Dash of Inspiration – July 11, 2011
A Dash of Inspiration…A Cup of Creativity by Doreen
Here’s Christmas in July
I know you’ve all heard the expression “Christmas in July”; well this expression has been around a very long time and most commonly in the marketing and manufacturing industries. In order for product to be on the shelves in time for holiday purchasing, the manufacturers need to be completing orders and getting ready to start shipments all over the world, in July. Marketing and advertising companies start focusing on how to push the merchandise for the seasonal rush.
What this means to you as a small independent designer is that you need to be creating your Seasonal cards and designs in order to have your product approved, on those virtual shelves and found by search engines in time for customers to begin browsing. To help inspire your creations here are some Beautiful Snowy Winter Photographs to ‘get you in the mood’. I’ve also included a link to a lovely set of Bokeh Brushes which can be used in combination with gradients and blended into backgrounds to give off a wonderful holiday lights feeling to your compositions. My Holiday Parrot Painting shown here is on a Bokeh Background. For those that may have missed out on my Facebook Fan Page Preset for the week, I’ve added the link I posted for a nice set of 26 Snow and Snowflake Brushes which should work for Photoshop 7+, Photoshop Elements 2+, GIMP 2.2.6+
So off you go and Merry Christmas in July!
Image by Doreen Erhardt, Salon of Art
GCU Community 
our winter in the Northeast is way tooo long, not quite ready to be tied down with winter images, but your red & black combo is stunning … THANKS http://asketchaday-artistretreat.blogspot.com/
Hey Judith, especially this year huh? We had over 600% of normal snow and were not out of the cold and wet until June, but…
This is important to my business, so it’s definitely Christmas in July for me!
Stay warm girl!!
You always offer such magnificent and usable links. Thanks so very much!!
You are very welcome Lloyd! Thank you for stopping by and appreciating the effort 🙂
T.Y. kindly Doreen.. I can never have to many Bokeh anything. Big fan of it.. and with today’s heat…. the images were very cooling.. for a minute ~ 🙂
You’re welcome Tj…I love the look too! Thanks for stopping by!
nothing like a new tool to get me inspire…the snowflakes are alot of fun, got a dozen new winter designs created before I know it … THANKS…if you have the time, love to know how you created the gcu star & proseller logo
Hi Judith, you mean my posting icon?
Simple. I took my business logo and placed a copy of it in a small square new image, placed the proseller and GCU badge over it, sized accordingly and saved as a jpg. Walla! I only use this one on WordPress icon.
Answer your question?
Love the card, Doreen. The contrast between the exotic bird, normally found south of the Equator; and the frostiness of the flakes makes for a cool sentiment.