Your Weekly Dose of Blog Design Inspiration!
Btw, some links below may be affiliate links, which just means I’ll earn a commission (at no cost to you) if you make a purchase using my link. Thank you for your support!
My Update:
Hey did you notice my new Friday Faves graphic above? So remember a few weeks ago I told you about this new online graphics program called Canva?* That’s a graphic I made with it. It was super easy. The background is one they include but you can change the color of it to whatever you want. Then the circle graphic is pre-made. I just changed the font colors and the fonts to what I wanted. Then I added that little banner at the bottom and added text to that too. Oh and I threw in a little arrow behind the circle for good measure. Super easy-peasy!
The program currently offers about 100 fonts but they will be adding more over time. There are over a million images you can choose from, most of them free. Others you pay $1 a piece. This one I made was created using only free elements. But you can also upload any photo or graphic you already own and use those in your graphics, so you can really get away with using the whole thing for free.
I haven’t played with it for too long, but here is another graphic I created with Canva.
FYI: Canva is only open for beta testing right now but they are slowly rolling out logins, so get on the list now before you forget! I don’t get anything from you signing up, just thought this would be a super useful tool for your blog posts!
Free Downloads:
Silverfake has been around a little while, but it’s such a cool font, I wanted to share it with you guys. It’s a contemporary slab serif display font by Alexey Frolov. It’s great for both retro and modern designs and appropriate for logos, text over photos or posters. I wouldn’t recommend it for page headings because it’s only available in capital letters and it’s also a bit too wide.
Download Silverfake for free from FontFabric.
Free Blogging Resources:
Oh So Pinteresting!
Everything you want to know about Pinterest and more can be found at this info packed website, Oh So Pinteresting!
Chisel
Want to easily put up quotes over images and pin them? Check out Chisel. You can type any favorite quote and pick one of their images for a background. Then download it and upload to your Facebook page or Pinterest boards.
Lovely Blog Crush:
The Secret O.W.L. Society
Michelle Rohr’s site is so cute! I like her color palette, the polka dots and her ultra positive posts about taking 100% responsibility for your life.
Lovely Blog Themes I Found:
For WordPress:
Bueno is a great free theme for WordPress from WooThemes. WooThemes is a reputable WordPress theme company so you don’t have to worry about any embedded spyware here.
It’s pink and polka-dotted and cute for a girly blog. You can customize the colors and fonts as you wish through the CSS. Here’s what I did with it for our family blog I haven’t updated in forever!
Friday Funny:
This week’s funny is about typography. Enjoy!
Have a Fabulous Weekend!
For more Friday Faves posts, click here.
If you like tips like these, you’ll want to follow my Facebook page and Pinterest boards where I share a lot more of this cool stuff every single day!
Your Two Cents!
Share your lovely blog designs and resources with us, even your own! Please leave a comment below!
And please share this if you found it to be helpful! Just click one of the links below!
Thanks for letting us know about Canva! I just hopped over there & reserved my name (:
You are welcome Elizabeth! Just be patient… I hear people are waiting a couple of weeks to get in. But by then they should have most of their kinks worked out.
Thanks for your comment!
WOW this is my first time here and I am amazed at how much REALLY GREAT content you shared. SO helpful! Thank you. I am for sure checking out your FB page too. I just jumped over to reserve my name at Canva and am excited about that 🙂
Hi Kate, welcome to DYOB and I’m so glad you found this useful 🙂 Canva is great and when you finally get in, you’ll have to let me know what you think. See you on FB…..
Hello Marianne, I love your style and the soft colors are so soothing. You make us want to hangout on your website for a while…LOL. Thank you for the great content! I have been using Picmonkey. I love it. I might chackout Canva (great name) …but I affraid I’ll get addicted again like I did with Picmonkey…LOL…Looks great! ~ Nathalie
Thank you Nathalie, I appreciate the flattery! 🙂
I love PicMonkey too! I definitely think it’s a great tool for collages and blog post graphics. Canva just offers a few more layers to add that are free. It’s very similar though!
You have inspired me to create more.. I tend to grab already created images. Thanks for the hints !!
Terry, that’s wonderful! Glad I could stir up a little inspiration in you!
Love the Friday Funny!
Chisel is fun, Marianne! But, being a quotes geek, I see how I can easily spend a LOT of time there! I limited myself to one quote/image so far!
I know what you mean Bobbi! It’s a great tool for Pinterest though to get traffic back to your own blog!
Wow thanks for the shout out Marianne! Really proud to be on this list with other great tools. Hope you are both enjoying things so far :)!
Hi Joe, you’re welcome, I definitely see this as being a useful tool for bloggers!
I agree! We haven’t looked too much into the space yet but would love to learn. Thank goodness you have a lot of content to explore :), keep it up!
Thanks Joe! Let me know if you have questions or need insight 🙂
Can’t wait to try Canva – gracias!!
Welcome Kimba! When you do, please let me know what you think!
Thanks for sharing these great resources! I am checking out Canva now and will try out some others too during the week.
You’re welcome Jennifer! I hope you find some good use out of them. Let us know what you think of Canva when you get in.
Marianne, your website is very quickly becoming one of my all-time favourites. Thanks for all this great content. I can’t wait to try Canva. I’m an Inkscape addict myself but always looking for something new to try.
Susan that is so sweet, it really means a lot to me! I haven’t used Inkscape, but only because I already have Illustrator on my computer. I can’t wait for everyone to get onto Canva, it really is fun! I will say though that the editing capabilities are very limited, it’s more of a quick fix, hurry up and make an image type program, but it’s really nice for that reason!
Great tips and tools Marianne, have reserved my name at canva- looks great This is a great resource you have started thank you
Oh that’s great to hear, thank you Suzie!
Hello Marianne – great to meet you! Not sure how I found your site, but very nice to have done so. I am testing out Canva – and like you say above, it has very limited editing capabilities especially around text, but it does have some nice fonts installed. I guess it’s horses for courses, but I wouldn’t be without my Inkscape/Photoshop as well as the ‘quick and dirty’ programmes 🙂
Hi Caroline! So glad you could make it over and say hi!
Yes Canva can be quite basic, but for those that don’t have Photoshop or don’t know how to use graphic editing programs, it’s quite handy. Plus if you’re in need of a quite Pinterest or Facebook image, it’s great for that!
Cheers!
Marianne