New Header!

Has anyone noticed that my blog has literally no design to it?  If you know me, you know that I don't like a lot of clutter in design.  However, I do have some sense of style.  So, you should have been raising an eyebrow at my plain, blank blog design.  My true reason for not decorating my blog is that I don't really know what I'm doing within the Blogger program.  Some blogs seem so put together and elaborate.  I feel like I can't compete.

I've been visiting some Kansas City-based blogs via this page. I just realized that I can at least TRY.  So, I went about making an image to use as my header.  All of these blogs have such cute, well-designed graphics.  I thought I could give it a go.

Step One: Decide on a design concept
I knew I wanted to use a family picture. I love the black and white one taken by Areke Worku Photography.  I also know that I need to incorporate "LemonRuffle" into the design.

Step Two: Put the design together
I didn't know if this whole part would really work.  So, I played around for quite a while.  Ultimately, I opened the picture from my computer files using the Windows Photo Viewer.

Then, I knew that I needed the image to be a thin, horizontal strip. I can't make that edit in Windows Photo Viewer, so I selected Open>Paint.  Then, my image was HUGE, so I needed to resize it. I needed to make it smaller so that I could click and drag to crop the picture.  In the Home ribbon, I selected Resize.  I entered 30(%) for both Horizontal and Vertical.

With the image fully visible on one screen, I clicked Select in the Home ribbon.  Then, with my cursor, I selected an area of the picture that would give me the desired shape.

Now, you can right click the cropped area and go to File>Save As>JPEG Picture and save it wherever you like within your own computer.

Now, as part of my design, I knew I wanted "LemonRuffle" placed over the image as a graphic.  So, I opened Microsoft Word and I inserted the picture to a blank document.  Now I opened a text box and typed my text.  I placed it over the image and hit the ctrl button while clicking both the text box and the picture.  In the FORMAT PICTURE ribbon, click Group.  This will join the text box with the picture permanently.  Then right click and save the image in your computer files.

I think my header is cutesauce.  I finally have a reason for saving all of those cute fonts on Pinterest!  By the way, the "Lemon" is Budmo and the "Ruffle" is KG Call Me Maybe.


Step 3: Insert graphic into your blog program
For Blogger, that was simple.  I just went to my Home screen and clicked Layout. There is a box that says edit header.  I just selected the picture file that was saved from the previous step!

If you are proud of your header or design one based on these instructions, leave a comment and a link!

xo