Extreme Template

Part 1: The Head

This section covers the making of the header of the template.

1. Lets start with a fresh new canvas, then fill it with white, then make a new layer and fill it with the diagonal pattern, which can be found at our downloads page. Once you've filled it, lower the layer opacity to 18%. next we are going to make the inner background for our template. So make a new layer and using the rectangular marquee tool (m) make a large selection for the top of you canvas to the bottom, make sure its centered and a width of about 600-620. Once you've made the selection, fill it with white and then take out the layer style window for the layer and use the following settings:

2. Next we are going to make some nice looking borders, so make a new layer and using your Single Column Marquee Tool (m) make a selection about 5 pixels away from the border of the bg you just made (Inner Background) fill it with #a5a5a5 and then make a new layer, and using your rectangular marquee tool (m) make a selection from the top of your canvas to the bottom, and about 1 pixel away from the previous border you made-- to the right of it. The width of the selection should be roughly around 8-10 pixels. And then fill it with #a2ca00 and use the following layer style options to give it a nice style:

3. About 2 px to the right of the last border we made, make another selection like the green border we made but with a width of 4 px. Now fill it with the diagonal pattern and lower its opacity to 25%. Now we will make one more border, 2 px away to the right of the last border, and fill it with #a5a5a5 and lower its opacity to 65%. And that's it with the borders, now do the same with to the other side of the template! Here is how your borders should be aligned and colored:

Click to enlarge

4. The template is already starting to look good and we haven't even started! Now we are going to work on the header. So make a new layer and using your rectangular marquee tool (m) and make a selection and fill it with #a5a5a5 and then lower its opacity to 50%, look at the following screen shot for more details:

Click to enlarge

5. Next we are going to make another border, the same as the one before except under it about 1-3 px, and fill it with the diagonal pattern, then lower its opacity to 18%.

Click to enlarge

6. Now using your Single Row marquee Tool (m) make a selection about 2 px under the previous selection and fill it with #a5a5a5. Now that we have made somewhat of a boundary for the header, you can now add your header with some text, logo, and buttons on the side like mine:

Click to enlarge