Occasionally, off-the-wall things strike me funny and sometimes from that comes a design. This is one of those times. From something that struck me funny on an episode of American Dad.

Alligator Shout-Out Shirt by sfcount
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A Blue Christmas Tree

For the past few weeks I've been quite stuck in holiday mode. I can't seem to get to anything that isn't holiday themed. My favorite element of the holidays is the Christmas tree. I suppose that's why many of my designs are related to the tree.
My latest tree design started out in my head as something quite different than the end result. I had it in my mind to create a Christmas tree from leaves, so I went to my PSP program to the leaf picture tube. After choosing the one that best suited the look I wanted, because I wanted it blue instead of green, I used the colorize option to change it.
I then set about "building" a tree by copying and pasting each leaf, one by one, on a new image.




It had a certain something, but I wasn't entirely happy with it; so off to my Corel Painter 4 program it went where I applied the detailed watercolor auto-painting feature.





After creating a snowy landscape in PSP, I copied the tree and added it, but just couldn't make it work somehow. Ultimately deciding it was the lower edge that was not working, I trimmed it then copied and pasted that onto the background. I added a few little twinkly ornaments to the tree and declared it finished. It's now on several different products in my Zazzle store, including this greeting card.

Harlequin Kitty

It's true that I'm a bona fide, dyed-in-the-wool cat lover bordering on crazy cat lady. That's why when a friend suggested the notion of a cat dressed as a jester or harlequin, I couldn't resist the idea. It burned in my brain until the next morning when I broke down and started on it. I knew it was going to be a daunting design and, honestly, I wasn't sure my talents were up to the challenge. At this point I have to confess this kitty was strongly influenced by the wonderfully whimsical cats created by the great and glorious Edward Gorey.


I did a basic outline in my Corel painter program with the thick and thin pencil tool starting with the cat's face. It was love at first sight. After that my infatuation with this smiling kitty drove me on. After the basic sketch was done, I began coloring in with the the tapered gouache brush. I like this brush and use it quite a bit because I find it fills better than some of the others and is easier to control. Anyway, on I went filling in each little diamond on his costume by hand. When the painting was finished, I sent it to my PSP program for the tedious task of cleaning up the edges. I then copied the image and added it to a background I had created using some of the stock Paint Shop patterns. At the end my eyes were red and bleary and my back was aching, but I think he was worth the pain. He's now happily dancing on several products in my Zazzle store.