Gee- that wasn't as technical as I thought...

I've been playing around with blog design the past couple of days.  Somewhat because I was bored, and partly because of another blogger.

So I love comments, see?  Horribly egocentric, I am, says Yoda.  And I do try to reply to my commenters.  I just don't like to do it on the actual blog- I prefer to email straight back.  This gets difficult though when folks have their setting on no-reply blogger.  Which I do not believe has anything to do with being anti-social, but more to do with that they have no idea that the setting is there.  Like I didn't- for gads, who knows how long?  If you are concerned that you might be a no-reply blogger- head over HERE for an explanation of how to check you settings and fix them if necessary. 

Back to my story- in this particular moment I was trying to respond to Cindi at Diary of a Grateful Teacher.  She has since changed her setting so I can totally fill up her inbox at will- but by going to her blog and reading through her posts (I do that, you know- I like reading teacher blogs) I discovered a few things.  Cindi is not "new" to blogging in the sense that she has been up and running for about a year.  She has a TpT store as well.  However, many of her posts she's asking questions about HOW TO do things on her blog and nobody is answering with anything definitive.  So I decided that one I'd be willing to help, but I should make sure I had a slight inkling to what I would be doing.

Point Number One:  If you have some time, why not stop by over at Cindi's blog and give her some encouragement by reading some posts and following her if you feel moved to.  I think what touched me most was her About Me:

Hey everyone! I love to read people's blogs, I love to write, and every day I think of things I SHOULD do, but will do "some day"...I need to lose weight, I need to be better at housekeeping, I need to exercise, I need to volunteer..etc etc etc. But then the next summer, (I'm a teacher), I find myself being and doing the same ol' same ol'. So I decided I would do SOMETHING good for ME every day for a year and see what would happen. I also decided that by documenting it, I would be more accountable. SO I am starting this blog August 1, 2012. Let's see where I land one year from now!

I can seriously relate to wanting to change.  I am inspired that she gave herself a deadline to look back and reflect. 

That deadline is in a week- and if I can help out at all, I wouldn't mind being a part of that.  Who else is with me?  I know we're all alone behind these computers typing about our day and our feelings and our stuff- but wasn't the point to reach out and touch people?


Point Number Two: A lot of blog design stuff seems daunting. At times mysterious.  And html code purely frightening to folks that don't feel like they are "good" at computers.

But it's actually not all that bad.  Or, I should say- it doesn't have to be.  There are plenty of super techy ways to do all this stuff, with neato programs and all that jazz- I have a pinterest board dedicated to pinning these tutorials, so you can go there and check them out if you'd like.  I used quite a few of them to mash my way into my current design here over last night and this morning.  But I learned a few tricks that might help out some folks that aren't feeling the love when it comes to using design programs. 

Things I did:
Made a new blog header using : POWERPOINT
Made a new blog background using : yep, POWERPOINT
Made a new signature using: POWERPOINT - and a little help from a free program called paint.net
Made social media icons using: POWERPOINT - and a little help from a free program called paint.net

Now, I also sifted together information from some tutorial pins - but I didn't use just one person's way to do anything since I used powerpoint. So today's post will just be the header.  It was easy peasy.

First thing you want to do is find out how big your blog template is.

So now you're ready to make your custom header.  Time to go into Power Point.  Open up a new blank presentation.

Alright, my first attempt at a tutorial.  If anyone tries it and it works for you, let me know.

Next time  I'll show you how you can make a background using the similar steps.