It’s nearly that time of year. I am literally watching my countdown clock on my desktop, which tells me that I have 1 day, 15 hours, 7 minutes and 32 seconds till Christmas Day morning! Here at Imagine Publishing, the Creative department has been counting down Christmas since 1 December, and we’re all surrounded by Christmas trees (just the four biggies and five minis this year) and far too much chocolate.So, to all Advanced Photoshop readers and website users, I wish you a massive Merry Christmas from the whole Advanced Photoshop team: Stacey (our wonderful new designer), Adam (senior staff writer and Photoshop expert), Steve (multimedia editor), Sam (sub editor, who has left for Christmas already!) and me! We’ll all be out of the office from the end of play tomorrow and we’ll be back on 5 January.I will do my best in-between mince pies to approve your images over the break, but I won’t get your emails until I get back.See you in 2009!1 day, 15 hours, 2 minutes and 2 seconds (wow, that took me a while to write my post) to go!

Advanced Photoshop 51 hits the shelves tomorrow…The best features, interviews and artist profiles:-Industry Insight: Photoshop trends of 2009-Interview with Aaron Sims-CS4 reviewed and ratedChallenging and inspiring Masterclasses, including:-Create a realistic snow scene-Fake HDR from one photo-Design a steampunk-inspired imageAlso featuring:-Must-have hardware and software-Helpdesk and Insider Info for Photoshop advice-Free CD with brushes, project files and more

You might have noticed on our Photoshop Daily news blog that Imagine Publishing (publisher of Advanced Photoshop) has announced the launch of a great new DVD: The Beginner’s Guide To Photoshop. With over 90 minutes of video tutorials in our favourite app, I reckon it’s a great Christmas gift for anyone who needs to get to grips with Photoshop’s features and functions. It’s just £19.99 and you can get it from the  Imagine eShop. I’ll definitely be checking it out!