What you will need:
Star Selections ZipFile
PSP7 or earlier
A sense of adventure!
 
 

The Background

open a new image 350 x 350, transparent background, 16.7 million colors

Add a new layer and name it "Background"
flood fill it with black.

Now, change your foreground color to white and select your paintbrush tool
and use the following settings

now the fun begins!!!  Randomly add a few dots (between 5-6)  of the white to
your black background (keep in mind that we are trying to create a star field effect!)

Now change your setting on your paint brush tool again to:

and randomly add 2 or 3 more dots to your background
 

The finished effect should look something like this...but yours will be different ofcourse!!
That's the fun of it! :)

(image has been resized)
 
 
 

The Star

Allright, now add another layer and hide your background layer for now.
load the star selection and flood fill with #DDDD92
leave the star selected for now

(image has been resized)

now, add another layer, change your foreground color to #8A8B2B
and click on your airbrush tool using the following settings

paint three diagonal lines across your star

(image has been resized)

then go to your tool bar and  EFFECTS>BLUR>GAUSSIAN BLUR> 7.00
add a new layer and go to your tool bar again using  EFFECT>3D EFFECTS>CUTOUT
with these settings

vertical/Horizantal=5
opacity=75
blur=25
shadow color=#BDA225
fill interior=unchecked

then add a new layer, use the cutout effect again but change the vertical/horizantal to -5
(all other settings remain the same)

Merge all visible, and add a drop shadow with the following settings
vertical/horizantal 3
opacity 63
blur 3
color WHITE

deselct and rename the layer  STAR

you should now have something like this :)

(image has been resized)
 
 
 

The Tail

Alright, now add another layer and hide your star and background layers for now,
load the startail selection and flood fill with #DDDD92
leave the startail selected for now

now, add another layer, change your foreground color to #8A8B2B
and click on your airbrush tool using the following settings

paint 2 lines diagonal top to bottom on your tail then switch your foreground color to white,
leaving your airbrush settings the same, and paint 2 more lines which are over lapping your
original lines just a bit

then go to your tool bar and  EFFECTS>BLUR>GAUSSIAN BLUR> 7.00
add a new layer and go to your tool bar again using  EFFECT>3D EFFECTS>CUTOUT
with these settings

vertical/Horizantal=5
opacity=75
blur=25
shadow color=#BDA225
fill interior=unchecked

then add a new layer, use the cutout effect again but change the vertical/horizantal to -5
(all other settings remain the same)

Merge all visible, and add a drop shadow with the following settings
vertical/horizantal 3
opacity 63
blur 3
color WHITE

deselct and rename the layer  STARTAIL
 
 
 
 

The Effect!

Now, make all of your layers visible again, and move the startail layer inbetween the star and
background layers

now, set your layer opacity to the following

this will give our image a nice "etheral" effect

add a new layer and with the same airbrush settings as we used before, change your
foreground color to white and paint a few diagonal white lines on your tail

(image has been resized)

then go to your tool bar and  EFFECTS>BLUR>GAUSSIAN BLUR> 7.00

(image has been resized)

you should now have something like this...a speeding star!
 
 
 

The Finishing Touches

now, before we merge all of the layers together, if you feel like you would like
some more "stars" on your background, this is the time to do it.
Make your background active and using the settings from earlier,
add a few more stars to your sky!

Once you like what you have, merge all your layers together and now it is time to 
finish it off!

If you would like, you can use a sparkle tube of your choice to give your
star a little more...flare! LOL!

(image has been resized)

also, you may want to add a snazzy frame to your shooting star!
to do so, resize your image 75% and sharpen once.

now change your background color to something nice and dark
I chose to use #951313

now add a border to your image with the following settings

change your background colour to black and add the border effect again with the same
settings.  Using your magic wand, select the black border

(image has been resized)

add the folowing inner bevel

keep the black border selected and add the following drop shadow

vertical/horizantal 3
opacity 63
blur 3
color BLACK

then add the drop shadow again with the following settings

vertical/horizantal -3
opacity 63
blur 3
color BLACK

then go to your tool bar and sharpen once more!