Let's create a stop sign in Photoshop. It's a pretty simple process and good practice. So, let's get started.

Open up a new document in Photoshop and make it a decent size - I just made mine 800px X 600px so I had plenty of room (more than enough).

The Post

We are going to start with the post the sign will be on.

First, make a new layer and name it sign.

Now,Grab the Rectangle Marque tool (shortcut 'm') and draw out your post. I started mine at the bottom of the document and went up about 300px and 15px wide.

Note: You can turn on the rulers by going to View->Rulers or ctrl+R.

Select a gray color to fill your selection with. Then goto Edit->Fill and under Use: select Foreground Color and click OK. Or the quick way is to use the shortcut which is alt + backspace this will fill with the foreground color - ctrl + backspace will fill the the background color.

Next, go to Filter->Noise->Add Noise…. We just want to add a little bit of noise to make it a little more realistic. For the Amount use 2 click the Gaussian option and Monochromatic option. Click OK.

Zoom in a bit to make this next step a little easier. Grab the Burn Tool. Change the brush size to a soft 17px brush. We are going to run the brush up each side of the post. Start at the bottom and with half the brush on the post and half off hold down the shift key and click and drag the brush all the way to the top of the post. Do the same to the other side of the post.

Take the Dodge Tool (under the burn tool) set the brush size to a soft 10px brush and the Exposure to 50% and run the brush up the center of the post.

Post Holes

OK, let's add some holes to our post.

First, add a new layer and name it holes.

Zoom in pretty close to the top of the post.

Grab the Circle Marquee tool and draw a small circle in center of the post about 5px - 10px down from the top.

Add a Layer Style by double-clicking on the holes layer (NOT on the word 'hole'). Check Bevel and Emboss and use the settings in the image.

Now with the hole still selected, grab the Move tool (shortcut 'v'). Move over the hole and hold down the alt key to copy the hole and the shift key to keep it inline. Move it down 15px or so. Copy the holes all the way down the post.

Quicker way - ctrl + click on the little image by the hole layer - this will select all the holes you have made. Then you can copy two holes at once and then four holes at once instead of one at a time.

Before we start the sign, Double-click on the post layer and add a stroke - change the color to black and the size to 1.

The Sign

You can make any sign you want, but I'm going to do a stop sign.

Make a new layer and name it sign.

Grab the Polygon tool (it will be under the Square tool). Change the Sides: to 8. Draw out your sign.

Right-click and select Make Selection… fill the shape with a red color.

Fix the crooked sign - ctrl + t rotate the sign and move it into place. Hit enter to exit free transform.

Next, we will add a stroke around the sign. Double-click on the sign layer select Stroke and change the Size to 1 and the Color to Black

Grab the Burn tool change the brush to a 65px soft brush and do a little burning around the edges of the sign.

Create a new layer. The sign should still be selected - if not ctrl + click on the little image beside the sign layer - fill the layer new layer with white.

Go to Select->Modify->Contract… put in 5 and click OK and then hit the delete key.

STOP

Finally, the text.

Grab the Text tool (shortcut 't') - change the options to Arial Black at 48pt and use a white color. Type out the word STOP.

Add a stroke layer style to the text - use a black color and a size of 1

We are done - you can do a little burning to the top of the post if you want.
Not bad for only a few minutes of work…

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