WAHMaholic » blog design

Adventures With Three Girls’ New Look!

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 12:22:10 +0000

Jessica Anne, owner of the Adventures With Three Girls blog, is a dream to work with. I think it’s because we almost have the same taste in everything (even down to the colors!), so it was no surprise when we finished in record time! She said she wanted to incorporate her three girls and green living. All it took was a single mock-up, three very minor revisions and we’re off to coding. Quick, eh? I know even a short visit to see Jessica’s blog makeover would make her extremely happy, so if you have a moment to spare, hop over to her blog (just click on the screen capture below!) to see her blog rockin’ a new look!

Sassy Chef’s New Look!

Sat, 24 Jul 2010 02:00:08 +0000

As the winner of my June blog makeover giveaway, Pearl got a brand spanking new look for her food blog, My Sassy Chef. She explained to the me theme of the blog, picked the colors and described what she would want to see in the header. I think I managed to make it pretty close to what she described.

I used Shoebop as the main font. I’ve loved this font since forever, and since I don’t use it anymore for the design of my old blog at Blogger, I decided to incorporate it into Pearl’s new look. Please click on the screen capture above to go to her blog and leave her some love! (oohhh, rhymes! hee hee).

JPG, PNG, GIF. WTF?

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 15:42:39 +0000

I have often been asked what’s the difference between a .jpg file, a .png file and a .gif file, when making graphics for blog design. Here’s what you need to know, as simple as I can put them:

If you want a faster loading site, then go for .jpg files, as they are smaller in size than .png and .gif files. You have to remember, however, that .jpg files do not allow for transparency. So if you save a transparent image in .jpg format, you will end up with an image with a white background.

If you are very particular about graphics quality, and you don’t mind a longer loading site time, or you need transparency in your image, then .png is what you should choose. There is usually no dramatic difference between the quality of a .jpg and a .png file, but if you look closely and compare the two, you’ll see what I mean.

.Gif files are essentially animated files (the blinkies are an example of them). Among the three, .gifs load slowest, since it contains several layers, thus its file size is usually bigger. This particular file type also allows for transparency like .png.

So there. That’s about it. The basic differences of the three file formats. Usually, I save my images in the .png format, especially my freebies, since they have to be able to blend with the blog backgrounds of the people who grab them.

I hope you I’ve explained well the difference between the three.

Images For Your Header

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 15:09:05 +0000

I don’t know if I can provide a proper tutorial for making a header, so the least I can do is tell you where I get the images for making them, as well as sites that I get my fonts from, for the header’s text. I mostly get my images from Fotolia.com, because that’s the cheapest place I discovered and they have tons of stocks to choose from, so I almost never run out of choices. When I do, I go to iStockphoto for their royalty-free images, but only when I really can’t find anything suitable on Fotolia.com.

As for the fonts, I mostly go to DaFont.com and Font Space to look for an appropriate font style to match the graphics I have in mind. Designing the mock-up takes up almost as much time as coding, sometimes even longer, because of the amount of minute editing and re-editing that the clients sometimes most of the times require.

I admit I’m unexceptional in conceptualizing the perfect layout, but if there’s anything I can do, I can be patient with clients and give them what they have in mind. I guess that’s what makes me a decent blog designer. Not my artistic skills, as I have little of that, but my people skills. Oookay. I should stop bragging now.

Blog Makeover Update

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:18:01 +0000

I almost forgot that the giveaway ends today, I just have so much in my hands right now. I have not yet read any of the blog entries for this month, but will definitely be doing it tomorrow, as well as post the qualified participants. July 2 I will announce the winner, and will take it from there with the lucky raffle winner. I’m afraid I will not be able to host a makeover this month of July, what with a new meme I’ve inherited and I am now hosting (want to join? head over Beauty Queen Gene for details!), no Paulie to take care of Svet so less time to work, and a LOT of expenses in the horizon, which requires that I need to have both of my hands free for paying ventures. Let’s see what August brings. If it’s not too hectic by then, we’ll resume the giveaway for sure.

Elijah’s New Layout!

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 05:53:48 +0000

My sister Ayie is into blogging now, and has made two blogs, one for herself and one for her son, Elijah. I made Elijah a cute blog layout, derived from the colors of a cute baby shirt we saw at the thrift shop. Hee hee. We loved the colors when we first saw it and I said, “Let’s make him a layout with colors like that”. And now it’s done! I especially liked how the comments section turned out. It’s quite simple but it’s really cute! Click on the badge below tod pay Elijah a visit if you have the time. It would make me, Elijah and Ayie very happy!

Kizuna’s New Layout

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 09:34:39 +0000

I enjoyed working with Mommy Clang on her layout. And I’m doubly glad that she liked what we did with her new look. I don’t know who is more lugi in our arrangement, I really think it was she. LOL! Imagine, she sent me payment in cash AND sent me a gorgeous blouse and cute black shorts that I fell in love with the instant I pried open the package she sent me. If my clients were all like that, what a happy blog designer I would become! LOL. Anyways, please send this lovely lady some love by clicking on the screenshot of her site below to drop by her blog. Love you Mommy Clang!

Code-induced Headaches

Sat, 29 May 2010 03:06:34 +0000

You’d think that after doing this for sometime now, I’d have an easier time now making codes work the way I want them to. But I guess like everything else in life, coding requires constant learning. You can never be a know-it-all when it comes to codes. It takes a lot of reading, practice, lessons, trial and error just to become a halfway decent coder. And I’m not even a halfway decent coder, mind you. I’m working on just blogs, and I still gets stumped on a code more times than I dare count. I wonder if it would’ve made my life easier if I studied formally for this. I guess it would, and maybe I wouldn’t have to spend so much time being frustrated by not being able to make a code work or furrowing my brows over a puzzling part of a code. Not even the best wrinkle cream can smooth my face when I’m hard at work, I tell you. Paulie mentioned once that I look like a crumpled Mona Lisa when I’m coding my designs. Yikes.

To Give Or Not To Give

Sat, 29 May 2010 02:55:46 +0000

I promised I will make the blog makeover giveaway a monthly thing, but lately, I’ve been thinking a lot whether I should just make a ready-made template and raffle it off to the lucky participant. In case you don’t know, making a template takes a lot of time (which is why we charge a decent amount of money for it). It takes more than a full day to create one that doesn’t painfully look like all the others I have made so far that will comply with the demands of a client at the same time. And time management is not something that I’ve ever been good at, thus that line of thought. I wish I was a time management specialist, like insurancespecialists are adept at handling all kinds of insurance so I can do more in a day. Alas, I can only do so much. What do you think? Should I just make a ready-made template for the monthly raffle? Would that discourage you from joining?

Kai’s New Layout!

Thu, 27 May 2010 14:20:34 +0000

I supposed to have posted about this a couple of days ago, but as you all know, this blog was down until today. So I’m just posting about this now even though the layout is already almost a week old. So I just have to say that because of Kai Palileo I love turquoise now, and please don’t go to her site while you’re hungry because you will want to eat your monitor with what she’s constantly posting there. Don’t tell me I didn’t warn you. So eat first before clicking the screenshot below and please let her know what you think of her new look. She gives gift certificates to lucky commentators, ya know.