Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Give Aways!

April Showers Blog Design is having a HUGE giveaway and celebrating her OPEN waiting list that starts January 1st! April not only does blogs - but also invitations, announcements, calendars, cards, business cards, custom illustrations, and so much more! Just by pasting this paragraph on my blog I'm a winner! http://www.aprilshowersblogdesign.com/

I am SO NOT a graphics person, and thus I need HELP! I would LOVE for my blog to be "a thing of beauty and a joy forever" to see. Thus I am wishing, hoping, and, yes, even PRAYING that I can somehow win a free blog design contest so that my blog can be BEAUTIFUL like those of my friends at Stars in Her Fingernails  and Holy Experience and Farming in the Shade and Kids, Twins and Laundry Bins and Conversion Diary.  At this point, I'd happily settle for a custom header -- that's where my real struggle is. My photographer husband has been helping me, but it still isn't what I know it CAN be.

And yes, if we had money, I'd pay to have it done. But with Keith's unemployment heading into Month 15 -- he's doing handyman work for family and friends, but our "health insurance" with Samaritan Ministries has lapsed and we're behind on bills still. So, obviously, there's no money for improving one's blog at hand -- I'm just praying that we can give the kids a decent Christmas with a $20 toy for each.  They were fine with that last year, and they're such good kids. Elizabeth, who has a part-time job in housekeeping at our local Bible Camp two miles away, has bought the three boys a refurbished X-Box 360 for Christmas plus several games. It's so sweet for her to spend her very hard-earned toilet-scrubbing and sheet-changing funds on her brothers, despite how much they argue with each other at home.

Perhaps I'll just settle down and try to learn how to make a custom header.

PS Yes, I changed my header, at least. Changing the whole template was too much work, especially when I love the blue and purples. So I found a public domain Advent candle photo and worked with it in PhotoShop Elements and Picnik to resize (thanks, Sarah!) and -- ouila! A header. Would still love some custom graphics, but this will do for now....

A blessed Advent to you all,

3 comments:

sarah said...

Susanne, it is so easy to get a beautiful template. Mine is by Lena from Simply Fabulous Templates. http://lenatoewsdesigns.blogspot.com

It was completely free, and very easy to apply. I just copied the html code from the file she provided, and pasted it onto my blogger html page (downloading my original template first, just in case!) and - wallah! - there is was. It took about ten minutes.

She has a huge selection to choose from. If you don't like her style, there is also The Cutest Blog on the Block, and they are even easier to apply - although I don't like the intrusive advert at the top. http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/

The other thing you can do is go to the Picnik photo website and change any photo to the same size as your header allowance. You find that by going to your html page and looking for header in the code: it will tell you the width.

I am a complete computer dunce but I can do it (although I have broken my template twice over the years and had to move my site because of it, lol!) so I'm sure you can too :-)

Otherwise, good luck with winning a pro change!

Susanne Barrett said...

I went to Lena's and downloaded one today, but when I went to apply it, it told me I was going to lose all my widgets and I didn't want to re-do all of them. So I just changed my header for now. The Cutest Blog on the Block is too, well, FRILLY for me. I'll look again.

I'll check the Picnik site to change my photo to the right size. Thanks for that info -- it's been bugging me. :)

I may go back to Cutest Blog and see if they have anything else more streamlined. I've used them before on my old template.

sarah said...

Th widget thing is a pain. I make sure I have them all up in separate tabs before I change my template, then I just cut and paste them back into the widget boxes. But sometimes, eg with followers, I have to start again.

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