Created by:GenOneStudios on December 8 2009. Found in -

Every year, both to test my skill with my software, and to create a seasonal header for my site, I try to create a cute graphic image.

This year was no exception. Unfortunately, due to several bouts with flu (H1N1 and seasonal) I have been knocked back on my heels. Work piled up and time for playing with graphics was short.

I actually didn't have a theme or direction this year either. I had redesigned my site to solidify the color scheme, enhance the layout and usability and upgraded to Drupal for ease of content management. Things were different, which was good. I like the challenge. But time was short. I didn't like the anxiety levels that kicked up.

Get focused.

The easiest decisions was to go with my brand colours of pale blue and minty green and the related supporting shades and hues. And I also decided that I really liked my avatar so i would use her in the design. I considered several wild and fanciful ideas, Avatar as an angel, a snow blizzard, avatar as santa. Unfortunately, each idea was time consuming and well, I was already under a crunch!

Looking about I had all sorts of clipart: gifts, wreaths, trees, Santa and his eight tiny reindeers, a creche and the Holy Family...the works. But all of these were not the same 'feel' with the site. Either the style was wrong or the colour and texture were off. But they did give me the idea of a "Merry Christmas" banner and a lighted Christmas tree.

Getting started.

The banner was easy enough to create. A simple ribbon enlarged and re-coloured to be the pale blue of my colour scheme. I added what I think looks like gold "rope" and a grommet at the very top so it looked like the banner was being hung from something out of visible range. That seemed better than having it "float" in the air.

My avatar came in a red cocktail dress, santa hat and red, heeled shoes. Stunning. But red was just a "POW" that at first seemed at odds with mono toned, pastel scheme. I decided I would re-color her dress.

Here is what she looked like in the beginning;

I tried several hues and finally begin to hover near my signature pale blue. I hadn't completely clipped the avatar to add the colour, just a rough swatch selected so I could play with the re-colouring.

I never did finish the re-colouring of her dress before I decided that "POW" was really what I wanted. Whew, that saved me a couple of hours at least!

While fussing with her dress, I was also hunting for a blue christmas tree. It had to be the right shade of blue and also the right "feel" of graphic. Of course. I did find a few that I liked on sites like istock Photo, Dreamstime and sxc.hu. (sites I troll often). But none that were perfect. Too much additional colour, too much texture, a complex background; you get the idea.

I especially liked these types of graphics illustrated by the image below. A tree shape suggested by the glow and twinkle of hundreds of stars and lights. This particular one was really appealing, except trying to remove that navy background from the bitmap image would have been very time consuming.

So I went hunting among my own collection.

I own several (many!) photo and clipart collections that I keep on hand. Why? One thing I have learned is that internet connections go down when it's LEAST convenient. In Houston, you can lose the connection over a small rain storm and have it stay gone for two days or more. If I were not prepared, I would get very little work done when the internet connection crashes.

Delving into my collection I found lots of promising tidbits for the tree.

I finally decided on this tree

Yucky isn't it?

The quality of the graphic is very poor. But the shape, in my mind, is a perfect christmas tree.

A little clipping, many lacy stars and circles, some spit, some polish and whallah! My tree!

Isn't it gorgeous? Of course it is!

I think maybe adding a few swatches of ribbon would be a nice element to incorporate. But I am happy with it.

So there you have it, My Christmas Header for the year 2009.

Happy Birthday Jesus.

Merry Christmas to all of you.

Happy Holidays to every good man, woman and child, whatever you may be celebrating.

Be blessed!

Cheré