Most people don't see that they can create cool stars with the Photoshop defaults (I love Photoshop!). This is done so by altering the brush settings and layer settings and you can mess around with the settings for hours.

1. Create your colour of background or open up your image you want to apply the sparkles to. I chose a deep purple to represent Space. Then choose your star colour. I chose a a very pale purple (light colours usually work best, though you can use dark colours depending on your colour scheme). Then right-click on the layer in the layers box (double click the lock if it says 'Background' or similar to make it a layer) and go to 'Blending Options' Then check the 'Outer glow' and set the blend mode to 'Screen' and make the colour a lighter colour than your star colour. Use the settings below:

2. Once you've done that, choose a soft brush from the brush tools and set its size to around 4-10, again use your initiative. Set the blending mode to screen, and keep the flow and opacity 100% or alter them very slightly. Then click on the little file image (squared in red in the diagram) and check 'Shape dynamics', and use the settings below. 

3. Then also check 'Scattering' put the Scatter from 800-1000%. You can alter the Pen pressure field to other settings if you want (I find it doesn't affect the image that much to be honest).

4. Now brush over your image and it should look like the example below.

5. Now you can make alterations. Change some of the settings in the brush settings ie. the Pen pressure etc, the scattering, whatever you want really. And change the colour and brush size etc. Here's what you can do (shows the differences).

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