Simple Shapes

Sometimes less is more...

This simple image resulted when I rediscovered a handy little tool in Photoshop called "Shapes."  All I had to do was select a few and layer them.  As I was just playing around, I didn't have any sort of plan or intention, otherwise I might have used some colour in the composition.  As it is, though, I think it's reminiscent of a woodblock print.

What do you think? Would you consider this as a card to send out for the holiday season?  Of course, one would have to be a cat lover to do so...but I think there are more than a few out there...

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

I haven't gone into hibernation but I have journeyed west to Vancouver to spend Christmas with family and friends, away from the snow (or so I thought).  Lotus Land got blanketed with the wet white stuff today.  But rather than chill me, it fueled my creative fire.

This Christmas card-like composition is what resulted from a few happy hours spent tinkering in Photoshop with a scene photographed from my mother's balcony this morning. The birds are actually "brushes" from Amanda Rockwell (I have signed up for her Designer's Brush Workshop). If I was sending cards this Christmas, I would likely print this on watercolour card paper, giving it a textured, hand-painted look.

This is a simpler version, showing how I had started to play with the colours.

This is the original photo.

I didn't really think I'd be inspired by images of snow
 when I came out west!

Prioritizing

It's well beyond time to priortize and get my Christmas baking, house decorating, gift wrapping in order.

But most of all, it's well and truly time to bid the little band of bloggers who sometimes or oftimes visit my virtual studio here at Ragzedge a most joyous holiday season, full of good cheer and culinary treats, peace of heart and mind, along with good company--even if it be only your own.

May the joy and good will that fills the air at Christmas linger through the long cold nights of winter and spread its warm embrace through the New Year ahead!

(thanks to Kim Klassen for background texture and Shadowhouse Creations for brushes used to enhance the digital edition of this Christmas card originally made with painted paper towels torn into shapes)

***

The Maxim of the Week is taking a little break but will have an epiphany on January 6, 2013.

Window Wonderland Reducks (+Swans+Geese)

I recently enjoyed a bit of window shopping at Holt Renfrew in downtown Vancouver--it's pretty much the only way I can afford to shop there.  The very clever window-dressers had chosen to illustrate the lyrics from The Twelve Days of Christmas. Here's a sampling of images that I couldn't resist "toying" with.

Electric Lady Land Partridge in a Pear Tree!

I bet you didn't know that it was a Canada Goose that laid the golden egg.

5 gold rings...jewellery is always a popular gift, or how about a solid gold hoola-hoop.

Golden rings and golden eggs with a little Christmas bling (thanks to Pixlr effects)

 8 maids-a-milking with 6 swans-a-swimming while the 7th one swans in for a solo

9 ladies dancing conjure up visions of sugar plum fairies

11 pipers blowing as hard as a winter wind, even though they haven't got a leg to stand on



(image treated with a dousing of magic pixlr dust)

 and 2 turtle doves (or as my grandmother used to say, "Lovey Dovies")

wishing you love, warmth, and merriment

in this festive season

xoxo

*To see more images from the Twelve Days of Christmas window, take a peek at my Décolleté blog*