to answer a few questions:

Thanks to everyone that voted on the blog redesign yesterday. I'll make my decision and get everything changed to the new blog design later this week. I think I'm deciding between two at this point.

Many of you asked how I make these designs. I use Photoshop Elements (any photo-editing software would work) and I read a lot. I wanted a 3-column template and played around with adjusting one of the templates available through Blogegr before I decided to just find a template online that I liked and make the changes I wanted to it.

I found a free 3-column template and changed it a lot! LOL. I haven't been trained in html, but I used a lot of trial and error (and the preview button) until I got things looking the way I wanted. The Blogger Help is a great resource. There are several other great resources available online that I have bookmarked at home (I'm blogging from work). If anyone is interested, let me know and I'll post the links. I found the things I learned about html pretty fascinating and I may consider taking a class or two to learn a lot and creating even better blogs/webpages one day.

Back to Photoshop... I download a lot of digital scrapbooking freebies. I think I've only ever paid for a handful of things. There are numerous resources available online for this as well. I check here quite often and snag the things I know I'll use. I did take one digital scrapbooking class online that I honestly thought was a joke. The teacher was really good at doing things herself, but couldn't teach to save her life. I just started playing on my own and learned what I know in Photoshop that way. There are lots of awesome free tutorials online as well that I DID learn from. There are also classes you can pay to take that I've heard awesomething things about.

Scrappinfor5 and Woodlandbliss, I'd be happy to help you. Keep in mind I'm not a professional. LOL. Sandra Collins and Lemon Cupcakes, I'd be happy to answer any questions you have as you learn. I'll get the links to the resources I used if you want them. I'll try to answer any questions you have as well. Again, just a hobbyist trying to make my own blog look good, but I'd be happy to try.

rough drafts:

Ok, I finally got the rough drafts of the blog makeover options done this weekend. You could really help me out by voting on your favorite. If you have any thoughts, you can leave a comment too. Suggestions too, if you have some. (click to enlarge)




These really are just rough drafts - they won't really have two "profiles," for example. Oh, and I thought up another blog idea last night that I may create at some point this week. Yeah, I may like playing in Photoshop a bit... LOL