gorgeous (and free!) e-gifts

When Ben and I first started going out, it was early December. I didn’t have a clue what to get him; we really didn’t know each other that well.

As it turns out, we both knew each other a little bit better than we thought. Come Christmas Day, a Dropbox link landed in each of our inboxes. I’d gotten him some David Du Chemin e-books, and he’d gotten me an e-book on shooting video on SLRs (I’d just gotten my 5D MKII) and an insanely sweet video he’d shot on his own MKII.

So while downloadable PDFs may not seem like the most thoughtful gift at first, they hold a special place in my heart.

After the jump you’ll find some  incredible freebies available to download online right now. I’ve been blown away by the beautiful things the blogosphere has created and made available, totally for free. You could make a Dropbox folder of your faves and surprise someone with it on Christmas Day, or better yet, there’s still time to head to somewhere like Reads or Hackett’s and get a couple of these printed out on cardstock.

Oh Joy’s Roald Dahl quotes placemats

I adored Roald Dahl’s books as a kid, and devoured them quicker than the BFG ate snozzcumbers. So I let out a little squee when I saw the gorgeous placemats (which would work just as well as framed prints) that Joy has created. Head here to download them.

Susannah Conway’s 2013 Unravelling Workbook

I’ve taken two of Susannah’s e-courses and loved them both. She has a knack for getting to the root of things, for helping you to see yourself in a new light, and for not feeling ridiculous while doing it. I can’t wait to get stuck into this. Download it here.

2013 moodboard calendar from Designlovefest

As Bri says in her post, we have different moods for different months. I love that this calendar encourages you to get out the scissors and pritt stick and create a mini mood board every month. Get it here.

A picture of the stars from the Hubble telescope

Okay, so it’s not technically a blog, but as Jordan at Oh Happy Day points out in this great post, anything collected by the Hubble telescope is available freely for whatever use you want. Browse and download the incredible (hi-res) images here.

 Iron-on quote from How About Orange

The cool font and cute message are a winning combo, and I love the idea of printing it out and ironing it on to a plain tote, as I’ve got tons of them lying around (Jessica has a flipped mirror image available for download, so it will read correctly once it’s ironed on). Nab it here.

Monogrammed Stationery from The House That Lars Built

A pack of these, with colour-cordinating envelopes, would make a very sweet gift. Just head to Brittany’s post, download the file containing all 26 letters and print out the one you want.

And that’s it. Happy gifting! Have you spotted any other gorgeous freebies doing the rounds?