How to Purdy Up Your Blog For Free

I thought I would do another post on how to make your blog a lil bit purdy. When I first started blogging I was oh so jealous of those neato splendito pro bloggers. They had the good stuff, Im telling you! I searched and searched for a new face for my blog. I found a lot of cute layouts! For free!! Yup like the cutest blog on the block (dot) com. Which I used and loved. Loved until I saw it on another blog. Who did a way better job than me personalizing it! So, that's a down fall of the freebies. Its not yours and its not unique. You can try and personalize it, but still. However, they are simple. You copy and paste nothing can go wrong with them.



Anywhosit.... I knew when I came back I was gonna redo the whole enchilada. I did a new template and layout. I wanted a more "me" blog.

When I went out looking for a new template I knew I wanted ad space, 4 columns, and room on the bottom and I found Ipietoon's Not Magazine template.
*free download btw*

layout tips
*click to enlarge all pictures*

Thats how it looked when I got it.  Looks nothing like my page right.  That's because I "tweaked" it. 

And heres how.


So you know there are tons of digital scrapbook programs and sites out there.  I happen to love scrapblog (dot) com.   Some stuff costs, but there is plenty of freebies.  Cute freebies.  I haven't spent a penny on my site.

They have tons of fonts heres  a few examples:

layout tips



Find a theme you love and you can do everything there.

layout tipslayout tipslayout tips
After you make these simply download to your computer and use something like photobucket to crop and resize. "Save a copy" so you can cut out each one.  Use their code to place on your blog.

For backgrounds
Simple-

layout tipslayout tipslayout tips

Same thing download it and then upload through photobucket. Only this time you will only use the direct link.

and you put it in your edit html part where you see "body {" you would put in this under it:

background:$bgcolor;background-image:url('direct link');
        background-position: center;
        background-repeat:yes-repeat;

Its the same for your wrappers, or side columns whatever their named in your template.  


Now if you want just color behind like your posts you would do this instead:

background:#fff;


The fff after the # is the color you want.


Ok for clear like at the bottom of my blog you would do 


background-color:transparent;

Another thing is my banner, it was wider than what the template was.  So if you dont mess with it, your banner will be cut off. 

#header-wrapper{
    width: 960px;
        height:350px;
    font-size: 11px;
    margin: 0 auto 0;
    padding: 0;
    overflow: hidden;
        color:#000000;


Just look for the width and height  and change them a little.  Always preview before you save anything. 

Here some banners you could do at scrapblog:

layout tipslayout tipslayout tips


Now I say back up your template.  You dont want to have an oopsie and hate me. 

Photobucket is a cool place cause you can crop and resize and its free.  You get a huge amount of space you can use.

To add things like your signature at the bottom of your post I used my live signature (dot) com.
 You put that code above this:


< div class =' post-footer '>


For scrolling boxes for awards, buttons etc you would put this before the button code



If you wanna customize your place and make it more you, you dont need to be a pro and you dont need to spend butt loads of money.  Just takes time.  Patience oh yes lots of that.  I screwed up mine a couple of times.  But for now Im happy with it.  Next time I want to revamp, it'll go a lot smoother.


I hope I helped.  ☺

If you have neat ideas I love to hear them. 

7 Sweet Comments:

Angie B said...

I'm a fairly new blogger too and I'm so envious of all these cute blogs with fancy stuff on them. I'm learning as I go. I don't know how to do much with website design. I was trying to figure out how to do the moving blog roll things like you have on your side bar.

Angie B said...

Oh wait i see how you have that posted, for the moving awards, blogs, etc I just put that code before the button when putting it on my blog? Do I have to do it before I add each button or only once in the gadget?

Angie B said...

hmm can't get it to work. Put it before one of the blog buttons and all i see is the word blog scrolling up and down and my buttons aren't moving. Tried puting it in between each one and same thing. I'll keep working on it though

Unknown said...

Where I put "Buttons" in capital letters is where you put the all the codes for the buttons. from the first (< a> ) to the last () ☺

Tiffany said...

I appreciate you so much for posting this as I have been wanting to tweek mine as Blogger doesn't really let you do what you really want to do with your page.

Peace, Love and Chocolate
Tiffany

Angie B said...

oh sorry, see i'm so slow when it comes to this kind of stuff. I'll bet it would work like that

Housewife Eclectic said...

That's super cool! You are smart to do it that way!! Thanks for the follow, I am returning it now!

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