help with blur on font

Hi there, I am a newbie to Photoshop CS4. I am trying to put a smudged shadow in black/grey all the way around a font that is in a blue pattern. I need all the help anyone can give a new beginner with a burning desire to learn.

Thanks!
Edie

It's a little hard to know exactly what you have in mind but...Start with regular text then add a stroke layer style and use a gradient for the stroke in the colors you want. If you want to blur or smudge the stroke, click Layer-Layer Style-Create Layer.
That will put the effects on it's own layer and you can blur it, etc. without effecting the text.

Thanks. That should do what I need to do except when I do the Layer-Layer Style-Create Layer. The Create Layer is not available. What am I doing wrong?

This is on CS3:

Yes, that is what I have and I found where it is at but it is light grey and not an available option. I am in the text frame but do I need to something first to make it available?

you either need to remove background layer, your possibly rasterize type (maybe)

No need to rasterize the text layer. Just add the stroke layer style (or any layer style), then with that layer selected in the layers palette, click Layer-Layer Style-Create Layer. That option will not be available until you add a layer style to the layer.

Great. I got that figured out now. Way cool. But it wasn't quite the effect I was looking for. I found it as Outer Glow and I got it figured the way I want it but when I put a fill layer with background color in, the outer glow is gone. If I fill and then put the outer glow on, nothing shows up. Now where am I messing up? By the way, you are wonderful with all the help!

In the Outer Glow dialog box, try setting the blend mode to multiply or normal. See if that helps.