Can you believe it's almost Christmas? I can't. Even more amazing, this is my 36th monthly Trompe L'Oeil tutorial! I don't know about you, but I've sure learned a lot about Xara in the past three years. And, I've learned a lot about many of you, as well, who have heeded my pleas for e-mail and sent me compliments, suggestions, and good cheer. This is truly a world wide web site with frequent visitors from all around the world. Ain't the web great?!

This month's tutorial, a festive glowing Santa Claus, features special effects made possible by the talent and generosity of Ladislav Seredi. Ladislav, who lives in the Czech Republic, has created a Gaussian Blur utility for Xara (a feature that has been sorely missing). This dandly little blur utility, SL-Blur, is available as "postcard-ware" at The Graphics Helpers web site, created and maintained by Nathan Heagy who lives in Canada. SL-Blur is remarkably simple and easy to use. So before you begin the tutorial, download your copy. The only payment Ladislav asks is you send him a post card with a picture of where you live. (His address is in the Readme.txt file in the download file). Kind of a Christmas present that goes both ways! The site features several other useful utilities that Ladislav has made available for all Xara users.