LITTLELIGHTS

.027

likealight — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 06:41:26 GMT

Hey guys! So, as many of you know, over at 20inspirations the theme for last round was Text. I had been so gung-ho about the theme because text is definitely something I struggle with and I know it's one of my weaker points so I wanted to take a good hard stab at it. I only got up to 12 icons done though :( I had thought maybe I just wouldn't post until I did finish the full 20 but given how crazy things are rn in real life (in a good day, luckily -- don't worry, no shattered monitors or water logged laptops this time lol) I figured best to just go ahead and post now. I can always continue to work on my text in future batches, amirite? My claim was Teen Wolf and I think I feel okay with how most turned out? I definitely have even more of an appreciation of those makers who make it look so easy. I have included textless alts for nearly all of them should you prefer that. The rest of the icons are just ones I've had around on my laptop from various activities. Things are looking up so here's hoping from now til the rest of the year you get a couple posts from me a month, an icon and a texture post at least. Thank you in advance for your comments, I really appreciate them! ♥

01-22 TEEN WOLF
(Includes 10 textless alts)
24-28 TELEVISION
(One Tree Hill, Veronica Mars, Leverage, Smallville)
29-35 MUSIC & FILM
(One Direction [Zayn Malik], Disney [Tarzan, Monsters Inc.], The Princess Bride)

01-04
05-08
09-12
13-16
17-20
21-23

24-27
28-31
32-35

FIN.
▣ please credit likealight.
▣ comments are appreciated ♥.
▣ watch for future updates.
▣ textless icons are not bases.
▣ please do not repost elsewhere.

PREVIOUSLY.
[ X ] 30 Multifandom (Veronica Mars, TVD, OTH, PLL)

026.

likealight — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 01:50:33 GMT

Triangles, circles, and squares oh my?! So, when we last left you'll remember that I was on a kick where I wanted to make some composition-y~ type textures but those were all black and white. Wellllll, now I bring you some in (living) color! I also gave myself the stipulation that everything had to be made with either a shape tool or the pen tool. Real talk, some of these are kind of out there and I don't see how I would use them and I'm the one who made them, haha. BUT THEY WERE FUN TO MAKE! Out of all the textures I've made, I think these are the ones I'm most excited to see in finished icons just because I'd love to see what people come up with!!! Tiny batch, only 16 textures with two of the textures having 500x500 versions included in the zip pack (or you can click on the respective textures below (first two)).

I've also included a poll at the end if you wouldn't mind filling out so I can get an idea of what kind of textures that I've made in the past you'd like me to make more of first (I swear at some point there will be icons!). Have a good week and thank you for commenting! :D

DOWNLOAD .RAR @ BOX.NET

View Poll: #1904151

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025.

likealight — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 23:28:00 GMT

Hi! I come with textures! I had been wanting to work on an all black/white set for a while and well here we go. I had also wanted to try my hand at some frame-y type textures and most importantly some composition-y type ones? A few bonus grainy ones are in the mix too. Idk if I pulled any of it off haha, but hopefully a couple are of use to you! I have already started on a similar type of pack but all in ~color~~~ so look out for that. At some point we'll be back to light textures, worry not! Thank you in advance for any comments and I look forward to perhaps seeing some of these out and about!

DOWNLOAD .RAR @ BOX.NET

024.

likealight — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 23:20:55 GMT

Heyyooo! I hope February is treating you all nicely! Today I bring you one of two very over do battles, bless both my partners for their patience. Today's is a Teen Dramas battle I did with the crazy talented messdestruction. I went a little variation crazy on some (as I do) but in most cases it was just to give those who prefer a textless version an option to choose from. This entire batch is brought to you by Ellie Goulding's latest album and the font A Bug's Life as I used and abused both of these to a ridic extent. I really look forward to hear what you guys think of this batch! Let me also take a second to apologize for not getting back to your comments in a timely manner, it pains me, but atm my internet situation is rather limited. But do know I appreciate every single comment!♥ Finally, and most importantly, don't forget to check out the battle and Amaya's AMAZING icons over here!

01-05 ONE TREE HILL
06-11 PRETTY LITTLE LIARS
12-22 THE VAMPIRE DIARIES
23-30 VERONICA MARS

01-05
06-10
11-15
16-20
21-25
26-30

FIN.
▣ please credit likealight.
▣ comments are appreciated ♥.
▣ watch for future updates.
▣ textless icons are not bases.
▣ please do not repost elsewhere.

PREVIOUSLY.
[ X ] 30 Multifandom (Teen Wolf, BBC)

023.

likealight — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 19:30:54 GMT

Hello, loves! I hope the New Year is treating everyone well! ♥ Long time no post, and I wish I could come to you with a rather large post, but I suppose something tiny is better than nothing?? I bring you icons from two technical themed battles, both hosted by marcasite. The first is a rainbow (yay rainbows!!) battle, you can find all the icons here and the second is a BBC battle, which you can find here. You should definitely go check out all of the icons from both battles! Not much to ramble with you this time - shocking, I know - so I leave you with the icons. Hover for fandom and the technical prompt assigned to each icon. Take care, qts! :)

01-08 TEEN WOLF
09-20 BBC
Merlin, The Hour, True Love, Sherlock, Skins, Luther, Jane Eyre, Doctor Who

01-04
05-08
09-12
13-16
17-20

FIN.
▣ please credit likealight.
▣ comments are appreciated ♥.
▣ watch for future updates.
▣ textless icons are not bases.
▣ please do not repost elsewhere.

PREVIOUSLY.
[ X ] 28 Multifandom, Billie Piper

022.

likealight — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 05:00:19 GMT

Me again :o So, the other day endearest suggested we should do a texture battle and I jumped to the chance! We changed 10 random images, (her's for me, and mine for her) and here we have it! Like most of my textures, this batch is brought to you by the colors Blue, Purple, and Red as well as the blend mode Screen. What can I say? Really hope these are of use for you! :D You should MOST DEFINITELY check out endearest's textures HERE. She's a fellow member of TEAM SCREEN so if you like these I'm sure you'll love those more. I appreciate those who commenting when taking! HAPPY MIDWEEK!♥

DOWNLOAD .RAR @ BOX.NET || ENDEAREST'S TEXTURES HERE

P.S. If you're looking for even more resources, including fonts, check out here!

21.

likealight — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 08:52:01 GMT

Happy November, qts! Quickly dropping these off as some of these date back to July? Then others only as far as a couple hours ago. Let us not talk about how all over the place this entire batch is. I don't even know what to say but oh well~ I hope you find something you like! I love hearing what you think so thank you in advance for any comments! I'll see you guys very soon :3 ♥

01-19 TV & FILM
Teen Wolf, The Vampire, Diaries, Downton Abbey, Fringe, I Love Lucy, Dawson's Creek, FNL, New Girl,
Suburgatory, Breaking Bad, The Hour, THG, Atonement, HP
20-28 BILLIE PIPER
SDOACG, Photoshoots

01-04
05-08
09-12
13-16
17-19

20-23
24-27

FIN.
▣ please credit likealight.
▣ comments are appreciated ♥.
▣ watch for future updates.
▣ textless icons are not bases.
▣ please do not repost elsewhere.

PREVIOUSLY.
[ X ] 30 Teen Wolf + Textures

P.S. It's that time again! Icon Appreciation Month! The fun has only started so go check it out!

Hosted @ wonderous_stuff
November 1st - December 1st

020.

likealight — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 22:42:11 GMT

Bon jour QTs! Sorry for the lack of post(s) last month and especially that I haven't replied to your comments, I don't want to seem like I didn't appreciate them, very much the opposite! Luckily the reason I wasn't around last month is a thing of the past~ and hopefully I won't have to use that excuse for a very very long time (no internet). Anyway! I bring you Teen Wolf icons which were made for challenges way back in July or August and then more recent ones I made for a battle based off of themes. Starting from icon 13 you can hover them to see what the theme was if you're interested. I quite like a few and am excited to hear what you guys have to say!

I also have a texture pack that I finished during my absence~, I was going to post it next week in a separate post but I thought this was a way of making it up to you guys! This is an entirely colored texture pack and I'm already working on an all b/w texture pack. I hope they're of some use to you!

01-30 Teen Wolf
Texture Pack #2

01-05
06-10
11-15
16-20
21-25
26-30
- - -

DOWNLOAD .RAR @ BOX.NET

FIN.
▣ please credit likealight for icons.
▣ credit is appreciated, not required for textures
▣ comments are appreciated ♥.
▣ watch for future updates.
▣ textless icons are not bases.
▣ please do not repost elsewhere.

PREVIOUSLY.
[ X ] 28 textures (colored, b/w)

019.

likealight — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 10:41:18 GMT

The past few days I've been without le internet~ and what usually happens is I spend the time constatly checking if it's back, napping to get over the fact that it isn't and just general pouting and then once it is back I say "I should have spent that time iconning..." Lord knows I have enough caps on my HDD, ~~especially of Teen Wolf~~. Sadly though, even though I was good and had all intentions to do so!!! my muse was not playing along. HOWEVER, I did finally make my first ever texture pack! It's been something I've wanted to do for ages and well here we are. It's nothing huge, just 28 and really I have no clue of how much, if any, use it'll be to people but yay textures?! They're sized 200x200 because that's what size I icon at and in general I like the flexibility larger textures give me so I hope people aren't deterred by that. Despite making very few grungy icons (I am trying!) I took a stab at a few of those, and then the rest are of your color blobby persuasion, etc. I hope they're helpful and really I'd love any feedback you have to offer! If you happen to make any icons feel free to share those, I'd love to see them :3 Okay enough, on to the textures. I need to get back to sleep, it's just luck that I'm up right now and wanted to post these asap! (WHY AM I NERVOUS?) Hope to see you soon, August should hopefully be a busy month here~ *knocks on wood* ♥

DOWNLOAD .RAR @ BOX.NET

&FIN.
▣ credit is appreciated, not required for textures
▣ comments are appreciated. ♥
▣ watch for future updates.
▣ please do not repost elsewhere.

&PREVIOUSLY.
[ X ] 30 multifandom (leverage, misc tv)

018.

likealight — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 07:25:00 GMT

This is me trying to do ~smaller but more frequent batches. How am I doing :o I gotta say though, I kind of feel like a cheater and one of the reasons I put off posting to make larger posts is ~~because I'm a procrastinator~~ because technically there's only 14 icons, but with my indecisivenesssss it just happens to come to 30 :C. But anyway, I needed to get these posted because otherwise I'll start deleting things. First half of these are my icons for the icon_talk battle (GO TEAM LEVERAGE \o/), then the rest are challenge entries. Thank you in advance for your comments Thank you in advance to any comments you leave and I appreciate it lots if/when you point out favorites :3

01-16 LEVERAGE
17-30 MISC TV
Legend of the Seeker, True Blood, Teen Wolf, Lost, Revenge, Dollhouse, Doctor Who

01-05
06-10
11-15
16-20
21-25
26-30

&FIN.
▣ please credit likealight.
▣ comments are appreciated ♥.
▣ watch for future updates.
▣ textless icons are not bases.
▣ please do not repost elsewhere.

&PREVIOUSLY.
[ X ] 35 multifandom (films, disney, being human, dw, etc)

00. Pimp

likealight — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 21:36:22 GMT

The Icon Quest is a graphics-centered interactive community.
Enter challenges, make icons, earn points, become the ultimate icon maker!
Got a question? Ask it here!

tell me more! | sign-up

017.

likealight — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 04:21:31 GMT

'Allo qts! Just quickly dropping these off as I really don't want to post them with my 20inspirations batch (!!!) which should hopefully be up in a week and if I keep these any longer they just won't get posted as I've already gotten pretty rightclick>delete happy as it is, lol oops. Lots of variations here as 100% of these were for various flash challenges (#OBSESSED) and the last few for turbo_lims (which I came in 1st for, yay!). A lot of these are just me... messing around and/or racing the clock to submit in time but yay for experimenting and for icon posts in general?! I also dedicate any icons with rotation in them to deternot. ;) Thank you in advance to any comments you leave and I appreciate it lots if/when you point out favorites :3 HAVE A GOOD HUMP DAY TODAY/TOMORROW :***

01-10 FILM
Mulan, Tangled, Tarzan, The Avengers, LotR, Clueless, HP
11-35 TELEVISION & MUSIC
Being Human (UK), Doctor Who, Cougar Town, Revenge, True Blood,
Downton Abbey, Misfits, Dexter, New Girl, TSCC, Kanye West, Lady Gaga

01-05
06-10

11-15
16-20
21-25
26-30
31-35

&FIN.
▣ please credit likealight.
▣ comments are appreciated ♥.
▣ watch for future updates.
▣ textless icons are not bases.
▣ please do not repost elsewhere.

&PREVIOUSLY.
[ X ] 43 multifandom (films, oth, pll, whedon, etc)

P.S. THIS HAPPENED!!!!
Kisses all ovah your faces if you voted for me :3 And for any votes for any of the other three categories I was nominated in! ♥

016.

likealight — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 15:27:18 GMT

Hullo! So before you click the cut I should probably warn you that there are a lot of variations here. In my defense though, 90% of these icons were made for a situation where I was only allowed a cap to choose from and well we know how indecisive I can be! But yay for choices? And on the bright side, what with all these icon flash challenges (icon challenges that only last 24) AND my indecisiveness, well at least I can hopefully post more often! Also, overall I've just been playing around with coloring~ and the like. As always I hope you find something you like and thank you in advance to every one of you that leaves me a comment :3 ♥

P.S. magicawards ' polls are up! Thank you to anyone who has voted for me in a poll. Go check out the polls and vote for your favorite makers!

01-07 FILM
Captain America, SWATH, Star Wars, Harry Potter, The Lion King
08-43 TELEVISION
One Tree Hill, Legend of Korra, Buffy: tVS, Pretty Little Liars, Misfits
The Secret Circle, Nikita, The Vampire Diaries, Criminal Minds, TSCC, Dollhouse,
Firefly, Angel, Fringe, Alcatraz

01-04
05-07

08-11
12-15
16-19
20-23
24-27
28-31
32-35
36-39
40-43

&FIN.
▣ please credit likealight.
▣ comments are appreciated ♥.
▣ watch for future updates.
▣ textless icons are not bases.
▣ please do not repost elsewhere.

&PREVIOUSLY.
[ X ] 31 multifandom (hp, disney, dw, community, etc)

PIMPING: turbo_lims (sign ups for next round) | iconflashes ♥ (multifandom) | toon_iconflash (disney/pixar/dw)
pottericonflash | iconflashwhedon | flashingatlalok | iconflashes_bbc

00. Pimp (+ Thanks)

likealight — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 01:06:04 GMT

Hi nerdicles! :3 Excuse me while I draw your attention to the following places I think you should check out to be quite honest~

rumblr rumblr rumblr

A different kind of rumble. This is seriously Krispie Kreme Donuts right-outta-the-oven-kind of fresh challenge community. Multifandom and it'll be so awesome. Go sign up for round 1!

thepicturepool thepicturepool thepicturepool

ALL REVAMPED \O/ Let's just say I'm going to treat this community as my own personal never ending request post. Have caps you'd love for makers to use? POST EM IMO. DON'T WANT TO CAP HUNT? SNAG EM TBH.

iconflashes iconflashes iconflashes

An anonymous 24hr multifandom icon challenge community. Honestly a great way to just try out new things for the heck of it. The guessing afterwards is fun too :D

myriadis myriadis myriadis

A new kind of inspiration challenge community (think 20inspirations, inspired20in20, etc) only this one is ~one-of-its'-kind as it includes writing and minimixes in the challenges!

magicawards magicawards magicawards
It's that time again! The first round of nominating is almost over (but you can still sneak in some noms for your favorite makers). However you still have plenty of time to go and +1 some makers that have been nominated and then keep an eye out as after the 12th, voting begin! CLICK HERE for a handy dandy list of nominees. I'd like to thank any of my members that nominated or +1'd a nomination for me for the Misfits, Harry Potter, Best Complex/Texture and Best Overall catagories. MEANS THE WORLD! ♥

Go check them out!
And with that I will leave you until next time which could be sooner than you think featuring
something that hasn't made an appearance in 2012 yet :o Love your qt faces ♥

015.

likealight — Sun, 20 May 2012 01:06:31 GMT

Hello Strangers~ Long time no see! Sorry about that, I really am. I hope to make it up to you guys in the very near future though! For starters though I need to clean off these icons from my hd. Some of these are veryyy old, as in circa Jan/Feb and they're nearly all just challenge entries. There's a few that are made in the past couple of days as a way for me to get used to this new crt monitor I'm on (refuse to say which ones and just hope they blend in/fit in lol). So here you have another icon dump, my favorite. I hope you're all doing well! Somehow I managed to gain members instead of losing them which tbh is what I expected to happen (losing) after a four month drought so tyvm for a) not leaving and b) watching this community! See you sooooon! ♥

01-10 FILM
Harry Potter, Mulan, Arrietty
11-32 TELEVISION
Doctor Who, Community, Torchwood, Glee, Veronica Mars, Secret Circle,
Misfits, Fringe, Game of Thrones, Pushing Daisies

01-05
06-10

11-15
16-20
21-25
26-30
31-32

&FIN.
▣ please credit likealight.
▣ comments are appreciated ♥.
▣ watch for future updates.
▣ textless icons are not bases.
▣ please do not repost elsewhere.

&PREVIOUSLY.
[ X ] 60 multifandom (got, h50, ouat, disney)

014.

likealight — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:13:45 GMT

FIRST ICON POST OF THE YEAR! \O/ Technically speaking the first icon post should have been a 20inspiration claim but welllll... what can you do. Instead you'll just have to make do with yet another icon dump! I'll do better in Feb... I hope lol. You can file this post under: In Which Nia Abuses Center Crops. Can't help it :C But yes, we have the last of the icon requests (#success, #finally), buncho icontest entries and in some cases - me just opening up pretty caps to see what I could come up with! Once again, style of icons are all over the place not to mention fandoms but whatevs. In other news, falloutoftrees passed 300 members! SO INSANE BUT SO GRATEFUL! I will find a way to celebrate but in the mean time, do know I appreciate each and every one of youuuu. Thank you in advance for any comments you leave, I appreciate it so much. Love knowing what you like (which I hope you do!) ♥

1-57 TELEVISION
Game of Thrones, Hawaii Five-0, Once Upon a Time, Luther, Avatar: the Last Airbender, Misfits,
The Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars, Downton Abbey, Doctor Who, Fringe, Revenge, Supernatural,
Prison Break, Legend of the Seeker, The Fades, Lost, Community
58-60 DISNEY FILMS
Tarzan, Pocahontas

01-05
06-10
11-15
16-20
21-25
26-30
31-35
36-40
41-45
46-50
51-55
56-60

FIN.
▣ please credit likealight.
▣ comments are appreciated.
▣ watch for future updates.
▣ textless icons are not bases.
▣ please do not repost elsewhere.

PREVIOUSLY.
[ X ] 83 multifandom (music, films, television)

Also, voting at bestof_icons has gone up. There is quite a lot (of pretty) so major kudos to those that vote in them all (which I encourage). I'd love it very much if you voted in my batch (image heavy, ofc), would be great to know what the members of the comm considered my ~best of 2011 :D

00. 2011 Progression Post

likealight — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 10:39:47 GMT

Oh gosh, four hours later than expected and A MILLION WORDS MORE THAN NECESSARY! Honestly, I in no way expect anyone to read my ramblings - a lot of it was mostly for my benefit so I can ~look back~ as I hope to do these every year. If you read then ~~you're crazy~~,... we'll don't say I didn't warn you. There's a reason my lj name has said "see: rambler" for almost as long as I've been making icons. Just feel free to look at the icons! Everything is ofc free for taking, usual stuff applies (credit likealight over falloutoftrees, etc). I dedicate this progression post to wildpages ~~who modded me to finish~~ who has been an amazing amount of support and inspiration to me this post year. ♥ HOPE YOU GUYS HAD A GREAT NEW YEARS EVE!!!!

JAN 21st | 30 icons

So this was my second post to the community. I remember irl (like many times in 2011), at this time was one of the times where I didn't have internet regularly. I had a laptop and a lot of saved caps, so sometimes I'd just mess around - hence this post. Even though this is the second post and not the first one, I find this post my weakest post here in the community. Idk, I like a couple individual icons but over all I'm just like... gross.

MARCH 14 | 81 icons, 13 banners, 1 wallpaper

So beginning of January I was sorted at hogwartsishome! Despite still not having internet, I'd have it on the weekends and stock up on caps to icon during the week and post weekly for points, as well as enter their icontest. Idk why I waited so long to post here but whatever lol this is me. With HiH came THE INFAMOUS TIE ICONS! I can say without a doubt that the house tie icons are easily my MOST POPULAR icons period. I see them ALL.OVER.THE.PLACE. I honestly wish there was a way that I could take a survey to see what house is most popular lol. I remember making the ties out of boredom and thought they were qt but never expected them to take off. Later I made versions on grey backgrounds. Anyway, other icons. I can see I was pretty repetitive in my icons, but really I was entering more so for the points for my house than for ~learning~ purposes. I was fortunate to place often at the weekly icontest which was nice.

JUNE 5 | 74 icons, 25 banners, 7 wallpapers

Another two months between updates, le yeesh! I continued to make and make and make forHiH (ik Gryff appreciated my points :B)! I don't remember why, but eventually something snapped in me and I realized that I could maybe have fun with the icons and just try things/mess around. So it was less about cropping/applying same coloring and more about trying to learn new colorings and incorporating textures. We have my favorite Luna icon (green) that will forever be associated with me, not to mention I will forever use that icon as a reminder that accidents in icons can be awesome. Also I had a love affair with Folks, sue me.

JUNE 6 | 40 icons

Yes, a day later lol. Sara and I had planned to do this battle since we opened the comm back in Dec but finally got around to posting it now. I remember thinking that because I was going ~head to head~ with Sara I couldn't play it safe. I tried a whole bunch of crap, including throwing everything but the kitchen sink into the green Olivia icon which I guess... sorta put me on the map? I remember being super proud of it and a lot of people gave it recognition. Still didn't have a style, but wasn't afraid to try whatever and forever working on b/w icons.

JUNE 25 | 26 icons

In which I knock out my first 20inspirations claim in one day. I remember being sort of frustrated because I feel like because of the Sara battle, my icons were steering towards complexity then BAM, have to make 20 icons that fall under "simplicity". Despite it being a simplicity round, my love of texture is always there, even if I did try to be sly about it. This is me trying to be all ~glowy~. I think my (lack of) sharpness in these icon is very apparent, and let contrast get away from me a bit. I think I felt a lot more proud of this batch when I posted it than I do now.

JUNE 28 | 49 icons

This is when I get excited :3 This is a batch of stuff from help_japan and icontest entries. I remember not even considering signing up for help_japan because I didn't think anyone would bid/offer anything on lil ol me. However, a lovely friend (luv u cosmicfish) talked me into it and she said she'd bid on me so hey - that's at least something for charity. BLOWN AWAY. I was fortunate enough to raise about $85 for charity which felt awesome. I remember being super paranoid though because people were paying for this so I couldn't mess around. I definitely pushed my comfort zone with coloring and went there. Same with composition! I began to apply to elite challenge comms as a means to motivate my self to icon. I knew lighting was something I wanted to "master". While I hardly venture out and try text any more, I am more aware of my sharpening. I'd say this batch and on is when I definitely got serious with this iconning business and buckled down and tbh cosmicfish plays a big part in that.

AUG 18 | 42 icons, 3 wallpapers

In which in apparently meet the color green and refuse to part from it!!! As you can see, this is me continuing to strive for lighting (and around this point I think is when compliments about it start rolling in so yay success :3) I do notice that while there are a few cases where I stretch myself cropping wise, I still play it safe a lot. Along with lighting, I very much strive for those super colorful icons without (hopefully) blinding you. And ofc, forever and ever working on b/w icons.

SEPT 1 | 54 icons

I think we all remember my monitor issues -____- Resulted in me not being able to finish the iconsecrets battle booooo. I feel like I took quite a few risks during this time. Like the 11 icon isn't me at all YET there you have it. Also do you see this...there's text. Who am I? There's growth, least a little bit.

NOV 5 | 29 icons, 11 wallpapers

Yay new monitor AND YAY marcasite FOR HER BBC BATTLE. I owe that tiny little battle SO MUCH. DO YOU SEE THIS? Text! Text that isn't just a character name! Pretty much in the battle, we had a technical prompt assigned to a BBC show. Despite watching less than half the shows I still participated and BEST DECISION EVER. I just love how much it pushed me. I found more control in my coloring, branched out on composition, and again - look at me and text! At this point I'm pretty submersed in the ~icon community~ and was/am so fortunate to get a good amount of praise so idk it all pushed me to just do better! Proud of myself :')

NOV 20 | 20 icons

The icon post/20inspiration claim I will never. ever. be able to forget. I set a couple challenges for myself, one being - no alts. I can honestly say, save for maybe 2 icons in the enter batch - I wouldn't change a damn thing. The claim was light/dark btw. As conceited as this may seem, I find it hard to believe I made this batch. Especially given that the first icon placed FIRST PLACE TWICE at wonderous_stuff's awards. I worked on everything there is to work on and again, an instance where I'm just proud of myself and still overwhelmed with the response to this batch. ♥

DEC 30 | 83 icons

Last post of the year :') a complete icon dump. I'm not proud of every piece here and while I was annoyed that my muse left me come December, I can't be that pressed because it has been pretty generous lately. I don't think I necessary ~grew much lately with this post compared to last couple, I mean I'm less scared of text as I was and I'm less wary of experimenting with composition. But overall I'm just happy where I'm at. I love that I have room to grow and that I know for a fact that I have. SO I can't blend or block... but all in due time!

A few last thoughts on ~my style~ and this year. Despite iconning since 2006, I grew and learned the most in 2011. I know a HUGE HUGE HUGE part of that has to do with the icon community. I have so many of you to thank, I appreciate it so much ♥ I still don't think I have one specific style, (I don't think, but please tell me if you disagree) and I am more than okay with that. If I had to point out my own strengths, I would say my lighting and if I'm having a good day then my coloring isn't so bad. Things like sharpening and cropping could use more work, so here's to 2012. Whether you left me one comment of a couple words in the last year, or completely word vomited in caps and keysmashes, I appreciate EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Thanks for making 2011 so great for me online, despite being less so irl :3 HERE'S TO 2012 (where I have a resolution to post at least twice a month :o)

DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUT
ICON POST FROM 2 DAYS AGO &

★ | LIKEASPOTLIGHT (DECEMBER)

likealight — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 04:54:10 GMT

AAAAAAA Making it right under the wire! First of all, I hope if you're catching this before your way out (because ofc people stop to read such posts before a night of partying >.>) that you have a SAFE but FUN New Years! If New Years has come and gone and you're reading this then yay for having a safe one and I hope that 2012 is FANTASTIC for you and I look forward to getting to know you all better throughout this year via comments. :) Okay okay, on to the spotlight! :D

biliki @ numenor (watch) ↳ icons ;___; Idek where to begin. Okay, so I knew I had seen Vassiliki's username like ~around and such but for some reason I'm am moron and didn't take time to explore and see what I was missing. BETTER LATE THAT NEVER, THOUGH. Having to close the community tab and leave all the icons was so hard. HER LIGHTING!!! HER COLORING!!! It is honestly unbelievable, and even with her mentioning here and there how she does certain things it still completely goes over my head. It's to the point where I wonder if she can do any wrong. Blending, cropping, texture use... it's all on point. Please do yourself a favor and watch her community! ♥		pointblankdarcy @ julyavenue (watch) icons I've always liked Nadia's icons! They were colorful and pretty and lovely! Then....BAM. GIRL IS ON FIRE. She's sort of an icon machine at this point! She does things that I can't even pull off despite ~doing this for longer~ and I'm just super super impressed. You can tell that in every. single. post. she is pushing herself, and it truly pays off. I look forward to every new post to see what she's mastered next. Text? Check. Blocking? Check. Blending? Check. All of which still makes me adglkagh & to her it's like she's been doing this forever. While her icons are colorful, they are also very rich and carry a lot of depth. I truly cannot wait to see what 2012 has in store for her so go watch her community and join me on this ride! ♥

↳ resources TEXTURE \| accio-glow (large) There are so many ranges of colors in this texture, I'm not even going to tell you what blend modes I prefer. Just go crazy! TEXTURE \| raiindust We've established I love adding colors to shadows lately instead of leaving them black, textures like this help :3 TEXTURE \| fuuurs I like that it's a decorative texture with the border but also can add a texture feel to the icon as well. Usually use it on screen. TEXTURE \| pandavirus Fun paint texture. So far I've only used it on softlight, but def a texture you could play around with.		resources TEXTURE \| innocent-lexys It really isn't a spotlight with an obligatory Lex texture mention (I don't even plan it omg, don't notice til I upload what belongs to whom). I like this at screen, and when necessary altering the colors if I'm not in the mood for the blue hues. GRADIENT \| #dedcd4 to #37311a Preferred modes are: Hard Light and Softlight. COLOR FILL \| #f00062 My favorite shade of pink to get monochromatic icons like this (set to Darken to get purple hues in shadow, set to Multiply for an overall pink flood color) and/or this (again, lighten vs screen can vary results). Helps if you make sure your icon has distinct whites and blacks and not just general greys. FONT \| Pea Kate Shea All I've really used this month is this font, Times New Roman and Courier New. I love how thick this icon is compared to other pea fonts!

↳ and more MUSIC \| Nias in Paris by Kanye West & Jay-Z \| YT / DL Really, I could rec the entire Yeezy and Jay album Watch the Throne. But man, this song - I love it so much. Even just typing this I have it playing and it's hard to type while jamming lolol. alkdghalkghaklh the beat! luv u kanye MUSIC \| Cockiness (I Love It) by Rihanna \| YT / DL lol this song, I really don't know why I like it as much as I do. The lyrics are kinda ~explicit~ and rly it's not like other Rihanna songs that I like a lot. I just like the beat and the catchy hook. TUMBLR \| goldminegoldmine (tag) Shawna makes gorgeous icons, and equally as gorgeous tumblr graphics. I am always IN AWE of her pieces and one of her main fandoms isn't even one I'm active in. It's just such quality work! Composition, texture usage... all flaw free. TUMBLR** \| vetica (tag) We all know his 100x100 work, and maybe you already know his larger work but in the off chance you don't - here I am. If you're a big fan of Lost there is absolutely NO REASON AT ALL you should not be following Jorgen's tumblr. Amazing gifsets, amazing taste in fandoms (and classy!), and of course amazing graphics. Off you go!		and more YOUTUBE \| You Deserve a Drink For my 21 and older crowd~ let me introduce you to Mamrie Hart! If you'll remember the first spotlight, I recced DailyGrace. Well Mamrie and Grace are good friends. Mamrie makes (alcoholic) drinks and ~dedicates~ them to folks in current pop culture. I will tell you this up front, chances are you will fall into two categories with Mamrie. A: You love her and pee your pants or B: You will never trust another yt rec I give again because you hate or. Or something like that :) Idk, I go back and forth. The great thing about YDAD though is the built in drinking game so really, what is there to hate? COMMUNITY \| hogwartsishome I'm going to rec this community, you may or may not have heard of it. It was sorta a big part of 2011 for me so it makes sense that I'd rec it for the last spotlight of this year. HiH is a Harry Potter sorting community. It is sort of like a "land community" BUT ONE HUNDRED TIMES BIGGER!!! There is an application process and it is daunting, I'll say that up front. Once you get past that though, as overwhelming as things can be as soon as you've been sorted - I can promise you that'll you will meet some fantastic people.

RULES & DISCLAIMERS
• If using resources, please credit the appropriate maker in your resource post.
• The RIAA dictates that all music downloaded should be removed after previewing for 24hrs. We are not responsible for what you do with the music that you download.
• Fonts used in banner: OCR A Std, Impact, Courier New, Walkway Black

Fin! I hope you found something that strikes your fancy. Remember, this an interactive activity! I showed you my favorites for the month of December, and now you share yours with everyone! Share as much or as little as you'd like. Be it resources, a maker you recently found, or just what you've been jamming to nonstop! SKY IS THE LIMIT!

DON'T FORGET to drop your name in this post since starting in 2012 I will be randomly selecting a person (or two, if I feel like I have nothing to share that month) each month to post recs of everything with me. I'm aiming for every spotlight to go up between 27th-30th of each month, so I will send out the PM for JANUARY FAVORITES around the 15th :)

Also this being the last spotlight of 2011, and with a new year upon us I thought we'd do something a little different. Whether or not you leave recs (VERY MUCH ENCOURAGED!♥) please feel free to drop 5 icon examples (and/or textures if you make those too) of your own and link back to your own community. Hopefully you can open the new year with some new watches/you can find new shinies to add to your userpics. :D

013.

likealight — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 09:17:44 GMT

LAST ICON POST OF THE YEAR! \O/ Speaking of which, only two days left and sorry in advance for the mini-spam that will happen at this community! First of all we have this icon post (more on that later), and then of course the monthly Spotlight and then the icon review of 2011 which I've been anxiously waiting for. Hope this post doesn't get lost in the shuffle! Okay, now this post - oh gosh this post. I hardly ever do legit icon dumps but there is NO OTHER WAY to describe this post than that. Here we have the following (some of which date back to November): icon requests, an unfinished 20inspirations (oops) claim, secret santa gifts, ic0nfest icons, aaaaand some tv_lims entries. Honestly, a legit hodge podge. Not only are the fandoms all over the place - but the style of icons are too. Thank you in advance for any comments you leave, I appreciate it so much. Love knowing what you like (which I hope you do!) ♥

01-30 Films & Music
Friends With Benefits, HP: DH2, X-Men: First Class, What's Your Number?, Crazy Stupid Love
Selena Gomez, Lights, Lady Gaga, Kelly Clarkson, Chester See
31-83 Television & Celebs
Happy Endings, Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, Pretty Little Liars, Avatar: tLA, Nikita
Sanctuary, New Girl, Supernatural, Parks and Rec, Misfits, Once Upon a Time, Anna Torv

FILM & MUSIC
01-05
06-10
11-15
16-20
21-25
26-30

TV & CELEB
31-35
36-40
41-45
46-50
51-55
56-60
61-65
66-70
71-75
76-80
81-83

&FIN.
▣ please credit likealight.
▣ comments are appreciated.
▣ watch for future updates.
▣ textless icons are not bases.
▣ please do not repost elsewhere.

&PREVIOUSLY.
[ X ] 20 misfits season two

00. ♥

likealight — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 20:12:48 GMT

For those that are celebrating something this weekend, may it be lovely and merry!
For those not celebrating in it, may you weekend still be just as fantastic and full of sweets! ♥
falloutoftrees is one year old this month, and no way did i (nor sara) expect the response you guys
have been given me/us. all of 2011 was filled with joy and cheer thanks to you all. xoxo.

p.s. still a few days left of the year, expect at least 3 more posts.
one icon, one spotlight and who knows what else :o

00. Pimp (+ Thanks)

likealight — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 05:54:32 GMT

JOIN THE FUN || MY THREAD

With the year coming to an end and me feeling like I've ~grown a lot when it came to iconning in 2011, I'd love it if you guys took time to do this meme (if you have the time!) Pretty much just showcase 1-6 of your favorite icons that I've made! It's honestly been really great to see how people's favorites vary (plus it's a good gauge for me!). As nerdy as it is, I really look forward to 2012 and seeing how things develop, both in my iconning style and just in the icon community in general. We're not quite there yet, and I hope to fit in a few more entries to go out 2011 with a bang :D :D If you're an icon maker yourself, definitely put your name down also! ♥

Also, ik I've talked about/thanked you a lot re: wonderous_stuff's Icon Awards, but let me just ramble on it for a bit more longer! :3 ♥

Like I said, in both categories I was up against some fantastic folk and all along being nommed was more than enough but to know that I placed just blew me away. Even seeing the final results (though knowing them a head of time because of poll creeping), it just didn't seem real! I was voted Most Friendly in HS and it made me chuckle to come up for that category also in the icon community, glad to know that even HS was FOREVER AGO, LONGER THAN I'D LIKE TO THINK ABOUT D: some things haven't changed lol. The legit icon wins though, those I honestly... it just didn't compute. I'm so so very grateful! For the noms, for the votes, for everything. But most of all what I'm thankful for are those of you that comment and let me know what you think! Be it with a simple word, or something more detailed. The length doesn't matter all that much, just that you took time! I really appreciate it! I know Sara also appreciated it very much and so many times we'd be like OMG OUR MEMBERS ARE TOO GOOD TO US ADGLAKGHALKH. LOL YK WHAT, IMMA SHUT UP BEFORE THIS GETS EVEN MORE EMBARRASSING ;__; ILY ALL :***

I'll see you guys sometime this week with a new batch! :D ♥

★ | LAS SIGN-UPS!

likealight — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 21:55:53 GMT

So! As much as I enjoyed providing double the amount of spotlights for November, I figure it could get kind of boring if it's just me - not to mention what if I just don't icon much that month! Soooo I had this idea that I would open up sign-ups and then once a month I would randomize the list of people signing up and then I'd PM them letting them know they'd be joining me for that month's spotlight. They'd then have a couple weeks to get their items together and then you all would have my items as well as someone else's! AND if a month comes that I honestly don't have nothing to contribute, I'd just feature two people to bring things to you! As a reminder, these are thing things you'd have to contribute if signing-up:

• A maker you'd like to spotlight~ (preferably someone who hasn't already been spotlighted)
• 3-6 resources you've been loving lately (textures, gradients, fonts, etc)
• A song you've been jammin' to a lot recently
• 2-3 Youtube/Tumblr/Site/Misc recommendations
That's all, you can browse the tag to see how it's all laid out~

A N Y O N E can put their name down to be included! The only "requirement" I do ask is that you are someone who makes graphics semi-regularly because a big part of the spotlight are those resources (those that just have music/yt/icon maker/etc recommendations can always participate in the comments like always!). Whether this is you iconning regularly in LJ or never iconning but being all over the place at tumblr, that's fine! But as far as skill level, or how long you've been making graphics, or how long you've been a member or even if you've never commented - none of that matters. I'd honestly love a huge selection of people to randomize each month. You can sign up at any time and then also ask to be opted out of the randomizing at any time too.

December will probably be a double month for me again and then we can start this in January :D All you have to do is leave a comment below with your name or anything and you'll be added into rotation! Comments are screened so it can be a surprise each month >:] Feel free to pimp this if you'd like. If by some miracle it gets to the point that I get a lot more sign-ups than I imagined, I may even open it up to 3 people (myself +2 others) spotlighting every month.

Happy Decemeber! ♥ Thank you to those that have voted for me (and in general!) over at wonderous_stuff's awards. Closes in a day so if you haven't yet, get to it! :D

★ | LIKEASPOTLIGHT (NOVEMBER)

likealight — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 11:45:24 GMT

And it's that time again! So, if only ONE (and I do mean ONE) good thing came from Sara ~~abandoning me~~ having to leave lj/falloutoftrees, it was that it mean for this month I could rec twice the things all by myself! Which is good! I've always been super indecisive but this month was extra tough it seemed. So lucky me, I get to recommend double of everythingggg. Now that I won't be able to take recs from Sara, means I count on you qts even more to share things with me :3 While I'm here I'd also like to pimp tv_lims! Sign-Ups are open til Dec 3rd (r1 is up and closes then!) Consider participating! Okay, off we go~

watchpoint @ nonewsteps (watch) ↳ icons Two words: Close. Crop. No no, let me start over. Two words: Any. Crop. Meg's crops are just fantastic. She does close crops like no one I've ever seen, but really every crop she does is well. Whether it's a center one, a heavy negative space one - anything. Everything suits the cap she uses perfectly. Also, in a sea of super vibrant and blurry/sharp icons, Meg is a breath of fresh air. Personally, the natural coloring that she pulls off (literally just extracting colors that are already in the caps) is so impressive and something I've never been able to do. Overall her icons are so fresh and so clean ~~clean /outkast~~. Her fandoms are actually pretty varied too so I bet if you aren't a member of her community and browse it, you'll find something to your liking! Meg knows what she does well and owns it. ♥		erzsebet @ songburst (watch) icons I admired Liz's Disney icons from a far~ for a long while and then she also quickly became of my favorite HP icon makers. Her style has changed, or changes, from time to time and it's really awesome to see tbh. One thing that is always a constant for Liz is her love of colors! I'm not talking about those bam-in-your-face colors (though she does those well also), but she owns rich and warm tones (yellows, browns, greens, etc). If I could describe her icons with one word it would be "Depth". Be it a close crop, or a solid-colored-background-negative-space icon (my favorite of hers), there is always depth to the icon. No icon is ever ever flat. Her icons also have a lot of geometric shapes to them which is really cool to see. Oh and she is also one of those text bamfs that I have forever jealousies towards. Le sigh. ♥

↳ resources TEXTURE \| butterphil (large) One thing about me is that I rarely use textures "as intended". So those popular tumblr textures intended for use as a large scale/as is? Yeah, never happens. Love the purple hues of the clouds; set to screen or lighten to lighten up blacks/shadows in icons. Yellows in soft light is nice too. TEXTURE \| unknown (large) I scoured everywhere I could think of to try & remember where I picked this up but to no avail. Please let me know if you know! Softlight, hardlight and screen are my favorite blending modes for this. TEXTURE \| accio-glow (large) Much like the first texture, just one that I like to use to spice up shadows or brighten up the overall icon. The closer into the middle you get, brighter the icon. TEXTURE \| i-rise-inside A very simple decorative texture but idc, find myself having to stop myself from wanting to one way or another use it in an icon. Screen, obv~		resources TEXTURE \| innocent-lexys Screen, lighten, softlight, etc. I manipulate this one quite a bit by just erasing parts so the streaks only show where I want them to show. TEXTURE \| innocent-lexys lol okay I'll be honest and admit that sometimes I use this just to grab the purple shade and - again - set that to lighten/screen for shadows. I do like the pink for a nice edging effect also. FONT \| Before the Rain I think I've only used this one once but I really admire it from a far~ I think in the right hands this is a beautiful font for larger pieces and if you can make it work, smaller as well. SO PRETTY. FONT \| Grant's Ghost This is an almost creepy font that I find works well for darker graphics (in my imagination it'd be great for SPN or Buffy fandom). Just a heads up, the kerning is by nature that wide so if you'd want the letters closer together you will have to adjust it so.

↳ and more MUSIC \| Face Up by Lights \| YT / DL I recently found out about Lights (shout out @runawaytomars) and it's srsly all I listened to late October, most of November (til I found next song). I love A LOT of her songs so really I'm going to recommend her as an ARTIST and just randomly pick this song for the sake of the spotlight. She has a person is tres qt too, such a nerd :') The lyrics to things song specifically are so lovely and lift you up~ MUSIC \| Alone by Kelly Clarkson \| YT / DL From her new album! This song... I JUST WANT TO GET UP AND JUMP AROUND. Take hair out of ponytail/messy bun, set volume to highest setting and begin dancing around and singing the chorus at the top of my lungs - no matter that it's 2am and my windows are wide open. Even just going to YT to grab the link, I sat and listened to it all. I kid you not, this song is prob the reason I'm most happy that I got to rec two songs because I just HAD to include it. TUMBLR \| sarisafari (tag) Everyone knows Sari's icons I'm sure but I have to give it up to her for her larger pieces. Her texture use and composition creativity is out of this world. Again, I don't even watch all of what she watches and I'm probably spoiling myself but whatever lol so worth it. TUMBLR \| tilmitt (tag) I only follow about half - if that lol - of what Michi follows but I don't even care because when something comes up that I do follow (usually HP) it makes it all worth it. So clean and subtle and such emotion in all of her pieces!		and more TUMBLR \| kingbolt (tag) You guys are getting three recs this month, hope you don't mind~ COLORFUL QUALITY! The two above really do love their neutrals but if colors are your jam, follow Sarah's tumblr. ESPECIALLY if you're a Disney fan! Most favorite Disney maker ever, be it in icons or larger pieces. Plus, this is a case where I do follow a lot of what she follos so I can vouch for some bangin' fandom choices >:] YOUTUBE \| KurtHugoSchneider ♥‿♥ I am such a sucker for music artists on yt. Off the top of my head I could name a dozen people/bands I wish had huge recording contracts over people that already do. Kurt, a music producer, features and works with some GREAT talent and showcases some of his own here and there. Everything is shot beautifully and the covers from the original pieces are absolutely brilliant (save for the very latest one uploaded :/) I just swoon and am amazed at his talent and those of whom he features. SITE \| Listography #pokerface Don't look at me that way, I just really like lists. I just wanted to point this site out for those that aren't aware of it. Especially with a new year coming up, maybe you want a handy way to keep track of xyz. Ever had a LJ scrapbook and just get tired of having to update it all the time? This is way easier. THERE'S AN APP FOR ~~THAT~~ IT. Here's mine if you'd like to get an idea for what sort of things you can keep track of. Mine is pretty basic, a lot of fandom stuff. But honestly, the sky is the limit! Baby names, places you want to travel, wishlists, etcs. #teamnerd

Fin! I hope you found something that strikes your fancy. Remember, this an interactive activity! I showed you my favorites for the month of November, and now you share yours with everyone! Share as much or as little as you'd like. Be it resources, a maker you recently found, or just what you've been jamming to nonstop! SKY IS THE LIMIT! Before you get to scouring your texture or font folders, I'd just like to point out two quick things: You have about 24 hours to nominate over at wonderous_stuff Icon Appreciation Month Awards. This isn't me fishing for noms by any means, I just want to make sure as many people as possible nominate and that the word gets out and hopefully we can all find new makers! And finally, please join me in wishing Sara (I'll email her this link) a....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARATHESHRIMP ♥!

012.

likealight — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 06:34:27 GMT

SUCCESS \o/ The theme for this round at 20inspirations is Light/Dark. You can check out the inspiration post for all of the items that resulted in this batch. If you'd like to see what each icon was inspired by specifically, just hover over the icon for details! This is also the tiniest batch I've ever updated with. IT'S WEIRD. I had a couple of goals with this round, the main one being no alts/variations. I wanted 20 icons where I felt happy with them as is and I think I met that goal which is cool and all but I miss my variations so none of that anymore. I'm going to go ahead dedicate this post to my favorite evilaussieqt shrimpy_19, Sara. I didn't even plan it as such, but the very first post you made here was for Misfits s2, and it seems the last post with us both as posters will be of the same (I ofc much prefer your bw icons to mine). Our members will miss your icons dearly, I can only hope I can do the community justice on my own. OKOK ENOUGH CHICK FLICK MOMENTS. ♥ Hope you guys enjoy! Thank you in advance for any comments you leave, qtest members ever :3

01-20 Misfits (season two)

01-05 ( L I G H T )
06-10
11-15 ( D A R K )
16-20

&FIN.
▣ please credit likealight.
▣ comments are appreciated.
▣ watch for future updates.
▣ textless icons are not bases.
▣ please do not repost elsewhere.

&PREVIOUSLY.
[ X ] 41 multifandom (bbc tv, hp, poesey wallpapers)

</font>

00. and then there was one

shrimpy_19 — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 07:32:10 GMT

Hi everyone!

So I've been thinking about this for awhile but I finally decided that I'm going to delete my lj account. I haven't been very active lately (only icon making) and I haven't been commenting or posting much. I'm quite sad about it and I don't want to do it but I think it will be good for my concentration and school marks to get my lazy ass off the internet a bit more.

You have all been the most amazing watchers and commenters and I feel so much gratitude towards you. Nia will be taking over from here on out (she's always been my better half >:3) and you should definitely stick around to see what amazing things Nia comes up with next.

I will no longer be icon making but you can feel free to add me on twitter: saratheshrimp.

ILY and THANK YOU,
Sara (shrimpy_19) ♥

biliki @ numenor (watch) ↳ icons ;___; Idek where to begin. Okay, so I knew I had seen Vassiliki's username like ~around and such but for some reason I'm am moron and didn't take time to explore and see what I was missing. BETTER LATE THAT NEVER, THOUGH. Having to close the community tab and leave all the icons was so hard. HER LIGHTING!!! HER COLORING!!! It is honestly unbelievable, and even with her mentioning here and there how she does certain things it still completely goes over my head. It's to the point where I wonder if she can do any wrong. Blending, cropping, texture use... it's all on point. Please do yourself a favor and watch her community! ♥		pointblankdarcy @ julyavenue (watch) icons I've always liked Nadia's icons! They were colorful and pretty and lovely! Then....BAM. GIRL IS ON FIRE. She's sort of an icon machine at this point! She does things that I can't even pull off despite ~doing this for longer~ and I'm just super super impressed. You can tell that in every. single. post. she is pushing herself, and it truly pays off. I look forward to every new post to see what she's mastered next. Text? Check. Blocking? Check. Blending? Check. All of which still makes me adglkagh & to her it's like she's been doing this forever. While her icons are colorful, they are also very rich and carry a lot of depth. I truly cannot wait to see what 2012 has in store for her so go watch her community and join me on this ride! ♥

↳ resources TEXTURE \| accio-glow (large) There are so many ranges of colors in this texture, I'm not even going to tell you what blend modes I prefer. Just go crazy! TEXTURE \| raiindust We've established I love adding colors to shadows lately instead of leaving them black, textures like this help :3 TEXTURE \| fuuurs I like that it's a decorative texture with the border but also can add a texture feel to the icon as well. Usually use it on screen. TEXTURE \| pandavirus Fun paint texture. So far I've only used it on softlight, but def a texture you could play around with.		resources TEXTURE \| innocent-lexys It really isn't a spotlight with an obligatory Lex texture mention (I don't even plan it omg, don't notice til I upload what belongs to whom). I like this at screen, and when necessary altering the colors if I'm not in the mood for the blue hues. GRADIENT \| #dedcd4 to #37311a Preferred modes are: Hard Light and Softlight. COLOR FILL \| #f00062 My favorite shade of pink to get monochromatic icons like this (set to Darken to get purple hues in shadow, set to Multiply for an overall pink flood color) and/or this (again, lighten vs screen can vary results). Helps if you make sure your icon has distinct whites and blacks and not just general greys. FONT \| Pea Kate Shea All I've really used this month is this font, Times New Roman and Courier New. I love how thick this icon is compared to other pea fonts!

↳ and more MUSIC \| Nias in Paris by Kanye West & Jay-Z \| YT / DL Really, I could rec the entire Yeezy and Jay album Watch the Throne. But man, this song - I love it so much. Even just typing this I have it playing and it's hard to type while jamming lolol. alkdghalkghaklh the beat! luv u kanye MUSIC \| Cockiness (I Love It) by Rihanna \| YT / DL lol this song, I really don't know why I like it as much as I do. The lyrics are kinda ~explicit~ and rly it's not like other Rihanna songs that I like a lot. I just like the beat and the catchy hook. TUMBLR \| goldminegoldmine (tag) Shawna makes gorgeous icons, and equally as gorgeous tumblr graphics. I am always IN AWE of her pieces and one of her main fandoms isn't even one I'm active in. It's just such quality work! Composition, texture usage... all flaw free. TUMBLR** \| vetica (tag) We all know his 100x100 work, and maybe you already know his larger work but in the off chance you don't - here I am. If you're a big fan of Lost there is absolutely NO REASON AT ALL you should not be following Jorgen's tumblr. Amazing gifsets, amazing taste in fandoms (and classy!), and of course amazing graphics. Off you go!		and more YOUTUBE \| You Deserve a Drink For my 21 and older crowd~ let me introduce you to Mamrie Hart! If you'll remember the first spotlight, I recced DailyGrace. Well Mamrie and Grace are good friends. Mamrie makes (alcoholic) drinks and ~dedicates~ them to folks in current pop culture. I will tell you this up front, chances are you will fall into two categories with Mamrie. A: You love her and pee your pants or B: You will never trust another yt rec I give again because you hate or. Or something like that :) Idk, I go back and forth. The great thing about YDAD though is the built in drinking game so really, what is there to hate? COMMUNITY \| hogwartsishome I'm going to rec this community, you may or may not have heard of it. It was sorta a big part of 2011 for me so it makes sense that I'd rec it for the last spotlight of this year. HiH is a Harry Potter sorting community. It is sort of like a "land community" BUT ONE HUNDRED TIMES BIGGER!!! There is an application process and it is daunting, I'll say that up front. Once you get past that though, as overwhelming as things can be as soon as you've been sorted - I can promise you that'll you will meet some fantastic people.

watchpoint @ nonewsteps (watch) ↳ icons Two words: Close. Crop. No no, let me start over. Two words: Any. Crop. Meg's crops are just fantastic. She does close crops like no one I've ever seen, but really every crop she does is well. Whether it's a center one, a heavy negative space one - anything. Everything suits the cap she uses perfectly. Also, in a sea of super vibrant and blurry/sharp icons, Meg is a breath of fresh air. Personally, the natural coloring that she pulls off (literally just extracting colors that are already in the caps) is so impressive and something I've never been able to do. Overall her icons are so fresh and so clean ~~clean /outkast~~. Her fandoms are actually pretty varied too so I bet if you aren't a member of her community and browse it, you'll find something to your liking! Meg knows what she does well and owns it. ♥		erzsebet @ songburst (watch) icons I admired Liz's Disney icons from a far~ for a long while and then she also quickly became of my favorite HP icon makers. Her style has changed, or changes, from time to time and it's really awesome to see tbh. One thing that is always a constant for Liz is her love of colors! I'm not talking about those bam-in-your-face colors (though she does those well also), but she owns rich and warm tones (yellows, browns, greens, etc). If I could describe her icons with one word it would be "Depth". Be it a close crop, or a solid-colored-background-negative-space icon (my favorite of hers), there is always depth to the icon. No icon is ever ever flat. Her icons also have a lot of geometric shapes to them which is really cool to see. Oh and she is also one of those text bamfs that I have forever jealousies towards. Le sigh. ♥

↳ resources TEXTURE \| butterphil (large) One thing about me is that I rarely use textures "as intended". So those popular tumblr textures intended for use as a large scale/as is? Yeah, never happens. Love the purple hues of the clouds; set to screen or lighten to lighten up blacks/shadows in icons. Yellows in soft light is nice too. TEXTURE \| unknown (large) I scoured everywhere I could think of to try & remember where I picked this up but to no avail. Please let me know if you know! Softlight, hardlight and screen are my favorite blending modes for this. TEXTURE \| accio-glow (large) Much like the first texture, just one that I like to use to spice up shadows or brighten up the overall icon. The closer into the middle you get, brighter the icon. TEXTURE \| i-rise-inside A very simple decorative texture but idc, find myself having to stop myself from wanting to one way or another use it in an icon. Screen, obv~		resources TEXTURE \| innocent-lexys Screen, lighten, softlight, etc. I manipulate this one quite a bit by just erasing parts so the streaks only show where I want them to show. TEXTURE \| innocent-lexys lol okay I'll be honest and admit that sometimes I use this just to grab the purple shade and - again - set that to lighten/screen for shadows. I do like the pink for a nice edging effect also. FONT \| Before the Rain I think I've only used this one once but I really admire it from a far~ I think in the right hands this is a beautiful font for larger pieces and if you can make it work, smaller as well. SO PRETTY. FONT \| Grant's Ghost This is an almost creepy font that I find works well for darker graphics (in my imagination it'd be great for SPN or Buffy fandom). Just a heads up, the kerning is by nature that wide so if you'd want the letters closer together you will have to adjust it so.

↳ and more MUSIC \| Face Up by Lights \| YT / DL I recently found out about Lights (shout out @runawaytomars) and it's srsly all I listened to late October, most of November (til I found next song). I love A LOT of her songs so really I'm going to recommend her as an ARTIST and just randomly pick this song for the sake of the spotlight. She has a person is tres qt too, such a nerd :') The lyrics to things song specifically are so lovely and lift you up~ MUSIC \| Alone by Kelly Clarkson \| YT / DL From her new album! This song... I JUST WANT TO GET UP AND JUMP AROUND. Take hair out of ponytail/messy bun, set volume to highest setting and begin dancing around and singing the chorus at the top of my lungs - no matter that it's 2am and my windows are wide open. Even just going to YT to grab the link, I sat and listened to it all. I kid you not, this song is prob the reason I'm most happy that I got to rec two songs because I just HAD to include it. TUMBLR \| sarisafari (tag) Everyone knows Sari's icons I'm sure but I have to give it up to her for her larger pieces. Her texture use and composition creativity is out of this world. Again, I don't even watch all of what she watches and I'm probably spoiling myself but whatever lol so worth it. TUMBLR \| tilmitt (tag) I only follow about half - if that lol - of what Michi follows but I don't even care because when something comes up that I do follow (usually HP) it makes it all worth it. So clean and subtle and such emotion in all of her pieces!		and more TUMBLR \| kingbolt (tag) You guys are getting three recs this month, hope you don't mind~ COLORFUL QUALITY! The two above really do love their neutrals but if colors are your jam, follow Sarah's tumblr. ESPECIALLY if you're a Disney fan! Most favorite Disney maker ever, be it in icons or larger pieces. Plus, this is a case where I do follow a lot of what she follos so I can vouch for some bangin' fandom choices >:] YOUTUBE \| KurtHugoSchneider ♥‿♥ I am such a sucker for music artists on yt. Off the top of my head I could name a dozen people/bands I wish had huge recording contracts over people that already do. Kurt, a music producer, features and works with some GREAT talent and showcases some of his own here and there. Everything is shot beautifully and the covers from the original pieces are absolutely brilliant (save for the very latest one uploaded :/) I just swoon and am amazed at his talent and those of whom he features. SITE \| Listography #pokerface Don't look at me that way, I just really like lists. I just wanted to point this site out for those that aren't aware of it. Especially with a new year coming up, maybe you want a handy way to keep track of xyz. Ever had a LJ scrapbook and just get tired of having to update it all the time? This is way easier. THERE'S AN APP FOR ~~THAT~~ IT. Here's mine if you'd like to get an idea for what sort of things you can keep track of. Mine is pretty basic, a lot of fandom stuff. But honestly, the sky is the limit! Baby names, places you want to travel, wishlists, etcs. #teamnerd