Step 1

First of all, we are going to start off with creating a new document – the size I’ve used is 400 by 300 pixels. To start with, we need to have a background, the sky. Fill the background with a radial gradient – the colours I’ve used are #2d7fb7 for the light blue, and #004e8e for the dark blue.

Step 2

Now that we have the background out of the way, create a new layer (Layer > New > Layer) and select the elliptical marquee. Make a circle and then while holding down the shift key make some more circles around the first so that you get a unique cloud shape forming. Fill (Edit > Fill) the selection with white.

Step 3

We’ll now be adding a couple of layer styles to the cloud to give a double stroke effect.

Layer > Layer Style > Outer Glow. The light blue colour there is #2b7db6.

Layer > Layer Style > Stroke. The colour I’ve used here is #06243c.

Your cloud should be looking like this now.

Step 4

Next up, we are going to be adding an inner gradient. Select the area of the cloud and go Select > Modify > Contract by 5 pixels. On a new layer, fill the selection with a linear gradient from #f2f2f2 (top left) to #d7d7d7 (bottom right).

Step 5

Lastly, we’ll be adding a shadow to the cloud. On a new layer make a selection similiar to below using the elliptical marquee and fill with black.

Now we want the shadow to look like one rather than just a smooth edged ellipse so go Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and use a radius of 10 pixels.

Set the blend mode to soft light and the opacity to 50%.

And there we go, a cliche cloud :)