Design cool looking featured post background of a website

I this photoshop tutorial we will design a cool looking background for featured posts of a website / blog. This can be also used in portfolio website for showcasing past works.

Below is final image of the tutorial.

Step 1:

Create a new document of size 900 X 400px with background color #23a1c0 You may take different size as per your requirement.

Step 2:

Apply some noise to background. Filter >> Noise >> Add Noise >> Amount: 4

Step 3:

Select “Rectangle tool”.

With color set to #086380 draw a rectangle shape leaving a margin of about 50px from all 4 sides.
Hint: Use Guides (View >> New Guide) to leave equal margin from all 4 sides.

Step 4:

Now we will transform the rectangle shape. With rectangle shape layer selected, Go to:
Edit >> Transform >> Warp
And apply following transform.

Step 5:

Now apply following layer style to rectangle shape layer.

Step 6:

Create a new layer and draw a rectangular shape with color #075f7c as shown in below image. Change layer mode to “Multiply”.

Now apply following layer style to this rectangle shape.

So, it looks like this now.

Step 7:

Create a new layer just above “Background layer”. Select “Ellipse Tool”. With black color draw a elliptical shape as show below.

Apply warp transform Edit >> Transform >> Warp, same as we did in step 4. So, it looks like this now.

Apply Filter > Blur > Gaussian blur

So, it looks like this now:

Step 8:

Now we will add arrow on both sides using custom shapes. Use color #015368 for arrow. You may apply some layer style to arrow shape to make it attractive.

So, our featured post background is ready.
Below is final image.