The Bloc Creative: Blog » Freebies

Joge-e Card (Free Download)

Brooke — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:34:06 +0000

Meet our latest freebie, and my new hobby: joge-e! For your downloading pleasure, I’ve put together a free reversible greeting card featuring a lovable and sometimes grumpy joge-e man. The design is original, hand-carved and hand-printed.

Joge-e are Japanese “two-way pictures,” faces that can be viewed in two ways by flipping the image. Download our double-sided card, print it on colorful card stock, cut, fold, and choose a mood. Or if you really want to confuse the recipient, write around the inside the way we cool kids used to write notes in middle school (maybe that was just me).

Smiley Joge-e

Frowny Joge-e

I’ll be selling actual prints in my shop soon, but this one’s on us. Let us know how you used yours in the comments below!

All our desktop images are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Herb Tags (Free Download)

Brooke — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 10:00:57 +0000

As promised to those who subscribe to our newsletter, we’re releasing a brand new, non-desktop freebie today! In honor of spring and my new green thumb, I designed tags to label homegrown herbs. No more unidentified sprouts or confusing look-alikes!

Here’s what you’ll need to make them:

Printed tags (downloaded from our Freebies page)
Scissors
Hole punch
Paper clips (or other fastener, like string)
Packaging tape (optional) *
Potted herbs

Once you have those together, follow these steps to put together your own tags:

1. Cut out each tag.

2. Optional: Sandwich each tag between two pieces of packaging tape (a little trick I call "poor man's laminate"), and trim.

3. Use the hole punch to cut out a hole where indicated.

4. If using a paper clip as your fastener, bend it slightly apart.

5. Use the bent paper clip or other fastener to attach the tag to your pot, and you're finished!

* NOTE: I strongly recommend laminating the tags in some way, as this will make them more durable and water-resistant. I even dropped one of mine into a puddle in the sink and pulled it out safely!

We’d love to hear how you used your tags, so be sure to leave a comment below!

All our desktop images are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

December Desktop Wallpaper

Brooke — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:00:48 +0000

We’ve decided to wrap up the year with a desktop that is a bit more unique than the others: it has blinking lights! This little novelty is available to both Mac and PC users, though we’re partial to the former. And don’t worry: we’ve even made a non-animated version for the traditionalists!

In Action

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s difficult to see on such a small scale, but we made the effect very subtle–not distracting or seizure-inducing.

Downloads

1920×1200 Animated (calendar)

1920×1200 Animated (no calendar)

1920×1200 Non-animated (calendar)

1920×1200 Non-animated (no calendar)

1920×1080 Animated (calendar)

1920×1080 Animated (no calendar)

1920×1080 Non-animated (calendar)

1920×1080 Non-animated (no calendar)

iPhone 320×480 Non-animatedÂ (no calendar)

All our desktop images are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

How To

Non-animated: Click your favorite to download, and set it as your desktop on aÂ Mac, iPhone, or Windows computer.

Animated: Click to download, unzip the file, and place the folder in a permanent place. On a Mac, follow the steps at the bottom of this article. On Windows, follow this step-by-step. (NOTE: You may experience performance issues with rotating desktop images. If it becomes a problem, you can easily disable the feature and use a single image instead.)

Merry Christmas!

November Desktop Wallpaper

Brooke — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:00:16 +0000

Nothing says “Thanksgiving” better than a turkey, but we don’t really like turkeys all that much. So this month’s desktop wallpaper is instead a tribute to all those cornucopias we made in elementary school. We like to call it the Horn o’ Plenty.

1920 x 1200 px

1920 x 1080 px

iPhone (320 x 480 px)

As always, click your favorite to download, and set it as your desktop (Mac) or wallpaper (Windows). Enjoy!

All our desktop images are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

October Desktop Wallpaper

Brooke — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:12:43 +0000

Not only is autumn our favorite season, it also hosts one of our favorite holidays. So this month, we’ve made a Halloween-themed set of desktop wallpaper calendars and enjoyed every bit of it.

1920 x 1200 px

1920 x 1080 px

iPhoneÂ (320 x 480 px)

Click your favorite to download, and set it as your desktop (Mac) or wallpaper (Windows). Enjoy!

All our desktop images are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

September Desktop Wallpaper

Brooke — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:30:33 +0000

For many areas around the United States, summer is beginning to lighten up and bring a touch of cooler air. Know that if you live in one of those areas, you’ve become a target of our jealousy. Autumn is our favorite season, and though California tends to skip it, we’ve paid homage to it in this month’s freebie.

1920 x 1200 px

1920 x 1080 px

iPhone (320 x 480 px)

Click your favorite to download, and set it as your desktop (Mac) or wallpaper (Windows). Enjoy!

NOTE: We’ve since released a new version of this desktop (with no calendar), available on our Freebies page.

All our desktop images are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

August Desktop Wallpaper

Brooke — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 06:07:38 +0000

August really isn’t a month for well-known holidays or themes, so I had to do a bit of research for this month’s freebie. It turns out that ten years ago, August was declared National Admit You’re Happy Month by the Secret Society of Happy People. Really. Since then, it has been renamed Happiness Happens Month, but we prefer the original.

Blue

Green

Red

Each image is 1920 x 1200 pixels. Click your favorite to download, and set it as your desktop (Mac) or wallpaper (Windows). Enjoy!

NOTE: We’ve since released a new version of this desktop (with no calendar), available on our Freebies page.

All our desktop images are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

July Desktop Wallpaper

Brooke — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:03:27 +0000

I’m in love with robots. This may have started back in May, when David and I got to see ASIMO at Disneyland. Not long after this, I incorporated robots into the redesign of the Burnside Project website. And I just finished a couple of robot linocuts, one of which made it into this month’s freebie.

I typically try to create each desktop with a theme relating to its month, and trust me, robots are very July.

Today is the unveiling of a new robot rat in England. Later this month, Japan will be finishing construction on the parts for a giant robot named Gigantor. And back in 1984, a robot made history by being the first to kill a human in the U.S. (eek).

Okay, the truth is I just wanted to use my new linocut. These little guys are going to be part of a larger piece of wall art soon, but they don’t mind hanging out on your computer for a bit.

I even made multiple color options this time.

Vintage

Patriotic

Army

Coffee

Each image is 1920 x 1200 pixels. Click your favorite to download, and set it as your desktop (Mac) or wallpaper (Windows). Enjoy!

NOTE: We’ve since released a new version of this desktop (with no calendar), available on our Freebies page.

All our desktop images are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

June Desktop Wallpaper

Brooke — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:27:40 +0000

One of my strongest childhood memories of June is of hay fields. Growing up on a farm, I spent my summers either working or playing in them, always hot and itchy but loving the sweet smell of hay. I chose to reflect this memory in this month’s freebie.

June’s desktop wallpaper is a textured photo I took of a field at a wildlife refuge back home, similar to the hay fields I love. (Sorry, only one version this time!)

Refuge

The image is 1920 x 1200 pixels. Click the image to download, and set it as your desktop (Mac) or wallpaper (Windows). Enjoy!

NOTE: We’ve since released a new version of this desktop (with no calendar), available on our Freebies page.

All our desktop images are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

May Desktop Wallpaper

Brooke — Sun, 03 May 2009 01:16:53 +0000

Somehow we missed the fact that April became May yesterday, so our freebie comes slightly late. This month, I chose a sketch from my moleskine as the illustration.

I recently learned that every spring California apparently loses its sunshine for a couple of months to an effect residents like to call June Gloom, presumably to give everyone else in the country brief satisfaction at our misfortune.

Cloudy California

Sunny Everywhere Else

The images are each 1920 x 1200 pixels. Click on your favorite image to download it, and set it as your desktop (Mac) or wallpaper (Windows). And no April Fool’s tricks this time.

NOTE: We’ve since released a new version of this desktop (with no calendar), available on our Freebies page.

All our desktop images are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.