Resizing a Layer

 

I have noticed that there is a lot of confusion as to how to resize a layer in photoshop without having to resize the whole image. To do this, you will need to go to Edit > Free Transform. Then you will notice a box around your layer that has a center point and a point at each of the four corners / sides. All you need to do is drag the points around to the size you want it to be.

 

There are also value boxes at the top of the screen. There you will notice a chain between the H (height) and W (width) values. Click this chain to turn on the aspect ratio option.

After you have your layer the size you want it, either click the check mark at the top of your screen or double click inside the bounding box on your image.