Making a cool bubble background effect is easy in Photoshop. This tutorial will demonstrate how to create a whimsical bubble effect using Adobe Photoshop.

1. Start up Photoshop and click File > New and create a new canvas 500 width x 500 height pixels

2. Create a new layer and name it “bg” and delete the old “background” layer.

img src=”http://www.dlocc.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Bubbles3.png” alt=”Delete Layer” title=”Delete Layer” width=”236″ height=”311″ class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-936″ />

3. Select the Gradient tool and modify the colors similar to the example below:

4. Starting at the bottom of the canvas click-and-drag from the bottom to the top to apply the gradient background. You should have something similar to the following:

5. Create a new folder ground and name it “bubbles”

6. Create a new layer in the group called “bubbles1″ and select the Ellipse tool.

7. Modify your primary color to a color similar to the one seen here:

8. Holding the Shift key draw a series of circles on the canvas varying in size.

9. Change the layer’s Opacity to 20 percent.

10. Double-click on the layer and let’s add some style.

Stroke:

Outer Glow:

11. Create a new layer and with the Ellipse tool selected draw more ellipses on the canvas. Rename this layer.

12. Double-click on the shape’s color and change it to something similar to this:

The Canvas Now:

13. Mix up the layer’s style again (change the stroke and glow properties).

Next Steps: Create a few more “Bubbles” layers and play around with the styles and colors until you have something you like. Mix up the sizes of the ellipses you create for a better effect.

Here’s what I have up to this point:

I hope you enjoyed this quick tutorial, there’s a lot more you can do with this effect. Whimisical bubbles are a neat effect that are becoming more widely used.