Earn It First

Font: NeoRetroDraw | Dotted border brush: Pugly Pixel
Watercolour brush background made using brushes by Fudge Graphics

I admit it it, I am not always the most hard working person in the world. That's not to say I never work hard, but as I get older I realise how much I have always laboured under the misapprehension that if something is hard, it is a sign you shouldn't do it. That is to say, I aspired to a life of effortless brilliance and ease, avoiding things I wasn't naturally good at. But as I get older I realise that this is a) not true, and b) can prevent you from lots of good things in life.

The more I think about it, the more I realise that actually, hard work is not something to be feared, and having to put in a great effort shouldn't be taken as a sign that you are doing the wrong thing. Everyone who has ever achieved anything great has had to work hard to earn it, and it is the knowledge of deserving something that makes getting it all the sweeter. So this weekend, I am going to try to remember that nothing worth having comes easy, and try to remember how good it feels when you get where you're going and look back with pride at how you got there.

Have a great weekend, hard workers!

Free Stuff Is The Best Stuff!

2colorideas Sans / BodoniFLF / Clumsy / Dingleberry / Emmy 3D / Ignite the Light / Mossy / Dubiel / Wednesday Matinee / Rose Tattoo / Peixe Frito / MariDavid / Sverige Script / Maharani

As you may know if you have read this blog before, I am always on the lookout for great free resources to download, and free fonts are my favourite! If I find something great and free then of course I want to share it with you so here are some of my most recent discoveries. There is a real range of styles here - I was hunting for a nice italic serif fonts like you see so often in magazines, but I can't help getting distracted by a pretty hand drawn font so I often get a bit off course. I particularly love Maridavid since I was recently eyeing up another similar paid font but couldn't justify the cost and now I have found this lovely alternative.

Go wild and download them all (I did!)

Download Free Photoshop Brushes

Feather brushes by Kerri Ann Crau

Hi friends, has this new week started well for you? I hope you had a great weekend. We had such fantastic weather this weekend here in the UK, and spent lots of time in the garden playing with baby Joe in the sunshine. I was also very excited because I discovered all about downloading free extra Photoshop brushes online. I edit my photos and images for this blog using Photoshop Elements 10. I used to use Photoshop CS2 at work before I had baby Joe, and imagined Elements wouldn't be able to do very much, but since I can't currently afford to buy full Photoshop for myself, I got Elements as a compromise. I have actually been really impressed with it, and find I am able to do pretty much everything I want with it. (Well, the one thing I miss is creating actions, which as far as I can tell you can't do in Elements, unless anyone reading this knows otherwise?)

Lace Brushes by Nadine Pau | Mesh elements brushes by Falln Stock

Although there are lots of great preset tools that come as part of the package, I have been really excited to find out that it is quick and easy to download and install free extra Photoshop tools. As I think I have mentioned in previous posts, one of my all time favourite blogs for free digital resources and Photoshop tutorials is the incredible Pugly Pixel blog, written by Katrina. The freebies she creates are absolutely AMAZING, I can't believe how generous she is in sharing her work like this. I also recently purchased her digital extras for just $5 usd. I cannot recommend this blog highly enough, it is a treasure trove.

Watercolour brushes 1 and watercolour brushes 2  by fudgegraphics | Blotches by Aless

She is also great at curating free resources and tutorials from other sites and it is through her recent posts about lace brushes and watercolour graphics (pastel watercolour wash effects are everywhere at the moment, aren't they?). Following the links she shared, I discovered Deviant Art, another fantastic source of free digital resources. I went a bit crazy downloading free Photoshop brushes, and wanted to share my favourites with you today because when you find something great, you want to spread the love, right? I had previously thought about brushes in terms of drawing lines and shapes, but these brushes are more like using rubber stamps, and because they're brushes you can set the pixel size and colour as you wish.

Cross stitch embroidery brushes by Nadine Pau

I just cannot believe how generous so many talented people are about sharing their work for free. The resources you can download free of charge are amazing, what a great world we live in where so many people are happy to share so much, they must have earned some very good karma!

I hope you are as excited as I am about all these fun new tools to play with. I'd love to know about your favourite sources of free web design resources. Have a great Monday!

PS. The font I used here is La Belle Aurore from Dafont and the frames are Vintage Inspired Label Shapes, part of the extras blog bling from

What's in my... Fonts Folder?

Claire Hand / Skinny / Sunshine in My Soul / Sweetly Broken / The Only Exception / Zombie Checklist / Little Days / La Belle Aurore / KG Les Bouquinistes de Paris / 5th Grade Cursive / Baby Boston / Grant’s Ghosts

As you may be able to tell from my previous posts, I love typography, and discovering new fonts. I've found lots of fonts through other people's blogs and pins on Pinterest and so I thought I would spread the love by sharing some of my favourites. I have been using lots of handwritten fonts recently while working on my Dad's 60th birthday photo book, so I thought I would start by sharing some of my favourites.

Happy downloading!

PS. The notepaper background is also a free download, from Fuzzimo, and the scalloped circle label is from Pugly Pixel

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