No Software

The DIY Blog Design Course is Now available in our shop!

November 14, 2011 4 Comments

Want to save time and learn the skills to design your own blog?!?! DIY Blog Design is so easy, and in this course, I will walk you through the entire process, from coming up with ideas, to designing all of your elements (using a free online program), to installing your design on you blog. It is fun, and can save you so much money (Custom Blog Design can get pricey). CLICK HERE to purchase the course.

What are people already saying about the course?

“I really enjoyed the class it was awesome! Really liked your style of teaching. Things that before had seemed difficult to do, seemed a lot simpler after you had showed us how to do them. I would recommend this class to anyone that wants to learn Blogger Designing.”
“I took Carolynn’s Blog class and have to say that it is amazing!! I have had a blog since 2007 and if I ever wanted to change/edit it, I had to search online and spend hours trying to figure out how to remove/add HTML codes. Carolynn gives you the tools to easily change/edit your blog quickly and easily; plus she walks you through the entire process of designing to installing. I highly recommend this class if you would like to learn how to make your blog FABULOUS!! -Gretchen Clark (www.gretchenclarkblog.com). “
“Carolyn, I recieved my Blog Revamp Course!! I LOVE IT!!! I’m gonna be late for church and I’m blaming it all on you!!! LOL I can hardly wait to get back home so I can just take it all in!!! You are just a wealth of information.”

What is the DIY Blog Design and Revamp Course?

The course is designed to teach you EVERYTHING you need to Design your own Blogger blog, from Start to Finish!

What do I need for the Course?

Nothing! Well…. the internet, but that is it! We will be using pixlr.com a Free, no Download required, photo editor to design with.

What is included in the Course?

A 28 page Guide that walks you through the entire course and provides notes on the videos!
HTML & CSS Cheat Sheets
8 Videos, broken up by section for easy review (5.5 Hours)

Give me a Breakdown of the Course

Part 1: Inspriration - In this part of the course I talk about how I get the creative juices flowing.
Part 2: Finding Cute Stuff - I will show you where I go to find great stuff, and I also teach you about Terms of Use, so that you legally know what to buy or download.
Part 3: Pixlr.com - I will walk you through the ins and outs of Pixlr.com to prepare you for designing your blog. (No Download or Sign Up required)
Part 4: Back-Up & Hosting - In this portion of the course, we will cover Setting Up a Test Blog, Backing Up your Blog, Uploading a Template, and Hosting images in Blogger or Photobucket.
Part 5: Beginning HTML & CSS - I will help you begin to understand HTML & CSS to make blog design less scary :)
Part 6: Firebug & Troubleshooting - I give you the tools you need to install your design and troubleshoot along the way.
Blog Design Walkthroughs - I will walk you through 2 full blog designs from planning to design all the way to installing it!

Why Should I take the Course?

Save Money! Get a professional look for your blog with out the high cost of Custom Blog Design. Not only will you save money once, you will always be able to update the look of your blog for years to come.
Convenience! Once you have the hang of it, take full control over you blog design always. Want to change it up for the season? Now you don’t need to wait on your designer.
Just for Fun! No, really, it is fun. Designing your own blog doesn’t have to be frustrating, it is fun once you get the hang of it.

What is the Cost?

For the full month of November it will be on sale for $75.
After November, it will be the normal price of $99.

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE THE COURSE

Pin It

Filed Under: DIY, DIY Blog Design, Easy, Easy Tutorials, Layout, New Blogger Template Tutorials, No Software, pixlr, PNG Tagged With: blog design, Class, Course, custom, DIY, DIY Blog Design, Easy, Learn, revamp, Tutorial, Video

How to Design a Seamless Border Blog Header, Post Background Section and Footer using Pixlr.com

October 17, 2011 1 Comment

This 3 part Video Tutorial will show you how to Design a Blog Header, Post Section Background, and Footer that has a border all the way around. Then you can learn how to install it using this tutorial.

Click Here to Learn How to install it in Blogger.

Filed Under: DIY, Headers, No Software, pixlr, Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: Background, Blogger, design, DIY Blog Design, Footer, Header, How To, Install, Make, Pixlr, Pixlr.com, Post Section, Tutorial, Video

How to Add a Free Blog Background to your Blog using any of the Template Designer “Simple” Themes

July 26, 2011 2 Comments

I have noticed that there are a lot of people out there still using the Minima theme for their blog, simply because the free blog background codes don’t work well with the new Template Designer Themes. I will be working on tutorials for all the different themes. In this first tutorial, I will show you how to add a background to all 7 of the “Simple” Themes.

Step #1: Select the Simple Theme that you would like to use.

Step #2: Find a Free Blog Background that you like and copy the code (right click > Copy, or ctrl + C on your keyboard). I picked a background from Shabby Blogs.

Step #3: Go to your Blogger Dashboard and click on “Add a Gadget” (it doesn’t matter where, I just usually pick one of the bottom ones).

Step #4: Select the “HTML/JavaScript” Gadget.

Step #5: Paste (right click > Paste or ctrl V on your keyboard) the free background code in the text area and click on Save.

This is what it will look like now:

Step#6: Go to your Template Designer and click on the Advanced tab, and then the Backgrounds tab. No change your Outer Background, Main Background, and Header Background to Transparent.

Step #7: Go to your Adjust Widths tab, and change the width size to fit within your new blog background.

If you are using the Blue, Orange, Grey, or White version of the Simple Template, then you are finished here, if you are using the other versions (that use images), continue on to the next steps.

If you are using one of the other themes, you blog might look something like this.

Step #8: Go to your Background Tab and click on “Remove image“

You can either stop at this point, or if you still have a header image, like below, then move on to the next step.

To get rid of that gradient image, add this code to your Advanced > Add CSS :

Finally, if you have a line going through the width of the page, underneath the Header/Menu Bar (the green Simple template does that). Then go to the Advanced Tab, and Accents, and change the “Separator Line Color” to Transparent.

There you have it, you can use any of the simple themes with a Free Blog Background!

Filed Under: 2 Column Template, 3 Column Template, Background, Blog Tips, Custom Blog Design, Custom Blog Design Tutorial, DIY, Easy, Easy Tutorials, Featured, Free Blog Background, Guide, Headers, Layout, Minima, New Blogger Questions, New Blogger Template Tutorials, No Software, Templates, Tutorials, Uncategorized Tagged With: 2010 Template Designer, Add HTML, Code, Free Blog Background, Shabby Blogs, Template Designer

How to Add Text to a Blank Header

June 30, 2011 1 Comment

In this tutorial, I am going to use, Sumo Paint a FREE Online Photo Editor (no download or registration required). You could also use Pixlr (a very similar editor), I chose to use Sumo for this particular Tutorial, because I was having troubles rotating the font in Pixlr.

The next thing you need is a blank Header. You can get the header below FREE over at my shop :) Click here to get it! **No need to “Add to Cart” and sign up, just click on the “Free Download” link.

1. After you have gone to Sumo Paint, you need to open your blank header.

2. Next, Create a New Layer on the bottom left of your Layers window.

3. Now you need to use your text tool, and type what you want. *I am only typing my first line, I like to type each line in different layers so that I can have more control about where each line is placed.

4. Make sure that you change your font, size and color before you finish editing your text (for some reason, Sumo Paint doesn’t let you re-edit your text later, it is kind of annoying really…. Pixlr will let you, but they also have some really funny glitches with their text tool too.) Here are the settings that I went with:

5. Next I used the Selection tool to leave the text editing, and I went to Edit > Free Transform.

6. Then use the corners to rotate the text to your liking.

7. Then I simply repeated steps 2 – 6 for the second line of text.

8. Lastly, I saved the file as a PNG.

And there you have it!

Filed Under: Creative, Custom Blog Design, Custom Blog Design Tutorial, Design Tips, DIY, Easy, Easy Tutorials, Frames, Free for Commercial Use, Free for Personal Use, Freebies, Headers, No Software, pixlr, PNG, Shabby, Shop, Sumo Paint, Tutorials Tagged With: Blank, Chic, Free, Freebie, Header, No Software Required, Shabby, Sumo Paint, Text

How I made my Facebook Graphic… with NO software :)

June 15, 2011 2 Comments

So I have kinda been on a mission lately to prove that you can make some seriously CUTE stuff, with NO professional design software and NO money. You will see LOTS more of this coming. So prepare your self to get creative and design your own Blog, Facebook Page, Twitter Page, etc. No more excuses :)

Here is what I used:

Now sit back, relax, and watch how I did it!

Filed Under: Background, Creative, Design Tips, DIY, Easy, Easy Tutorials, Facebook, Intermediate Tutorials, No Software, pixlr, Social Networking, Tutorials