Lost Aussie on the loose

All Nutcrackery in New York

We were in the big Apple the other day touring the Christmas sights and looking at the lovely windows, scoping out the Christmas markets while #2 son caught up with friends from Australia.

It seems that half his class mates are over in the US at the moment! We even had two of them sleep over last night - treated them to the sights of Long Island, a little Ten Pin Bowling and then had to bring home Pizza from Victor's. 
(You've not "done" Long Island until you have eaten a slice of "their" pie!)

It's nice to have the house full.  The cats are even getting used to it.

I messed with these lovely Nutcrackers today while I was waiting for something to dry, bake or wash - you can download the STARRY CLIPPING MASK to use if you'd like.... a little holiday freebie!
(And don't worry, it looks weird on the download link, but it's a PNG file and will be just fine when you open it.)

I hope you are having as much fun getting ready for Christmas as I am!

 

Graphic Fun

Photoshop and Illustrator hold endless thrall for me.  There are always so many nooks and crannies to explore.

Lately I have been obsessed with creating patterns.  Converting raster images into vectors and then back again to use in PS...(OK I can already hear you snore...) - but hey, it floats MY boat and that's all that counts here!

You can download these fun patterns for free over at my Digital Magic blog (if you are so inclined).

If you are not sure how to install patterns into Elements or Photoshop, give me a holler and I will help you out.

Did You Start Without Me?

What can I say? ... but Happy New Year!  Eversince arriving home in the wee small hours of Jan 1st I have been hard at work getting ready for my next online class which starts next week! - I looked up this afternoon and realised that it was January 4th already! Wow!

Well, I hope you are all off to a fine start!  I daresay I will back in the land of the living shortly.

In the meantime, you can pop over to CARLA's blog where she is having a fabulous GIVEAWAY of two seats in my Journal Magic Class - as a little New Year Treat and a bit of Pay It Forward!

Don't tarry, she will draw the winners on the 8th of January if I am not mistaken!!

ps - You can only enter the GIVEAWAY via Carla's Blog - not here.

Evidence

.....of the first snow

in New York - Long Island

 

of coffee sipped with a friend

a few weeks ago in Perth

(Can you really spend 4 hours over coffee?)

 

 

of Julia of Ju-North

having fun with her Snowflake Brush download!

Thanks for sharing Julia, and if anyone else would like to share artwork created with the brushes feel free to send it on!

Snowflake Love

Snowflake Love

I spoke to #2 son in Australia on Skype earlier this evening and he asked about the Snow...  what snow? I said, no snow here... and a few hours later I've made a fibber out of myself as there is a quarter inch dusting the deck and patio - the first of the Winter.

To mark the moment I've cooked up a little Snowflake Love in Photoshop.  All done with Brushes, layer styles and a gradient map thrown in here and there.
If you've taken my Digital Magic class and remember the lessons on using brushes - scattering, spacing and so forth you will have no trouble contriving a little Snowflake fun of your own.

I have created a set of Snowflake brushes FREE for you to download HERE.

Enjoy - with my compliments of the Season!

And if you haven't signed up to take the Digital Magic Class, the next session starts on Wednesday, December 15th - it's not too late to sign up!

A Few Photoshop Freebies

Unfortunately my "To Do" list is still in the same forlorn state that it was yesterday...shopping, life and a few other things have got in the way - what's new?  I have however managed to find some time to work on a few sets of Photoshop "Goodies" that I have been determined to get done.  As a tasty treat for all you Digital Divas I have posted a few freebies for you to download and play with.

They are .abr files and should work in any version of Photoshop 7 or higher and Elements as well.

Simply click HERE and download the file as prompted.  It is a zip file so you will need to download and save the zip file to your preferred location (I keep a folder just for downloads which a a nice safe and easy thing to do).
Unzip the file and drag the two abr files into your Adobe program.

Brushes belong in the Presets/Brushes folder.
If you are unsure of where that is, click on your My Computer Icon, click Program Files, click on your Adobe CS(version) or Elements, click Presets and Brushes and drag the files into there.

If you have any problems you can shoot me an email and of course I'd love to see what you come up with using the brushes!

ciao