The Brush Technique How-to

I have had trouble coming up with good Christmas-themed works.
I've been working on this pathetic little ornament, but I still don't like it. I hate to go without a new picture, but I've come up with a solution. I'll have several next time around. I promise.

It's not very hard to make sparkles and ornaments and ribbons - all you need is a little creativity. That's where I have trouble - I'm a total robot when it comes to creativity. I hate doing things from scratch. I hate it. It drives me nuts if little things aren't perfect or if they're permanent. I like to keep my options open.
Oh well. I'm just going to have to get over it - and the sooner the better.

Today I'll cover brushes and technique.
You need to know this definition- I didn't until recently.
Jitter = a randomness generator
a size jitter makes the same thing in different sizes randomly.
an angle jitter rotates things to different angles randomly.

The brush menu (top right, window>brushes, or F5) has magical properties. you can do all kinds of things with it. Open it with the brush tool selected...

---Brush Tip Shape - an expanded version of what you see when you right-click.
Here you can flip it over the X and Y axes and rotate it to any given angle. You can change the spacing, which spreads a scattered(read on) brush out.
---Shape dynamics - contains jitters of size, angle, and "roundness"
Along with spacing(see Brush Tip Shape), size/angle jitters can be your best friend.
---Scattering - scatters the brush everywhere. Great for sparkles, etc.
You can toggle whether both axes are scattered, and can increase the count (w/ jitter) of the brush.
---Texture - applies a texture (image pattern) to a brush.
You can control the properties of the texture, particularly the scale.
---Dual Brush - applies a brush-to-your-brush.
Using it is a bit tricky - It's best to find a bigger or smoother brush and set a smaller or more random brush as dual. If you succeed with it you'll get wild results.
---Color Dynamics - a color property jitter.
It has Fore/Back color jitters with Hue, Sat. and Brightness. The Purity jitter is the most important with the latter two - it regulates the amount of blacks and whites.
---Other Dynamics - the opacity and flow jitters.
They'll randomize how solid it comes out.
---Noise, Wet Edges, and Airbrush -These are pure property-less special effects.
They come in handy, too, so experiment with them as well.
---Smoothing - makes a drawing tablet's strokes less sharp
---Protect Texture - ensures that all of your different brushes use the texture that you specified.