Make Cute Vintage Frames for Pictures on your Sidebar, using Photoshop!

I love this technique, because it is so cute, and sooo easy :)   First off, I picked up a FREE vintage frame Clip Art from The Graphics Fairy.  Her site is FABULOUS!

It's Photoshop Week!

My husband found this video a few weeks ago, and I knew that I had to share it for Photoshop Week!  It is hilarious! 

Warning:  There is some swearing, I don't want to offend anyone :)

How to Get a Cute Non-Web Font for your Blog.

Part 1: Get Set up

DIY Custom Blog Design Part 1: Getting Started

I am so excited to do this tutorial, it is something that I have thought about for a long time. I wanted to put together a completely custom blog design and show everyone that is ambitious enough how to do it themselves.

So there are TONS of ways to approach a custom blog design, so I just decided to pick one direction and go with it. I am going to take a digital scrapbooking kit and make a custom blog design from that.

Here is a quick list of places that I found to get free digital scrapbooking kits (NOTE: Make sure to check the owner's Terms of Use, many are NOT for Commercial Use, only Personal):

http://makincuteblogs.blogspot.com/2010/09/freebie-sweet-n-summer-mini-digital.html *This one is MY design :)

http://shabbyprincess.com/downloads.asp

http://mdkscraps.blogspot.com/search/label/Freebie

http://scrapsbythebrush.blogspot.com/search/label/freebies

http://sasluvscrap.blogspot.com/

http://www.digitaldivasdesigns.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=6

http://www.kevinandamanda.com/whatsnew/category/freebies

http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/shop/kit-price-free/digital-kits/?pp=150

http://www.computerscrapbook.com/free-digital-scrapbooking.html

I chose to go with one of my favorite bloggers' kits, "The Fall Collection" at kevinandamanda.com! Check her out, because she has FREE fonts as well, and they are super cute!

So the first thing that we need to do to get started is to set up a photobucket account. Go to Photobucket.com and set up the FREE account. Once that is set up, you need to make sure to click on "(more options)" see below, and select "1 megabyte file size"

Back in blogger, the very FIRST thing you need to do is to back up your template, to do that, go to "Edit HTML" and click on "Download Full Template". Take that file and make sure you know where it is so that if you need to go back you can.

We need to change our template to Minima, it is an older template, so you will need to go to your "Edit HTML" page, and click on "Select Layout Template", then you will see it :) When you click on "Save Template", it may or may not ask you if you wish to keep your widgets, if it does, keep them, unless you want to loose everything on your sidebars.

Move on to Custom Blog Design Part 2: Background

Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools is a MUST have if you are trying to understand and improve your search ability on the web.  It allows you to explore and see what Google sees when it crawls your site.  You can sign up for a free account here:  https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

The first thing you need to do is to add your site or blog, you will see this on the homepage after you login.

New! Custom Blog Designer Directory

I just added today a Custom Blog Designer Directory!  I know that not everyone is on there, actually not even close!  I just don't have time at the moment to hunt you all down :)  So please email me with a link to your button if you are not listed.  Right now, I am only accepting buttons.  Oh, and I am ONLY listing Custom Blog Designers, so please no other websites.

http://makincuteblogs.blogspot.com/p/custom-blog-designer-directory.html

Thanks!!

PS.  I would really appreciate if you would return the favor and grab either one of my buttons on my sidebar, but it is not required if you really don't want to :)

Adobe Kuler

I have to kick off color week with Adobe Kuler!  It is amazing, if you have never used it, or another program like it, you are in for a treat.

If you are anything like me, I get stuck on color, for some reason I gravitate back to the same color schemes over and over.  It is not like I mean to either, I think it is just that I know what I like and not meaning to I go back to the same schemes to often (for me it is Brown, Turquoise, and Pink...).  I don't think that all of my clients like want the same colors, so when I get stuck, Adobe Kuler is the best!  It really helps me explore lots of color options with out overdoing the default swatches in Illustrator and Photoshop.

Adobe Kuler is free and super easy, sign up for an account and just play around with it.  I chose one color as my base color (#FF6B7D, the color shown in the center of each scheme), and look at all the fun color schemes that I was able to come up with.  Below each color scheme is the description of the color scheme(the definitions are from Wikipedia).

Today's Featured Font Website: Sugar Frog Fonts

I love handwriting fonts, so naturally, I would have another handwriting font site to share!  Ellie and Ivy are the 2 that are behind "Sugar Frog Font", so give them some comment love and for all their hard work and making these fonts available to use for free.  They do offer them free for Commercial use, as long as you give them credit, but just check out their Terms of Use on the top of their website, and have fun using these fonts in your Custom Blog Designs!

Today's Featured Font Website: KevinandAmanda.com "Fonts for Peas"

I am really excited about today's font website, I love Amanda's fonts.  She offers free handwriting fonts and Scrapbooking fonts.  Check out the links below.





So I took a long shot and emailed Amanda, because I wanted to ask her a few questions about her fonts and how she got into making fonts.  I was so thrilled when she got back to me and answered my questions, so I hope you enjoy my mini interview with Amanda that is a mix of answers she gave me and some from her website.

6 Typography Freebies

Here are just a few freebies that I found, and thought that I would share for Typography week.  All freebies are available for Commercial Use, but like always, please check the designer's Terms of Use.  Enjoy!

1.  "Alice in Wonderland Drop Cap" from Lucky Palm

2.  "Free Victorian Graphic - Early Alphabet - Typography" from The Graphics Fairy

Todays Featured Font Website: Typodermic Fonts

I found Ray Larabie's website only last week, and I was amazed!  He is sooo talented.  He offers free fonts, and fonts that are available for purchase.  I am a sucker for free, but don't over look the stuff that he sells, it is quite affordable.

http://www.typodermic.com/index.html

Here is a link to his collection of Free fonts at MyFonts.com:

http://new.myfonts.com/foundry/Larabie/

Today's Featured Font Website: Miss Tiina Fonts

Miss Tiina's website was a fairly new find for me, but a very pleasant find!  I have already featured her once for one of her digital freebies.  She offers free fonts that are ohhh so cute!  Please check her site out, I know you will love it! 

http://misstiina.com/fonts/

These are some of my favorite fonts from Miss Tiina:

Today's Featured Font Website: Font Squirrel

I LOVE font squirrel, it only showcases fonts that are 100% Free for Commercial Use.  It is a nice clean simple website too, so easy to get around and use.

Here are just a few of my favorite fonts that I have downloaded from Font Squirrel:

Doodle Love! Free for Commercial Use Links.

I just can't get enough of doodles.  Super fun way to theme a custom blog design while keeping it simple.  Here are a few freebies that I found for your designs.  *Make sure to check the designer's Terms of Use, commercial use licenses vary.

Free Stock Photography

 

http://www.morguefile.com/

 http://www.sxc.hu/

I really love these sites, they have great and not so great stock photography, but the best thing about them, is that they are FREE for commercial use.  They are my favorites, but here are a few more: