Scrapping Freebie: 10 Pattern Embossed Frames

Better late than never! I don’t have any excuse for this late posting except that I was having lots of fun tweaking around this freebie. The most important reason why I like posting freebies here is that I am forced to learn more and more about graphic design. I read a lot of tutorials and apply what I learned. Most of my experiments are then posted here. They are freebies coz I’m hoping somebody else could make use of them instead of them just rotting away on my hard drive.

I always feel giddy whenever I learn something new. It’s the same exact feeling whenever you just had a sinfully delicious Shari’s Berries cupcakes. This time I had been trying to learn how make embossed effects on pattern. There’s just a whole new world opening up whenever one takes the chance to tweak hues, saturation, curves etc or whatever image attributes you can tweak on Photoshop. I found a super awesome tutorial by PSHero on how to do embossed textures and using it for frames and I followed some of his tweaks then I also added some tweaks since what I wanted were just frames that can be used by anybody, and voila! I have these gorgeous patterned and embossed frames!

10 Colors: Black, White, Black-Red, Green, Gold, Peach, Pink, Purple, Red and Royal Blue.

10 Free Pattern Embossed Frames

~ Download ~

Of course, this is free for everyone Personal or Commercial Use. As long as you don’t claim this as your own work.

Here’s a little preview. I loved this so I got giddy and made a preview for each frame..

Red-Black Patterned & Embossed Frame

Gold-Brown Patterned Embossed Frame

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Freebie WP Theme Sneak Peek: Candy Clouds

This project has taken a backseat, I’m a bit shamefaced to admit, I was in a procrastinating mood again. I keep putting it off coz I reasoned I needed a lot of time to finish each template. And that I don’t have much off. I have loads of websites to maintain and the ‘creative’ projects has been relegated to the sides. It also doesn’t help that I’m currently so into online shopping, I use up a lot of my spare time browsing sites for sale events, even a julbo sale won’t escape my notice.

But I’ll have the extra curricular activities rest for awhile and I’ve been working on a template for WordPress. I have plans to make this available for Blogger too but first here’s a sneak peek. I’m calling this Candy Clouds and I know its a girly theme. I like feminine themes like these coz I realize that there are a lot of lady/mom/girl bloggers out there and there’s not much cutesy and girly themes to choose from whenever I browse free theme repositories.

This will be available for download here soon..

Crafting Den Free WP Themes: Candy Clouds

Artscow Calendar and Photobook Free Coupon

I’m getting ready for Christmas. How about you? I start out early because I don’t like rushing too much. I’d much rather concentrate on food when December comes so the gift shopping I do usually on October-November months. So now I’ve been scouting nice gifts for family and friends. I like giving out personalized stuff, like personalized kids for pillows, ornaments, photobooks, photo bags etc. I guess for me its more memorable and if given something personalized, I would think they took the time out to prepare something special for me.

And for my personalized goodies I love Artscow. They have a wide range of products at easy to afford prices. The quality is also good. And another reason to love? They offer a lot of discount coupons, credits so if you’re good at catching these things, then chances are you’ll only be paying for shipping! And that’s a real great savings for everyone.

How do you avail of these coupons and credits? Simple and easy. Just sign up for an account - Artscow Sign-up, then subscribe to the newsletter and you can also like and subscribe to their Facebook Page. They regularly email coupons via the Newsletter or feature current promotions on their FB Page.

And to prep you up for 2012, here’s a really good deal. Grab 10 Photobooks and 10 Wall Calendars! Use coupon code: BKSNCALS. You can only claim this coupon until Oct 22, 2011 and the coupon validity is 35 days. How to claim? Just log-in to your Artscow account, click on Credit and Discount, enter the coupon code, then click Validate.

Blog Header Design and Theme Tweaking

Here’s one of the things that’s keeping me occupied. Yup, not Kitchen Management Jobs, but something more related to tech and crafts. I’m currently obsessed with blog theme tweaking and header making. I own a lot of blogs and once you have a lot of blogs you want to brand each one. To create a different look for each blog.

Aside from the content of course which is the most important part of the blog, one thing you can do to create a unique blog is to design and tweak it in a way that would make it unique and stand out. Sure there are lots of free themes out there but since its free there’s bound to be hundreds of other blogs dressed that way. You could always opt for a premium theme but this can be pricey. Or have a designer make one uniquely for you, which again could be pricey.

Your best bet then if you are budget pressed is to do some little tweaks to give your site a little more ooomph! Say use a free theme then add a personalized header. Add a background, make use of web fonts, color your fonts etc. There’s actually a lot one can do to make a unique looking site, all you need is some creativity and a bit of patience {and courage?} to tweak about the codes.

Take for instance what I did for two of my new websites – Red Tag Chic and The Chick Blogger. Both are using the default WordPress theme – Twenty Ten. But with a little bit of coloring, header, its all looking nice and pretty..

What do you think?

Personalized Blog Headers

Anyway, if you are in need of help in designing your personal blog header, perhaps I could help. If I’ve got the spare time I’d be glad to draw one up for free for anyone who contacts me via this blog :)

Design Resource: Web Treats ETC

I’m currently working on something nice for digital scrapbookers and will be posting it on my Tuesday Freebie next week. Yesterday, I had been browsing around for nice patterns, while I’m supposed to be looking for flexible metal hose! Sigh. No wonder I could never get anything finished on time, I get easily distracted. Anyway, while I was looking for seamless patterns I came across a website offering freebies – icons, textures, wallpapers, patterns, and even wordpress themes.

I downloaded a few of their patterns and I love it! Good quality patterns and especially if you love ‘vintage’ themed designs you’d love this site. And the best thing is that their freebies are free for personal or commercial work. The site is called Web Treats ETC and its worth bookmarking if you are a designing or scrapping enthusiast.

WebTreats ETC