Mavis and Kathi are Live!

Thanks for all your feedback lately, dear readers. Here is Mavis's final. She picked the curve design. Kathi is also live. I may be biased but her colors are fabulous! ;)

(Flower graphics credit to istockphoto.)

Mock-Up for Kathi

Kathi started with that beautiful photo of her kids at a time when you really just want to bottle them up and keep them young forever. And she likes the colors over here at Graphically Designing. Didn't it turn out sweet? I love tulips!

To Curve or Not to Curve? *addendum*

That is the question. These are mock-ups for Mavis. What do you vote?






*Addendum: By popular request I have added the scallops, facing both ways. I already have my opinion... what's yours?
Option 1, 2, 3, or 4? And yes, the curve is a little rough. It's a mock up. In the final it would be nice and smooth. ;) I hate to invest time if it's just going to be ditched.

Template for Julie, Mock Up and Template for Lisa

Julie from Hungary are I are trying to decide if we should do her template with a red accent or a baby blue accent. Decisions, decisions!




This is a template and header for Lisa. Unlike most templates I do where the sidebar headers are .gifs and have to be decided upon before completion, Lisa's sidebar headers are completely editable by her. Aren't I getting smart and nerdy???



I am whittling down that queue. I have a few who are not responding - so if you emailed me in early March about my queue and haven't heard from me, check your junk mail. After 3-4 tries, I am going to have to move on to the next person. :/

Mock Up Header for Julie

When you live in a beautiful European city like Budapest and have a home full of gorgeous boys, like Julie does... one really must show it off. Here is Julie's mock up header.

Blogging Tip: How to Make a Clickable "Email Me"

From email: How do you make a clickable "Email Me" so it autofills your email program?

First there are two ways, but the same basic code. If you want a pretty graphic, the first step is to go into Photoshop or Paint or whatever graphics program you use and make an image with your colors and font of choice. You can experiment with backgrounds and fonts, but simply put you want it to be fairly small and you want it to be obvious it's supposed to be clicked. Save it as a .gif or .jpg and throw it over on Photobucket, Snapfish or your hosting choice.

If you just want the words "Email Me" to code so that it automatically goes to the computer's default mail program like this:

Email Me!

Type:

<a href="mailto:YourName@YourAddress.here"> Email Me! </a>

If you have your "Email Me" graphic hosted somewhere, you can make one like this:



You will need the second line of code from Photobucket. It is the URL of your image and it starts with http://. Then, very similar to the first code you make this, adding in the link to your graphic:

<a href="mailto:YourName@YourAddress.here"><img src="http://www.URL of Your Image.com"></a>

Viola', now you have a clickable "Email Me" and all your blog friends can email you all they want. Go on, try it! Be proud of your inner geek.

Mock Up for Beth

The Queue is Temporarily Closed

I am closing the queue until I can catch up. I will not be accepting new design requests at this time. Those who emailed me over the weekend are in the queue; you will be hearing from me shortly. If you haven't emailed me yet... I will reopen the queue when I have shortened it. Right now the wait is so long, I feel bad about the wait time for those at the end.

Thank you for understanding. The option was keep a donation scale and close the queue or set fixed prices to lower the demand. I opted for the former. :)

Hoppin' Tarmacs Again

I was going to come here and tell you all that I'm running and hiding from that queue, but well... that's just coincidence!

I will be a travelin' gal this weekend and I've been told the cell reception is spotty. So if you email me about design or to get in my queue don't be alarmed if I don't get back to you before Monday or Tuesday. I'll add new Bloggers chronologically... and email you back upon my return.

It's warm where I'm headed, so... sayonara snow!

"My Queue Needs an R, S, T, U, V...."

I cringe as I look over there. That queue is feeling insurmountable. I thank all of you who are sitting patiently (or maybe not so patiently!) in it. I want you all to know that I am working happily through but can no longer gaurantee the time frame for new blogs in the waiting list. Even if I did 1 blog a day it would take a month. So I think those of you at the very end are 4-6 weeks out.

My friend Nester said my queue "... needs an R, S, T, U, V" and I think it needs a W, X, Y and Z to boot!

So use this time to gather your ideas, links to blogs and websites you like. Think about columns, headers, sidebar content, your font, etc. Browse some of those sites on my sidebar and in the blogosphere for inspiration and bookmark the ones you love.

Again, thanks for your patience!

Becky and Krista are Live!

Beck wanted a 2-column, layered, textured scrapbook look and Krista loved the animated woman we found over at istockphoto. She wanted a 3-column space. Both are reflective of their personalities: warm, busy, homey, fun. Stop by - they're even cuter in person!




I especially loved the buttons they each chose. So different, but so perfect for their blog spaces. Watch this one!

Blog Buttons: Blinkies aka Animated gifs

Oh my goodness... I have been wanting to post a graphic I made a couple weeks ago for my friend Nester over at Nesting Place. So I made very simple 2-frame animation buttons in Photoshop. But I couldn't figure out how to export it. Thankfully, my friend Todd is a *real* graphic designer (as opposed to me who, I guess, is a fake one???). He so graciously told me how to take my animation from stuck in my computer files to YOU.

Do you love Nester as much as I do? Then you need her button! Aren't they cute? Just copy and paste the code below the one you want! The first one is static, and the the others are animated.

<center><a href="http://nestingplacenc.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj124/nestingplacenc/NPsquare175.gif"></a></center>


<center><a href="http://nestingplacenc.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj124/nestingplacenc/bNPperfect175.gif"></a></center>


<center><a href="http://nestingplacenc.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj124/nestingplacenc/animNPperfect125.gif"></a></center>


<center><a href="http://nestingplacenc.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj124/nestingplacenc/animNPmc125.gif"></a></center>

A Mock Up for Becky

Blog Tip: How to Change Your Font Color or Size

Ever notice how some people have blogs and in the middle of their posts, their font changes size... sometimes getting big, getting bigger, getting outright huge... then shrinking back down again? If you want to change your font size it's as simple as adding a little code in front of the words you'd like to change.

For most blogs, font size 3 is standard. Adding a font size larger than 3 increases the size of the font. And any font number lower than 3 decreases the size of the font.

<font size="4"> Type what you want in size 4, then close with more code. </font>

For even bigger, use type size 5:

<font size="5"> This would appear in the largest size. Always close the code with </font>

Now, how about color? First, you need a good hexidecimal color chart. I use this one. For convenience I just saved it in my bookmarks. Next, you need to enter the color code for whatever color you'd like your font to appear.

<font color="#FF0066 "> This makes your font bright pink. </font>

<font color="#0000FF"> This makes your font bright blue. </font>

Want to get really tricky? You can change both font and color by adding two codes and closing it twice.

<font color="#660000"><font size="5"> ...by adding two codes. </font> </font>

Or by combining code into a single, multi-command string of code, like this:

<font color="#66000" size="4">...and manipulate both color and font.</font>

SWAK to the Nester

The Nester and I go waaaayyyy back, like waaayy back to 2007. I mean, you know when you know someone before they're big? I feel all big sisterly and proud to see how famous Ms. Nester is. "I knew her when..." If you haven't ever visited her blog, do... she is just so funny and fun to read.

Nester is SO famous in fact that now she needs buttons to spread the love. If you'd like one of Nester's buttons to show the world that you've been "mistreated" or show your love from Nester's nest you can have these buttons, too!