You're Looking Rather Halloweeny

I love Halloween. Ever since my childhood - even when I wore the same Kermit the Frog costume, like, four years in a row - it has been one of my favorite holidays. Once that calendar flips to October 1st, I'm having visions of cool weather and costumes and stealing my kids' candy my own sweet little trick-or-treaters.

And since I'm a big girl now, and don't go door to door collecting cavity-inducing loot on Halloween night, I have to do something to keep my season fun. So I do this:

I use my artistic eye and mad editing skillz to transform ordinary photos into ...

SPOOKY CUSTOM-EDITED HALLOWEEN MASTERPIECES!

Or, you know, pretty cool pictures.

I love doing these. I use them as my profile picture on Facebook, Myspace, and all the other time-wasters social media sites I'm on every October - and there isn't a year that goes by when someone on my friends list doesn't see mine and hound beg me for a picture of their very own.

So I'm trying something a little different this year. Do you want your own spooky Halloween picture edited by yours truly? *gasp* You do? Well. There are two simple steps:

1.) Look over in the right-hand sidebar, right underneath my ugly mug picture. See the little PayPal button that says "Donate?" Click on it to fork over five bucks - I would love to do 'em all for free, but they take some serious effort. That's the only reason I decided to charge this year.

2.) Send me a picture; you'll find my email address underneath the aforementioned PayPal button. (And to ensure the best outcome possible, puh-leeeeeeease be sure to read the tips I'm about to post below!)

I'll return your picture to you, all spookified and ready to use wherever, ASAP. I'll even give you a copy in color and a copy in black and white.* Yay! Prepare for the comments from your friends and family to start rolling in!

Now for those tips:
- When it comes to pictures, the bigger the better. It's easier for me to work with high-resolution photos, so don't worry if it's a huge file ... it'll actually help.
- You can choose a pre-existing photo or take one, perhaps making a scary face, just for this occasion (like in the first example pic above ... I actually took a photo of Cameron in the cemetery just to use for Halloween).
- I suck at photo-editing bodies, so I prefer to work with head shots. A close up of just your face is ideal.
- The less crap in the background, the easier it is for me to make it look good.
- If it's even slightly blurry, it's hard to use.
- One person is preferred, but two is all right. No group pics though - sorry!

If I can't use your picture for some reason, I'll let you know why and you can send me another one.

*Now for the obligatory disclaimer ... this is just for funsies, y'all. I'm a writer, not a graphic artist - I learned what I know through trial-and-error and experimentation, not a professional photo-editing class. By sending me your picture, you're giving me permission to use creative license. If you've got a vision for the finished product, and want to share it with me, I welcome your ideas. I will do my very best with every photo I recieve - but if you don't like the finished product, it's just gotta be chalked up to creative differences. I don't even know how to refund money with PayPal, so don't hold your Halloween-picture-hatin' breath. Mmkay?

My inbox is waiting! Let's see what kind of Halloween creepiness we can stir up!