Avatar/LJ Icon Tutorial:
Written by Aly. Done in PS 7.0

LEVEL - EASY/MID-BEGINNER

How to turn this:	Into This:

1: Open your image, crop it and resize it to 100x100px. I'm using a picture of Èowyn
 

2: Sharpen your image once. (Filter >> Sharpen >> Sharpen)*
 

3: Duplicate your sharpened image and set it on top of itself and set layer to screen.
 

4: Floodfill your image with #01012D, set to Soft Light 100%
 

5: Flood fill again with that same color, #01012D and set to Exculsion 100%
 

6: Use this texture from Tre-Xture, & set it to Burn 100%

 

7: It looks pretty good as is, but I'm going to add some simple text, I used MS Referance Serif pt. 6
 

*Please remember that sharpening always depends upon the image you are using.