This tutorial is the property of JTsDesigns, any similarities to other tuts is purely coincidental.
No outside plug ins needed for this tut.
For this avatar I am using the gorgeous artwork of Verymany, you can find her work at www.picsfordesign.com
The tube I used Teenage Girl.
Let's start.

Open the Teenage Girl tube and duplicate, close the original.
Resize the whole image by 40%, select the "Girl" layer & go to Adjust>Sharpen>Sharpen Mask, use these settings,
Radious: 1, Strength:35, Clipping:4
Use your Eye dropper tool and select the light blue for your foreground and dark blue for your background colors.
Create a gradient with these two colors, set Angle at 0, and Repeats at O, make sure Invert is checked.

Open a new image 130x130, I used 72 dpi.
Flood fill your new image with the gradient you just created.
Go to Effects>Texture Effects>Blinds apply these settings, Width:2, Opacity:50, Color:Black Leave the rest unchecked.
Copy and paste the Teenage Girl tube as a new layer, position her to right showing only her head.
Lower the opacity of this layer to 52.
Copy & paste the tube again, go to Image>Mirror and place the tube so that you can see her head and shoulder.
Add a drop shadow using these settings: Vertical:5, Horizontal:2,Opacity:6, Blur:10, colour:Black
Layers Merge Flat.
Go to Image>Add Borders, add a 3 pixel border using color # 511A58
Zoom in and select the border with your magic wand add the texture effect we used earlier but check Horizontal.
Add another border 1 pixel black.
Add another border 3 Pixels color #511A58 add the same texture effect but UN check Horizontal.
Add artist credit and your name and your done.
Thanks for trying my tut!
Jane