Trying to make a more useful post, haha. This post will help to make an icon like this:

No need for textures or brushes, but you still can make a decent icon! I’ll be using Adobe Photoshop 7.0 for this, but maybe this trick can be adapted to other programs too. It’s quite a basic tutorial, so maybe advanced users may not find anything useful from this. For beginners, read carefully so you won’t miss anything.

Anyway, let’s begin! First of all, get a pic to work with. I’ll be using this.

1) Make a new document, width and height 100x100 pixels. Put your picture in a new layer. Resize and crop it as your liking. You can adjust the colors first. (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves or Selective Color or Brightness/Contrast) - but you can do this later if you want.

2) Clean the background of the image. You can use the Lasso tool, Magic Wand, or Eraser tool.

3) On the Background layer, use the Paint Bucket to fill with a base color. Use the dominant color of your picture. In my case, it’s maroon (I’m not sure it’s the name of that color). You can also use a Radial Gradient with a darker color in the middle (Don’t make too much contrast).

4) Using the polygonal lasso tool and paint bucket, make something like this. Color with a darker shade of the base color. The shapes and position will vary according to your image.

NOTE: Step 5-8 will make a soft diagonal pattern over the background. It’’s to make the solid background less empty, but this is actually optional.

5) Make a new document, 3x3 pixels, transparent content. Zoom in, and use the pencil tool (not brush!) 1px size to make something like the pic below.

6) Click Edit, Define Pattern.

7) Back to our icon document. Create a new layer above the background. Choose the paint bucket tool. Change the Fill to Pattern, and choose the pattern that you’ve on the previous step.

8) Change the diagonal pattern layer mode to Color Burn. You can find this on the Layers window (Window > Layers if you don’t have it shown. refer to the pic below).

9) Make a new layer, use 1px pencil tool to draw a white border around the icon.

10) Duplicate the image layer (shortcut is Ctrl+J) once.

11) For the image layer, set the stroke color with a shade smilar with the base color - a bit darker or lighter, up to you.
For the copy layer, set the stroke color to white. Move the layer a bit to the left or the right, but make sure the image doesn’t show twice.

To set the stroke color, click the layers style button on the layers window. I’ve circled it in the pic below.

12) Time to spice up your icons! Use white brushes and text. abuse the stroke effect if you wish, or experiment with other layer styles. Don’t overdo the brushes, we want to keep it simple but nice. Readjust the adjustment layers if you want.

Well, that’s it! You’ve finished the icon =] Hope the tutorial helps you, and easy to understand. If you have problems, just drop a comment and I’ll try to help you out. You can post your finished products if you like~