My Favorite Creative Tools

I’ve been running a creative business since August 2011 and over that time I’ve collected many tools I love for creating. Some for my blog, some for my watercolors, and I always get asked about my favorites so I thought I’d round them up in one post. Here are all my favorite creative tools. Many of these I use on a daily basis.

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My Favorite Creative Tools

I think the easiest way to share the tools is in a list style format or breaking the tools into the areas I use them for. I will say you don’t need all of these to create an online business or website. When I started it was on Blogspot and I used to take photos with my phone (a really old phone), but slowly over 13 years I’ve added tools and a workflow that works for me.

For the Blog / Site

• WordPress – I use wordpress for my blog and I love the features it has and the block settings in Kadence makes it easy to craft all kinds of posts. I also have the Jetpack Plugin installed.
• Restored 316 – I updated my blog theme 2 years ago and still love it. The template is by Restored 316 and was so easy to set up. The main page has three layouts so I’ve been able to make changes to reflect the other parts of my business (online shop and surface pattern design) without having to buy a new theme. Restored 316 also offers block settings for the blog and templates for Canva.
• WP Tasty – I use this to optimize my pins for SEO and Pinterest.
• Tailwind – I use Tailwind to schedule pins. I like the original scheduler layout because that’s what I’m used to, but they also offer all different services, too.
• Flodesk – For emails I’ve tried lots of different services over the years, but I’m a huge fan of Flodesk. I love that I can create landing pages in Flodesk for free downloads but also love their flexible and beautiful templates. I find sending emails so easy with this tool. I’ve used them for my emails for several years. My readers can get 50% off, making it $19 a month. Another thing I like about Flodesk is you can have multiple email lists, so I have one for my online shop and one for my email subscribers.
• Computer – I use a 27″ iMac. When I first started blogging I used a laptop. As I’ve become more interested in photography, design, and art, it made sense to invest in the iMac so I can better gauge how my art, design, and photography will appear to the end user.
• Noise Cancelling Headphones – I have these Sony Headphones. We share an office so these are a must. A bonus, they’re also great for plane journeys.

For Photography

I mostly am taking photos of my watercolors and my home / projects, but I also like to take photos of travel and being out and about.

• Nikon D850 – I invested in this camera several years ago now. I wanted a full frame camera because our home is small and I couldn’t always get the full room in with the Canon Rebel -T3i.
• Lenses – the lenses I use most for the Nikon D850 are the 60mm and the 35mm. The 60mm I use for shots that I want to really blur the background. It has a wider lens so I often use this to take images of my watercolors and cards. The 35mm is what I generally use for room shots and DIY etc.
• Tripod – I just have a cheap tripod from Amazon. I use this in low light if I have to open the shutter right up, or if I’m trying to photograph myself and no one else is home.
• Pixel 8 Pro – More and more I use my phone for a lot of things. I like that it has the magic eraser so I can remove blemishes or our house number. I also like that it has “top shot” where you can swap faces from another similar photo if someone’s eyes are shut (usually mine). Ha! Ha! I LOVE this phone. When we travel I actually just take my phone. So all those pretty shots of St. John (see below). Yup. All taken with my phone!!!

• Lightroom – I use Lightroom to edit all my photos I take with my Nikon. This usually entails straightening, brightening, and adjusting the lens setting. I have the Creative Cloud subscription because I use many Adobe Programs and it makes it cheaper.

For Watercolor / Art –

I’ve written a few blog posts about this, which I will link here. Some favorite watercolor papers, favorite watercolor brushes, and more watercolor supplies.

But perhaps here I’ll share the products I’m using the most.

• Paper – I usually use cold press paper. I like Canson XL Watercolor Paper. This paper is affordable but isn’t as heavy as other paper and doesn’t contain cotton. This means the paper can buckle and the watercolor paint sits on top rather than getting absorbed by the paper. I like it because I mostly scan my watercolors. Recently I’ve been experimenting with heavier cotton papers and like the following – Fluid (the Fluid I’ve linked is a 6″ x 6″ block so fun for some mini seascapes or illustrations) and Winsor & Newton Professional (I’ve linked a 9″ x 12″ block and I like how bright white it is).
• Brushes – I mostly use the Velvetouch by Princeton and this is a good starter set. The Princeton Velvetouch are synthetic and have a nice point and snapback when you’re painting. When I paint I mostly use a round 2, round 4, and round 6, but I also have bigger and smaller brushes depending on what I’m painting. These brushes are great and affordable. They’re great if your just starting out or even an intermediate painter. I recently started using the da Vinci Watercolor Series 11 Maestro Paint Brush, Fuller English Round Kolinsky Red Sable, Size 3 and the size 4. These brushes are sable and will hold a lot of paint. They also have a nice point but you can use the belly of the brush to paint, too. They are more expensive than the the Velvetouch ranging in price between $28 – $34 per brush.
• Watercolor Paints – as you paint you’ll find brands you like the best. My favorite paints are Daniel Smith and I like using tubes of paints rather than pans. Over the years I’ve collected many tubes, but this is a good starter set and you can mix your own green or get a tube of sap green. When I share tutorials I always try to link the paints I use.
• Gouache – Lately, I’ve been experimenting with gouache seascapes. I like these Holbein tubes but my son LOVES these Himi paints. Gouache is like watercolor but more opaque. I often use white gouache over seascapes for white spray and glistening waves.
• Other tools I use on a daily basis – kneaded eraser, white eraser, mechanical pencil.
• In terms of learning, I LOVE Skillshare for trying out new classes and techniques. I’m so happy I can gift my readers with a free month to try it, click here for Skillshare One Month Premium Trial. I also try to share a lot here on the blog, click here for more watercolor tutorials and free printables.

Filming Watercolor

• I use my Pixel 8 Pro for filming. Sometimes I do it in real time, but my phone dies. Other times increase the speed and set it on Timelapse.
• To suspend my phone above my painting surface I use the Canvas Lamp. I have the Classic White Canvas Lamp with Wooden Base. My readers can get a special 10% off with the code: FINDINGSILVERPENNIES10 What I like about the Canvas Lamp, is it has a built in ring light with three color temperatures so if the light in the sunroom isn’t great I can still create a video. The base is weighted and you can position it all different ways. Also, it looks cool so I don’t mind leaving it out on our sunroom table.
• For editing my videos I use two different programs. For reels I like using InShot and for YouTube I like to use iMovie.

For Digitizing Watercolor & Pattern Making

I usually scan my watercolors and turn them into cards or products. If you’re interested in doing this, too. I have a couple of helpful tools.

• Scanner – I invested in the Epson 4600 photo scanner two years ago. The quality of the scans is wonderful. It can scan photos, negatives, and art / documents. It has the capabilities to really enlarge art and photos. The only issue with this is the scan area – it’s maximum scan area is 8.5 x 11.7 inches so if you paint bigger than that you may need to get a different scanner. I like that this one fits right on my desk. I usually paint my watercolors at 6″ x 9″ and scan them in at 600 dpi so I have the capabilities to enlarge art.
• For manipulating watercolor and for patterns – I use Photoshop to remove the watercolor paper background. I think Photoshop is also the best for creating patterns with watercolor. You can make your photoshop files into smart objects and make patterns in real time. These tutorials by Cat Coq on Patterns on Skillshare and Digitizing Watercolor with Sharone Stevens on Skillshare are really helpful if you want in-depth tutorials.

More Pattern Making

If you’re interested in getting more into surface pattern design and creating patterns. There are a few things I can recommend.

• Adobe Illustrator – Illustrator is another Adobe Creative Cloud program and it’s great for creating vector files – for illustrations, surface pattern, or graphic designs. Vector means it can be enlarged exponentially and will never pixilate. Bonnie Christine runs a wonderful course called Immersion and she opens it once year. I am an alum of Immersion.
• Spoonflower – If you want to make your own patterns you may want to check out Spoonflower. They print on demand fabric, home decor, and wallpaper. I actually have a Spoonflower shop for my watercolor patterns and my illustrator patterns. See my Spoonflower Shop here.
• InDesign – I created my Portfolio in InDesign which is another Adobe software that specializes in printing. It’s made for portfolios, books, magazines and I use it very frequently to layout my cards. I took Genna Blackburn’s InDesign Your Portfolio class to get more comfortable with the program. She opens this course up once a year.
• Mock Ups are great to use in your portfolio or for products. I’m a huge fan of Creatsy and Creative Market. Just make sure you order the commercial license if you’re using it for a business.

For My Online Shop

Retail Sales & POS

Back in 2019 we started our online shop and it’s a collaboration between my teenage son and myself. Our shop is hosted on Shopify and I love working with Shopify. We have a free theme on our site and we get a wonderful shipping rate through Shopify. We also do our shows using their point of sale app and card reader.

I’ve just signed up for Shopify Collabs. So if you’re an influencer and your interested in promoting Finding Silver Pennies products just send me an email.

For shipping, I like to use the Dymo label printer and it’s connected to Shopify for shipping rates.

Wholesale

Since last March I’ve been using Faire to help market our products to small retailers and shops. What is wholesale, you ask? Well, it’s selling your products to small shops who then sell your products in their shops. Usually wholesale price is half of retail so if you want to do wholesale you need to make sure you can make a profit on the wholesale price. At first our note cards were priced too low. Since I want to work with shops then I need to make sure I can still make money off wholesale pricing. You don’t make as much per product with Wholesale but you can sell a larger volume per order.

I love Faire for two reasons, I get to meet stores I didn’t even know existed. The other month we got a large order for the cutest shop in Hawaii. If I direct people to my Faire link I don’t pay Faire a commission. Many shops already use Faire so if you tell them you’re on it, it’s easier for them. I’m a Top Shop on Faire and I’m happy to share my experience with anyone who is interested in learning more.

If you have a small shop and you’d like to work with us this is my Faire Direct link for wholesale.

If you have a business and you want to sell to small shops, I’m happy to share my Faire Referral Link.

Let’s Keep in Touch

Wow! Okay, this posted ended up being longer than I thought it would be. I really wanted to pack all the creative tools I use on a daily basis in one email. I hope it was helpful and hopefully it wasn’t too business-y for other readers. Be sure to pin this for reference. You never know when that little hobby will turn into something more… right?

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