A Place for design inspiration.
It’s no secret that I love chevron pattern, basically on anything and i every color. I thought it would be fun to offer a free download of Valentine hearts in every color of chevron print, a fun way to get your Valentines crafts on in gloomy January!
Enjoy!
Download here:
Donut muffins? I have to admit I was skeptical when I first found this recipe on various blogs and Pinterest, but decided to try it out, made a few changes, and it was delightful! These muffins have the same consistency of cake donuts, but wrapped in a cute little cupcake wrapper and not fried like a traditional donut, so less fat is a plus as well. I enjoy finding new recipes and putting my mark on them, I find changing them slightly can be a fun experiment, so I added white chocolate to this recipe, yum! They are also glazed in a traditional donut glaze, but I added a little vanilla pudding mix to my glaze to punch up the vanilla flavor a bit and cut that sugary sweet powdered sugar taste that most glazes have.
Here is the recipe:
3 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp basking soda
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
10 tbsp butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 squares of bakers white chocolate
Glaze:
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
3 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp instant vanilla pudding mix
1 tsp melted white chocolate
Mix butter, sugar, eggs, until fluffy. Mix flour and all other dry ingredients together add to the butter mixture, alternating flour mixture with milk and vanilla. Then swirl in melted white chocolate. Fill baking cups to the top and bake on 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until brown on top.
Cool on wire racks, then dip the top of the donut muffins in the glaze, let dry 5 minutes and the dip again. Enjoy!
It’s free facebook timeline template time! I don’t know about you, but when I first started out I experimented and changed my Facebook timeline cover all the time. Any good designer or branding expert will tell you to keep your branding consistent as it will help your audience always recognize your brand and build your brand so that you have a strong presence. There are new start ups everyday and it seems like everyone is a budding photographer, jewelry maker, or starting a new venture that requires a new Facebook business page. I thought I would offer a free facebook timeline template as a Photoshop file for those of you who are looking for a fresh look for the new year!
I designed a cute little logo earlier today so I added it as a placeholder for your logo, please remember to change the logo to your own. You can also place your best photos in the two squares to showcase your work and change all the colors if you like to match your brand. Have fun!
Download the file by clicking here pictures_for_facebook_timelines
With all the hustle and bustle of the holidays sometimes the kids need a quiet activity that they can do while you finish your decorating duties around the house! Free coloring pages that you can download and print at home are a handy activity for the kids!
Cute coloring pages include candy canes, ornaments, and a Christmas tree!
What is wordpress? I get this question a lot, mainly from people who are new to blogging and are curious how to get started or others that need a designer and don’t know where to start and need help. In today’s post I thought I would go over some of the basics of word pres, so if you find this post and are curious about the subject of word press and what themes are read on!
To start at the beginning, most people associate word press with blogging, but it can be so much more than just a blog, it is a very extensive platform that any designer or developer can build from. You do not have to use word press to build a blog, with it’s powerful content management system, CMS, you can use wordpress to construct a traditional website as well.I am sure you are all now wondering, “what is a content management system”, also known as CMS. Well, CMS is a computer programthat allows publishing, editing and modifying content as well as maintenance from a central interface, which is exactly what you do with word press. Some people don’t want a blog or a site where you have to regularly update the content, like you would with a traditional blog, they want static web pages, like what you would get on a traditional website. Both a blog and a regular website are both definately possible with word press, that’s why it is becoming so widely popular, it’s good, clean, code that you can build from.
When using word press there are two different ways you can go, if you are a newbie, listen up. There are wordpress sites/blogs that are free, by signing up at wordpress.com you can be up and running in minutes. There are also wordpress blogs/sites that are self hosted. What’s the difference right? I get that question all the time, when you sign up for a word press.com account you are getting a basic word press blog, not a lot of bells and whistels, but will get you started.
Another question I get ALL the time is someone emailing me a link to another person’s blog/site and asking me how they can get their site to look like that and can I design it for them, for a designer that is a loaded question, ha. The majority of the word press sites/blogs that you see out there are self-hosted. Meaning the owner has purchased a domain name, like me, I own www.delightfuldesignideas.com and have the word press files uploaded onto my server, I am not relying on word press to host my set, therefore I have full control over the code and what my site looks like.
Most people are more interested in the theme that is used along with wordpress more so than the technical HTML aspect of word press, the theme is essentially the dress up for the website. An easy way to understand this is to think of the core word press files as the skeletal part of the structure and the theme is the stylish clothing on top. So the theme is what controls the look and the feel of your blog or website. Your theme is then made up of a bunch of PHP files that render HTML in your browser and the entire thing is controlled by CSS, Cascading style sheet.
So if you are wanting to start blogging and start small, then wordpress.com is the way to go, if you want a stylish blog/site that you can control the look and feel of, then a self-hosted wordpress blog is the way to go! I hope this was helpful and you have a better understanding of what wordpress is, and how it works.
In January we will be offering free video wordpress tutorials on the topics of: understanding the areas of a wordpress site, how to change your wordpress header, how to change your wordpress background, etc………..
It has been a very busy week, I can’t believe it is already Wednesday, I feel like it should only be Monday. I have been running around like a crazy person all week, I have to bake another pumpkin pie and all the tint crust leaves for another food styling shoot this week, I had so much fun, using my grandmother’s vintage baking utensils, she has had that nutmeg grater for 70 years, WOW! I must say, even if I did bake it myself, I turned out another beauty of a pie, the crust was just perfect and the filling was just delightful!
First I gathered the items on my food prop list and played around with different layouts, I got the lighting just right, and I used a towel as a place holder for the pie as I took my practice shots. When I was ready to shoot the pie I then brought it out, remember to always set up first and then bring your food out, those lights can be brutal people! I took several different shots but this one is my favorite.
Then I was ready to shoot, and below is the result. This is not the final, the final will be ready next week, but I wanted to give everyone a sneak peek at what I have been up to this week! I will post the pie crust recipe now and if you guys want a video tutorial on some of the Photoshop techniques I used just comment on this post!
Never fail pie crust recipe:
5 cups flour
2 cups shortening (crisco)
1 egg
1 Tablespoon white vinegar
water
Mix flour and shortening until it looks like small pebbles.
Crack egg into 1 cup measuring cup add vinegar and stir until the two are mixed. Then fill up measuring cup with water while the egg and vinegar mixture are still in the cup!
Pour over flour mixture and mix, roll out onto floured surface and VOILA!
The winner of the keep calm totes and pretzels is Salee, I have emailed you, let me know which colors you want!
Today’s post is an exciting one, in our latest video series of Photoshop tutorials, I am going to walk you thru creating a professional logo like the one you see above, perfect for photographers. The tutorial begins with creating the camera frame and then adding color and print, taking the mystery out of the logo process. We add text and try out different fonts, then add color, in less than 15 minutes you could have a new logo that you created! This post is great for a beginner, especially if you are trying to start a new business and don’t have the budget to hire a professional designer. If you are a budding photographer, you can use a logo like the one we create in the video as a watermark for your photos. It is so important to brand your photos. What do I mean by BRAND? Always put your name onyour photos, especially if you are going to share them on social media sites, it is important for others to know where the photo came from so you always get credit for your work.
Enjoy the video and let me know if you have any questions and I will be happy to answer them.
Remember that all of our Photoshop tutorials are free and you can always find them under the Photoshop tutorials tab on the blog as well as our youtube channel.
Have a delightful day!
I keep getting more and more requests for free Photoshop tutorials, so here is another. In this video tutorial I am going to show you how to apply a dreamy effect to your photos and achieve that dreamy look that you see on photos that are posted on various blogs and Pinterest. It’s not as hard as it looks, so take 5 minutes and watch the video and then have some fun trying out this technique on your own photos. Also, if you want to share your photos, we would love to see what you have been up to lately and how you applied this dreamy affect. Get creative! In the video I will also show you how to apply a quick color overlay to tint your pictures as well.
This Photoshop tutorial can be achieved in any of the different versions of Photoshop , I don’t know about Photoshop elements, but I can look into creating tutorials for that versions as well.
I am sure everyone has come across something with the quote”keep calm and carry on” it’s been plastered all over the internet and being placed on products from band aid’s from Urban Outfitter’s to canvas tote bags from J. Bee Designs.
So what’s it all about anyway? When Brittan was on the brink of war with Germany, a civil servent designed a poster with the king’s crown, King George that is, and designed posters that hung around London during war times. It wasn’t until 2000, that a bookeeper discovered the long forgotten posters and a revival was born.
In the spirit of this very popular saying and just in time for Christmas we are sponsoring a keep calm and carry on giveaway, you will receive 2 tote bags, 1 to keep and 1 to giveaway, a $24 value they are available in a variety of colors to choose from here. Plus an assortment of 12 gourmet chocolate covered pretzel rods from the Positively Pretzel Company, a $32 value.! They have a smores pretzel that is out of this world!
How to enter:
Follow Delightful Design Ideas on Facebook
Follow Delightful Design Ideas on Pinterest
Follow Delightful Design Ideas on Twitter
Follow Delightful Design Ideas blog
Blog about it for 5 extra entries.
This giveaway ends in 5 days on Thursday December 6th, at midnight est.
