Create pink and green buttons with web 2.0 glow

In this tutorial you will learn how to make a web 2.0 plastic looking pink and green menu with a glowing touch.

1. I started to make this menu in a 400x100 .psd but it's only for you to see it clearly. After finishing the button you can slice or trim it. I used a black gradient for the background and a white line which is set to 10-20% opacity at the top. this is not very important.

2. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) and draw a rectangle at the top of the screen. After that use Select - Modify - Smooth by 10 pixels and add a gradient in that selection with the following colors: #CA013D and #9A002C. It should look now like this.

3. Duplicate the button layer. The first layer move it with a few pixels down. You can use the Move tool (V) and then hit the down arrow a few times. 3-4 pixels should be enough. This new layer should have the Overlay Color #BB0039 (right click on the layer and then click on Blending Options and then Overlay Color).

4. Do this again and on the lower layer set the following blending options: Color Overlay #75011F; one pixel Stroke with Gradient Fill (the gradient colors should be #C79810 and #EAB92D).

5. Now let's add a little glow. Select the round gradient tool and make sure it is from this color #F0014C to transparent and make a small gradient inside the button. Stretch it to the sides using CTRL+T and be careful it doesn't go over the button edges.

For some this will be ready but I'll add another thingy to it.

6. Use Pen Tool (P) and click on the paths button highlighted in this image. Draw a shape over the button and the click on the margins and select Fill Path. It looks akward now so having the new path layer selected CTRL+click on the button layer so it will select only the part that is inside the button. Select Magic Wand Tool (W) and right click on the new shape inside the button and then Layer via cut. Delete the layer with what remains outside the button.



For this new final damn layer use the following options: Opacity 20%; then go to Blending Options and select a freaky Overlay Gradient like #820022 to #CA013D. After this you can blur the layer with Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur and use a value between 2 and 5.

Final result: