For those of us in the US, this is the 4th of July long weekend. To celebrate, we have every kind of stars and stripes for your photos: Bokeh Stars, Red White & Blue color effects, flags and fireworks stickers, and more! And don’t forget to put those photos in one of our Independence Day themed Fancy Collages.

Today is Canada Day! Canadians: Check out our collection of Canadian flags, bunting and that essential Maple Leaf in the Seasonal Stickers section!

And on July 14, the French celebrate Bastille Day. We’ve got everything French in the Seasonal Stickers section: Le drapeau de la France, la Tour Eiffel, du café, des baguettes, des croissants, and more!

So we’d like to wish everyone a joyous 4th of July, a carefree Canada Day, and a fabulous Fête Nationale. Happy Picniking!

Heat Map 2.0 The original Heat Map Effect has been expanded and made even more awesome with five presets to choose from: Thermal (the original), Satellite, Combustion, Autotrophic, and Infrared. Each one designed to mimic the view you get from different thermographic or low light imaging devices.

Camo Face Paint Fade into your urban jungle (or desert, or woodland) with this new feature. Just paint the colors on, changing colors frequently to avoid detection. Unlike other face painting tools, you can switch colors without hitting Apply.

Plus! Commemorative Shapes of every kind are here for those of you who are celebrating Memorial Day next weekend: Yellow ribbons (in the Awareness Ribbons Stickers), BBQ Stickers, Flag overlays, Camouflage Frames, and anything else you need to pay tribute on this holiday.

We here at Picnik hope you all enjoy these tools and have a really lovely Memorial Day Weekend. Happy Picniking!

Picnik has lots of Fancy Collage templates to personalize with your favorite photos of Mom: Cards, Stationery Sets, IOUs, even scrapbooking-style frames for the wall, desk or fridge.

And don’t forget that Moms take lots of photos, so a Picnik Premium Membership makes a great gift (and an easy one, but we won’t tell anyone)! Happy Mother’s Day and Happy Picniking!

But now, thanks to a bit of genius wizardry, Picnik’s crack team of engineers have come up with a clever way of accessing the international character set you already have downloaded on your computer with our new Global font. And that means that now you can write your greetings, LOLs, professions of undying friendship, song lyrics, and in many cases, even your own name, in all languages, no matter how it’s written!

Find Global at the top of the list of Basic Fonts in the Text Tool. It’s free for all our users, so enjoy!

Look picture perfect: Use Picnik’s range of photo-editing tools and quick fixes to look your best. Engagement photos for the local paper, portraits for the invitations, and all the pictures for your website can look as beautiful as the event.

Collage templates for every wedding: There are custom designed Fancy Collage templates for save the date cards, wedding invitations, and even table numbers, and perfect for your photos.

Share your joy: Make sure all your family and friends know your good news with a wedding website. With Google Sites, it’s simple. There’s an easily customizable template to match all the invitation styles on Picnik.

Stay organized: Keep your expenses straight, your vendors in line, and your warring aunts on opposite ends of the ballroom with Google Docs. There’s a template for organizing every aspect of your wedding.

Keep hold of your memories: Use Picasa Web Albums before your wedding to organize inspirational photos of cakes, dresses, or venues. Since they’ll always be online, they can be viewed by anyone, anywhere. And after the wedding, Picasa Web Albums can keep those photos safe from floods, fires, or stray moving boxes, while keeping them on hand for instant bragging.

And the best part is, all of this lives online. So whether you’re at home, at the office, or on the go at the tuxedo rental, you’ll have all your wedding plans at your fingertips. So you can get down the aisle with a picture perfect smile on your face.

And to make your smile even broader, we’re hosting a wedding sweepstakes to celebrate the launch of www.google.com/weddings! Couples can enter for a chance to win $25,000 towards your dream wedding (see Official Rules). Plus, renowned wedding planner Michelle Rago and her team will advise the winning couple on location, flowers, food and other design elements to create a day that is uniquely their own.

To get started, go to www.google.com/Weddings. For more ideas and help, try our Getting Started guide. Congratulations and happy planning!

A snow storm the size of Australia was bearing down on the US this week and a cyclone the size of the US just passed through Australia, there’s trouble and unrest in many corners of the globe, so perhaps there’s never been a better time to tell people you love them. And since the mail is all screwed up due to the weather, what better way to say it than with Picnik?

The Picnik Help Center has lots of ideas to get your classroom more creative, and the Picnik Forums have a place for educators like you to share their tips, tricks and questions. Do you have any favorite teachers in your life? Let them know!

Orkut’s multi-millions of users now will have unfettered access to photo-editing awesomeness without ever having to leave the popular social network. On the photo page of any photo in any orkut album there will be an edit with Picnik (or editar com o Picnik, as the case may be) button which will instantly launch Picnik inside the orkut window!

Take a look at the orkut blog for more info on their newest feature (in English and Portuguese).

Orkut is huge in India and Brazil. So we think it’s great that this integration is happening not only in time for the Holidays but also during the southern hemisphere’s summer vacation! Hopefully there will be lots of pictures and memories to share during the season.

Happy Picniking!

We here at Picnik would like to invite you to be kind to yourselves during the busy holiday season. Leave the boxed cards at the store, the car in the garage and the cookies in the oven because our new Holiday Greeting Wizard will guide you through perfectly customizable cards for everyone in your address book before the kitchen timer dings.

Just click Send a Greeting at the top of the Holiday Features list in the Create Tab to put your festive photo into one of our custom, customizable Holiday Greetings. Or upload a new photo by clicking the Try It Now! button on the Home Page. Choose your style, select a color scheme, write your own message and email it instantly to family and friends. Or save even more time by sending it to Buzz, Facebook, or Twitter.

Don’t forget to send a copy to yourself so you can print it out and put it on the fridge. Just in time to rescue the cookies, finish lighting the candles and take up your position under that mistletoe.

New Effects! Like Winterize, which instantly turns your photo as cool as a frosty day (goes great with Snow!)

New Stickers! Like Candy Canes, Dreidels, and Sketchy Christmas shapes to go with the Santa Hats and Mandarin Oranges and Holly.

A Jolly White Beard! Because honestly, what good is a Santa Hat without the Santa Beard?

New Gift Tags and Fancy Collages! Perfect for gift wrapping and cards, don’t forget to use our full Touch Up suite to get your family photo perfect!

And New Holiday Textures! Make your photos merry and bright with our sparkly, snowy new photo overlays.

Happy Holidays, and Merry Picniking!