So pretty. I'm sorry if this sounds dense...but digital collage? Some of this looks like real paper to me...Forgive my ignorance.

Nope. It just looks like paper through the use of textures over colored shapes. Then add in a bit of shading and shadow, and it makes a neat fake. Fun to do.

That's really lovely!

Nice! It's so...wintery.

Beautiful! I'm sooo envious of the ability to do stuff like this. And it makes a great desktop. Thanks, FunkyHelix!

I'm sooo envious of the ability to do stuff like this

Same here. This is really pretty. I wish it were snowing.

I'm using it as my desktop; I hope you don't mind.

And exactly how do you do this? Is there a certain program you use?

The snowflake made of musical notes! Marvelous! I'm also using it for my desktop - thanks, FunkyHelix!

Thanks guys! I'm so glad you liked it. I don't mind if you use it as a desktop at all.

And exactly how do you do this? Is there a certain program you use?

I use Paint Shop Pro 7, which is an old PSP, but the one I'm most comfortable with.

I started out with a white canvas, then on a new layer I used the lasso tool to half the canvas with a wavy edge. Then I used present tools in rounded rectangles to make the river in the same color as the sky. I edited the nodes to warp the shapes into what you see. Then I used preset shapes in triangles and a rectangle in white to make the tree. The snowflakes were made in another canvas using a font of musical symbols. When it looked as I wanted, I turned the image into a custom brush. Then on a new layer I pressed white flakes into the blue part of the canvas, and on another new layer put blue flakes into the white. Then to give it a chewy look, added drop shadows on the white parts, and cut out shading into the blue flakes so they looked cut out of the white.

Then came textures. This is a good tutorial to explain how to add textures. I had a scanned piece of newspaper that I used over the snow, erasing parts to my liking. Then for the blue background, I used a scanned piece of cardboard with tape on it.

Tweaked settings like contrast, saturation. Used some gradients and a filter that desaturates on a gradient. Put a third texture over the entire piece to pull it together more.

And then there you go.

I'm horrible at explaining things properly, so hopefully that's a good quick guide.

This is another piece made the same way. That was made from scans of different fabrics and paper.

Ohh. That is very nice too! In fact I will grab that for my Mac at work. His name is Argonaut, so this looks very appropriate. Thank ya!

BTW, don't you sign those with your name somewhere? Or is this not customary for collage?

Hrmmm, I meant sign it like "FunkyHelix" or something.

Sometimes I'll add my nickname in a corner. It depends entirely if I remember before closing the program.