In this tutorial, I will show the process I used to create this realistic frozen text effect in Photoshop. We will be using a number of ice textures and custom brush to achieve this effect. We will also be using adjustment layers and filters to perform the touch-ups.

This is an beginner to immediate level tutorial and some steps can be a little tricky, have a try!

Note: The Photoshop tutorial is done in CS6 therefore some screenshot may have slighting different layout as in the earlier version. Some brushes are exclusive to Photoshop CS6.

Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial:

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To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

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Step 1
Lets start by creating a new document sized 1400px * 900px with a dark blue background as shown below:

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Load the ice texture 1 image into Photoshop and select the entire image, copy and paste it over to our document, resize the new layer to fit the size of our document:

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Change the blending mode of this layer to Soft Light:

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Add the following Curves adjustment layer to the ice texture layer:

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Add a highlight to the centre of the canvas with a big, soft white brush on a new layer (with soft light blending mode), and you will have the following effect so far:

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Step 2
Use any font you like, type a few letters to on top of our document: (I used the Trojan Pro font which comes with Photoshop)

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Apply the following layer blending options to this text layer:

Bevel and Emboss

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Inner Glow

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Satin

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Pattern Overlay

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Drop Shadow

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Add a layer mask to this text layer, and use the crack brush you downloaded as an eraser, remove some parts of the text on the layer mask:

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and this is the effect you will have after applying the cracked eraser:

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Step 3
Load the Ice texture 2 image into Photoshop and select a piece of ice texture as shown below:

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Copy and paste the selection to our document and cover the text:

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Right-click on this new ice texture layer and choose create clipping mask and set it as the clipping mask for the text layer below, and here is the effect:

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Step 4
We will add some frost over the text. Select a chalk brush from the brush panel:

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Careful go over the edges of the text and paint with this brush, adjust its size accordingly:

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We can also add some extra ice texture down the bottom of the canvas. Lets select the tip of the ice with the quick selection tool as shown below:

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Copy and paste the selection and place it down the bottom of the canvas:

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Optionally, you can add some falling snow particles with a particle brush to add some extra effect:

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Step 5
Were almost done! For final touches, I flattened the image and duplicated the background layer, and apply the following Accented Edges filter to the duplicated layer:

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Apply the following layer mask to this duplicated layer: (Highlighted areas)

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and this is the final effect I have:

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Thats it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy going through it and find it useful also here is a video tutorial if you get stuck on any steps: