We usually don’t post on a weekend but when I saw that Magpie Paper Works launched their new modern calligraphy font, I had to make an exception!  I had the pleasure of beta testing this font, I do believe it was years now, yes, that’s how long it can take for the ever meticulous Jess to create her beautiful font families. This has long been my most favorite of hers, it feels very effortless and reminds me of Betsy Dunlap’s gorgeous hand, but of course it’s a complete original, I am just crazy about it.  I have used this many times in my designs and I have never been disappointed and like I mentioned it has been years in the making and I have not tired of it. I am so proud of her and so excited to be able to introduce this font to you finally! If you add it to your collection we would love to see how you use it! You can get it here.

P.S. I used the bonus ‘matte’ action in our Foto Rx | First Aid Kit to get the matte effect on the 2nd photo (the first one had it already). I know it’s a trend right now but I am really loving the way it looks, made me think that maybe a ‘mini matte action’ set might be in order?

Today’s Inspiration Rx is a little different, as I think inspiration should not be stagnate it should evolve and grow, I wanted to try to delve a little deeper, are you with me?  We usually pair an artist with 3 words that describe their work, Elizabeth Messina who I admire immensely has a very distinct body of work, some of the words I would use to describe it would be luminous, sensual, romantic. This post originally came up when she mentioned her sister’s love of words we were going to try to pair some of her sister’s fave words with Elizabeth’s images, but we were having a difficult time matching images with them because Elizabeth’s visual vocabulary is so very distinct and really does not stray.Read More

We thought we might let you know why there has been a bit of a lull here on Besotted, I hate excuses for not showing up to ones blog but I am a sucker for a ‘behind the scenes’ so here goes…We have been working like mad scientists on our next Photoshop action set for Foto Rx, this one is for helping out our fellow lettering artists (and it works super on line art too!)  What used to take me 28 steps (I counted), now takes one click!  It’s an incredible time saver, there’s a quick clean, a non-destructive eraser and even an action for turning your lettering into a Photoshop brush (that’s the ‘awesome’ brush we used on the photo). It’s going to streamline many a lettering artist workflow, allowing them to get back to what they love–lettering. It will be a quick and easy way to get your base ready for vectorization or even to have a finished product to show off for web! We are extremely excited about this launch, because as you may know from visits I have a serious affinity/addiction to hand-lettering and to be able to share this product with you makes me want to implode. So when’s the launch?  We have a May Day (that’s May 1st), launch date on the books, we are working frantically to get there, have the actions beta tested by professionals and novices alike and get you the best tool possible. In the interim we may be a little spotty with posts as we finesse this next launch and get ready for our other top secret projects (yes, it’s a bit thrilling in these parts and I am terrible at keeping secrets!) We made the ‘awesome’ Photoshop brush available for download, go ahead use it to your hearts content, you can download it here. If you want to be one of the first ones to be notified of the Lettering Photoshop action set launch (and get even more freebies) than you can sign-up here.

P.S. In case it wasn’t obvious, that awful green tinged photo of my lettering on the left was how it looked when I shot it with my Iphone, it would have taken forever to get rid of the color, shadows, splits and splats, but not anymore….

I first came upon artist Rae Dunn’s charming Wilma on Instagram and immediately fell hard.  I am supposing that’s where the rest of the world + Chronicle books found her as well and I am assuming got hooked just like moi. It’s really hard not to fall for this pup with the distinct airplane ears and puppy dog eyes. I have to admit being privy to Rae Dunn’s world via Wilma is an absolute delight, everything is wonderfully textured, curated and wabi sabi, just the way I love it. When Michelle sent me the link to Wilma’s new book I ordered for both myself and E. she loves a good pup book, you? You can take a peek into Wilma’s world via Rae’s Instagram feed and of course you can order the book here. For those unfamiliar with Rae’s work (gasp! you are going to love!) we thought these dog + cat bowls were pretty sweet.

Now, I don’t want to give you the impression that cakes and other goodies are always in the oven around here, or that I knew from the get-go that Scotch taping a few blossoms to a verbena branch would make for a delightful cake topper, or that the kitchen didn’t look like I had tossed flour and powdered sugar around like confetti for an hour or two. Baking is an occasional diversion I’m content to dabble in. It usually (not always) results in a tasty treat, and if not – well, at least it makes the house smell nice!

This dreamy cake was baked for an intimate unbirthday dinner in honor of one of our dearest friends. No birthday cards allowed, no candles on the cake, no “hope this year is your best,” etc. (however, we do manage to sneak in a few gifts with a coy “oh hey – pure coincidence, this is definitely NOT a birthday gift, but we just happened to have this box, and ribbon, and we came across these trinkets the other day that we thought you might like.”). The evening was wonderfully cozy and full of the sort of conversation and laughter that comes naturally with a group of close friends. And the cake? Even the most die-hard chocolate fans raved and wanted more! It was richly dense (but not too dense), moist, and full of banana / caramel / maple cream cheese flavor. So, if you are looking for something deliciously different for a birthday (or unbirthday) celebration, Easter dessert, or simply to perk up an average Wednesday night, I highly recommend giving this recipe a try!Read More