Links

Thea Newcomb's Fave Links - Recommended Tips Tools and Resources

Thea’s Fave Links, Tools & Resources

Updated January 2026: New section added for AI Tools and Communities

Welcome to my hand-picked list of creative tools, platforms and perks. From Print on Demand to Canva essentials, blogging tools to AI wonders, this page is your shortcut to smart, stylish, and productive.

Some links are affiliate, but I only share what I use and rate. Expect discounts, trials and the odd exclusive. Scroll on and dive in.

Thea's Canva coures, trials, links etc

Canva Templates

A cork board with the word community spelled out like a random noteOnline Communities

  • Big Soul Network – business network for purpose led change makers, entrepreneurial light workers, and heart centred business owners.
  • Creative Entrepreneurs Club – Join thousands of creative freelancers and businesses in the global network that connects, upskills, and empowers its members.
  • L&D Free Spirits – for freelance professionals in the learning and development space, and trainers like me! Do mention me if you join, I’d appreciate it!
  • Playhouse – The Playhouse is a virtual social club for creative business owners who want to grow through connection, collaboration, and community…not constant content.

Thea's Top Print on Demand Tools for 2023

Books, Print on Demand & Graphic Design Tools

A Book Creator – Proud to be the UK Brand Ambassador for ABC. I made my KDP best sellers using it. Use my special affiliate code ‘`PODINSCOT‘. You should get a discount and it locks you in at that low rate for life too!

BookBolt – Regular readers of my blog know that I use and recommend BB. I especially love it for the keyword research. Choose from monthly or annual subscriptions. Start as a “newbie” or go for “pro”. Pro gets you the fabulous PuzzleWhiz so you can start creating activity books straight away! Go straight to the BookBolt pricing page here (My affiliate code ‘podinscot’ will get you 20% recurring price for life. Instead 9.99 it will be 7.99 or 19.99 becomes 15.99)

Fourthwall – Launch a FREE ecommerce website with FW. (Read my FW post to learn more)

Kittl – asks us to “join the design revolution”. It makes it easy with an awesome array of glorious, super professional ready-made templates. Check out this Kittl blog and this Kittl vs Canva blog and the Kittl pricing page here. Use ‘KITTLAFFILIATE‘ for an extended 30 day trail (at the moment but subject to change).

Merch Informer – Check out Merch Informer for all your print on demand research and merch creation (or head straight to the Merch Informer pricing page) My affiliate code ‘PODINSCOT‘ will get you 20% recurring price for life. Instead of $9.99 newbie it will be $7.99 or $59.99 becomes $47.99)

Placeit.net – PlaceIt, by Envato is one of my fave places to nip to make a quick t-shirt. I sometimes will do the odd video or mockup but mostly it’s my Tee-Place as it were…

Printful – Custom printed & embroidered products Order custom products for yourself or sell them online under your own brand.

Publisher Rocket – This is a must have if you want to source the best keywords for your books and ebooks.It’s got other awesome features – like a ‘Competition Analyzer”, category search and tutorials too. It’s a one-off $97 bucks which made it a no brainer for me (Note: you have to VAT on top if you’re in the UK.

Websites, Blogging, & Shopping Tools with graphics

Websites, Blogging & Shopping Tools

Here are a few of my fave tools for better blogging.

Answer the Public is an amazing tool to find keywords to help you discover relevant words to use in your blog posts.

FatJoe Blog Title Generator – this is a fun one I love sharing in my blogging webinars (non affiliate).

IsItWP – This headline analyzer is super cool and free. Go plug in your next blog post and see how it scores you!

Namecheap – Grab your new domain name here. Good prices for domains!

SEO blog title generator – another fun one I love sharing in my blogging webinars (non affiliate).

Thrivecart – If you need a quick, not too pricy shopping cart solution why not try Thrivecart?

Awesome Creative Resources

Creative Resources

Biodiversity Library – Head over to the Biodiversity Library’s FLICKR stream and you’ll find thousands of FREE images that you can use that are in the public domain. Do be careful there it’s super easy to get lost amongst all the collections of vintage-y imagery. You have been warned.

Creative Fabrica this is an amazing site to get your fonts, graphics, patterns, backgrounds and more – for FREE. They also have loads of paid elements and regular discounts. I seem to be buying something from them every week. Worth a look for sure.

Creative Market is another site I am regularly on. Both these Creative sites have amazingly enticing email lists that keep bringing me back again and again. As above this site is filled with graphics, fonts, templates, photos and more. A must. If you’re a creator, why not sign up for a CM Shop….

Deeezy.com – Grab a wide array of vectors, fonts, lettering, mockups, photos, textures and more.

Designrr – Create ebooks fast with this awesome and inexpensive software. A lifetime basic package $27.00 makes it a no brainer. See their blog post ‘How to Write an Ebook in 7 Steps’.

Design Bundles – Oh wow is this an addictive website for fonts and graphics – especially their bundles. I can’t help but grab their freebies or buy bundles almost weekly. Here’s info on an unlimited Design Bundles plus account (See sister site fontbundles below)

Flat Icon – Download free icons and stickers for your projects. Resources made by and for designers. PNG, SVG, EPS, PSD and BASE 64 formats.

Freepik – great for icons, graphics, now AI image and video generation too.

Gratisography – Awesome stock photo site that my buddy Roger Coles, Canva dude extraordinaire tipped me to.

Httpster: For any web designers needing inspa around website creation you might enjoy looking at other creator’s works.

Iconscout – New to me, thanks to another Canva CCC mentioning this one, I had a look and found it has such an amazing array of icons, 3D designs and illustrations. Not an affiliate link, just a cool site.

Icons8 – Another free resource for icons, illustrations, photos, music, and design tools.

Open Clip Art – Free resource. Open Clipart is an online media collection of more than 160 000 vectorial graphics, entirely in the public domain (even for unlimited commercial use).

Thea's music, photos and videos - royalty free goodness with woman in headphones

Pexels and Pixabay – I recommend both of these for FREE photos/videos/graphics etc (not affiliate links)

Template.net – This is an interesting “Beautifully designed, easily editable templates to get your work done faster & smarter. Simply browse, search, save and download easy to use templates”.

Unsplash – Beautiful FREE images (A free resource so a non-affiliate link)

Uppbeat.io – This is an amazing site that gives you 10 FREE tracks a month to download and use in your projects. As there were some Pro songs I wanted, I went ahead and upgraded for a year. (I use it for most of my videos over on my personal creations found on my Youtube Channel.)

 

Free Font Sources

Font Bundles  – This is the sister site to the Design Bundles above – oh so much good stuff.

Google Fonts – A place to download free commercial use fonts

1001 Free Fonts – Free Commercial Use Fonts

What the font? – From ‘My Fonts’, I love this for finding the name of a font or similar font.

Fontshare – Just discovered this one and it looks awesome. Free to use for personal and commercial too!

Thea Newcomb's recommend AI tools and AgentsAI Tools I Love

Agent AI – The Professional Network for AI Agents.

ChatGPT – My go-to for most daily tasks. I signed up for Pro and it’s fabulous.

Gamma App – Gamma is your free-to-use AI design partner for creating effortless presentations, websites, and more. No coding or design skills required.

Leonardo AI – Now owned by Canva but runs separately too. Having used it since the Spring of 2023, I highly recommend this one! Head to their Learn page here.

Loveart.Ai – An interesting AI art creation site. Waitlist. Took me a week to get access.

Loveable AI – Create apps and websites by chatting with AI. Public.

Napkin.AI – This is a fun one to create content and graphics.

More Useful Links (Misc)

  • For Etsy keyword research you should try Alura.
  • NEW: Earn Rewards with Microsoft Rewards
    Another keyword research tool, Mangools
  • Earn cash back on your online sales via Quidco.
  • Save money with Top Cashback.
  • Try Lebara for cheap mobhttps://rewards.bing.com/welcome?rh=1F6F333&ref=rafsrchae&form=ML2XE3&OCID=ML2XE3&PUBL=RewardsDO&CREA=ML2XE3ile sims! I use them and my phone bill is £6.90 a month!
  • Free-Mockups – Another nice site which claims to have the “biggest source of Free photorealistic Mockups online!”
  • Need to send or accept money in different currenices? Try Transferwise/Wise now.
  • PayPal is a site you either love or loathe, but it is one I use every week. Give Paypal.
  • Get Wise – to send and receive money in different currencies
  • Start your own Shopify Store today.
  • Want to Build your Email List? Me too! Grab this Freebie from Emily Wilcox here.

Try Shopify for FREE now
Summary & My Details

If you have any recommendations for platforms, tools or resources that I should add to this links page, then please let me know. Below find my many profiles and sites, if you’re interested in connecting.

My Socials Etc