Friday Faves! free downloads | inspiration | blog resources
Btw, none of the links in this post are affiliate links, I’m just sharing because I thought you’d enjoy!
My Update:
I’m still participating in the August Break 2013 photo challenge and it’s really fun! I noticed that a lot of the daily prompts can relate back to pictures of my son 🙂 Yeah I know, I’m one of those moms that posts endless pictures of her kid. Ok well maybe I don’t post that many!
What you probably don’t know about me is that I had waited a very long time for this kiddo, so he really is quite precious to me. I hope you don’t mind, I do post photos of other things too 😉 and if you care to see, I’ve been sharing them on my Facebook page or you can follow my Instagram account too.
If you haven’t checked out the August Break 2013, it’s worth doing so if you’re on Instagram. Just do a search for #augustbreak2013 and you’ll find a ton of inspiring photographs. I figure it’s only going to help my creativity. How are you expanding your creativity these days?
A Request
So here’s something I’ve been struggling with. Sometimes I come across some really cool things that are Photoshop* related and I don’t post them because I guess I’ve been assuming you guys don’t work much with Photoshop, but then I realized “Hey, I actually have NO idea if you guys do or not” so I’m asking you straight out:
What you would consider your level of Photoshop ability to be? Do you use it at all? If not, do you use any other image editing software? And if you don’t use any at all, is it because you are intimidated by using one? I would super appreciate it if you’d let me know in the comments because this will better help me determine what sorts of things I should be sharing with you. Thanks!
Ok. So now on to the cool stuff!
My latest posts:
Tutorial: Create a Custom Favicon for your Blog!
That’s all that’s new this week other than this post, but check out a few from the archives if you haven’t yet:
10 Spectacular Tools for Color Palette Inspiration
How to Declutter + Organize Your Blog’s Sidebar
Free Downloads:
Free stuff I’ve found on the interwebs this week:
These free stock photos are available until Sunday I believe. You’ll need to create an account at each site if you don’t have one already but I think it’s highly worth it for the free weekly downloads. Stockpile those things! Click the images to go to the downloads. Please read the terms before using any stock photos and be sure you are using them legally.
Beach Sunrise from Crestock.com
Scratched Cardboard Sun from Bigstock Photo
Nice social media icon and sidebar title downloads from The Wonder Forest:
Free Blogging Resources:
This one is an older article but I recently rediscovered it. It’s written by Pugly Pixel‘s Katrina over at A Beautiful Mess and talks about 10 Blog Layout Tips to avoid common layout mistakes. I couldn’t agree more!
Free Font Categories Cheat Sheet to pin to your Typography boards
Did you know that the more images you have on your blog, the longer it takes to load the page? That’s why it’s best to minimize the file sizes of your images as much as possible. Well this amazing tool I found this week called Kraken does just that for free WITHOUT losing image quality! Oh yeah! Check it out: https://kraken.io/ It’s super easy to use too.
And if you haven’t already, don’t forget to download my free ebook 3 Ways to ROCK Your Blog Design Now!
Lovely Blog Crush:
A very simple fashion magazine design on Jamy’s blog. This style is quite common now and I’m really digging the minimalism.
The header on this blog is beautiful and simple, as is the color palette!
And another lovely blog using the increasingly popular herringbone pattern.
Lovely Blog Themes I Find:
For Blogger:
$60 from Envye.com
For WordPress:
$70 from Angie Makes Websites at Creative Market
Friday Funny:
Ok this isn’t really a funny as much as it is an homage to Friday. Happy Friday everyone!!
For more Friday Faves posts, click here.
Ok all, don’t forget to let me know in the comments your thoughts on my question above about Photoshop* and image editing software. It’ll really help me customize my posts for you. Thanks!!
If you like what you see here, would you please consider sharing it with your network? Just click one of the little buttons below. Thank you!
Hi! I am totally picking up what you’re putting down. LOVE your weekly faves, keep ’em coming. I have Photoshop and know just enough to really get in trouble. I love the power and it seems simpler to me than Photoshop Elements (it doesn’t have to make sense…) but I usually succeed by accident. I love learning about it but have never felt compelled to take a big scary course. I use it mostly for making my images smaller before uploading to my sites. Does that scare you to death or give you hope? I also use PicMonkey for simple things like adding my url to images for Pinterest. Take good care, Allegra
Hi Allegra!
Thanks for letting me know you like my inspiration! I’ll definitely keep em coming 🙂
I think it’s great that you just dove into Photoshop and you’re making it work! So many (including me once upon a time) are quite intimidated by it so kuddos to you for making it work.
I love PicMonkey too for quick edits and it inspires me to do different things sometimes with their suggestions so I think it’s great!
To answer your question about photo editing, my knowledge of editing is zilch!
Haha, thank you for letting me know!
Hi Marianne. I have absolutely no experience with Photoshop. I use PicMonkey and Paint.net but probably neither all that well. Haha! I love your blog and the Weekly Faves! Great work and thank you for sharing!
Hi Beth! Thanks for letting me know, it helps! PicMonkey is a great editor! I’m so glad you are finding value here 🙂
I don’t use Photoshop because I can’t afford it. However I use Photoshop Elements and it works pretty well.
Thanks so much for all your tips, I love your Pinterest page!
Thanks for the feedback Mary! And you are very welcome!