I've gotten some Icons off of Livejournal and I was just wondering how I could apply what they've done to other pictures, because I think they're really neat but I am HORRIBLE with these kinds of things.

You have to find the brushes that they used. Perhaps try asking them where they got the brushes? They do look nice. ^_^

They look like light textures; search for that under DeviantArt resources.
You can probably find the last two easier by searching for 'light flare' or 'lens flare'. You might have better luck finding the first kind (the dots) but searching 'light texture dots' or something, lol. :]

EDIT: http://umbluemusic.deviantart.com/art/13-L...xtures-57485936
I think those might be the lens flares. More here.

I'd say that's a play on lighting combined with a whisp brush. By using blending could make parts different colours mkaing them look birght, then simply add white/burn the flaring span illuminance effect, or perhaps it's a plugin. Or if your lucky, it could be a lens flare which are really easy to do xP

The first is a light dot texture; the second two are light flare textures, or lens flare textures. It matters what kind of program you have, since there are different ways to apply it in different programs. In Photoshop, you resize the texture to fit the icon and then paste it, set it to screen, and play around with the opacity. For an extra effect, you could also play with the brightness/contrast... unless you don't have Photoshop. Haha.

If your doing what cupidsays, i recommend hue blending for additional style ^^ Or better yet, learn the pen tool and have fun making own lens flares.

(Make the tendril with pen and the flare with some other brush, unless someone has a better way to create the flare itself ^^)