Present 4 U

X'mas & New Year Present for you:

Get free image and make it as your own stamp!

 

Click the link below to download and sign up the network
childhood-stamp.png

Other activities on the network

• Up coming art class: I'm so happy to tell you that I'm working on the new course called "Pretty Portraits" will play in DIGITAL & MIXED MEDIA project, will run on coming early new year 2012. This will be very interesting. Keep your eye on this one.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Self Study Art Class:
  The Sweetened Simplicity as a live course is complete and now it is available as a self-study programme. Course outline is here.

• Freeware: Saving Money on Digital Art Software

• Challenge for December: X mas
  
• Featured Artist: Timeless Rituals (Simo)
  Do you'd like to be a featured artist? Click here

Happy Holidays!

:-)

With best wishes,

Shwe

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Freebie on Friday - Home Sweet Home scrapbook kit

It's Friday!  Happy Friday everyone!  As I promised last week I'll try to share something nice and free for you every week, I believe the free images would be a great deal for you to make the most of your creative art journey..  So I am sharing this awesome and very useful printable scrapbook kit which a set of 6 layers - a girl, a house, a hill, a sweet text and two cloud layers.  Click here to download this freebie.  However, you may not alter and claim as your images.  I hope you like it. Spread the love by sharing it with your friends and family... I would however, love to see what you do with these!

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Quote of the day 1

I am in a playful mood today. I'm not doing anything special but I spend time on Photoshop, layering textures on photo and lifting up a beautiful message.  "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams"  The quote sounds beautiful, isn't it?  Download and save this image, and set it as your desktop picture.  I hope it will make you happy and bright your day! It was a fun thing to do.  You can also use my freebie textures from this link. 

Hmm next time, I will take a photo of my little aloe vera plant. I have had it for 10 months, and it is 14 inches tall, the leaves are growing, there are 8 baby plants in the pot, kind of like a mother and babies! My little plant is growing like crazy, attacking the little babies so I need to putting them into their own new pots when they got a bit larger.

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Freebie - Background Textures

Version (1), 1600 x 1280 pixels, 300 dpi

Here I would like to share a few background textures with you today which I played with yesterday by painting some acrylic on canvas.  After that I had a good fun with them on Photoshop.  You can use them as backgrounds directly or as mixed textures – feel free to edit.  And I hope you can use them either way. In the future, I will try to share freebie images every week. 

Version (2), 1600 x 1280 pixels, 300 dpi

This week I am busy with preparations work on moving to messy Kuala Lumpur.  I would miss my apartment with a seaview and good air in Penang (not to mention the great food and safe neighbourhoods).  But anyway, business seems to be better in KL and have to move there for family’s progress.  For sure, I’m excited for the move.  Planning to complete the move by next month, so I’m doing packing day by day in small loads.  

With this preoccupation on moving, I don’t think I’ d be able to create art full time these days. I have to admit I still want to create mixed media with Photoshop.  I also want to touch and feel the paint with my hands.  Perhaps I have to wait until getting to the new place.  Now time for more Photoshop.  Fast to create and require little materials ;) 

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Saving money on digital art software

I have wonderful news to share today.  I remember having gone through available free software (freewares) before I start off Sweetened Simplicity workshop for the sake of those who do not wish to have  Photoshop.  I was looking for freeware equivalent of Photoshop but could not find any good candidates.  One has this tool but lacks another.  Usually those free software do not have adequate number of tools.  

Today I received a message from Florence, a new member on our Ning network.  To answer her question of if GIMP software (available free) can be used for my course, I found out that YES it appears to be a rather reliable substitute for Photoshop.  (I am still testing it of course).

What is GIMP?

GIMP can be a very good Photoshop alternative and it is a free to download software available on the Internet.  So I have started using it.  Many tools and functions from Photoshop are available on GIMP.  It is suitable for both editing and creating new artworks with the availability of required tools.  

SURPRISE! SURPRISE! Photoshop Elements doesn’t have a pen tool but our free GIMP has a pen tool.  

OK what are the downsides?  The interface is different from that of Photoshop.  So if you are very used to Photoshop then you might feel a bit uncomfortable at the start.  But of course with practice, you could get more comfortable.   

If you want to know more about the software, visit the link here please! 

Check the pros and cons of this software on this link here. http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/freesoftware/fr/gimp.htm

I feel very grateful to people and organisations that make such software.  PLUS, most importantly special thanks to Florence for bringing attention to GIMP.  

Sweetened Simplicity gets even more affordable!  Less cost for learning materials.

Now in order to enjoy creating beautiful dolls, you don’t need to invest in a tablet (££$$) or even in expensive software or subscription.  So I can happily claim that if you have a computer, a mouse and a creative mind, you are already set to start the course. Learn more about Sweetened Simplicity art course.

My tutorials will still be in Photoshop though.  Don’t worry about the differences since functions and tools are similar on both software.  If you still have Photoshop, you are already in a good position.  Although there won’t be tutorials on GIMP you could still easily follow my tutorials (which are in Photoshop) with GIMP.

The GIMP software can be downloaded from http://www.gimp.org/downloads/ 

I will be creating a new doll face or artwork with this software to share with you on one of these days.  

 

With best wishes and hugs,

Shwe

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Tea Party - Free Blog Background - (2 Column)

(Make sure you are using the Minima template.)

This one is for a 2 column blog.

1. Copy all the code in the box below by hi-lighting it and pressing "CTRL and C" at the same time.

<style type="text/css">body {background-image: url("http://api.ning.com/files/3wy6dgNq8ps6tnV0UAIpgFLS5H8Cwq8IrG4rk7iBtxEf9DDqKf7yOlce5XENHDpSSb7HvhNm73NhP6rRHFxmXedpYDnWdSRU/teaparty.jpg"); background-position: center; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; }</style><div id="tag" style="position:absolute; left:0px; top:30px; z-index:50; width:150px; height:45px;"><a href="http://stkhit.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src=" http://api.ning.com/files/PHW*8Yh6nWWiK9a49cHw4Wlvnokp1SesbcAxOYCjkyS9CJS9TytiKcH*Z7aerYRGMY3eoqaRUEz7XX3VKGYmi1oiCxiZsRoM/blogicon.jpg " border="0" /></a></div>

2. Log in to your blogger blog.

3. Click on "Customise" to take you to the, "Add and Arrange Page Elements" page.

4. Click on "Add Gadget" scroll down to "HTML/JavaScript" and click on the blue "+" sign.

5. Paste the above code in the Contents box using "CTRL and V". (You can leave the Title box blank.)

6. Click "Save".

***Enjoy!***

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