Makena – Christmas Backgrounds
4 JPG files. “You can use the backgrounds for your personal or commercial renders.”

boundless – Holiday Frames
4 PNG files. “They may be used for your own artwork, whether private, published, and/or commercial.”

BlueEcho – Christmas Fabrics
18 JPG files. “Can be used for non-commercial and commercial use.” See the Read Me file in the zip file for the full Terms of Use.

Vectors

CSS Creme
11 icons. Available in .ai format. Released under the General Public License.

DaPino (Smashing Magazine)
14 icons. Available in .png, .jpg, .ai and .eps formats. “You can use the set for all of your projects for free and without any restrictions. You can freely use it for both your private and commercial projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. The set may not be resold, sublicensed, rented, transferred or otherwise made available for use.”

DaPino
3 icons available in .ai CS3, .eps, .png, and .ico formats. License: Attribution-Non-Commercial 3.0 Netherlands.

DryIcons
Terms of Use.
Halloween frame available in EPS format.

Halloween night background available in EPS format.

Here are some vector skulls.

Mulpo
Various skulls available in AI and EPS formats. Released under the General Public License.

Llen Design (DeviantART)
7 Vector Skulls and a bone in an EPS file. Can be used in Commercial and Personal projects.

Designious

Can be used in Commercial and Personal projects.

1 skull EPS as part of their Vintage Mega Pack Sampler.

Free T-Shirt Design 2. EPS file.

Free T-Shirt Design 4. EPS file.

Free Vector Pack 1. A skull is available as well as some vector textures and other elements. EPS file.

illustrator-labo (Vecteezy)
Some awesome Jack O’Lantern and witch hat designs. AI file. “Use and abuse it to your heart’s content, just don’t resell or redistribute it in any way.”

Gerberpernert (Vecteezy)
Cute little bat-winged character and witch. Zipped AI file. General Public License

Chrisdesign
Halloween party flyers created in Inkscape. Openable in Illustrator but the sunburst effect produced an error in CS3 for me. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Jonny-Doomsday (DeviantART)
Frankenstein vector as an editable PDF file. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Idee Montabili
Pumpkin box template in EPS file. Just the shape; you have to decorate it yourself.

Here is a little vector freebie of my own for you all. Feel free to use it in commercial or personal works. Just don’t forget to show Design Bliss some love.

EPS CS file. Just click to download.

Photoshop Brushes

Here are some free Halloween Photoshop brushes for you.

Infected Loser
Halloween 1
10 Photoshop CS2 brushes.

Halloween 2
10 brushes.

Halloween 3
17 brushes.

Skulls
11 brushes.

deathoflight (DeviantART)
Creepy Trees
12 large brushes. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Spooky Trees
15 large brushes. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Graphics-illustrations
Nice set of brushes but requires signing up for free membership to download. Terms of Use.

MofineDoll-stock (DeviantART)
20 Photoshop Brushes. Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Mel’s Photoshop Brushes
9 Jack O’Lantern/pumpkin brushes. Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.

Digital Art Corner
10 Photoshop Brushes. “Redistribution is not permitted.”

Artistic-Ecstasy
8 Halloween Photoshop Brushes. “Please do not redistribute them as your own!”

Photoshop Tutorials

Want to ghoul up your designs for Halloween? Here are some Photoshop tutorials I’ve come across that might be useful.

First up, iMarc teaches us how to create a “Freakish Zombie in 11 Steps!”

Next, my favorite Photoshop tutorial site, PSDTUTS shows us how to create “A Slick Supernatural Text Effect.”

Photoshop Roadmap has gathered together 60 “Horror, Blood and Gore” Photoshop tutorials. Not for the squeemish, though.

Icons

Let’s keep the Halloween resources going with some free Halloween Icons.

Iconfactory
iPhonica Halloween – 10 icons for Vista or Leopard.

Trick or Treat – 4 icons for Vista or Leopard.

Jamie McCandless (Terms of Use)
Stone Ground – 22 OS X icons.

Boo-galoo – 12 OS X icons.

WarP o’Lanterns – 16 OS X icons.

Stock Photos

Perhaps the best find of this Halloween season are these skull reference photos by Jimiyo fro GoMedia.
15 high resolution shots of skulls cut out from the background already.

CreepyHalloweenImages.com offers hundreds of Halloween images under an attribution license. Here are just a few examples:

Bats

Clipart

Ghosts

Lanterns

Other Creepy Things

Fonts

Although I gathered up a lot of good font sources last year, here are some resources for Halloween fonts and dingbats that I have scrounged up for you.

HalloweenJoys.com
Various Halloween fonts.

TypOasis
Various “Creepy Fonts.”

dafont.com
We Inside. Skull and Skeleton dingbats.

About.com
A collection of Halloween fonts.

Dyers.org
Jon Dyers has put together a list of 66 Halloween fonts from various sites.

WordPress Themes

Interested in doing some blogging about Halloween? Well, here are 6 free themes for WordPress that you use to get you started.
Dining Table

WP-Themes

Savvy Web Design
Halloween Town

Cafe Halloween

Virtual Assistance for Business

Bobek’s WordPress Themes

Well, that’s it for 2008. Come again for more!

Next, iStockphoto‘s photo-of-the-week features a witch with some caramel apple treats for the kiddies.

As a bonus, here is last week’s free photo-of-the-week featuring a woman in a masquerade mask, still available.

iStockphoto Terms of Use.

Bats

Clipart

Ghosts

Lanterns

Other Creepy Things

Vectors

Pirates by aitor_avila (Open Clipart Library)
SVG file. Public Domain.

Custom Shapes: Maritime by lukerroberts (DeviantART)
Available as Photoshop Custom Shapes or SVG files. Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License.

Pirats Boat by yeKcim (Open Clipart Library)
PNG and SVG files. Public Domain.

Skull and Bones Pattern by Calcyum (Vecteezy).
SVG file. General Public License.

Stock Photos

Stock Photos by Marcus Ranum (mjranum-stock at DeviantART)
Terms of Use (Contact for any commercial use outside of DA).

Vectors
Wikipedia
SVG format.

JunkMailer (Adobe Exchange)
An awesome set of vector US flags in Illustrator format.

Peirce Clipart Collection
In PDF and WMF formats. Available with shadows on the flag and without.

Photoshop Brushes
SilentMYSTIQUE (DeviantART)
43 high-resolution brushes of various military and patriotic subjects including several flag brushes as you can see. Can be used for any non-commercial or commercial work. He just asks that you “fav” it and leave a link showing how they were used.

Stock Photos
Just a small sample from stock.xchng

But that’s not all. Shutterstock also has a free image of the week, and this week it’s fit for your valentine as well.

VECTORS

DryIcons
Although DryIcons already produces great icons, they also launched this year their “365 Free Graphics Project.” Each and every day, they make one vector EPS graphic available. And these aren’t just elements either; they often are complete pictures in and of themselves. Check the FAQ for Terms of Use. They have released several vectors appropriate for Valentine’s Day. Here are a couple of my favorites.

AiVault
AiVault offers a free vector each Friday. The latest makes for a cute, little valentine. Available as an EPS.

Round Pixel
Round Pixel provides this nice Valentine design and a series of hearts that can be used for commercial or personal use. A link back is requested, and don’t try to claim them as your own.

henocbeseleel (Vecteezy)
AI file. License: Attribution (Creative Commons).

Dr-Depot
AI file. License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Turbo Squid
A basic heart in AI format. Requires registration to download.

Scranton Label, Inc.
Scranton Label has a bunch of eps/pdf shapes intended for use as diecut stickers, including a nice dotted line heart shape.

CreateSk8
Available in AI CS and EPS formats.

Aramisdream (DeviantART)
EPS file released under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Pixlpusher
Part of a set of vector tags available as an Illustrator 8 EPS file.

game-flea (DeviantART)
Tribal heart SVG file released under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Illurama
And if you’re not feeling that great about Valentine’s Day, here’s an alternative. They have several other pieces you might want to check out. Available in EPS. “A resale is forbidden and in the case its is criminally pursued.”

It’s been a while since I offered an exclusive Design Bliss Download for you, but here’s an early Valentine’s Day present for you…a little vector heart design I whipped up. It’s just the one design, but I liked the way it came out.

One of these days, I need to formalize my Terms of Use, but basically, just don’t redistribute the vector file itself. You can use on personal and commercial designs. You can use it in templates so long as you are using an bitmap instead of a vector version. Okay? And if you use it, I’d love to see where.

I’ve saved this one in EPS format since I think that is more universal than AI.

This one is only available this month so join VectorStock to download it. See the Terms of Use.

PHOTOSHOP BRUSHES

Hawksmont Universe
“9 big brushes.” Terms of Use.

ShadyMedusa-stock (DeviantART)
ShadyMedusa has some brushes that I know you are going to love and states: “you can use in dAprints and outside dA.”

Heart

Heart-02

Heart 03

Obsidian Dawn
Licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 License. Terms of Use are here, but commercial use is allowed.

AmarieVeanne-Stock (DeviantART)
Released under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

graphics-illustrations.com
Here’s 3 great sets:

Designfruit
Brushes and PNG files are free to download. The original vectors are available for purchase as well. Terms of use.

PHOTOSHOP PATTERNS

Here are some heart patterns available on Brusheezy, part of a 5 pattern set. Need help installing them? You can read an informative tutorial by Obsidian Dawn.

ICONS

DryIcons
In addition to great free vector graphics, DryIcons also offers free sets of icons like this georgeous “Valentine Love” set.

IconDrawer
Gorgeous icons. Available in PNG and Mac OS X versions.

Spheres Graphics
Sphers Graphics offers up this set of Web 2.0-looking hearts in PNG format.

Warrior~Poet
Jamie McCanless offers up 3 great sets of icons. They are available for personal desktop use but can also be licensed for commercial use.

CJ Tutorials
Since my post on rss icons is still one the this blog’s most popular ever, I expect you will appreciate these heart-shaped rss icons.

Spiral Pixel
Here are some generic glossy hearts you might could use. PSD file. Click on the graphic to get to the download.

And here are some great sets from Iconfactory.

STOCK PHOTOS AND BACKGROUNDS

Here are just a few of the goodies available at the Stock.XCHNG. Click on the previews to go the individual download pages.

Public Domain Pictures.net
License: This image is public domain. You may use this picture for any purpose, including commercial.

FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Web version is free. Higher resolutions available to purchase. Terms of Use.

morgueFile
Terms of Use.

DigitalDesignsUnlimited is a marketplace for digital artists into fantasy-based designs. They have various items for Photoshop and Poser for sale as well as some freebies. One of the current freebies is 2 large high-rez backgrounds suitable for Valentine’s Day designs. There’s a text message in the download with the Terms of Use, but the short of it is:

“Buyer acquires the copyright to any derivative works created using this work, provided none of the original materials can be extracted from the derivative work by any means.”

I don’t know how long they make their freebies available so get them while you can.

FONTS AND DINGBATS

Click on each link for lots more from these 2 sites.

dafont.com

Speciality Fonts

TEXTURES

Torley Textures
“All Torley Textures are 512×512 in (lossless) PNG format and seamlessly tiling. Use ‘em however you want…”