Can't Afford Photoshop? FREE Graphics Programs

Are you excited by programs such as Photoshop, but can't afford pricey graphics/photo editing software? Well there is a solution! Great FREE software is out there for the taking. Much of what I reviewed is very similar to Photoshop. Of course, you're not going to get all the bells and whistles with a free program, but it will allow you to learn and use basic editing features... and create some pretty cool stuff.

To find and review FREE software, do a Google/Yahoo search for one or more of the programs below to see which will best suit your needs. The search will also show downloading links.

Gimp or Gimpshopdotnet (which closely immulates Photoshop), Project Dogwaffle, Ultimate Paint, Pixia, Skencil, InkScape, Paint.net, Brush Strokes, Sodipodi, Karbon14, ArtWeaver, Terragen, ImageMagick, or Blender.

Selling on eBay & Postage

With the cost of postage recently increasing, I have to ask myself if it's really worth it to sell on eBay. The shadowboxes I sold cost $4.60 to send in a postal Priority Mail (free to me) box, and $4.30 to send first class with me providing the box. Since finding the right sized box for thirty cents or less was impossible, the choice was easy. But, if someone is paying $5 for an item postage at that price doubles the cost. I'm sure that has made a lot of people think before bidding.

One of the pieces I sold this month was titled "Let It Snow" and featured a vintage reproduction photo of a bundled baby. It fit nicely into a bubble mailer and shipping was very reasonable.

I've started to watch the size of the artwork I list for sale because mailing larger pieces can get quite expensive. In the future, I'm only going to sell artwork that will fit in flat envelopes or bubble mailers, no more boxes for me. I don't want a customer paying twice as much for postage as they paid for the artwork.