We’ve partnered with them to give away 2 accounts, each with $100 credit. Read on to see how you can enter!

A Little More About Deposit Photos

DepositPhotos is a huge marketplace where people can buy and sell high-quality royalty-free photos and vectors. They offer a 14-day free trial and very reasonable prices starting at $0.10 with a subscription plan.

Like many other stock photo sites, you can buy credits to spend on your images, or you can get a subscription plan which makes buying images even cheaper. Hey, you can even pay via SMS!

Giveaway Details & Guidelines

To enter this giveaway simply leave a comment on this post and tell us why you’d like to win. Please use your real name and a valid email address when leaving your comment so we can contact you if you win. A random number generator will be used to select the winners.

Each winner (2) will be awarded an account with $100 credit. The giveaway ends at midnight (GMT) on Monday, September 13, 2010.

Good luck everyone!

• Ryan B
• Liam Hammett
• Barbara Baker
• Andrew Tan
• Ande

Some time ago Noura Yehia (founder of Noupe.com) contacted me about a new project called BundleHunt, a site that offers a ton of design resources for a ridiculously low price of $49.

Today we’re giving away bundles to 5 lucky readers of SpyreStudios!

The following image shows what resources are included in the bundle:

For a more complete description of all the resources, make sure you visit their ‘treasure‘ page →

About BundleHunt

BundleHunt is a premium resource pack aimed at empowering the creative community, offering more than $1,400 worth of outstanding apps, templates, icons, eBooks, hosting plans and premium memberships, all for less than $50. The design bundle will only be available for 14 days, from Aug. 2-16 and includes some of the most prestigious brands in the business.

Giveaway Details

In order to enter the contest you must leave a comment on this post (with your real name and a valid email address) and we’ll pick 5 winners using a random number generator on random.org.

The contest ends on Friday, August 13th, 2010 at midnight (0:00) GMT. Winner will be announced shortly after.

Of course, feel free to send this post to Twitter and other social networks! ;)

Good luck to everyone!

Thanks to everyone who participated!

• Filipe Pereira
• WebCreationUK
• Quim Berenguer

The world of online advertising and web-design has evolved quite a lot over the past couple years. These days it’s hard to not be aware of what is going on with Flash. Some say there’s a war between Apple and Adobe, some say Flash is meant to disappear, and some think it’s there to stay.

In my opinion is it’s not about what technology is better, but rather what’s the best solution for a particular project. But, we’d like to know what you think!

BannerSnack Giveaway

Today we’re having a giveaway. BannerSnack, the leader in Flash banner design had decided to give away one-year licenses to 3 lucky winners of SpyreStudios.

Before we get to the rules and guidelines for the giveaway, check out this humorous Flash video they did. We’d like to know what you think ;)

Rules And Guidelines

In order to enter this contest we’d would like you to comment and tell us what you think of Flash content (especially Flash banners). Do you think Flash banners are good in certain situations, do you prefer graphical banners? What issues do you have with Flash banners?

Simply give us your opinion and you will be entered to win one of 3 one-year licenses to BannerSnack. Winners will be chosen randomly using random.org.

The giveaway will end on July 7th, 2010, at midnight (0:00) GMT. Winner will be announced shortly after.

Good luck to everyone!

• Mestiso
• Dodie
• Billy

We’ve partnered up with Flashloaded, a leading provider of Flash components and templates, to giveaway some cool prizes to 3 lucky readers of SpyreStudios. Read on to learn how you can enter the contest and to see the prizes. Good luck to everyone! :)

Giveaway Details and Rules

Entering the giveaway is pretty simple and you can do it by either leaving a comment on this post or by tweeting about the giveaway. Simply tell us which one of the Flash components you’d like to win (see the list below).

If you tweet about it, please make sure you leave a comment on here with the link to your tweet. Also, when leaving your comment, please enter your real name and a valid email address so we can contact you if you win.

The contest will end on June 2nd, 2010 at midnight GMT and the winners will be randomly selected shortly after (using random.org) and announced via this post and on Twitter.

The Prizes

We will randomly pick 3 winners and each of them will be able to choose 1 of the following components.

3D Wall ↓

The 3D Wall Flash component displays images on an engaging interactive 3D wall using the Papervision3D engine.

The wall can be flat or set at any curvature to create a truly unique look. The viewer can also scroll, tilt and zoom the wall freely. Includes a built-in preloader for seamless transitions between thumbs and large images. Over 80 parameters to customize your wall ensures unlimited number of looks and an enticing viewer experience.

pageFlipper ↓

Engage your users with truly intuitive browsing experiences with the pageFlipper, a Flash component that enables magazine style flipping of pages. Sensational when used for company brochures, family photo albums or editorial style content. With realistic page turning effects introduce an enhanced sense of interaction to your users.

Partigen 2 ↓

Partigen 2 is a brand new, completely rewritten version of the Partigen 1 Flash component and is the first and only extension for Flash that lets you create complex particle effects in just a click.

This real time Flash engine creates realistic effects such as fire, smoke, explosions, sparkles, water, and many more. Each particle is made within Flash at runtime with zero render time.

photoFlow ↓

The photoFlow Flash component displays multiple images with a stack effect, perspective and reflection. The images can be flipped by clicking on a specific image in the stack, using the supplied skinnable scrollbar, or scrolling the mousewheel. Images can be added or changed directly in the Component Inspector, through ActionScript or using an external XML file.

flashTextFX ↓

FlashTextFX is a Flash component that creates an unlimited number of high quality text effects in Flash. Includes an easy to use custom interface with real time preview. Option to add multiple effects per textfield. Effects can be saved and loaded for future projects. Customizable scale, position, rotation, opacity, tint, blur and glow.

Good Luck To Everyone!

We hope you enjoy this giveaway! Don’t forget to tell your friends and partners about it. We’ll be looking forward to making 3 Flash developers happy :)

Here’s the deal

We have 300 accounts to give away. To get yours, head on over to Eleven2, check out their shared hosting plans or their reseller plans, follow the instructions to signup and enter the following coupon code: SpyreStudios

If you chose a shared hosting plan, the coupon code will give you the first 3 months for free. If you go for one of their reseller plans, you will get a $30 discount. This offer is not applicable to dedicated hosting plans.

Of course we would appreciate you spread the word about this on Twitter, Facebook, etc… ;)

Don’t forget to leave a comment below if there’s anything.

Thanks to everyone who participated!

• Michael Tyznik
• Donnie
• Rolando

uPrinting has always been a great supporter of the design community and today we’ve partnered with them to give away 500 die cut business cards to 3 lucky winners.

Make sure you visit uPrinting to learn more about their business card printing and other services.

Giveaway Details

• 3 lucky winners will receive 500 Die Cut Business Cards
• Die cutting and paper type options are up to the winners
• Contest is open to US and Canadian readers (free shipping within the US)
• The contest ends at midnight (GMT) on Thursday, February 18, 2010.

Here’s How It Works

Here’s how you can enter for a chance to win 500 business cards from UPrinting:

• Leave a comment on this post
• Tweet about the contest with the hashtag #uPrintingSpyre

I will use a random number generator to chose the 3 winners.

Please make sure you leave your real name and a valid email address when you leave your comment and if you tweet about the contest, please follow me @jophillips so I can DM you if you win. Or simply come back to this post on Friday the 19th to see who won.

Good luck everyone!

We’ve partnered with Concept Feedback to give away premium concepts to 5 readers of SpyreStudios.

Posting concepts on Concept Feedback is free, but a premium concept goes live right away and is featured on the Concept Feedback homepage for a full week. You then get more exposure and reviews from users (they will even personally invite their top members to review your concept). This normally costs $9.99 but you can get one for free by entering this contest.

How To Enter The Contest

To enter the contest, simply tell us why you’d like to win. You can do so by leaving a comment on this post or via Twitter (with the hashtag #SpyreConcept). You can also send me a RT @jophillips with your answer.

Are you currently working on a design you could use some feedback on? Are you stuck on redesigning your site and could use some input? Well, here’s your chance to win a premium concept and get great feedback on your project.

Contest Deadline

This contest will end on Friday, January 15th, 2010 at midnight EST. We will use random.org to pick the 5 winners and the winner will be announced shortly after.

Good luck to everyone! :)

Elegant Themes is surely one of the best WordPress themes store out there. I’ve had the pleasure of customizing some of their themes for clients in the past and I’ve found they’re very easy to work with, well-coded and definitely great-looking.

So, to start the year on the right track we’ve partnered with Elegant Themes to give away 4 unlimited access memberships to their theme club! What this means is you’ll have access to all their themes for a full year! (a $19.95 value)

Latest Themes From Elegant Themes

Here are some of the latest themes from Elegant Themes ↓

How To Enter

To enter this contest, all you have to do is correctly answer the 4 questions below:

1. Each version of WordPress is named after a famous Jazz musician – who was WP 1.0 named after?
2. What did Johannes Gutenberg – a German goldsmith – invented in the 1400s?
3. IKEA, after 50 years of using a customized version of Futura and Century Schoolbook for their print catalogs, decided to switch to which typeface for their 2010 catalog?
4. What was the color of the year chosen by Pantone in 2009?

Like I said, we’re giving away 4 memberships – the first 3 people to answer those questions correctly will win (leave a comment with your answers). If you’re not one of the first 3, don’t worry, you can still win! Simply tweet about the contest with the hashtag #SpyreElegant and you’ll be entered in the contest! We will use random.org to pick the 4th winner.

Please make sure you enter a valid email address when you leave your comment so we can actually contact you if you win :)

The contest ends on Thursday, January 7th 2010 at midnight EST. Winners will be announced shortly after.

A big thanks to Nick Roach from Elegant Themes for giving away those 4 memberships!

Good luck to everyone!

Before we get into what you need to do in order to enter, lets take a look at the theme and see some of the features that it comes built in with.

So what does the theme look like?

Below are some screenshots of the four different theme style options that come pre built in with the theme.

So what are some of the built in features?

I’ve built in some items into the theme options page (GIANT OPTIONS) that will allow you to edit and update the theme with ease. Below is a list of the different items you can change in the GIANT OPTIONS page.

1. Logo changer: add your logo url & the size of the logo
2. Stylesheet Changer: the four styles are built into a drop down for you
3. Google analytics: add your code into the box and it’s automatically added into your site
4. Timthumb options: Activate timthumb’s image resizer and also choose the width/height
5. Top bar profile options: Add the url to any of the social profiles you see in the top right bar
6. RSS Feed options: add your feed url and feedreader name to get the rss box to show up and allow email sign ups
7. Twitter options: Add your twitter name, choose how many tweets to show & choose the twitter section title
8. Advertisements: 300×250 in the sidebar, 300×250 on the single post pages, 468×60 in the header and 468×60 under the first post on every page

Where can you view the demo?

You can view the online demo by clicking here.

What else is included in the theme?

There are page styles that are built in so when you’re creating a page, you can have a pre built style there in place. In the top navigation of the menu, there is a drop down of the styles. Below are some notes on each.

• Archives: allows you to write some text on the page and also has the archives by category and month built into it
• Full Width: looking for a page without the sidebar? This is for you
• Home Page Full Width: want a custom style home page? This one is 100% widgetized for the home page so you can show anything you’d like
• Home Page Normal Width: This is the same as the one above, only it has the sidebar back in place
• Page Redirect: With a simple custom field (‘redirect’) you can make your page redirect to any url. Great for affiliate linksyou don’t want other people seeing.

So how do you enter?

There are two ways to enter (we’ll be picking 5 winners from each method so make sure you do both in order to have the most chances to win!) The contest ends on December 23rd, 2009 at midnight EST.

• Comment on this blog post – tell us why you’d like to have the theme (use a real email address so we can contact you if you win)
• Tweet about this post – make sure you use the hash tag #spyregiant in order for us to track the tweets. Tweet as many times as you’d like.

• Mike Acevedo
• Steve Bargas
• Ryan

I am always looking into ways of making the (often time-consuming and painful) tasks of billing and invoicing easier and quicker. Guess what? Billings 3 helps me do just that! I’ve been using it for some time now and I’m really liking it. So much that we’ve partnered up to do a giveaway here on SpyreStudios!

The cool folks at Marketcircle, the creators of Billings 3, are giving away licenses to 3 lucky winners. Details on how to enter the contest are below, keep reading. :)

First, What Is Billings 3?

Billings 3 is a time-tracking, billing and invoicing tool for Mac OS X. It features time-tracking, recurring and one-click invoicing, beautiful invoice templates, and a lot more! Hey and it recently won an Apple Design Award!

Here are some screenshots of the user interface:

How To Enter

There’s 3 ways you can enter this giveaway:

• Leave a comment on this post: Tell us why you’d like to win a copy!
• Retweet the giveaway post: Let your followers know about it so they can enter too! (make sure you tag your tweet with #spyrebillings since this is how I will be keeping track of who tweeted about it! Or just click here to post to Twitter)
• Write about it on your own blog: Let your readers know about this giveaway!

You have until midnight (EST) on September 6th to enter the giveaway! The winners will be chosen randomly on September 7th and announced on SpyreStudios shortly after.

Good luck to everyone! :)