Interested in advertising on the Minty Ferret? We get hundreds of visits from Photoshop users and lovers daily! (Check out our Google Analytic’s Stats) If you’re looking for targeted webmaster/graphic artist traffic, you’ve come to the right place. Right now we’re offering 16×16px adicon units on the sidebar for only $2.50 per square per month!

Right now I am filling up spaces for the month of MARCH.

You can buy a row or a single square, it’s up to you. Please purchase through the button below and I’ll be in contact shortly after to get information (site URL, graphic, and position). Payments are made securely through Paypal.

Please Contact me if you have any questions or are having problems.

If you’re interested in a more traditional form of advertising (aka Banner Space) please Contact Me for details (including available spaces, price, and traffic stats).

Just don’t have the cash handy, but have a cool website you want to show off? COMMENT with a link to your website – I’ll choose a few to give a free ad spot (plus free 16×16 graphic designed if you so wish) to!

Think you could draw a Google Doodle?

Google is holding a competition where participants design a Google Doodle! The winner will receive $10,000 for university/college, a trip to the ‘Googleplex’, a laptop, and a t-shirt with their doodle. This contest is limited to students from K-12 and only those living in the United States. So if that applies to you, why not talk to your school administrators about signing up? Do it quick though, the deadline for registration is March 28/08 with the deadline for the actual doodle on April 12/08. 2-36th place finishes will also win a trip to the Googleplex!

In the meantime, why not check out these ten quick tips from the ultimate Google Doodler himself, Dennis Hwang?

1. Make sure your design complements the shape of the letters in the Google logo, but don’t let that restrict your creativity.

2. Experiment with different media to see which one works best for your design (you can even create your doodle on your PC).
3. Don’t over-complicate your design – simpler images often have the most impact.
4. Remember that your design could end up on the Google homepage, so imagine how it will look on screen.
5. To find inspiration around the “What if…?” theme, try thinking about the future and how you would like it to differ from the present.
6. Remember to use color well and think about how it interacts with a white background.
7. Avoid commercial or copyrighted images.
8. Think outside the box – try to create a doodle that’s different from your classmates and hasn’t been done before.
9. Feel free to use the space behind and in front of the Google letters, but try to maintain your design’s overall balance.
10. Have fun! “Doodle 4 Google” is all about creativity and enjoying designing fun things.

[Via Vaoko]
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Need a need RSS Icon for your blog?
Here’s a nice short tutorial on how to make a unique and memorable RSS Icon by manipulating Shapes in Photoshop. This comes with the added bonus of allowing you to scale your RSS icon to fit your website!

If you’re lazy and would rather get your grubby hands on the finished product, I have posted up the PSD and various PNG RSS icons for you to download freely. Just check out this post!

However if you want to learn the techniques behind making this:

Then subscribe to my RSS feed and head on after the break!

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Need some spiffy Free RSS Icons for your blog? Look no further!

I’ve put together a great package of scalable RSS icons for you to use (tutorial on how to make them is here!). Included are PSD files for both large, medium, and small sizes. I’ve also included PNGs of each colour and size if you want to use them right away! You can also create your own colours by adjusting the style of the ‘background’ layer.

These RSS icons are made purely as shapes in Photoshop, so using the PSD file you can scale them easily. I recommend duplicating the folder containing the colour you want onto a new canvas, then scale the entire folder.

So without more blabbering from me, here is the link to the download package. Enjoy!

>> Download the RSS Icon Package Here <<
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Ever want to use your design skills to make a difference?

The American Red Cross is holding a t-shirt designing contest. The winner will receive $1000, media attention, their designed featured on 600,000 shirts, and the knowledge that they’re doing a part in helping those in need!

This contest is open to anyone. The winning shirt will be given to youth volunteers (high schools and colleges) who donate blood as a thank you gift and to incite others to donate as well. The deadline for this contest is March 21, 2008 and winners will be announced on April 4, 2008.

So roll up those sleeves (hah!) and get cracking!

[Via You the Designer]
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Some of you may remember last month when I posted about Photoshop Cafe’s $6300 Photoshop Contest.

Entrants had to design a video game cover based on a Photoshop Tool. Judging is broken down into overall impact, concept, and skill. Judging has finally begun and you can view all the finalists here! Make sure to vote for your favourite, since the People’s Choice Award will also be giving out prizes to the best designs as decided by YOU, the public!

Dodge and Burn is one of my favourites so far – which one do you fancy?

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I happened upon a free collection of paper texture brushes for Photoshop which seem pretty decent.

When you were a kid perhaps you did that project at school where you try and make an old looking document? I used an oven, vinegar and a lot of hope to get mine in on time!

For a while the idea of doing the same thing again has been circling around my head – but using Photoshop this time. At least this way the fire department will have a more peaceful day.

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Jacob Cass at Just Creative Design is putting out a contest for article writers! Basically, if you’ve written an article, tutorial, tip, or even a list of cool resources to put on the web, you have a chance to win nearly $5000 worth of prizes! Just send him the link to your article and he’ll advertise it. The deadline is the 4th of March, where multiple winners will be randomly chosen to win some super neat stuff!

The top prize is an Electric Guitar for practising all your slick licks. This package also comes with a dozen accessories including a gig bag, electronic tuner, and an instructional DVD!

The runner up and bonus prizes have a bunch of neat stuff pertaining to graphic design. Second place consists of some really useful stuff for our art – namely 597 vectors from GoMedia, 80 Adobe brushes, and 55 iStockPhoto credits. Equally interesting stuff is scattered in the third and bonus prize slots, including logo/header designs, consultations with prominent bloggers and graphic designers, free advertising and critiques, and a crapload more.

So what are you waiting for? It’s free publicity for your articles and your blog/website, and you stand a chance of winning some really cool stuff! I know I’ve sent in some entries.

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Grab your artsiest robe, your best wand for charms, turn up some wicked wizard rock, roll up your sleeves, and get ready to make some Photoshop Magic!

You’ll learn how to make this Silver Text using this Photoshop tutorial, which is similar to the text used in Harry Potter movie titles.

You’ll learn how to adjust different text properties (kerning, tracking, and baseline shifts) as well as layer styles.

This Silver Text can easily be adjusted to make Gold, Bronze, or Bright-Green Polka-dotted (if you’re so inclined) text as well, so head on after the break to get started!

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Alright, this doesn’t have anything to do with Photoshop but I found it today while browsing and thought it was too cool. Go to any webpage (try it out on this one!), delete the url in the address bar, and copy and paste this:

javascript:document.body.contentEditable='true'; document.designMode='on'; void 0

Now try to click images/move them around, edit the text …

The results are not permanent of course. Neat little trick!