Resources & Links

Recommended Resources

Bluehost – This is hands down the best experience we’ve had building our website as well as setting up WordPress on countless others. If you want to start a blog or website for your business, the first step is to purchase a domain + hosting. Bluehost is a really affordable option. They have a super easy one click WordPress install option and a live chat option in case you need support… stat. Just what you need to setup a blog or website with WordPress.


WordPress Plugins


  • WooCommerce – A WordPress plugin great for selling physical items through a WordPress website. Psst. All of our themes are Woocommerce compatible.
  • Akismet– A pretty great spam filter for blocking spam comments
  • Yoast All In One Seo Plugin – This is the best plugin for Search Engine Optimazion. Period. Good SEO does not happen overnight, but we’ve seen our own positive results by using this plugin over years of blogging and owning a small business.
  • Jetpack – Allows for easy migration from wordpress.com to self-hosted wordpress. Lots of great features including twitter feeds, share buttons, subscribe options, and more.
  • WP Canvas Shortcodes– Developed by Chris Baldelomar, Angie’s husband. This plugin allows you to easily add tabs, accordions, columns, dividers, buttons, and more via WordPress shortcodes to your site.

     


    Design Apps + Software


  • Canva – App that helps you design just about anything. Super intuitive!
  • PicMonkey – A free online image editor that makes creating images for your blog a breeze.
  • Adobe Photoshop– This is still my go-to design application and the industry standard. I use it every day! Plans start at 19.99 / month or you can always download the free trial version for 30 days.
  • Glyphs– A bit of a learning curve, but it’s the software I use to create fonts. Works on Macs only.

 


Fonts


  • Creative Market – I can’t say enough about this marketplace. Quality clip art, design templates, and more. Love them.
  • Myfonts – Never underestimate the power of a fantastic, commercial font. While there are many great free fonts, many just don’t compare to those that are made by the pros.
  • Dafont – My favorite site for free fonts.

 


Paid Design Resources


  • Creative Market – I can’t say enough about this marketplace. Quality clip art, design templates, and more. Love them.
  • Shutterstock – For harder-to-find graphics and stock images, I’ve found that Shutterstock has an amazing selection. It’s a bit pricey at $30 for 2 downloads.
  • Stocksy– For super on-trend stock photos. LOVE.

 


Styled Desktop Photography


  • Creative Market– Tons of fabulous, styled images to choose from.
  • Rosemary Watson– A subscription based service that allows you to download a ton of styled desktop images.

 


Free Design Resources


  • Death to Stock – Free stock photos sent to your inbox each month.
  • Unsplash – A great collection of free, curated stock photos.
  • Dafont – My favorite site for free fonts.
  • Design Seeds – Color Inspiration.
  • BlueVertigo – Get ready to spend hours downloading free graphics and stuff. This is the most comprehensive linkfest of free design assets on the web that I’ve ever stumbled upon. PS. Did I mention it’s all FREE?!
  • Shutterstock – For harder-to-find graphics and stock images, I’ve found that Shutterstock has an amazing selection. It’s a bit pricey at $30 for 2 downloads.

 


Lettering Tools


  • Pentel Waterbrush – This is one of my favorite lettering tools for modern hand brushed lettering and watercolor calligraphy. You can fill it with colored ink, dip it in watercolor, and so much more. Very versatile and they come in a variety of sizes.
  • Tombow Brush Marker Set – These are some seriously cool, dual-tipped markers that are SUPER easy to use to create brush lettering calligraphy and create some really colorful brushed lettering. Love all the colors they come in.
  • Tombow Brush Pen– This is my favorite marker for calligraphy. It is super easy to learn to use and will make your calligraphy look 100% better. Love it.

 


Books To Read



These are some of our favorite picks from around the web. We share them because we seriously love them. But in the spirit of full disclosure, please note that some of the links above are affiliate links.

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