I’m a simple girl.  Simple needs.  Simple wants.  That’s why, this morning, I sit here with a smile Ajax won’t wash off.  LOL  I won another contest!  You know the old saying, “You can’t win if you don’t enter.”  It was this that encourages me to enter contests that I run across online.  What do I have to lose?  Sometimes, the contests are for monetary wins, or a benefit valued at some expense.  More often than not, though, the ones I find are for services, such as free subscriptions to websites with resources.  Such was the case, recently, when Graphicmania ran their contest where the winner would receive a three-month’s subscription to Vectorius.  Three winners were chosen randomly, including moi!  Since vectors can be used in Photoshop, this is fantabulous!  Vectorius has around 1800 vectors on file.  Can you imagine?!  LOL

When the websites offer the chance to win, in most cases, all you have to do is to leave a comment at the bottom of the contest post.  In this one, I believe, they asked what we would like to see Vectorius offer it’s customers.  Naturally, I said vintage.  I can’t believe that vectors can look vintage, but, they can.  Here is a sampling of what I downloaded this morning:

 

  

Vectors, if you don’t know, are usually created with Illustrator.  A vector, by definition, is a geometric object that has both a magnitude (or length) and direction.  With vectors, you can enlarge them or shrink them down to a dot and they won’t lose resolution.  In this respect, vectors top rasters for using in designs.  A raster is made with pixels, as you have seen, or can see, by zooming in to an object.  If you’ve ever tried to really enlarge a raster, you lose much of the quality.  Not so with vectors.

While on the topic of vintage, I have another gem for you.  You have to go check out Neare Store.  You might know her stuff by Far, Far Hill blog.   She makes the most awsome kits for free downloading.  Her terms are super, and I quote:

Much of her freebie downloads are scans of old books or magazines.  She offers quite a few ‘pin-ups’ packages.  They’re delightful, not in bad taste at all.  But, she does beautiful work, too.  The most expensive thing in her store is $1.50.  Though, I believe there are more freebies than products in her store.  You have to navigate around a bit.  Click on her blogs and the freebie listing in her top bar or index, depending on which link you go in using.  With this Neare Store link, you get to the freebie page, which is multiple pages.  The, with this Far, Far Hill link, you get to another group of blog freebies, also multiple pages.  She offers something new almost every day!  They are mostly the same stuff, but, I haven’t figured it all out yet.  LOL   In any case, it is well worth your trouble.  Give a little visit her way.  You will be glad you did!  Oh, and do check out her banner on the Far, Far Hill page.  It is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen!  That is worth the visit, if nothing else!  LOL

Things seem to be going fairly well at Magickal Scraps new forum.  We had a problem with one of the files, but, we fixed that.  This kit, “September Song”, is beautiful, kind of old-fashioned.  You can see it in the slideshow at the top of my page.  If you’ve not been to the new forum, yet, do go!  All of the daily downloads are still up, plus, there are the “grand opening freebies” that the ladies created just for our visitors.  Look under both, ‘Daily Downloads’ and ‘Freebies’ in the index.  While you are there, you should check out the ‘Challenges’, as well.  There are quite a few; something for everyone.  The members are creating away, coming up with some absolutely gorgeous stuff!  Have a look.

So, you know how I am, always the free gift.  LOL  I had found some brushes at Function that can be used for subtle grungy textures. There are two sets, both free downloads.  The first one, “33 Function Brushes for Subtle Grunge”, has some very nice textures in it.  The second set, “42 More Subtle Grunge Texture Brushes”, continues with some even more awesome textures.  What I read, somewhere in the article at We Function, was pretty basic, use them in multiple layers with different ‘blending modes’.  So, that is what I did!  I got both sets, opened Photoshop and went to town!  I borrowed the colors from DigiScrapObsession’s September Color Challenge.  Kim B always gives folks the most gorgeous color palettes to work with!

 

I loaded the colors and tried different layering orders, different textures with various ‘blending modes’, and came up with some beautiful papers.  I, then, used the same papers to create a few elements to go with them.  Here is what I created.  Click on the preview image to go to 4Shared to download.