I can provide a step-by-step walkthrough for the exact style you're chasing.
Always save your working file in GIMP’s native format. If you export to PNG or JPG, you lose your layers and the ability to tweak your effects later. If you'd like to try a specific look, let me know: Are you working with text or photos ? gimp layer effects
The “GIMP Layer Effects” plugin (a third-party add-on) attempts to bridge this gap by creating a dockable dialog that writes GEGL filter graphs for you. Ironically, even this plugin does not create Photoshop-style metadata ; it simply automates the stacking of GEGL nodes. Under the hood, you are still building a filter pipeline. I can provide a step-by-step walkthrough for the