2016 - Every-Tuesday

Freebie: January 2017 Desktop Wallpapers

Somehow, it’s already the last Thursday in December, which means it’s time for your free January 2017 desktop wallpapers! This month’s wallpaper was created with FineTec watercolors using a small Pentel waterbrush on Astrobrights (Eclipse Black) cardstock. It was then photographed with a DSLR by Spence and brought into Photoshop where he adjusted color + vibrancies. After that, I resized the artwork and added dates within Photoshop, making it ready for use. So, this little guy is a labor of true wallpaper love 🙂 The download includes the wallpapers in two common resolutions: 1280x1024px and 1920x1080px, with and without dates. I’ve left the year off of the ‘no-dates’ versions, so you can use it for any January in the future, too!

December 29, 2016

8 Comments

Illustrator, Tutorials, vector

Create a Resolutions List in Adobe Illustrator

Hope you had a wonderful holiday! Since we’re just about to welcome the new year, this week I thought it would be fun to make a custom resolutions list in Adobe Illustrator! We’ll create it in a printable style, so you can reuse it every year, too. Grab your free holiday vector pack and create your own below!

December 27, 2016

1 Comment

Crafts, Hand Lettering, Products, Resources, Roundups

Round Up: My Favorite Art Supplies From 2016

One of my favorite parts about this year was experimenting with more art supplies than I ever have before. I definitely didn’t love everything I tried, but I do have a list of favorite art supplies from 2016. I thought it would be nice to compile them this week into one nice, review-like list. If you’re looking to try some new ones in 2017, I hope this will help with the decision making. Reading actual (unbiased) user reviews is always so helpful for me, so that’s exactly what I wanted to offer. See the full list below!

December 22, 2016

25 Comments

Hand Lettering, iPad Lettering, Textures, Tutorials, Typography

iPad Lettering: Using Multiple Procreate Textures

Since Procreate’s latest update is less than a month old, it’s time for a new iPad lettering tutorial! If you checked out my iPad Lettering class from a couple versions earlier, you saw how fun it is to work with Procreate textures. One texture works wonderfully, but things can get a little trickier when you want to get other textures involved. In this week’s tutorial, I’m sharing one quick trick that makes introducing other textures super simple. In this tutorial, we’ll use a foil and watercolor texture, plus add a little holiday flair for good measure 🙂 Read on to see how!

December 20, 2016

7 Comments

Courses, Hand Drawn, Hand Lettering

New Online Class! Fantastic Flourishes

Happy Tuesday! These Tuesdays are my favorite because I get to share a class I love and send it out into the world. Today’s class, Fantastic Flourishes, is no different. Being the obsessed-with-lettering kind of person I am, flourishes have a big place in my heart. If you’ve ever wanted to draw better flourishes, integrate them into letters or create hand lettered layouts with beautiful flourishing, this class was made for you. The class is packed with helpful guides, practice sheets, cheat sheets and more. Get all the details and see the full class trailer below!

December 13, 2016

4 Comments

Crafts, Hand Lettering, Holiday, Tutorials

Create Quick and Easy Ombre Embossing

Happy December! Now that the holiday season is in full swing, I wanted to offer up a fun hand lettering technique for your (any time of the year) stationery, too! This ombre embossing effect is SO eye catching *and* I have a technique that avoids mixing your embossing powders together. Using this technique, you’re able to maximize the life of your powder purchases and create beautiful outcomes, too. Plus, look at the colors on black! I love the vibrancy and contrast embossing straight onto black produces. Swoon. Read on to see it all!

December 6, 2016

4 Comments

Holiday, Illustrator, Patterns, Tutorials, vector

Create Seamless Pattern Wreaths in Adobe Illustrator

I really hope you’ve been enjoying these holiday Adobe Illustrator tutorials! They’ve been extra fun for me to share, and today’s video is no different. In this tutorial, we’ll create seamless pattern wreaths, once again utilizing the free holiday vector pack. These are really impressive looking and so, so easy to create! In the video, I walk you through the one thing to keep in mind when you make yours and then show how easy they are to use! Read on to see the full video!

November 29, 2016

16 Comments

Desktop Wallpapers, Freebies

Freebie: December 2016 Desktop Wallpapers

Happy almost Thanksgiving! (here in the states, anyway 🙂 ) Since we’re hitting the end of November, it’s time for your free December 2016 desktop wallpapers! This month’s wallpaper pattern design was originally created with concentrated watercolors and a no.1 round brush on Canson 140# cold press watercolor paper. It was then scanned into the computer where final touches, recoloring and dates were added in Photoshop. The download includes the wallpapers in two common resoutions: 1280x1024px and 1920x1080px, with and without dates. I’ve left the year off of the ‘no-dates’ versions, so you can use it for any December in the future, too!

November 23, 2016

10 Comments

Hand Drawn, Holiday, Printables, Tutorials, vector

Design Holiday Gift Tags in Adobe Illustrator

Get ready to add some extra beauty to your gifts this year with some custom designed holiday gift tags in Adobe Illustrator! Creating stationery items in Illustrator is honestly one of my favorite parts of graphic design. This week, keeping with the holiday theme, we’ll utilize the free holiday vector pack once again. Grab that vector pack, Adobe Illustrator and about 10 minutes and you’ll have your new gift tags ready for print. Read on to see how!

November 22, 2016

7 Comments

Fonts, Hand Lettering, Typography

The Making of the Espresso Roast Font Trio

Happy Thursday! This week was a big week as I finally completed and released the Espresso Roast font trio. As you can imagine, a trio of fonts that all work together and pair stylistically is not a quick accomplishment. This was my first time creating a font trio, so I wanted to post a little about my process to help any aspiring font makers out there 🙂 Here’s a peek inside, along with a font previewer, so you can play with Espresso Roast directly in the post!

November 17, 2016

59 Comments

Holiday, Illustrator, Tutorials, vector

Create a Holiday Postcard in Adobe Illustrator

Piggybacking off of last week’s tutorial, this week we’re creating a holiday postcard in Adobe Illustrator! We’ll be using the free vectors from the holiday vector pack, so be sure to grab those if you haven’t already. Today is extra exciting, because I just released my newest font Espresso Roast, which we’ll be using, as well. It’s a font trio, so you get an all caps version, a script version and a symbols font. It’s full of fun personality and was designed so all styles pair perfectly together 🙂 Read on to see how to create a complex wreath design quickly using a few easy tips!

November 15, 2016

1 Comment

Personal

Battling Self Doubt as a Graphic Designer

Ever battled self doubt as a graphic designer or as a creative in general? I’m going to go ahead and assume the answer is yes to that one 😉 It’s definitely one of the most common emotions we go through on our creative journeys, though when we’re in the thick of it, it’s easy to feel like we’re the only ones. If you’ve ever thought about throwing in the towel, wondered if this is the right path, or thought that maybe you just aren’t creative enough to keep chasing the dream, this post is for you.

November 10, 2016

93 Comments

Courses

Messy Watercolors in Procreate

Gouache Botanicals in Procreate

Learn Font Making

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