Open a new document with the following size : width - 960 pixels and height - 1200 pixels.
I will select the background layer and I will add a simple gradient overlay with the following colors: #91a2b4 and #6a7f94
With Rounded Rectangle Tool
I will create two shapes. One shape I will place it at the bottom with a
white color. Here I will place the header of the wordpress theme, and
the body of the website.
The second shape will be placed at the bottom. Here you can place some widgets, or any other details.
I will select the white shape layer and I will press on CTRL+J to
duplicate the layer. After that I will right click on the layer and I
will choose Rasterize layer
After the layer is rasterized I will go to Select - Load selection.
Around the layer will be a selection. I will delete the bottom part of
the selection. For this you need to select Rectangular Marquee Tool.
Hold down the Alt key and make a selection on the bottom of the white
shape. You will see that a minus sign will be visible when you hold down
the Alt key. This symbol will allow you to subtract from any selection
you have active on your layout.
Your next step is to go to Select - Modify - Contract. In the contract selection window use a value between 3 and 5 pixels.After you click Ok you will see that your selection is smaller than the original
Create a new layer ( press on CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+N ) and with Paint Bucket Tool fill the selection with a random color. After you fill the selection you can press on CTRL+D to deselect the selection. For this layer you will need to add the following layer styles.
This is my result so far
With the same technique as above I will cut another shape, and I will place it like in the following image
I have used the same layer styles as above but in the gradients area I have used another gradient
On the right side I will create another shape with Rectangle Tool
The layer styles are the same with the first ones I have used in this tutorial.I will select Pen Tool and I will make a black shape like in the following image.
I will go to Filter - blur - Gaussian blur and I will set the Radius value to 6.0. After that I will reduce the opacity for this layer to 40%. This is my result so far. You will see that I have a nice and smooth shadow.
In the black area I will place some text and another shape. And in the right side I will place a image.
I will zoom in my document to 400 % and with Pen Tool I will create a simple triangle. Be sure you place this shape right above the background layer
I will use Horizontal Type Tool, and I will add some text on my wordpress theme
On the right side I will create some places for advertising.
In the image from above you will see a line between the posts and the sidebar. The line was made with Line Tool. With the same tool I will create other lines between posts. This time I will rasterize the line layer and with Eraser Tool I will delete the right and the left part of the line. This is my result so far
I will place some text in the footer and another text on the bottom of the layout 9 for buttons ) and I think I am ready with this tutorial. It is a very simple tutorial with basic techniques, and I hope you will use these simple techniques to create complicated wordpress themes.
This is my result so far. Please click on the image to see the full size layout.
