Dark Muddy Green Layout

Step 1

Open a new document 800x800px. Fill the background with #2c2a27. Make a new layer named 'banner' and make a selection of 800x140px, make a gradient from #6b6658 to #353125 in the selection and apply an Outer Glow.



Step 2

Make a new layer named 'banner shine' and make a selection of 800x80px at the top of the document and fill with #ffffff lower the opacity of the layer to 10%. Add a text layer and type in the title of your site, the font I used was Lucida Calligraphy, Italic, 36pt, Sharp, #ffffff. Duplicate this layer and apply Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical and lower the opacity to 6%. Add some text on the lower right, the font I used was Tahoma, Normal, 11pt, None, #ffffff, blend mode: overlay.



Step 3

Make a new layer named 'content bg' and make a selection in the middle of the remaining space, about 750x550px. Fill with #504b3f, and remove a one pixel stroke one pixel inside the box (like below) and apply an Outer Glow.



Step 4

Add some fill in text, and use the reflection technique used in step 2 to do the page header and you are complete.