Software: NexusFont Manager

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This isn’t strictly a graphic design or digiscrapping resource but designers would surely find this very useful. When I started playing around with graphic designing, I had just the basic fonts. But as you go along you tend to accumulate a lot of resources, like textures, images, vectors etc etc. And one way to enhance  a design or to make it standout is to use a well suited and unique font. So as time goes, you also accumulate hundreds if not thousands of fonts.

It works the same way as you thinking you don’t need any Tube Bending but end up with thousands of it. After a while I just noticed, I had thousands of fonts and I seriously can’t keep track of it. Also, if you install all these fonts, well for sure your computer system is bound to slow down.

The best solution now is to have a font manager where you can keep all your font collection in one folder and be able to preview each font to see if its suitable for each project. Now there are loads of font managers, paid or free out there, check out Smashing Magazine’s list of 25 Font Management Tools for various OS/platforms to check out what is most suitable for you.

NexusFont Interface

As for myself, I found a good match and I would highly recommend this free Font Manager called NexusFont.

NexusFont Interface

There are several things I love about this font manager..

  • its Free!
  • Yes, its free but its still an awesome piece of software. With a well designed interface and its very intuitive. You don’t have to be a genius to figure out how it works.
  • Keep all your fonts in one folder and manage it from there.
  • Easy install and uninstall of fonts direct from the NexusFont interface.
  • Automatic Font Activation. You don’t need to install a font. If your NexusFont is open, then you can automatically use all fonts inside it. So it doesn’t slow down your system.
  • You can create folders/sets/libraries. I segregated my fonts to sets like: Grunge, Dingbats, Handwritted/Scrapbook, Script etc. Makes it easy to find fonts I need.
  • Font Preview.
  • Portable. One of its best features. Not all computers have my fonts and I don’t need to download each one by one if I need to work remotely. So I get to have NexusFont on my USB and plug and play on any computer.
  • Duplicate searcher. Happens if you have thousands of fonts and this comes in handy to clean up some space.

Dressed Up

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I had been really restless the past few weeks. I dunno I can’t seem to do something and I have a couple of freebie projects on board but I can’t finish it. It seems I lack inspiration. So I just took a break.

I thought, why force myself when for the meantime what I want to do is go shopping, read about medical computers at Howard-Medical.com, crochet, watch sappy Korean dramas? And these things are exactly what I did.

And guess what?! After a couple of days of doing nada, that creative spark came back again. And the first thing I did? Revamped the look of this blog. I’m really obsessing over the Reddle WordPress Theme. It’s free but it was only available for WordPress.com but I did everything I could (nothing short of copying one file after another) just to get this free theme to work on a standalone wordpress installation.

Wordpress Reddle Theme

And it did work!!! Now I’m running this blog with Reddle Theme, with a custom made background and header to achieve that distinct vintage-grunge look. And I LOVE it!

Customized Reddle Theme

I still need to do a bit of tweaking with the fonts and featured images but for now, I’m giving myself a big hurrah..What do you think?

3 for $25 Custom Gifts From Artscow

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Hi! I’ve been on an extended vacation and has been badly neglecting this blog and digiscrapping hobby. We had been visiting a couple of places and I find it a bit hard to establish a routine or go back to my old routine. I feel like I could just forever be content hanging about near my hammock stand. Sigh. If only one can do that. But realities of life are just so insistent and can’t be ignored any longer.

So here I am trying to update my blogs, sorting out my hundreds of emails received while I wasn’t around. And thankfully, there are some good stuff mixed in on my avalanche emails. I got an emailed coupon for Artscow!

Artscow Gift Coupon

Pick and mix any three items for an amazing price of $25 with free worldwide shipping. You may choose from a great selection of products including wall clocks, calendars netbook cases, the ever-so-popular canvases and many more.

Here’s the code: PICKGIFT325
Expiry Date: 3 / 28 / 2012

This is a really one good deal so grab the chance for nice personalized gifts at a super low price.

Custom Dog Tags Artscow Coupon

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If you know me, you’d guess that I love giving personalized things as gifts. They are more heartwarming for me. I really take special care to think of and decide on what would specially appeal to the person I’m giving a gift too hence my preference for personalized gifts. These kinds of gifts though can be pricey, but I’m thankful for Artscow for making these goodies much more affordable for us personalized gifts junkies.

While they don’t have discount scrubs from Marcus, they do have a wide array of personalized items you can choose from. And best of all, you can hang out on their Facebook page or subscribe to their newsletter for regular freebie, coupon and deal updates.

Just like this one. I wanna share it for those who are looking for gifts for dog-loving friends and family. Here’s an excellent deal: Photo Dog Tags, 2 for $4.99, Free International Shipping!

Use this code:

Coupon Code: TWOTAGS17
Expiry Date: 3/4/2012

If you don’t want to design the tags by yourself, you can make use of my free templates. Here’s just some…


Free Personalized Dog Tag Template Free Personalized Dog Tag Template Free Personalized Dog Tag Template Free Personalized Dog Tag Template
You can sign up @ Artscow now.

Scrapping Freebie: Subtly Spring Tags

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Here’s our freebie for today. Some tag elements for your scrapping projects. I was actually thinking of making some steel rings rimmed buttons as freebies but I saw this color scheme and I loved it to bits. It’s a bit like spring, and makes me think of fresh breeze, flowers and such. I like the subtle pale-ish colors so I ended up making a couple of tags for everyone.

Scrapping Freebie: Subtly Spring Tags

~ Download ~

 

These are in.png format and no shadowing yet so you can customize it for your projects. Slap in some text or graphics and it’ll be cute. I used some of Gunhild‘s string freebies as I was too lazy to make some of my own. Hahaha..

Please read my TOU’s included in the zip file.

Design Resource: Color Blendy Google Chrome App

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There are just days you need to have a few colors handy, or a color scheme for  a web tweaking project and you don’t want to fire up Adobe Photoshop. I get those days, often. Photoshop can be quite heavy and slows down the machine and this is would be a bit like pounding your head on hard laminate flooring specially when you need to have several apps running for work.

Color Blendy Chrome Extension

If you’re just in need of some colors and want to blend it without opening up a bulky graphic software, then Color Blendy App for Google Chrome Browser might just save you. I find this specially useful when tweaking or coding CSS and I want different color variations. The biggest plus would be the color codes, different modes like multiply, screen, dogde, burn etc.

Color Blendy Chrome Extension

The biggest draw would be: it works offline! It’s a native app not a bookmark so you can use it even without net connection. How cool is that?

Music in My Mind

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I was having this little conversation with my sister about our being musically dis-inclined. Both of us are creative types. Same with my brother. Let’s just say we come from a family of artists. But I think our creative gifts doesn’t extend to music. Lol. All of us are tone deaf.

Though we appreciate music but we all could not play any musical instruments although we did try to do so when we were still young. I guess our musical gifts were inversely proportional to our illustration gifts. No matter how hard I try I could never grasp the how to’s to music much less know what asnark tuner is.

But then again, not everyone can have all ‘gifts’ right? So I’m quite resigned and happy to the fact that the best I can do is appreciate music by listening to it and occasionally humming to it while taking a shower.

Which leads me to conclude that whatever creative gifts we’ve been handed, its best that we try to be better at it. And if there is a way for us to expand and do other things, learn other things, then all the better. But if we aren’t meant to perfect playing the clarinet while being an illustrator, then move on and be happy we were at least talented in one area.

Scrapping Freebie: Cute Papers + .Pat for Photoshop

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I should be shot. Lol. I made this a few days ago and was intending to post it here asap. I have a lot of freebies made and I keep forgetting to update this. Sigh. If there’s a gps truck tracking like device for someones forgetful brain then I’d be first in line to buy it.

Cute little digicrapping papers and a .pat (pattern) file for Photoshop! That’s my freebie today. I spent loads of fun time making this. I think I’m getting very obsessed in making patterns and paper so you’ll be seeing a lot of free papers and patterns here.

Scrapping Freebie: Cute Papers 1 + .pat for Photoshop

~ Download ~

The pattern for Photoshop comes with one with fixed color background for each paper design, and another with transparent back for you to play with different colors.

I used font dingbats from KevinandAmanda‘s site to design some of the cutesy doodles on the paper. This is free for any use. PU, CU or whatever you wanna use it with. Link backs are not required but if you do link back to me, it would be greatly appreciated and of course, I’ll be more inspired to provide freebies. Lol. I only have one condition, not to claim this as your own or post it for download on your site. Feel free to share it with friends, but please just send them over here to download.