i use painshop pro 7.0... usually i cut out with point to point lasso, ive never used the wand cause im not experienced enough to think of using it, but mostly i just optimize the images and copy and paste as transparent images, i also like to optimize when i use the brush... its just ezier for me, it will take me any where from 10 minutes to an hour .... ill show you a 10 minutes one... find the user Bryan123 somewhere around here and you will see it, i made one for trackball also but i did a shitty job cause i didnt have time last night i spent about 5 minutes finding a spikeball and about 5 minutes splattin it together, you will see my newest and greatest work in the wallpaper contest, once im done with it