Over the weekend I had a burst of creative energy and came up with (and finalized) some new designed for my premade design shop.
Have a looksee…
Click the images above to be taking to the premade blog design page (or go here!)
And? All themes now come with a coordinating 125x125px badge!
Enjoy!
Hello from year-round-school land. Yes that’s right…mere weeks after the rest of the country started school, we began our first break. A three week break at that. There are no big trips planned; we’re saving that for Christmas. Nonetheless, you may not see me posting much over the next couple of weeks. We’ll be busy swimming, watching Netflix movies and other such frivolity.
But I did want to let you know about my new baby. This one doesn’t cry or spit up…I had three of those already. This one has been gestating for about 5 years. Here’s a little background…
I began sending “virtual” Christmas cards about 9 years ago. By virtual, I mean I would create the graphics, write some html code and email the link to all our family and friends on the Christmas list. Sometimes it would be similar to a slide show, sometimes it would have music. It was fun and easy and pretty unique.
Each year I would always get asked, “Where did you get that done??” So I started to think of a simple way to make it available for other people.
After a lot of time and thought and prototypes, the Holiday Blog Card was born. Powered by Blogger, the Holiday Blog Card lets you send a customized design with as much information as you want to everyone on your holiday list…and then some. Because its basically a blog, you can share the link on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, anywhere. And if you wanted to send it in conjunction with a traditional card or letter, you can include the link in your card and have people visit for an even more extended yearly update on your family.
So you probably have some questions…well I have some answers.
What do I get with the Holiday Blog Card?
You will end up with a fully functional (and editable) Blogger blog that doubles as your Christmas/holiday card. It includes the design of your choice (4 designs available) with the homepage featuring your family picture and a short greeting. Then you can choose to have up to 6 inner pages…perhaps one for each member of the family, with space for one photo and text following.
Can I see a demo?
Sure! Check this out…
What are the benefits of using the Holiday Blog Card? A few are…
What’s the cost?
From now until November 5th, the introductory cost is $55! (the cost of less than 2 boxes of Christmas/holiday cards)
Interested? Then check out the site for the 2010 designs and for all the details. Its not too early to start planning for the holidays. If your house is like mine, it will be here faster than you can say “Holidays? They’re here already??”
First of all, what is a favicon, you ask? Its that cute little icon in your address bar or bookmarks that sets your blog apart from everyone else’s. Its a little sneak peak into your blog.
Who wants this
when you can have this?
I wrote a whole post on favicons way back when, but today I’m going to show you how to actually make one using Photoshop Elements…
Stay tuned in the coming weeks for tutorials on how to add your lovely favicon to your blog (or, check out my previous post on a text tutorial)!
A collection of blogs and sites I consider to have savory designs…
Client: Libby
Blog: lwassociate.com
Scope of Project: Blog (acting as website) Design
Focus of Blog: Art Licensing
Platform: Typepad
Update: Design retainer spots are all full…but if you need design help, feel free to contact me anyway!
(…what is a Blog Design Retainer, you say? Oh, simple. Its a new service I provide that takes care of the yucky bloggy stuff like plugins and html and backups so you can focus on the blogging.)
Well, guess what? You’re in luck. In an effort to better serve my clients, I’v decided to offer blog design retainer services. This way, I can offer very individualized services for each blogger. If you’re unfamiliar with how retainers work, its a fee paid up front on a regular, predetermined basis for certain services. Here’s what my retainer service looks like:
This is a great option for:
Now here’s the catch. I can only take on so many retainer clients and I currently have 5 spots available. 5 spots, people! So speak up…if you want to consider this service, contact me!
Now off to the orthodontist…to pay for that other kind of retainer.
I make a lot of blog buttons (or badges). A. Lot. I think its a blog prerequisite to have one. Just kidding. But it is a nice companion to your blog.
What exactly is a button, a new blogger may ask? Well, its a small square image, usually 125×125 pixels, that coordinates with your blog design, that represents your blog. It can have your blog name, an image and even a short blurb…just giving a snapshot. You can add it on your blog, along with the code for people to copy and paste onto their blog. And if you’d like to know how to add that code, here’s how.
So today I’m going to show you how to create a very simple but classy button using Photoshop Elements. Its quite simply really. Here are a few videos (about 12 minutes in all) to get you started…
One thing I forgot to say in the video is after you are done with your button, you’ll want to save it as a .jpg, by going to File>Save For Web. That will put it in the format you need for web use.
Hope that was helpful! If you create a button using this tutorial, I’d love to see it!
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