What is Direct Creatives?

I have a little store on Direct Creatives. DC is a marketplace for small business owners to find tools to use for their own branding, customers, and social media presence.

If you’re a small business owner and you’re responsible for your brand, Direct Creatives has artists, creators, and coaches selling content that you can use: custom design services, consulting services, background papers, graphics packs, fonts, worksheets, and templates just to name a few. You can also find Trello Boards, hostess coaching, e-books, templates for Canva and PicMonkey, gift certificates, and more. You can find tools to help with your business that you didn’t even KNOW you needed.

If you want to add even more to your toolbox, you can sign up for Direct Creatives Insider. DC Insider is a monthly, virtual subscription box for small business owners. Each month features something different to add to arsenal. One month was about the basics of using Trello for your business. Another month was about Asana as a tool for your business. One month featured the ins and outs of using watermarks to brand your graphics and photos (I hosted that month!). Learn how to create e-Books in Canva or the basics of PicMonkey for creating graphics. Every month features something new. Joining DC Insider also gets you exclusive discounts from the store that’s hosting each month along with fun, themed graphics that you can use in your own branding.

In my Direct Creatives store, I sell branding packages. I will design your logo and help you establish a visual brand for your small business; including business cards, social media banners and cover images, profile pics, watermarks, rack cards, postcards, stickers, and more.

I also sell background papers and stock photography that can be used for social media and I’m constantly adding more of these as I create them. You can easily add text to these backgrounds and photos using design software like Canva and PicMonkey or Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop. I have some other items like customizable holiday cards, customizable cootie catchers, wall calendars, and artwork in there too.

I will continue to add items to my storefront as I learn and figure out how I can use my skills to help small business owners rock their brand.

What do you need for your small business??

Product of the Month - January 2021 - Pocket Palette

I use and love a wide variety of products with my job; from paintbrushes, watercolor paper, and pens to backpacks, computer equipment, and hiking boots. My work has me almost constantly searching for tools to make it easier, more efficient… or sometimes just more fun. I’m going to start featuring a different product each month and see if I can remember to keep it up for a while. Sometimes the products will be art supplies, sometimes not. We shall see.

These posts will often include affiliate links if the product is available on Amazon. Shopping through these links earns me a few cents and it’s very much appreciated.

On to the POTM!

This month’s favorite product is the Pocket Palette from Art Toolkit. Not available on Amazon, but it can be purchased through their website. This little palette is a smidge larger than a business card and holds a variety of different-sized paint pans. Different-sized pans can be purchased on their website to fully customize your palette. There’s even a smaller palette available.

**Edit: in the summer of 2021, they added the new Folio Palette, which is bigger than the pocket palette; about 5.5x3.25 inches. Trying to justify getting one.

The bottom of the palette is a magnet that keeps the pans in place and makes them easy to remove, wash, refill, and organize any way you’d like. The lid works as a little palette to mix colors too.

I got my first one a while back when I bought the Art Tool Kit for myself. I have absolutely fallen in love with it and you can read about it here. A few months back, I bought a second Pocket Palette so I could separate my warm and cool colors (read more about it here). They both fit in my Art Tool Kit and the size of these palettes makes them ideal for plein air painting (that’s French for painting outside).

I even use them at home when I’m just painting in my office. I’m pretty particular when it comes to how my colors are laid out and in what order, so I love being able to reorganize from time to time; especially when I add new paint colors to my palettes.

What’s a great product you’d recommend??

Two New Stickers - Now Available!

The two newest stickers from my Utah’s Public Lands Series are here and they’re beautiful. Sticker Mule does such a great job with printing them. These two locations are ones that are a couple of my favorite hikes in southern Utah.

Babylon Arch is close-ish to Hurricane, UT and Zion National Park. You meander through sandstone canyons and cliffs and then after a short stumble down a loose sand bar you’re greeted with the beautiful arch and a panoramic view of the Virgin River. It’s so beautiful; especially in the late afternoon with the sun low. Depending on road conditions, you may need a high-clearance vehicle to get to the trailhead though. I haven’t been brave enough to see if my minivan could make it.

Lower Calf Creek Falls is outside of Boulder, UT kind of in between Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef National Parks. It’s a perfect stop if you’re traveling from one park to the other. It’s a long-ish hike (for kids at least), but it’s not very difficult. It wanders through a canyon, along side a creek, a few spots are sandy. There are trail markers on the way the coordinate with a PDF file that teaches about the canyon itself. There are pictographs on a canyon wall and at the end you’re greeted with a stunning waterfall. In the warmer months hikers can swim in the icy water.

I have seven paintings completed in this Utah’s Public Lands Series and I need to decide where I’m heading next. Should I do a few more and round it out at ten? I have a few more spots I want to paint, I just haven’t been to all of them in person, so I have to rely on the photographs of others to guide me. I really want to do a sticker from Gooseberry Mesa near Hurricane, but I’m still looking for the right photo inspiration. Other spots I have started to investigate include Colonnade Arch near Moab, Moonshine Arch near Vernal, and Buckskin Gulch near Kanab.

Any suggestions or recommendations?

Direct Creatives Black Friday Sale

I have a little store on a website called Direct Creatives. DC is a marketplace for small business owners to find graphics and tools to use for their own branding, customers, and social media presence.

If you’re a small business owner and you’re responsible for building your visual brand, Direct Creatives has artists and creators selling content you will be able to use: design services, consulting services, background papers, graphics packs, fonts, worksheets, and templates just to name a few. Here’s how to get there:

Alex Tebow on Direct Creatives

In my store, I sell background papers that can be used for social media. I sell stock photography, holiday cards, a few cootie catchers, and I sell design services to create a custom logo or your own brand. Below you can see the deals I’m running there through Sunday.

Stickers For Sale!

Stickers are here! I have created a handful of watercolor paintings of some beautiful places on Utah’s public and BLM lands and I’ve have them made into stickers. Check them out here!

Alex’s Sticker Store

Here’s a rundown on them:

Two arches from Coyote Gulch in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, near Escalante, UT. I so want to go backpacking there next year!

Pioneer Arch at Pioneer Park and part of the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area. This park is right in St. George, UT and so much fun to play in. Loads of rocks to climb, a slot canyon for kids and thinner adults to shimmy through, and a pioneer cabin to explore.

Fisher Towers near Moab, UT is really stunning. I’ve heard it’s popular among rock climbers too.

This little waterfall lives on the Red Reef Trail inside Red Cliffs National Conservation Area close to Leeds, UT. It’s a fantastic trail any time of the year, but it’s really special when there’s water in the creek. I will probably paint a couple of other spots on this trail too, it’s so beautiful.

Corona Arch near Moab, UT. This arch lives on BLM land right outside the entrance to Arches National Park. I’ve been to Arches twice and haven’t been able to make it to this massive arch. I hope to next year!

Babylon Arch is the most recent sticker that is currently being printed right now. This is easily one of my favorite trails through gorgeous sandstone cliffs and little canyons. And then when you get to the arch, you’re greeted by lovely views of the Virgin River. It’s pretty awesome.

I’m really proud of how well these turned out and I plan to do at least two more to finish the series at eight stickers… or maybe 10. I haven’t decided yet. There is so much public land in Utah, I think I read that almost 40% of the state is public land; mostly in the south and western parts of the state. I’ve lived here nine years and I’ve only seen a fraction of what’s here.

Once I’m done with public lands paintings, I think I’ll move on to my favorite spots within National Parks. Or maybe I’ll do some of Utah’s state parks? I also have been thinking about making a coloring book that showcases my favorite hikes. Any suggestions?