Makeover!

My friend Laurel e-mailed me several weeks ago. She said, "I was thinking a cute blog post idea...like the Home Improvement show where friends make over someone's home. You could make over the design of someone' blog and the end product is a complete surprise, taking into count the person's personality of course. .....okay maybe I want you to make-over my blog but it's still a cute idea."

I laughed and told Laurel I'd like to redesign her blog. Finally this week I got to it. Little Sis helped me--she has a great eye for these things! Here are before and after screen shots:




(Click on screenshot to check out Laurel's blog!)

Here are the changes I made, and how I made them, in case you'd like to give your blog a makeover! (These instructions are for blogs on the Blogger platform.)

1. I switched to the Minima White Blogger template. I'm a fan of this template, since it's so simple and therefore easy to customize.

2. I made her posting column wider. I also recently made this change on my blog--though it wasn't a very drastic change on my already-cramped page! To read about how to widen your posting column (so easy!), go here.

3. I redesigned Laurel's blog header. She wanted to keep the daisy theme, so she supplied me with the picture she'd used before, and I incorporated it. I also took out the border that is usually around the header--e-mail me or comment here if you want instructions on how to do that.

To make headers, I use Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2, which is similar to Adobe Photoshop. If you don't want to buy a photo editing program, you can make blog headers for free at Scrapblog.

4. I changed up the colors of the background, text, etc. On Blogger's "Fonts and Colors" page you'll see a place where you can "Edit color hex code." Go to this site, and you can find codes for 4,800 different colors--better than the 60 offered by Blogger, huh?

Laurel, I hope you enjoy your new blog makeover--I had fun doing it!