Smiley Helper | Free resources, inspiration, and tutorials for web design and graphic design

Now Launching Spifferoni!

June 27, 2011 by Katie

Finally launched that shop I was talking about on the twitter a while back.. it’s called Spifferoni and we sell everything cute.

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Is this our brush?

March 12, 2011 by Katie

Just saw this ad for a college and thought the brush in the lower left corner looked a lot like one of our organic flower brushes.

I tried comparing it to all the brushes in that set but none look like a match… it still looks like the style though. Odd. It would be pretty cool if a college used one of my brushes

Been doing a lot of Squidoo and Zazzle.. I’m working on transferring the old Snazzify shop from cafepress (it’s all on separate basic shops at this point but I finally decided to join zazzle and move stuff over since their premium shops are free) to a new shop on Zazzle also called Snazzify. Same designs, new look.
You can support Snazzify by joining our facebook page. There was a facebook page for Smiley Helper, but I haven’t been updating so I decided to just focus on the Snazzify facebook group.

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:)

December 25, 2010 by Katie

Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

Category Updates | Tags: | 4 Comments

Thanksgiving

November 25, 2010 by Katie

Happy Thanksgiving!

Category Updates | Tags: | 3 Comments

Inspiration

November 8, 2010 by Katie

Incredible illustration and actually a useful portfolio tool: Carbonmade.

Category Updates | Tags: | No Comments

Busy as usual!

October 27, 2010 by Katie

Hello! As you can probably tell by the lack of updates I’m back in school and busy with classes, and also college applications for the next few months. It’s an interesting experience to have to write about (in the form of the actual application or the essays) what you’ve accomplished in your life when you’re still so young.
In the meantime, here is a website with a pretty layout: Goodbytes.
Now back to statistics…

Category Updates | Tags: | 1 Comment

New Vector Tutorial

September 19, 2010 by Katie

There is a new tutorial about making a cute vector illustration from Marina.

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Simple Vector Illustration

by Katie

Learn how to make a simple vector-style illustration with the pen tool in Photoshop.

Category Adobe Photoshop | Tags: | 5 Comments

Icons and Snazzing up WordPress

September 5, 2010 by Katie

Today a new resource designer- Emily- joined our staff and made 4 icons.

I also wrote part 4 of the guide to snazzing up wordpress.

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Snazzing up WordPress Part 4: Dynamic Features Plugins

by Katie

Snazzing up WordPress Part 4: Dynamic Features Plugins These WordPress plugins add dynamic features to your blog.

Click here for WordPress themes and plugins

Category Articles | Tags: | 2 Comments

New Graphics

September 2, 2010 by Katie

We have many new graphics made by our fabulous staff members Callie and Rikki.
There’s a new icon, a new quote graphic, a new welcome sign, and a new cute pixel. Enjoy!

I also started school yesterday. I’m excited for this year but I am just waiting for all the homework and commitments to come crashing in. So far it’s only been two days and at least it doesn’t seem bad so far, while last year I was already dying on the first day because our teachers scared us by talking about everything we would have to do. But so far, it’s ok. I’ll probably decide within the next couple weeks how this school year will turn out.

Did anyone else start school yet? How is it so far?

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Part 3 of WordPress Guide

August 28, 2010 by Katie

Here is part three of the guide to snazzing up wordpress: Comment Plugins.

I’ve been reading Uglies lately by Scott Westerfeld. It’s an interesting, fast-paced adventure, and it makes you think. It’s about a dytopian society that makes everyone beautiful when they turn sixteen so there isn’t any discrimination, but the book shows that there are definite problems with that idea. Has anyone read it?

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Snazzing up WordPress Part 3: Comment Plugins

by Katie

Snazzing up WordPress Part 3: Comment Plugins These comment plugins for your WordPress blog will add spam protection and new functionality to the comments of your blog posts.

Click here for WordPress themes and plugins

Category Articles | Tags: | 2 Comments

New Icons

August 27, 2010 by Katie

Marina made 5 new beautiful flower icons.
Oops I haven’t been writing the articles for the wordpress guide. Ahh I can already feel school sucking away my artistic inspiration, and it’s still 4 days away.

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Part 2 and icon!

August 26, 2010 by Katie

Part 2 of the six day guide to snazzing up WordPress is about social media plugins. I personally use or have used most of the plugins on the list on this site.

Also, our staff member Callie made a new icon.

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Snazzing up WordPress Part 2: Social Media Plugins

by Katie

After you have your WordPress blog and theme set up, it’s a good idea to install some social media-related plugins to help your posts reach an audience from the very start. Here are fifteen useful social media plugins to help generate buzz.

Click here for WordPress themes and plugins

Category Articles | Tags: | 3 Comments

Snazzing up WordPress: Day 1

August 24, 2010 by Katie

Got back from my trip a couple days ago. It was great.
I just finished day 1 of a six day guide to snazzing up wordpress. A new part will be released every day. Part one is about beautiful themes.

I got my school schedule today… ugh. I don’t want to go back in a week. :[ I couldn’t get one of the classes I wanted, but I guess it makes my schedule easier with the change. (more time for website updates?!? haha yeah right ;___; ) Hmm.. Overall it’s all right and will be a very interesting year.

Will make part 2 and add an update from Callie tomorrow.

Category Updates | Tags: | 2 Comments

Snazzing up WordPress Part 1: Beautiful Themes

by Katie

So you’ve just installed WordPress as the blogging system on your site, or maybe you’ve had it for a while. But you really want to get the most out of this powerful content management system (CMS).

For part one, here are fifteen beautiful free WordPress themes that can get your blog off to the right start. Just pick a theme, download it, and install.