Export layer of photoshop as is?

Question

Please forgive me if this is a stupid question but I could not for the life of me figure this out.

I followed this tutorial on adding weathered looks to your artwork and it worked wonderfully. The problem came when I tried to export my artwork.

I wanted to save it as just the art without the background so I did the usual "hide the layer you don't want to save" thing and to my surprise, the art went straight back to its original form. I need it to be worn down without the background visible.

So my question is, does anyone have a way of saving this layer as I see it, not as photoshop sees it? Thanks!