Creative Grease [hot glue media]

Free Desktop Wallpaper: April Calendar

Subtle houndstooth and a swoopy-loopy font make for a lovely, calm backdrop for the busyness that is April.

Available as 1680×1050, 1600×900, and 1280×1024. (Left-click to preview; right-click to download.)

Kate made this mess on April 4th, 2011 | Comments Off

Wicked Plum Weekly Update

There’s SO MUCH going on over at Wicked Plum that we’re going to be doing weekly updates for a while — otherwise we’d be writing pages and pages and not fitting half of it in. Now that we’re launched, things are really rolling!

We’ve added a couple of new features. There’s now a built-in, fully customizable Twitter feed widget for your sidebar (here’s how you do it), and we’ve also set things up so that you can charge sales tax on some items and not others. And there’s more to come — watch this space!

We’ve got a bunch of new tutorials written this week — simple stuff like changing your password, complex stuff like how to set up sales taxes, and fun stuff like replying to blog comments. Right now we’re working on lots more tutorials about all the awesome things you can do with sidebar widgets.

And themes. Have we got themes! Themes, we has them. Wow, do we have themes. Some of our new ones:

That’s only about half of our new ones, so be sure to check out the rest, too.

And last (but assuredly not least) — two new shops coming onboard! Welcome to Venezie Designs (Facebook | Twitter), and PrettyCoolShops (Facebook | Twitter)! We’re glad to have you on board.

Kate made this mess on April 1st, 2011 | Comments Off

Quick Drips: Save My Spot

Don’t have content for your project? Try HTML-Ipsum.

Don’t have images? Try the Dynamic Dummy Image Generator.

Of course, mocking up websites and ebooks and WordPress themes and whatnot can get…repetitive. Want a little spice?

Replace boring old filler text with Gangsta Lorem Ipsum, and simple grey boxes with, what else? placekittens.

Yeah, you’re welcome.

Dani made this mess on March 31st, 2011 | Comments Off

Everyday Design: Nature and Mary Harding Jewelry

Back in November, I was lucky enough to win this gorgeous pendant from Mary Harding Jewelry. I don’t often enter contests like that, but I was drawn to Mary’s nature-inspired work. To me, she’s a great inspiration for how natural objects can guide design choices, and keep us all grounded to our roots.

I haven’t worn the pendant yet – I’m saving it for a special occasion – but it rests just below my monitor, its presence a reminder of the awesomeness in the world.

Thank you, Mary!!

More on Mary Harding Jewelry: website | blog | facebook

Dani made this mess on March 29th, 2011 | Comments Off

Free WordPress Theme: Tucking In for the Season

I’m tickled to announce our very first free WordPress theme, “Tucking In for the Season”!

Demo | Download

Tucking In was designed during my first winter in Buffalo, NY, when I spent a good deal of time swathed in down and flannel. It’s warm, and comfy, and plaid, and what more could one want to survive a Buffalo winter?

It was built as a blogging theme, but could be modded for a more CMS-y theme, if that’s your fancy.

I’m a big fan of simple, so this theme intentionally has no admin options and is not meant to be easily customizable by non-tech-folk. If you’re looking for something along those lines, check out Thesis, Hybrid, Atahualpa, etc. It’s just not my thing.

But Tucking In does have support for sticky posts and featured images, and includes five widgetized areas plus two menus. There are also author templates, nifty fonts courtesy of Google’s Fonts API, subtle little CSS3 tweaks, and more! For more info, check out the readme file provided with the theme.

Support
Email: danielle.a.nelson [at] gmail [dot] com
Twitter: @daniellenelson