Right! *Cracks knuckles* To start with after my long absence, this was a little something I cooked up in Paintshop Pro 5 in between typing up my horrible essay - yeah yeah, I should've been working but it was hard to concentrate at times! ^.^;; Firstly, this is a gift for Defade, who has been a great support over the past few months in so many ways, and I wanted to show her a token of my appreciation! ^__^ This phoenix was almost entirely computer generated except for the base of the wings. Some of you might remember my pic, 'White Phoenix' (I think it's in my archive here...) in which I mentioned that I used an existing image of wings that I'd cropped from one of my old pictures - I hauled the wings out again and used them as the basis for this pic, this time in their full size. (Only about a quarter of them was shown in 'White Phoenix'.) Secondly, everything else about the phoenix and the picture was made by mouse, which was possible because I now have a new mouse that doesn't stick or jerk... =P the phoenix here is actually the design I'm using to help out a paintball team in Atlanta with a phoenix design for the jerseys. The only difference is that I've turned the phoenix red for them, but those who know me here also know that I'm a fan of blue phoenixes... :D so of course I had to see what the phoenix looked like when it was blue! Then I added the snow effects and everything else in the background, and made it as neat as possible for Defade... So then, I hope you like this Defade, and thankyou again for everything that you've kindly done for me! ^___^ Oh yes, and as for the 'All that glitters is not gold' bit? Of course, because you never know when you're going to run into a glittery blue phoenix! ;)