Well, it's that time of year again and it's all parties and Secret Santas in the office today!

There's a definite 'end of term' feeling, as when we leave today, we aren't back in until Wednesday 2 January. So please bear in mind that images uploaded to the website during this time may not be approved immediately, and emails might go unanswered until the new year. However, I will try to log in over the holidays and check out your work and messages!

Merry Christmas!

If you're doing your Christmas shopping in London, then make your way to the flagship Carhartt store in Earlham Street to see a special in-store display by McFaul. The massive black-and-white installation is definitely worth checking out

The Advanced Photoshop eMag has proved incredibly popular so far, but if you haven't checked it out yet, then there is even better reason. We're offering 10% off all products in the Imagine eShop. Simply go to www.imagineshop.co.uk to order your copy now! The eMag has over 1,200 pages of tutorials and all the source files for these are included.

Every month we run a readers' challenge on our forum. The task is to design a work in Photoshop around a theme. There is a new theme each month. The winner of the challenge is decided by the other forum users via a poll after the challenge deadline has passed. The winner also gets their image printed in the magazine.

What are waiting for? Go to www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk/forum, go down to the Peer Pressure section and look for the latest challenge. I can't wait to see what you can come up with for this month's theme…