Making a Makeover Easy as Pie!

Yesterday and last night I was busy as a little bee making over a wonderfully cute blog for a fellow December 2010 mommy. Little did I know last week when I announced that Amy won the blog makeover that she had actually found my blog from BabyCenter.com and that she was a mommy to 3 lovely little girls with a new baby on the way as well. Needless to say I have had a blast making over her blog and actually gave her a total makeover from top to bottom!

Here is what I did for her:
1. Picked out a new background (check out http://www.shabbyblogs.com/)
2. Designed the following elements: header, labels, blog button, footer graphic, signature, post divider, picture frames, and comment graphic.
3. Installed and rearranged all the elements
4. Adjusted font, font colors, blog width, and other basic elements to flow with all the other designs
5. Created and installed Favicon


I think that my favorite part of the whole process what picking out the background because that gave me my color palette,  theme, and general feel for the rest of the designs. After that creating the header was a really good learning experience.  I took my inspiration from the header that Nienie has on her blog, but of course gave it the Connie-twist! 


So where did I begin with doing this makeover? If you follow these steps them it should be pretty easy for you too, and there is so much room for customization that no two blogs will look alike! *** The following How To is ONLY for Blogger users.... Wordpress and other blog platforms have their own way of design. 

1. Choose a background that sets the tone for the rest of the blog... the new Design feature on Blogger is really good for this or you can go where I did, here.  TIP: If you are going to have lots of graphics, then choose the 3 Column layout from Shabby Blogs!

2. Create your header. You can do this lots of different ways and don't even have to have Photoshop! Scrapblog, Picnik, etc will all get the job done.  Tomorrow I will show you how I created the header like Amy's!

3. Make a list of all the elements you want on your blog, this includes the following:

                        ♥ Post Divider

                        ♥ Footer Graphic

                        ♥ Widget Labels

                        ♥ Signature

                        ♥ Decorative Graphics like the photos of my girls

                        ♥ Blog Button

                        ♥ Favicon (the little icon next to your site's URL)

4. Once you know what you need then either use ready made graphics or make your own. Many times I find something with the general feel of what I am looking for then alter it to fit my design. Using a photo program it is pretty easy to just blend out the words in the original graphic and replace it with your own.

5. Save the Favicon for last and make it an element that really connects someone to your blog. 

6. As you install all of these elements check back to see how the blog is flowing. 

7. Finally, go into the Design feature that Blogger has and adjust the font, font color, widths, etc for the basic aspects of your blog.

There ya go! Tomorrow I will show you how I created the header above using Photoshop CS4!!