Self-admittedly, I don't half spend nearly as much time with GIMP as I once did. I haven't abandoned it for other graphics programs. I've abandoned it for lack of creativity. I found myself repeating the same actions and expecting different results. Then GimpChat lost Oregonian, GnuTux, Molly, Jolie, and probably some other people whose names escape me at the moment and I began to wonder if being here was hazardous to one's health. So, I'm rustier than some of the tutorials here when it comes to practical use of GIMP and if I ever had any "best work" this isn't it but I feel like I owe it to the community to get back into the game on some level. So, I spent a few minutes this morning seeing if I even remember how to use layer modes and this was the result. Comments, critiques, complaints, suggestions, etc. are encouraged.

Have to admit I didn't even look at layer modes until 2.10x. Have found them to be amazing!

I recommend using Bevel Reflect Logo for text and just try different settings to see what the results produce, keep notes of the changes, and give them names. I just spent the better part of one day (on Friday) going through GnuTux's BRL post and downloaded about 125 environment map spheres. However, I found that regular images produce interesting text effects as well. Within that thread, I discovered additional scripts to make my own spheres, as well. Backgrounds and textures are trickier, in the sense you never know what they'll produce until you try them. The spheres will start to reveal themselves and you'll find yourself getting creative in the process, mixing up textures and backgrounds to get some good eye candy results. Remember though, notes, names. Write down the settings or screenshot them before you run them. Later on, you'll want to try mixing up BRL with say, Skinnyhouse's font plugins, which is what I am doing at the moment. When you get to this point, you'll begin to have "AH HA" moments.

This one was made without any scripts. It's just eight different textures set to different layer modes which make the text appear beveled. I've used the BRL script before but not in quite some time. I also just noticed my GIMP version is about ten upgrades out of date so that will be the first thing I address.