How to create stylish shapes for logos

In this tutorial you should learn as said in the title, how to create stylish shapes for your logos. For this tutorial I am going to show you how I created the below logo in seconds using the twirl tool. Any beginner should be able to complete this tutorial with ease and there is no need for any plug-ins.
End Result:

Ok lets Begin.
Step 1 - New Document
The first thing you will need to do is of course open Photoshop and open a new document.
File -> New
Its up to you to choose all the settings, for the size I used:
Width: 452px
Height: 578px

Step 2 - Create The Shape
The shape that I have chosen to use is a flower shape that comes with Photoshop, however any shape can look good so its good to try different ones as well.
Shape: Flower7

Once you have selected the shape go to your canvas hold shift, click and drag until you have a shape that is the right shape and size. If your shape is the wrong shape, size or position you can use the transform tool to fix this (ctrl + T) or (edit -> Free Transform Path). Once the position/size is ok press the enter key.
You should now have something like this:

Finally right click on the shape layer and press rasterize layer.

Step 3 - Twirl The Shape
The next step is to twirl the shape that we just created (Filter -> Distort -> Twirl).
The settings you use are up to you, just play around until you see something you like.
The settings I used were:
Angle: 700

Press ok.
Again you may need to move/resize the shape (ctrl + T) or (edit -> Free Transform Path). Once the position/size is ok press the enter key.
You should now have something like mine:

Step 4 - Add text
Finally you can add some text by using the text tool in the toolbar, below is my final result:



Once you are finished try using other shapes and see what you can come up with. This is another one that I did and liked:

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial.

Text Effect: Snow Text

Hello and welcome to our first tutorial. This tutorial demonstrates a quick and simple way to add realistic snow to your text. For this tutorial you will require some basic Photoshop skills, however I have tried to explain everything in depth and as clearly as possible. No plugins are required.

Step 1.

First of all you will need to create a new document.
File > new
Settings:
Name: snow (This is just the name i have used for this tutorial, you can call it whatever you like.)
Preset: Custom (again its up to you)
Width: 300px (Size really doesn't matter)
Height: 300px (Size really doesn't matter)
Resolution: I used 72px/inch, but once again you can change this if you want
Colour Mode: RBG Colour, 8 Bit
Background contents: White (you may want to make it transparent)
Press ok.

Step 2. - Creating the text
For this tutorial the text that you use doesn't really matter. If you want to use your own text them just skip this step and continue on step three.
a) First add a new layer. (Layer > new > layer)

b) Use the text tool on the toolbar and add your text. I have just written ABC. ( the colour of the text doesn't matter as we will be changing this in a minute.)

c) Now its time to add the blending options. (layer > layer style > blending options)

i) First we will add a "drop shadow". This is done by clicking on the drop shadow option on the left of the blending options window. Add the following settings.

Settings:

Blend Mode: Multiply, Black
Opacity: 75
Angle: 120
Distance: 0
Spread: 15
Size: 18
Quality: Default

ii) Next comes the "bevel and emboss". Use the following settings.

Settings:

Style: Inner Bevel
Technique: Smooth
Depth: 100
Size: 21
Soften: 16
Shading:
Angle: Default
Altitude: Default
Gloss Contour: (See Picture)
Highlight Mode: Default
Opacity: 75%
Shadow Mode: Default
Opacity: 75%

iii) Under the Bevel and emboss option is the contour option. Select that and use the following settings.

Settings:

Contour: (see picture)
Range: 50%

iv) The next blending option we will use is colour overlay. Use the following settings. The colour i used was #00A2FF, but you can change this to whatever you like.

Settings:

Blend Mode: Normal, Blue (#00A2FF)
Opacity: 100%

v) The last blending option is the gradient overlay. Use these settings.

Settings:

Blend Mode: Normal
Opacity: 15%
Gradient: Default
Style: Linear
Angle: 90
Scale: 126

vi) press ok. You should get something that looks like mine.

Step 3. - Adding the snow
a) First of all create a new layer and change your foreground colour to white.
b) Select the brush tool and change its sive to about 10px (it depends how big you made your text).

Settings:

Master Diameter: 10 - 20px
Hardness: 100%

c) Next use the brush tool and draw small spots around your text. Don't completely cover it, just put some spots here and there.

Finally we add some blending options to the snow layer. Add a drop shadow with a distance of 0, and a size and spread around 5 - 10. You may also need to change some of the blending options on the text if it doesn't look good.

This is my final result:

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial