Pixelpaint Customer Of The Month for December 2012

Our last customer of the month for 2012 is the lovely miss Sophie Osborn! Check out her canvases and have a read of what she had to say below.

What’s your name? Sophie Osborn 

Where are you from? Auckland (via Namibia & South Africa)

Can you tell us about the inspiration behind the art work you chose: I have just bought my first house and needed to put some art work on the walls to fill in those empty spaces. One of the few downsides of owning a home is not being able to travel, so when I bought a few vouchers via Treat Me and was trying to figure out what to put on my walls, I considered all the places I have travelled and where I have yet to travel. I ended up asking a few of my friends around the world to send me a photo or two they have taken in their own travels and every day life and trawled through all of my many hundreds of photographs and decided on three; two places I have yet to travel but would love to go (The forest is Iowa in the Autumn; the beach is in Mexico) and one place I have been and would love to go back to (The rocks were a picture I took in Rarotonga).

What is your favourite thing about your canvas: My favourite thing about my canvases is the opportunity they give me to dream about my next holiday, where ever I happen to go. Its awesome owning my own home but I do miss travelling!

What are you planning for your next canvas: I have asked my friend in Iowa to go back to the same spot in the forest and take a picture of it in winter, spring and summer and would like to print all of them so I have all four seasons. Winter is coming in Iowa so I am not that far from my next canvas, so I will be keeping my eyes on Treat Me for more of your deals.

Staff Pick

We recently printed his awesome photo on to canvas and fell in love with it! It belongs to Zania Bennett of Palmerston North and shows four generations of her family. Such a rad idea! We think it's a beautiful photo! Thanks for letting us share this one Zania. 

Canvas Inspiration: Bus Blinds

If you're stuck for last minute gift ideas, chill out - we got this one! Personalised bus blind styled canvases are where it's at. We print hundreds of them and although they're nothing new, they do look cool, and for some reason everyone just kinda likes them. They are mega easy to personalise and even easier to make. If you don't have Photoshop you can even whip one up as Word document and convert it into a jpg to use for one of our canvases. 

(FYI - using a word document and converting it into a JPG will only work for our smaller canvas sizes, such as A3 or A2, anything larger would need to be done in Photoshop or made professionally!! Make sure you check our image requirements which can be found here: http://help.pixelpaint.co.nz/entries/20927332-what-are-your-image-requirements-size-resolution-format-file-names)

Their simplicity allows them to work in most spaces so they're not a risky gift choice, and we think the bigger they are the better they look! The main thing we like about them is that you can make them as meaningful or as meaningless as you want. For example - you could list the streets you lived on growing up, make it into a canvas and gift it to your Mum. Or you could list all of the reasons why you deserve a pay rise, canvas it up and gift it to your boss. Try a regular or jumbo panoramic canvas in portrait orientation for something a little different.  

Here are some images of bus blind we love to get you inspired! 

Artist Spotlight: Myke Sutherland

We love working with artists! Offering talented individuals an affordable way to show off their skills, and getting to see their projects freshly printed on to canvas makes us feel pretty cool. It makes us feel so cool that we're staring to feel greedy about it. So we thought we'd share some of their talent with you guys, starting with this awesome dude Myke Sutherland. Check out his work below plus a few words from the man himself!

Art work and words below By Myke Sutherland

When I get to illustrating, the hours seem to fly by. Before I know it, it's at 2am and I have to be up for work in a few hours! As an Animation Director at Oktobor Animation in Auckland, the Nickelodeon TV shows we work on require my full attention. Our projects include Penguins of Madagascar, Monsters v Aliens, Robot and Monster, and I'm currently wrapping my head around their Kung Fu Panda Season 3. Luckily it's the kind of work that feels more like play!

Work is not the only thing that gets me going, I spent my entire childhood with my mum shooing me off the dining room table so the family could eat - I just love to draw! Since leaving Disney in Australia about seven years ago, I've turned my animating into illustration, since then I've been making a nuisance of myself at Pixelpaint....

I'm addicted. There's really nothing better than the satisfaction of actually getting something printed and tangible on the wall. And yes, I've gone a little mad! I'm not even gonna count how many I've had printed. I'm kinda running out of wall space though. I think I need an intervention. 

Fortunately they've kinda taken off, seems I'm not the only one that reckons art doesn't all have to be darkness bizarre and macabre. Cute and fluffy has a market!

That's right babes, you can purchase one of Myke's rad illustrations for your very own! These make awesome gifts and the kids go crazy for them, you can check him out on his Facebook page here!

Pixelpaint Customer Of The Month for November 2012

Our buddy EJ has taken out customer of the month for November 2012! We were lucky enough to make it to his exhibition last week and it was off the chain! If you missed it, you can check out his work here.



Where are you from?  I've lived all over Australasia. My whanau are based in the Waikato. Even though I moved to Auckland to study, Wellington has been home for more than a decade now. It remains one of my favourite places on earth.

Can you tell us about the inspiration behind the art work you chose? What can I say? Girls grow into woman but boys, on a certain level anyway, always remain boys. I love old toys and most of the tin miniatures that feature in the series The Adventures Of Rocket Racer are from my childhood. The body of work was also inspired by the art of American photographer David Levinthal, a long-time influence.

It’s been therapeutic as an artist to move away from the more serious day to day grind of journalism/documentary style work to the dream-like escapism of staged tableau. The exploration of surrogate realities through regression to a period of childhood innocence has real refuelled my creative spirit. To abbreviate all the art-wank, it was a lot of fun…

What is your favourite thing someone has said about your
canvas? At the exhibition opening a client said the works held a certain cinematic quality to them, especially the way they were lit, which was what I was going for in a 50’s b-grade kinda way. It’s gratifying when critics get where you were trying to go without having to give them directions or a road-map.

What are you planning for your next canvas? That’s a tough call. In the not too distant future I'm looking at a collaborative body of work with fellow Wellington based artists where I'll be working in a more curatorial role.

My next solo show, which probably won’t be until later next year, looks at the resurgence of the art of Burlesque in Aotearoa. So keep an eye out for images of beautiful performance art…

Staff Pick

This weeks staff pick is a beautiful shot taken of the Lunar eclipse in June this year. The photo was taken by Steve Lang of Moonphotos - Devonport Astrophotography. We think it's super cool and kind of amazing.



If you want to snap up a moon photo of your own or see some more work from Steve and the crew at Moonphotos, make sure you check our their website here and like them on Facebook here!

Canvas Inspiration: 5 Photo Series Tips

Lately we've been having romantic feelings whenever we see a good photos series printed on canvas. They look so good that we want to hold hands with them and walk along the beach at sunset. Now that we've released our new square sized canvases, it's the ideal time for you to have a summer affair with a photo series of your very own and get it printed with us.

A photo series (otherwise known as a series of photos printed separately and displayed together) is perfect for those times when you want your photos to 'go' together but you don't want to make a collage. Or those times when you have a lot of wall space to fill. Or those times when you want to try something new and different, because you are bored with your life. I could go on....

Here are some cool photos series ideas stolen from the Internet for you to check out:

Office wall.
Family photos.
Different perspectives.
A mixture.

We also made our own cute photo series. It's called 'the babes of Pixelpaint'.

FYI all of these babes work at Pixelpaint and are single. On that note, here are our 5 photo series tips:

• Choose a theme. Could be puppies/water/the colour blue/food. Pick a theme and make sure it shows through somehow in all of your photos.
• Make sure each photo has a focal point or something interesting in it. Otherwise your series will probably suck! People and interesting objects are a good place to start.
• Make sure the colour tones in all of the images are similar. You want the images to look like they are a set.
• Choose the right canvas size for your image. Square canvases are great for making a photo series, but not every image is going to work on a square canvas. Maybe you want some rectangle action, or a variety of sizes that you can put together like a jigsaw! Make sure you play around with the crop to see which size will work the best.
• Plan where you're going to hang the series before hand. Make sure you measure out the wall space and mark your placements so you know it's going to look how you want it to.

You can find some cool photo series ideas and guidelines here. Check it!

Staff Pick

Since our last staff pick was a a photo of Wellington, we thought we'd keep it balanced with our staff pick this week! This gorgeous photo of Auckland was taken by photographer Tomas Stehlik. If you're into beautiful photographs of neat things, you should check out his website here. We love this photo, it's nice to see Auckland looking a little bit sexy. We thought this photo deserved a free A3 canvas!

The image was printed on one of our jumbo panoramic canvases. If you want to be in with a chance to win a canvas, make sure you send us an entry for our customer of the month competition - we're constantly taking entires for this. Click here for details. 

Halloween Photo Competition

Halloween rules! Costumes, candy, and a good fright are a few of our favourite things. If our staff don't dress up on Halloween we fire them on the spot, and then we re-hire them, just to give them a fright. 

Link

Like most people, we love seeing other people look ridiculous. So we're encouraging you to dress up this year by giving away some canvas to the person wearing our favourite Halloween costume. Send us a photo of your costume and you're in the draw for a monster A1 canvas! Excuse the pun.

It doesn't even have to be photo of you. If you don't want to dress up, dress your kids up. Or steal someone else's kids and dress them up. Just don't send us photos you stole from the Internet because we'll know! Send your photo entry with a brief description to hello@pixelpaint.co.nz or post it up on our Facebook wall here. 

Click here for some home made costume ideas.

Canvas Inspiration - Diagrams, Charts and Infographics

Not sure exactly how late we are to the party on this, but infographics, charts and diagrams are extremely cool right now. Apparently humans like to learn things and be visually stimulated at the same time...

We're always trying to think of canvas ideas that are interesting, visually pleasing and versatile so you won't stop buying our product even though your walls are already overflowing with canvas. JK. Sort of. But seriously I was at the doctors the other day staring at a clever diagram of the human body for at least 20 minutes, which is way longer than I've ever spent looking at the photo of my cat next to my bed. So I think that's a good sign that diagrams, etc, are the way of the future or something.

Make someone the happiest person in the world this Christmas and present them with a canvas that is snazzy yet educational, it could be a funny inforgraphic for your boss, an alphabet chart for your cute kid or diagram of the human body for me. IDK.

But here are some of our favourites to inspire you (click the links below the images to see them in their full glory!):

Muppet's Alphabet Chart by Mike Boon.

Plastics breakdown infographic by One World One Ocean.

Medical diagram.

Medical diagram.

Animal alphabet chart by Anna Bond.

Bucket list infographic.

More Infographics here.

More Charts here
More Diagrams here.

Our Favourite Places - Competition Winner

We're stoked to announce the winner of our favourite places competition, Anouska Nelson! Anouska took it out with this beautiful photo of her children at their favourite spot, Papamoa Beach. We love it! Her words on this photo are below.

 

"This photo was taken mid winter 2012, at Papamoa Beach, Bay of Plenty at dusk. I have lived in Mt Maunganui my whole life and was brought up on the beaches of Mt Maunganui and Papamoa. I now in turn, am bringing my children up the same. We visit the beach most weeks and even more so in Summertime. We are very fortunate to live in such a beautiful place, and I say and many agree, the best place in the world." 

Anouska has won one of our A3 canvases for her wicked entry, make sure you keep an eye on our Facebook page, and sign up to our newsletter to stay informed on our upcoming competitions.

Pixelpaint Customer Of The Month for October 2012!

We're a few days late, but better late than never right? Check out our super cute customer of the month for October! Erin is taking away a free A3 canvas for her entry, if you want a chance win next month, click here for details on how to enter.

What’s your name? Erin Courtenay 

Where are you from? Originally from Sydney, Australia but I settled in 
Wellington over 5 years ago.

Can you tell us about the inspiration behind the art work you chose:

It was so hard to choose which artwork to put on canvas, but since I was
ordering two I decided to create a set, and then the first thing I had to
decide where I wanted to put them, and then the style of art I wanted in
that particular room. In the end I chose a portrait of our baby, Benjamin
at about 5 months, and another portrait of him with his cousins (the
youngest only 3 weeks old!). It was a real achievement to get all 3 babies
looking at the camera and not crying...so it was a no brainer to choose
this photo! We've hung them in the master bedroom so we see their smiling
faces every morning. These photos were taken before hanging the canvas as
we realised that they were practically life size so we took a photo to
capture the effect. 

What is your favourite thing/favourite thing someone has said about your
canvas: Just how cute the boys are and how fantastic the colours look.

What are you planning for your next canvas: I have some scanned photos of
my grandparents from the 1930's/40s and I think these would make fantastic
pieces of art.

Our Favourite Places - Photo Competition

Our last comp was a roaring success, we had some stunning entries! You can check out the winning entry here.

This time we want to see a photo of your favourite place. Could be a snapshot of the family batch, the back yard, the ocean....anywhere that you love! Above is a picture of our favourite place, Shelly Bay in Wellington - which conveniently happens to be the location of Pixelpaint HQ.

Send us a photo and paragraph about the photo via email (hello@pixelpaint.co.nz) by the 12th of October to enter. We'll hook you up with a free A3 canvas if your entry is chosen and feature your favourite place on our blog. Too easy! Get into it!

Staff Pick

Being a Pixelpaint employee has a lot of perks. Free coffee, free hugs, occasionally free beers, and everyone that works here is extremely handsome (for real). Also - we get to witness tons of weird/awesome/inspiring prints as they come through production. Every now and then we see one that really resonates with us. Lately we've been thinking a lot about our favourite spots to hang in summer, and Oriental Bay in Wellington was a mutual favourite of the PP crew. When we saw this canvas come through we contacted the owner to ask if we could share it with everyone to kick off what we're calling the 'Staff Pick', which is exactly what it sounds like. Every week or so our staff will pick out a canvas they like and we'll share it with you - providing it's OK with the owner.

Shout out to Nick who took the photo printed on this canvas. Here what he had to say about it: "The pic was taken at about 11am as I was walking up past the monastery on Palliser Road. The sky was particularly moody, yet the scene with the boats reminded me of Lake Geneva. Was taken with a 50mm lens, 90/f16 ( I think)". We love it!

5 Tips on Taking Panoramic Photos

A good panoramic shot captures a landscape like nothing else, not to mention they look killer on the wall (on one of our new panoramic sized canvases!). Think beaches, marinas, stadiums, city skylines, bridges, harbours and mountains. Basically any location with an unobstructed wide angle view will make for awesome panorama photography. And if you're going to do something you might as well do it right - If you wana shoot panoramic photos like a pro check out these 5 photography tips:

1 Focus. It's a good idea to practice using manual focus and focus at hyper focal distance. This will also make things easier during the stitching process. Make sure you have a good focal length, if you cut things too short you might be lacking the pixels you need when it comes to the crunch.

2. Stay away from the polarizer! This is really only a massive deal if there is heaps of blue sky area in your photo. I know it makes everything look cool/vibrant/beautiful but it can also make the tone of the sky really uneven and create noise. It's easier to just leave it and then touch that sucker up in Photoshop!

3. Overlap. Don't be shy with the overlap. Aim to have at least 20-30% overlap between shots. Sometime less is fine but our advice is to experiment with your particular camera to find the sweet spot of overlap.

4. If you don't have a tripod, make sure you practise good hand holding techniques.

5. Be careful with meter and exposure. Make sure you scan the whole area that you want to use in the photo to see what the exposure reading is. If it's drastically different from section to section maybe pop back later when the lighting has settled down a bit! Otherwise you may find yourself choosing between shadows and highlights.  

Pixelpaint Supports Women in Construction!

We were super proud to be involved in the latest exhibition from NAWIC which ran over the past week at Thistle Hall in Wellington, showcasing 27 women in across many different disciplines in the construction industry. 

We thought it was such a cool way to support, encourage and show appreciation for the many talented women who throw down, alongside their male colleagues, to make an important and valuable contribution to the building and construction industry. We printed all of the canvases for this exhibition and they looked awesome! Check out the photos below.

Pixelpaint Art Competition Winner!

Check out this amazing painting titled 'thought' by Angela Lane, AKA the winner of our recent art comp! Angela scored an A1 canvas as her prize for this beautiful submission.

You can see more of her work on her facebook page.

Make sure you keep an eye out for her new website which she is working on at the moment.

If you missed out on entering this competition make sure you head over to our homepage and sign up for our newsletter to stay in the know with out latest competitions and promotions!

Pixelpaint Customer Of The Month for September 2012!

What’s your name? Stan Armiger

Where are you from? My wife and I now reside at Snells Beach after spending four and a half years touring/working around the South Island in our motorhome. We are both enjoying once again being a permanent part of a local community after being intinerants for so long.

Can you tell us about the inspiration behind the art work you chose: Both these pictures were always going to be an early choice for hanging together as we like the subtle and contrasting colours of the Lewis Pass picture with our motorhome engulfed by the huge landscape and also the colours and peacefulness reflected in the shot of an early frosty morning at Lake Waihola. Both pictures we think, blend rather nicely together.

What is your favourite thing/favourite thing someone has said about your canvas: These pics have not been hung long but like us those that have seen them have commented on the colours that you seem to be only able to find in the South Island.

What are you planning for your next canvas: We are presently trolling through literally thousands of shots of our trip endeavouring to select what will furthe enhance our walls as canvasses.

Massive thanks to Stan for this entry! If your a customer of ours and you want a chance to win an A3 canvas check out this blog post for details on how to enter! We'd love to hear for you. 

Win A Monster A1 Canvas!

Do you want to win some free canvas? Yeah, we thought you might! In keeping with our artsy vibe for our recent newsletter (if you're not already signed up to it, head to our homepage and sign up so you're in the loop!), we want you to get creative and show us your art.

Send us an image of whatever you consider to be your ‘art’, and you’ll go in the draw to win massive A1 canvas. Entries close September 20th 2012. 

We're only accepting submissions via email so send 'em through to hello@pixelpaint.co.nz with a brief description and a bit about yourself. 

PS: Please don’t feel like you need to send us the actual art itself, a digital copy is what we’re after!

Here are some links to some amazing illustration sites that we are in love with to get the creative juices flowing:

Etsy
Strongstuff
The Beat Is BackFify 24 SF

Society 6

Inspiration: Street Art!

Remember when everyone was obsessed with Banksy? We do. We've printed approx. one zillion Banksy canvases since we've been in business, and there is a good reason why.

Street art is freaking awesome, that's why! There are loads of extremely rad, extremely talented street artists for you to obsess over too. Did I mention that street art looks totally badass on canvas? Because it does. Here are some of our favourite artists for you to check out:

Owen Dippie is a kiwi dude with major steez, his work is amazing, check out his blog here: http://owendippie.blogspot.co.nz/

The GBAK crew are a multinational collective from New Zealand, Australia and Germany. 

Check out their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/GBAK-CREW/259551327476733

Miles "Mac" Mcgregor is an LA artist and my personal favourite. His realism work is actually stunning. As in it will literally stun you. Do yourself a favour a visit his website: http://elmac.net

Christian Guémy is a French graffiti artist known to the public as “C215″ who has garnered some fame for his intricate, colorful stencil works. Take at look at some of his work here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/c215

Who's your favorite street artist? Comment and let us know!

Canvas for dudes.

So you wanna buy a canvas for a guy. Or maybe you are a guy who wants to buy a canvas for himself. Either way, you might find yourself confused about what image to choose, because life is confusing sometimes.

We really hate stereotypes. In fact, we firmly subscribe to the idea that most men are NOT emotionally crippled sports fanatics with remote controls for hands and are actually normal humans with feelings and emotions. But here are five canvas ideas that we consider to be a little more 'masculine', just in case that's what you were going for...

1. Muscle cars. This is a total shout out to my Dad who has been a muscle car fanatic for as long as I can remember. This passion also extends to most of the males in my family. They do look kind of cool though right? Some might even say they are 'sexy'...
If you're not a fan, you probably will be after taking a look at these photos:
http://thethrottle.thechive.com/2010/09/10/classic-muscle-cars-are-back-on-dirty-friday-21-hq-photos/



2. Bands/Musicians. I live with four guys in their 20's and I have since gathered that their main hobbies are: to annoy me by listening really loud music ALL the time, and xbox. I also heard a rumour that most people in the world enjoy music, so... Check out these awesome vintage rockstar photos to get the ideas flowing: http://www.buzzfeed.com/scottm27/20-vintage-rock-star-photos-you-have-to-see-54cb

3. Movies and/or Superheroes. No one is to cool for Batman. For real, all of the cute nerd boys read comic books, trust me. Take a look at the marvel website and flick through some digital comics, there's a superhero to suit every personality type: http://marvel.com/

4. Nature. Mother nature is a crazy mofo. There are so many amazing pictures available online of erupting volcanoes, thunder storms, tranquil beaches and lush rainforests. I could literally go on forever. Check out this awesome photo blog for some inspiration: http://iheartnature.tumblr.com/

5. Out of control babes. I guess some people might think this is bad taste. But seriously you guys. Megan Fox. Have you seen her? You should see her. Better yet, you should print her on a canvas and take her home to keep forever. I tried to find a gallery of hot girls that wasn't dodgy but couldn't, so I'll leave that up to you!

Pixelpaint customer of the month for August 2012!

What’s your name? Ruth Lowe

Where are you from? Auckland!

Can you tell us about the inspiration behind the art work you chose: My son Ethan is 22 year old mechanic with an amazing ability to capture art on camera. I don't think he realises how good he is and I’m so proud of him! He inspired me to cover my walls on canvas instead of re-wallpapering.

What is your favourite thing/favourite thing someone has said about your canvas: The images make you feel like you’re actually there, you can just keep looking at the canvas and it never gets boring. It’s like you are really there.

What are you planning for your next canvas: My next canvas will be another photo taken by Ethan, because I am so proud, and all of my kids want one for their rooms. Better than wall paper any day!

Canvas for a cause.

Pixelpaint recently donated some canvas to help support the lovely Natalie Sisson, aka the Suitcase Entrepreneur in her latest fundraising venture.


Natalie recently completed a 4,000 mile bicycle ride from Kenya to South Africa to help support WomenWin.org and raise awareness for this wonderful non-profit organization. WomenWin.org works to empower young women, pushing for their social and political rights through sport, athletics and physical education.


Here are some of the shots we printed for her:

Keep with with Natalie on her blog via her website, she's awesome!

Canvas Inspiration: Typography!

My love affair with typography began back in 2009 when I had just begun studying.
I had to make a poster for an event I was helping out with and someone suggested I check out some typography online for inspiration. Luckily, I stumbled across this guy, and his work totally blew my mind. My approach to using type was NEVER the same again! It totally revolutionised the way I saw art and posters and I think it may or may not have made me a better person.


Typography prints look amazing on canvas, so if you're ever stuck for an idea for your next print, here are 30 different and amazing typography tutorials for beginners:


http://ijaar.com/30-great-typography-tutorials-for-beginners/


 Check out these typography prints we did a few weeks ago for our mates over at Trade Me:

We're completely addicted to and obsessed with typography, and we feel like you will be too once you take a peak at these amazing typography illustrations:


http://www.inspirefirst.com/2011/11/01/typography-illustrations-collective/


And these amazing typography blogs:


http://www.typographyserved.com/
http://blog.typoretum.co.uk/
http://tdc.org/

Top 5 image effects and tutorials.

There are days when I log on to Facebook, see hundreds of trendy looking pictures of food and cats and cute outfits, and feel as though Instagram has taken over the world. I wonder if my life will ever be cool/relevant enough to be documented online by a series of tiny ‘Instagrams’. I then cry into my sushi because I don’t own an iphone. Just kidding...

If you’re not familiar with Instagram, you’re probably an adult with a life, a baby who doesn’t use the computer or a hermit who lives in a cave. Either way, it’s fine, because it’s irrelevant. You don’t need to have instagram to make your photos look cool! You just need any two of these three things: Photoshop, a brain, the Internet.

I’ve picked out what I consider to be five of the coolest and most popular image effects and I’m going to hook you up with some tutorials so you can recreate these effects on your own images at home.

1. LOMO



You know it’s the lomo effect when: the colours in the photo appear oversaturated, there are extreme optical distortions, rainbow-colored subjects, off-kilter exposure, blurring and alternative film processing.

Photoshop tutorial video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=v86faa0SPR4

If you don’t have Photoshop and you have no idea what you are doing, you can head here and they’ll do all the hard work for you: www.befunky.com

2. TILT SHIFT



You know it’s the tilt shift effect when: the main subject of the image is in focus and the rest is blurry. Sometimes’tilt shift’ specifically refers to the use of tilt for selective focus, often for simulating a miniature scene.

Photoshop tutorial: http://www.tiltshiftphotography.net/photoshop-tutorial.php/
Again, befunky.com will do this for you if you are photoshopless/clueless.

3. POLAROID

This is probably the most popular image effect of all time FYI.
You know it’s the Polaroid effect when: you see the Polaroid film frame! Dead giveaway… the colours are desaturated, the ink appears ‘mottled’, the image appears to have paper texture and colour.

Photoshop tutorial: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/webmaster/photoshop-tutorial-create-the-polaroid-effect-for-images/1460
Befunky.com has your back again.

4. VINTAGE 

You know it’s the vintage effect when: the colour tones lean towards either a blue or a red hue, or a cross-processed look. Vintage photos also have an element of noise or grain that can be achieved through textures, and also a certain amount of vignetting around the edges of the photo.

Photoshop tutorial: http://designinstruct.com/photography/vintage-photo-effect-photoshop/
Free: Befunky.com

5. SELECTIVE COLOURING



You know it’s the selective colour effect when: most of a photo is converted to black and white, but some parts are left in colour. For example, the eyes and the lips are in colour, against an otherwise black-and-white photograph.

Photoshop tutorial: http://www.busyinbrooklyn.com/selective-color-photoshop-tutorial-cs4/
Free: If you’re game, you can download Picasa and it'll do it for you with a few clicks of the mouse.