease the size by 30% and rotate as I have done below.

Now that you have your sparkle, you can now right click on the sparkle layer and select, "Blending Options...". Now click on "Outer Glow ".

Do not click OK yet... still more to do.

Now click "Color Overlay."

You can now click "OK."

I've also added some additional twinkles/sparkles and resized.

The Results!!!