How to Create a Seamless Border around your Blogger Blog Layout & have a transparent background behind your Header

This tutorial was requested. If you would like to request a tutorial, visit our “Make a Request” page.

In this tutorial, I am going to show you how to take a standard blog layout (with the white section all the way down the middle, and replace it with a Header that has a transparent background, a post section and a footer section.  This way, you have a border all the way around your posting area, from the header to the footer (Like seen below).  Click here to learn how to make these elements using Pixlr.com OR Purchase a Set in my Shop for less than $5!

Blogger Blog Layout with a Transparent Background behind the Header and a Border all the way around the Header, Post Section, and Footer.

 

Step #1

The first thing that you need to do, is to change your template to the White Simple Theme.

Template, Simple Theme, White

 

Step #2

Next, you need to add your chosen background.  I am adding this Chevron Background from my shop.  If you need detailed instructions on how to add a seamless pattern background to your blog, check out my tutorial here.

Upload Seamless Pattern Backgroun

 

Step #3

Upload your Header.

Upload your Header in Blogger. Click on Layout and Edit.

Header Added in Blogger(Don’t worry if your header is cut off, or not centered like my example above… we will fix that later)

 

Step#4

We are going to move our header above our “content-inner” and we will also move our Footer below our “content-inner”.  This is how we do that.  Go to your Template and Edit HTML.

Template and Edit HTML

Then you are going to scroll way down until you see <header> and you are going to select from <header> all the way down to </header>.  Then you are going to Cut (right click > CUT) all of that text…

Cut Header Code

…and Paste it directly under <div class=’content-outer’>.

Paste Header Code

 

Next, we also need to move the Footer Code.  I you scroll down some more, you will see <footer>.  You need to select from <footer> all the way down until </footer> and Cut it (right-click Cut).

Cut Footer Code

Then you need to Paste it (right-click Paste) right below the first </div> after <!– content –> (like seen below).

Paster Footer Code

 

Now your blog should look something like this:

Screenshot of Blog Thus Far

 

Step #5

Now we need fix the sizing and add your images.  So head over to your Template Designer, under Template and Customize.

Select Template and Customize

Click on Advanced and Add CSS.

Advanced and Add CSS

There you will add this Code:

.header {
width: 1000px;
}
.content-inner {
background: url('POSTING BACKGROUND IMAGE URL HERE');
background-color:transparent;
padding-bottom:10px;
padding-left:40px;
padding-right:40px;
padding-top:10px;
width: 920px;
}
.footer-inner {
background: url('POSTING BACKGROUND IMAGE URL HERE');
background-position: bottom;
width: 1000px;
}
.footer-outer {
background: url('FOOTER IMAGE URL HERE');
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: 2px bottom;
border: 0px;
padding-bottom:59px;
width: 1000px;
}

Then you will need to customize the code to suit your blog. If your header is 1000px wide, then all the number values are correct, if not, then use the info below to set yours up right. **If you need to know how to host your images, or find your “Direct Link – Image URL”, I have a tutorial here.

Code Description

Phew! Did you get through that :) That is it, now you should have a lovely seamless blog design!

Blogger Blog Layout with a Transparent Background behind the Header and a Border all the way around the Header, Post Section, and Footer.

How to Use Adobe Illustrator to Change the Colors and Alter an EPS Illustration

Part 1: Change Colors and Gradients

Part 2: Alter your Illustration

Using Firebug to Troubleshoot CSS and HTML on your Blog

I think that one of the biggest complaints that I get with the new Template Designer templates, is that when you go into your Edit HTML page, it really isn’t all that clear what is going on. The old Minima template was pretty straight forward, and easy to troubleshoot. In this tutorial, I will show you how to use Firebug, an AWESOME browser add-on that makes it so easy to navigate the new templates. Hope you enjoy it :)

Unable to display content. Adobe Flash is required.

Adobe Illustrator Tip: Easy way to find a Complementary Color

When I am designing, sometimes I have a hard time thinking outside of the box when it comes to color… It is easy to pick a color, but it gets harder to build on to that with complementing colors.  I wanted to post this tip, because it is a super easy way to come up with a color scheme with little effort. Step 1: Select the object that you want to change colors.Step 2: Select Your Eyedropper ToolStep 3: Withe the eyedropper tool, click on the color that you want to complement.Step 4: Click on the Menu Bar, on your "color" palette, and click on "invert".Now you will see the color that it picked.Step 5: Now if you don't like that color, or if you want to try another one, go back to your original color and do the same thing, except, select "complement" instead.Now you will see the color that it picked for the complement.I liked this color for my background :)

Using MAMP to design and test WordPress Themes without having to use a Hosting Service.

I wanted to start out WordPress week with a tutorial on how to set up a local server on your computer so that you can test out WordPress without having to spend any $$$ (I am sooo cheap :) on hosting, before you know if you like it or not. 

Not only is MAMP fantastic for not spending money to test out WordPress, it is awesome if you are a designer and you want to work on designs without having make a “UNDER CONSTRUCTION” page or if you want to just test some things out.

First off, MAMP is for Mac ONLY, so if you use Windows, I am not a ton of help (I don’t even own a PC…).  So if you have Windows, I found a tutorial HERE, that is similar to MAMP.  If you are a MACaholic like me :)  I will show you how do set everything up right here.


Step 1: Download WordPress

Go HERE to download WordPress, and click on the Download Link.

Now you need to unzip the file you just downloaded and rename the “wordpress” folder to what ever you want to name it (don’t use spaces, so just do a one word name, or use _ s in it).

Step 2: Download MAMP
Here is the Link to the FREE MAMP Download.

After you have Downloaded and Installed MAMP, you need to take the WordPress folder that you have renamed, and move it into your MAMP htdocs folder shown below. (you can see that I have a few different sites in there that I am able to work on simultaneously!)



Step 3: Check your MAMP Preferences
Open your MAMP application (when you start it up, it will open a web page, that you need to leave open).   When you open MAMP, you need to click on Preferences, then Apache.  Your document root needs to say this:  /Applications/MAMP/htdocs    (if it doesn’t already, change it)  **if you want to save your websites in a different location, this needs to be changed to the location that you have your websites.



Step 4: Check that MAMP is running correctly
To make sure that MAMP is running properly, first, make sure that the Green lights are on.  If they are red, click Start Servers.  If it is working, it should look like this:

Now you need to go to:  http://localhost:8888/   if you see your folder(s), then you are good up to this point!



Step 4: Setting Up Your WordPress Site
Now you need to go back to the webpage that I told you not to close earlier, if you did close it, or it didn’t come up it is:  http://localhost:8888/MAMP  (MAMP must be capitalized)

Next you need to click on phpMyAdmin at the top of the page.

Now create a new database, and name it the SAME thing that you named your folder earlier.

Now go back to your Folder on your computer and find the file that is called wp-config-sample.php

and rename it to wp-config.php

Now OPEN that file in Text Edit, and find this section.

Now, change ‘database_name_here’ to the folder name you have used (mine is Site_to_Test), then change ‘username_here‘ and ‘password_here‘ to ‘root‘   This is how it should look now:

Now SAVE your file, and go to http://localhost:8888/FOLDER-NAME-HERE  (change FOLDER-NAME-HERE to what you have named your folder), and you should see this!

Fill in the form, and Install.  Now when ever you want to work on your WordPress site, make sure that MAMP is running, and go here: http://localhost:8888/FOLDER-NAME-HERE/wp-login.php  to login.

**Note: MAMP is only a LOCAL server, so no one else can access your site on the net, you must purchase hosting in order to have your website up on the net, this is only good working on the design and testing.