Jul 162008
Jun 182008
Jun 042008
May 152008
Apr 272008
Apr 112008
Mar 242008
My blog, that is. As cute as those little Easter Bunnies were, time to move on!
I wish I were going somewhere tropical next week for my spring break, but I waited too long and everything is either sold out, or way too much $$$. Next year for sure!
**This photo is in Bora Bora, from Index Stock.
I also created this new banner for Michelle‘s blog.
I am feeling in the creative mood, so if you’d like for me to do one of these bad-boys up for your blog, let me know….I charge $12 for a custom design :)
Mar 152008
Feb 172008
Feb 082008
I designed two Valentine banners today, neither came out how I envisioned them :(
Banners are just not as pretty without a photo, IMO. Good thing Valentine’s Day is only a week away and then I can get rid of this new one! LOL
First attempt:
The one I decided to go with:
ETA: I decided to change the background back to black and keep the white banner. I like this combo much, much better!
A few weeks ago Greta did a banner giveaway on her blog and paid me to design a banner for the winner. The girl who won told me she loved "pinup girls". Here is the banner I designed for her….(Greta and I both LOVED it!)
Jan 282008
Don’t ask me why I am always drawn to purple!? I realize now I should’ve gone with a different color. I will probably be sick of this new banner within the week!
I decided to go with a white background for the first time in a LONG time. I prefer the dark backgrounds but I always feel slightly guilty because my friend Lori tells me it is harder for her to read off a dark background!
Here is what it would’ve looked like had I gone with more purple.
I am anxious to hear from Greta who won her RAK/banner giveaway!
Jan 142008
Greta commissioned me MONTHS ago to make a new banner for her, but with grad school and the new job and everything, I just never had the time until this weekend. The one she has had up for the past year is one I made for her last January during one of my frequent banner giveaways. This time she wanted something "edgy and funky"….hope this meets her satisfaction! I think it is totally Greta..don’t you agree for those of you who know her???!! She tells me to just "come up with something". As much as I love creating banners, the pressure is much greater when I actually get paid to create these babies!! LOL. **For those of you who are interested, I do create banners for a pretty fair price. Just contact me and we can work something out.**
I downloaded about 100 new fonts this weekend at Urbanfonts.com. They have some really cool fonts! I also found some cool new brushes on another site ( including the skulls you see in Greta’s banner). Fun stuff. The internet has so much out there to download for free, I love it!!
Hope everyone had a great weekend!
Designing blog banners is something I enjoy doing (obviously you have noticed this!!) Its fun and helps to keep me interested in my own blog and hopefully keeps you interested too ;) I don’t know anyone besides Nicole who changes theirs up as much as I do!
Here is the latest creation. I am really into these bright colors right now!
I have had several people comment on my banners and ask how I create them, so I thought I’d do a run down of the steps:
Step 1. Think of a theme I would like to use. Looking at my past blog banners, you can see that I tend to stick toward scenic, floral, cultural, seasonal, etc
Step 2. Find the perfect photo (s). I use my own photos but also search Google and Flickr to look for the right photo if I don’t already have one. Most of them are free for you to use, but some are copyrighted. I have contacted photographers in the past and asked permission to use their photo to make a banner for my personal blog and its never been a problem. These photos almost always become the primary focus of each banner.
Step 3. Search Google for Photoshop brushes that relate to the theme
I am using. (In today’s case, tropical fish). For the many of you who might not know what a "brush" is, it is like a digital stamp in which you can manipulate the size, color and opacity. Brushes are available for either Photoshop or Paintshop Pro and they are totally slick! There are so many great sites with brushes, but it really depends on what you’re looking for. I tend to be specific with my searches and have downloaded free brushes from at least 50 different sites (or so it seems!). Most of them give you permission to use whatever brushes you want.
Step 4. I use either ArcSoft Collage Creator or Photoshop to place my photo onto a solid background. I find it so much easier to use Arcsoft to manipulate size and place photos than Photoshop, so thats what I personally tend to use. I save the collage as a jpg file and then open it in Photoshop.
Step 5. Using Photoshop, I pick out the colors from the photo that I want to emphasize in the banner and put a border around the banner. **When using the color picker tool in PS, it tells you a 6letter/digit color code for each custom color. I write these down and label the colors. Its important to have the codes so that the colors match up when I change the blog template later in the process.
Step 6. Create a new layer for the title of the banner. This takes longer than you might think because I search through all my fonts and play around before I choose the right one. I think I need to start downloading more fonts soon….mine are all played out! *Please share new favorite fonts if you have any!*
Step 7. Go to Preset manager in Photoshop and load new brushes.
Step 8. Create a new layer in PS for the brushes. Choose colors, look through brushes and start playing until I am totally satisfied with how the banner looks. SAVE!
Step 9. Resize the banner to 870 pixels wide.
Step 10. Upload new banner and change the color scheme, using the color codes that I wrote down in step 5.
And there ya have it!
Jan 012008
Happy New Year!
I hope everyone had a fun night (or at least a safe one).
I know I had a great night!
I had to make a new banner to celebrate the new year….
(The other languages besides English are Spanish, French and Japanese, all saying Happy New Year.) The Crystal Ball is from Times Square…
Cheers to a great upcoming year!
Dec 062007
Time for a holiday banner! I saw these adorable cherub decorations on campus last night… One nice thing about attending a Catholic University….they allow you to celebrate Christmas!!
I am bound and determined to make today a better day (although it is snowing AGAIN).
The past few years have almost made me forget what winters are really like in MN!!! (Yes, Greta and Adrienne, you southern gals will have to wait until a different season to come visit me! LOL)
Thoughts for Thursday coming later :)
Nov 022007
Thank goodness Halloween is OVER, I was completely sick of the banner! What else is new!? LOL….Thats why I change my banner and scheme 2-3 times per month!
I am a huge fan of the native culture and I have been thinking a lot about it lately (I am currently teaching an Ojibwe culture class), so my new banner is native-inspired. I love red & turquoise together!
Thanks to everyone for their comments on my TFT post yesterday :) So many people had such positive things to say about blogging, I thought it was great that you shared why blogging can be so special.
When I told you I have a list of topics that I plan to use for future TFT, I wasn’t kidding! I have enough material for at least the next 4 months, so please make sure to check back and be prepared to share your thoughts with me :)
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I want to also give shout-out to birthday girls Adrienne and Kelli who have just joined the Dirty 30 club :) Also happy birthday to Trina and my good friend Jenny!
Have a fabulous weekend
Oct 152007
Sep 152007
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