It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas---for Photographers anyway

Family pictures, Christmas cards, print orders for Grandma, and many other items are on your to-do list if you are a family photographer. If you are one of those crazy people that design your own cards, then you have even more to do. Let me help you out a small amount. Here is a free vintage candy cane paper download. It's high res at 3600x3600 so I hope you have some fun with it.

This was made especially for my Christmas card. I love candy-themed Christmas items so I thought this might fit our card perfectly.

Vintage Candy Cane Paper Download..................................................Free           

Happy Halloween

Fall Colors

This was taken in our backyard at the end of September, which is the peak of fall colors around here. Notice the leaves by her head. The background looks on fire, but that is just yellow leaves hitting them in the late morning. I love having enough trees to shoot outside all day without worrying about squinty eyes.

I Heart Faces| Let them be little

Here is Ava Claire mesmerized by a seagull!

Click on the IHP button to see the rest of the entries.

Team Holly Giveaway winner!

Sorry for the delay in announcing the winner. I want to thank all of you for participating in the Team Holly silent auction. The winner of the Organic Bloom and Kids Pack from Photographers Wall Display Guides is none other than Kim Hauman.

I will get you in touch with Ariana on Monday! In the meantime, all bidders can use the discount code Holly to get 15% of EVERYTHING in her shop. This code is good until Monday.

Visit her shop here!

Silent Auction Item 8 A Custom Logo Design from Ribbons of Red

THE PRIZE

One lucky professional photographer will win one free custom logo design from Ribbons of Red. Along with the one free logo design, the winner will also receive the following goodies:

1. Illustrator & Photoshop files (.ai and .psd formats) of the logo.
2. Any fonts used in the creation of the logo so you can brand other elements too!
3. Additional JPEGS and PNGs to place logo anywhere and to watermark photography.
The free logo project will start on November 7th, 2011, and must be completed by December 7th, 2011. The free logo project will be worked on with the same priority as current clients, and the winner will be sent a Logo Questionnaire to kick off the project. To learn more about our creative process, and see if our design talents are a good fit for your personal style, please visit our website (http://www.ribbonsofred.com) and portfolio (http://ribbonsofred.com/and-unlimited/) to get to know us better!

Bidding Starts at $5. Leave bid and email address in comments section. Good Luck!

THE RULES

The winner must:

1. Be a photographer. (Full-Time or Part-Time)
2. Have a solid idea of the type of logo you want.

3. Be available to start the project November 7th.

4. Sign a contract stating this is a free project.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS:

1. This prize can not be redeemable for cash or credit.
2. This prize is non-transferable.

3. Proposed logo design is allowed three rounds of changes if needed.
4. If you are not available to start the logo project on November 7th, 2011 you will forfeit the prize.
5. Logo project must be completed before December 7th, 2011. Please make it an important priority!

Silent Auction Item 7: A seat in Damien Symonds RAW Processing Class

Photoshop Guru Damien Symonds has donated a seat to his "Clean Processing in RAW" class. Most of us use Photoshop way more than we need to. Give your images a fabulous, polished look and save yourself a great deal of time, by learning the fundamentals of processing a RAW image. This will change your photography!!!

Here is a small taste of the information you will get from this class!

Bidding starts at $5. Leave bid and email address in comment section of this post. Good luck.

Silent Auction Item #6 Double Rosette Headband

Lexi Vornberg has donated the GORGEOUS Double Rosette Headband.

Bidding Starts at $5. Leave bid and email address in comments section of this post. Good luck!

Silent Auction Item 5: $50 Store Credit KKline Designs

Katie Kline of KKLINE Designs has donated a $50 store credit. Her store can be viewed here. Her cards, albums designs and digital papers are fabulous.



Bidding starts at $5. Leave bid and email address in comments section. Good Luck!

Silent Auction Item 4: Tiny Toppers

Tiny Toppers specializes in all things newborn and has donated a $25 credit. Check out these adorable newborn props!

Bidding starts at $5. Leave bid and email address in the comments section of this post. Good luck!

Silent Auction Item 3: $50 store credit to The Red Kitchen

The third item on our auction list is a $50 store credit to The Red Kitchen.

Get yourself some Lightroom Presets, or Photoshop Products. For a great price.

Bidding Starts at $5. Leave your bid and your email address in the comments section. Good luck.

Silent Auction Item 2: Photographers' Wall Display Guides

Ariana Falerni has donated her Photographers' Wall Display Guides. Get sets I, II, and III right here. These are available for Photoshop, Elements, or as a Lightroom Plugin.

Sets I, II & III: Couch, Fireplace, Chair, Dining Room, Nursery, Bedroom, Hall, Office, Stairs + Bonus Kitchen. Includes BONUS Kitchen and 7 bonus H&H groupings!

This is a $200 value!

Bidding starts at $5. Place your bid and email address in comments section of this entry. Good luck.

Silent Auction Item Totally Rad Actions.

Our first silent auction item is an item of your choice at the Totally Rad Store! Choose Actions, Presets, textures. Or the newly release RadLab. This item is valued at $150. So head to their store, pick out what you want and bid in the comments section below.

bidding starts at $5! Good Luck!

Everybody's a winner

With the silent auction less than 24 hours away, I thought I should remind you of all the ways you can win!

1. Share info about this auction of facebook, twitter, your blog, or a photography forum. List your email address and where you shared in the comments of this post http://agpdesigns.blogspot.com/2011/10/more-news-on-team-holly-silent-auction.html. Your name will be entered in a drawing for a prize.

2. All bidders will be entered to win The Organic Bloom and Kids Pack of the Photographers' Wall Display Guides. That's right, even if you don't win the item you bid on, you may win our grand prize drawing.

3. All bidders will receive an email with a coupon code for a consolation pack. This will include freebies and coupon codes from some very big vendors.

4. Of course, you can still win the old-fashioned way and keep bidding on your favorite item!

Auction starts bright and early at 8 am CST on Saturday, October 15th, and ends at 11:59 CST on Sunday October 16th.

Holly's family and friends thank you for your support.

Silent Auction Rules

Please remember these items are graciously donated by our vendors. All proceeds from the sales of these items goes right to Holly Nicholson, and if you have read her mom's caring bridge entries, you know she deserves it.

To bid on an item:
Put your email address and the denomination in the comments field of the item you want. Each item is a separate blog post, so make sure you are bidding on the right item.

Each bid must go up by at least $1 and will only be allowed in whole number increments. In other word's don't bid $1.75 or $1.50 on an item.

The bidding for all items starts at $5. Remember this money is going to a great cause.

If two bidders bid simultaneously, the first bid to appear in the thread will be counted.

Any bids that do not include an email address will be voided.

All winners will be notified via email of their winning bid no later than Tuesday, October 18th. They will have 24 hours to complete the paypal transaction. Once paid, winner will be contacted to set up coupon codes and logistics for delivering prizes.

Any item not paid for it 24 hours, will be issued to the next highest bidder.

Once all item transactions are complete, the drawing for The Kids' Pack and Organic Bloom Photographers' Wall Display Guides will be held and the winner announced.

The drawing for the blog badge, and sharing info blog contest will take place at this time.


All bidders will receive a coupon code no later than October 21st to download the free consolation pack from this blog. It will include vendor coupons, action freebies, and an autumn texture.

Thanks to our Vendors Part 2

We got some HUGE vendors in this week.

Totally Rad Actions is donating a single item of the bidders choice---that's right ANY ITEM.


 Ariana Falerni has donated all of the Photographer's Wall Display Guides to the auction! This item could help your sales skyrocket!!! Her products are a $380 value.

Lexi Vornberg is donating her very popular Double Rosette Headband.








Tarah Heitman is donating a $25 gift card to her ADORABLE newborn prop store.

Katie Kline is donating a store credit of $50 to her kkline designs etsy shop.

Thank you to our vendors part 1

Here are a few of the silent auction items up for grabs:

1 CUSTOM LOGO DESIGN--just in time for the holidays, Renee at Ribbons of Red will design your very own logo. This is an amazing prize. Check out her work here (http://www.ribbonsofred.com) and portfolio (http://ribbonsofred.com/and-unlimited/).

2. A seat in Damien Symonds RAW class. Get more info here.
or check his facebook group here.

3. Also on the auction, The Red Kitchen, is donating a $50 gift card to the shop.

I will continue updating our list of vendors throughout the week. Tomorrow, I will be introducing you to some of our vendors donating photography props to this great cause.

Team Holly Giveaway!!!

Things are progressing nicely. Today we got a number of new vendors and uploaded a blog badge designed by Ribbons of Red available for download to show your support of Holly's cause. I have also come up with a few new ideas to make the silent auction more fun for everybody.

I have created a freebie action, a freebie texture, and a list of coupon codes from our vendors for a percentage off their fabulous wares. This Team Holly Participation Pack will be emailed to all participants of the silent auction. This way everybody wins something. I am also holding back a few items in the auction as consolation prizes. All bidders will go into a drawing for a chance to win these prizes.

I have also met a mythical creature who calls herself the blog/facebook fairy. If you comment on this post that you have placed the blog badge on your blog and leave the URL to your blog, she will be entering you in a drawing at the end of the silent auction. If your name is drawn, she will visit your blog and leave you a present if she finds the badge. The thing about the blog fairy is that she is kind of an attention hog so if you also tell her that you shared this info on facebook, twitter, or wrote a blog post about it in your comment below she will probably add your name to the drawing or that prize also. If you do a combination of posting the blog badge, posting to facebook, tweeting, or blogging about the silent auction, please leave a comment for each entry method you do!

And let's face it, you know you want the blog badge. It's beautiful and it's like bling for your blog so download it for free right here.

That's all I have to announce today. Soon, I will start talking about our very sweet vendors. Have a great night.

Why I love Holly Nicholson...Announcing the Team Holly Online Silent Auction

Anyone who knows me knows I love photography, and I show it with exhausting amounts of pictures of my children. Last year, we had Holly of Holly Nicholson Photography out to do our portraits and we LOVED them. I can't get enough of her work; it is simply outstanding.
Holly has had a very turbulent summer which included a stage 3 cancer diagnosis and all of the complications that go with it. Her story can be found here.

Holly is such a sweet, and genuine young person and it just sickens me that she has to go through this. She is always the first one to help me test out all of my new hare-brained action ideas on her gorgeous images. To give back, I have decided to host a "Team Holly" Silent auction right here on my new blog. I am working with many legendary photography vendors who have generously donated their time and talent for this awesome woman. The auction will start right here at 10 am CST on Saturday, October 15 and will end Sunday October 16 at 11:59 pm CST.

I will be accepting item donations until Wednesday October 12th, after that donations will be closed in order to prepare the items, plan for shipping, and arrange logistics for the Saturday auction. If you are a vendor that works with photographers or knows someone who would like to get involved with this auction, please contact me at agibbons7525@gmail.com and we will get it set up.

Please like me on facebook to stay updated with the vendor list as it grows. I would like to personally thank Renee of Ribbons of Red for her generous donation of a custom logo design. She is absolutely fabulous.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. This is the place I will come to share my obsessive PhotoShop knowledge, tips, and tricks. I may also bore you with some of my favorite images and stories about my kids--I'm a mom I can't help it. This blog is currently under big time construction and I am only adding the necessities as I go along. If you photoshop questions or issues, facebook me or message me using the buttons on the left.