Today, it's my 20th Birthday. Instead of receiving presents, I'm handing out some high quality freebies for my loyal readers.

Currently, it's freezing in the Netherlands: 20 degrees celsius minus 0. Everything is covered in a small layer of snow, lakes are totally frozen and people are ice skating.

While I was taking a walk through the nature last week, I saw that everything was totally frozen. All the textures of the leaves were clearly visible: Better than normal. It's pretty obvious that I'm presenting another high resolution texture pack called Frozen Nature. This pack contains 6 textures (1000 px of width) with some nature stuff were you can see their texture really well!

I hope you enjoy them and use them well. The textures are totally free for all kinds of use.

2009 is already up and running for a couple of days, but 2008 was a year that not many people will forget (for whatever reason). During the expensive Christmas holidays, there were two Comment2Win articles on Marcofolio.net: People were able to win some amazing prizes simply by leaving a comment. A couple of people responded and left a comment - Now, maybe they're one of the lucky winners.

I listed all the valid comments (that were submitted in time, left their email and were not spam) and placed them on Random.org. The comments on top are the ones that can call themselves the lucky winners!

Webdesign Prizes

1. Sonali Agrawal - One icon package from IconGalore
2. Valerio - One logo design from LogoAngel
3. Ole - One website template from BuyTemplates

Flash Banner Prizes

All five Flash Banner winners (Todd Budnikas, Priyan, Dulcenegosyante, Vanessa Richins, Enrico) will receive a 1 year Premium Plus package, worth $149 each from the amazing BannerSnack.

Kids are outside already playing with fireforks as the end of 2008 in near. Bloggers are rolling out their best blog posts from the past year and I would to do the same, just like I did last year.

2008 was for me the year that:

• I placed 136 articles online.
• Marcofolio.net gained 700 RSS subscribers.
• I wrote a couple of awesome Joomla! extensions.
• Marcofolio.net received over 2000 comments.
• I learned some jQuery.
• I was selected #2 top blogger under 21.
• I learned (and made tutorials for) CakePHP.
• I started to use Twitter.
• And much, much more!

What was 2008 for you?

Favorite articles from 2008; Both based on personal interest, usefulness and hits:

• 60 ridiculously useful tools for your blog or website
• 15 stunning motion typography videos
• Graffiti art to boost your inspiration
• 22 signs you're NOT addicted to design
• A parallax illusion with CSS: The Horse in Motion
• 7 tips to optimize Joomla! security
• [Inspiration] The beauty of 3d typography
• Breathtaking dual- and widescreen wallpapers
• Unique website for your Twitter updates Reloaded
• Time wasters: 15 addictive Flash games
• Dynamic Flash Logo Scroller with Links
• Mass Twitter Action and Retrieve Script
• Royal design blogs that can't be dethroned
• Best of the Best: 2008

What is your favorite article?

If you're lost, you could always check the sitemap, listing all the articles.

Goals for 2009

• Finally changing / update my template.
  Working on it for some while now, can't finish it.
• Reaching 2500+ RSS subscribers
  End of 2007 I had 400 subscribers.
• Finishing my new project.
  It's a secret for now - be prepared.
• Remembering: Quality above Quantity.
  Past year I placed some articles online "just to post", not thinking about the quality.
• More CSS / jQuery related articles.
  This is pretty interesting and fun to do.
• Getting in touch with Adobe Illustrator

I you would like Marcofolio.net to focus on other stuff, please let me know!

That's all for now. I have nothing left to say except to wish you a safe and joyful new year's eve and I hope to see you back (with all your fingers) in 2009!

Christmas days are over and everybody is getting ready for the new year. The past year has been very moving for (web)designers and developers: Loads of innovative articles and technology saw the daylight in 2008. The superb webbrowser Firefox gave birth to version 3.0 on 16th of December, a new social networking site dedicated to design called DesignBump came to life in 2008, Apple introduces the new MacBooks etc. etc. etc.

With all those great blogs out there, there has to be loads and loads of quality content written in the past year. But what is actually the best post from 2008 from those sites? To who can I ask that question better than the actual owners / authors of those great blogs.

I've contacted several blog owners and asked them the following question: What do you think is the best article you wrote in 2008? This article rounds up the best articles from 2008, placed on the best blogs out there (Only listing those that actually replied).

Here we go: The Best Of the Year 2008 (in a nutshell)!

Like I said in my previous Giveaway - Comment2Win article, there are two contests on Marcofolio.net to help you out during the expensive holiday times. Today, we're starting the giveaway licenses of an awesome online Flash Banner creator: BannerSnack.

Now I hear you: "What does this BannerSnack do?" To put it down simple: You can create Flash Banners online, very quick and easy! I've had a chance to play around with the tool and I must say, I'm really impressed. Take a look at the following example that I made in under 30 minutes: Try to beat that with Flash Pro (Have to admit that I got the source files from my own 20th Birthday Invitation).

Impressive, right? I think so! You want a chance of winning? It's pretty simple: Just leave a comment and make a chance to win! I'm able to give away five 1 Year Premium Plus packages worth $149 each. That's surely worth a shot!

Some extra info:

1. The contest ends on January 3rd 2009 00:00 CET (That's a great start of the year!). All comments submitted after that date don't count for the contest.
2. Please leave your actual e-mail address in the comments so I can contact you if you won a prize.
3. The three contest winners will be randomly selected with Random.org

It's Christmas time all over the world. People are buying presents for others, while some can't wait to prepare the turkey for dinner. It has to be one of the most expensive times of the year, but it's worth it.

To help you out, there will be two contests on Marcofolio - This is contest #1.

It's pretty simple: Just leave a comment and make a chance to win! Now I hear you: "But what can I win?" Enough said:

1. 1st prize - You can choose one icon package from IconGalore.
2. 2nd prize - You can choose one logo design from LogoAngel.
3. 3rd prize - You can choose one website template from BuyTemplates.

As you can see on the sponsors websites, these prizes are really worth it. Some extra info:

1. The contest ends on December 29th 2008 00:00 CET. All comments submitted after that date don't count for the contest.
2. Please leave your actual e-mail address in the comments so I can contact you if you won a prize.
3. The three contest winners will be randomly selected with Random.org

Here we go again! Yet another small collection of the best, funniest or coolest images from December 2008 to cheer up your day. It's time to take a two minute break before you get back to work again. You can show these imagedumps to your friends and family during the holidays, just to give them a laugh too.

Don't forget to check out the other imagedumps. Enjoy!

About the author: This guest article was written by Emma Best from Laptopical - a guide to the latest laptop reviews and laptop related news. You can also follow her on Twitter.

I've been using my MacBook Pro since a while now and I must say: I really love it. The most common app(s) that designers use has to be Adobe Photoshop (Or the full suite). The app(s) are great, but there is a downside: The price tag. Photoshop CS4 costs $699, CS4 extended is $999 and the full Creative Suite starts at an stunning $1799. For many people this is just a little bit too much to "play around with".

Luckily, there are also many free applications out there that can do the same kind of job that Photoshop could do for you. This article rounds up the best 15 free Mac Programs for Graphic Designers. Some of these applications can even do stuff that can't be achieved using Photoshop, or are much more simple to use.

Keep your wallet in your pocket, since all these programs will cost you nothing.

Time for a short tip: What are the (user)names / identity names that should try to grab as soon as possible? You want to identify yourself all over the net when you have a blog / website, so you should be the only one that's able to use that specified name. But what are the places where you should try to capture a name? Here's a list of a couple of names that you should register at this moment (if you didn't do it already). If you wait, the name could be grabbed by someone else already!

Before you read the rest of the article, make sure you already know what you already have in your inventory of names. If you have all points stated below checked, you're doing fine. If not, you should really try to grab those names before someone else does. I try to identify myself with Marcofolio.net, although it doesn't work all the time. You want to brand your name, so that once someone enters your name on a search engine, you'll be the only one that will be found. Here are a couple of tips.

Past saturday I visited another great Q-Dance event called Qlimax. There is a possibility you know the name already since I've mentioned them before. Next to the awesome hardstyle beats and wonderful show, Q-dance managed to create a super laser show. This was really inspirational and I'm sure you'll find this inspiration too in the beautiful lights.

This article rounds up some beautiful and wicked laser shows, just to get your design juices going. Get inspired by the beautiful lights that can help you in your next design work.