Blog Banners and Blog Design – Laycock Designs

Adding watermark to card in Photoshop Elements

 I recently got a copy of Photoshop Elements to play with (I have the full Professional version of Photoshop so I had no need to purchase Elements) but I got a copy (temporarily) and thought while I had it, that I’d write a tutorial on how to add a watermark with it.

Photoshop Elements Watermark Tutorial

1. Choose "File" and "Open"

2. Browse and locate the image you want the watermark on. Picture will open.

3. Choose "File" and "Place"

4. Browse and locate the watermark image. It will pop onto card.

5. Resize as necessary (Mac users grab a square using your mouse and hold down shift to size down/up)

6. Click and hold with mouse to move the watermark where you want it.

7. Choose "File" and "Save As"

8. Click "Place"

9. Give your picture a name and choose format ".jpg" Click "Save"

10. Move bar to "Large file" for highest quality

11. Click "OK" Picture should be on your Desktop

 

 

 

 

 

Thoughts on Design options to match your goals!

I’m going to take a moment on this lovely spring day to write a little bit about Design options. 

When clients come to me with design ideas I work based on those designs. Sometimes they ask for opinions/ideas and suggestions from me. Which leads me to write this post!

When you design a banner, there are some things to keep in mind:

• 1. Longevity (how long would you like to use this banner?!
• 2. What is the tone you want to set for your business/hobby blog?
• 3. Who is your audience? Customers? Downline? Friends and Family?

Longevity

Here are some suggestions. If you want your banner to "last the test of time" keep in mind the following:

It is not a good idea to use a photo of company product because product changes and retires and you will have to change your banner

Trendiness is cool, but the "hottest trend" will look dated in 6 months to a year and you will have to change your banner

Here are some great examples of banners that will "last the test of time":

Andrea Walford with Sunny Stampin’

Jennifer Barrett with Stamp Chic

Elayne Forgie with Scrappin’Chicks

Ellen Daniel with Stamping Expressions

Shelly Godby with Stampin’ Smiles

Gayle Smith with Rubber & Ink

Joann Weimers with My Favorite Things

Janet White with Stamping at the Whitehouse

Donna Janulewicz with Wild About Stamping

Kelly Conrad with Rose Lake Creations

Martha Beck with Inky Chatter

Janice Rosenthal Rock with Blog Bella Cosa

Sandi MacIver (self titled)

Andrea Walford with Sunny Stampin’ Store

Angie Kennedy Juda with Chic’N Scratch

Emily Tuttle Steggell with Em’s Creations

The above are some great examples of banners that will have a long shelf life.

Tone

But not everyone wants a banner with a long shelf life. If your customer base is very driven by whatever is "new" and "hot" at the moment, you will need to convey that your customers in your banner design so that your customers are marketed to with the hottest trend.

Here are some excellent examples of banners used by demonstrators with a trendy clientele:

Barb Mullikin with Stampin’ IS my job!

Christine Grygar with Eat Sleep Stamp!

Nicole Wrigley with Paper Icing

Brenda Taylor with Memories by Brenda

Tracie Jacobson with {the scrap happy stamper}

Caroline LeBel with Craftin’ Caro

These banners are all based on a "current trend" that may last a year. Depending on the popularity of the trend, they may need to update their banners more frequently.

Color Change Option

However, If your customers like trends but you are on a budget, another option would be to keep your banner design and change only the colors, which is less expensive than a new design. It is only $10 for a color change and I also offer a yearly Color Change service where you can get 4 color changes (1 per quarter) for only $30 (notice that means one change is free if your buy the subscription!)

Examples:

Banner with Hot in style colors last summer

Same banner with the Hot color combos for holiday season

Another design option that you may want to go with is a "Theme Style" banner. These banner styles are based on something personal about you and your particular favorite things. These banners are really fun to design and make and the client usually has lots of ideas ahead of time and they want a certain image" on them. Here are some examples:

Lisa Flynn with The Stamp Camp Counselor (camping theme)

Kari Mason with 1st Class Creativity (animals are royalty theme, she loves animals!)

Lorita Edwards with Lorita’s World (cute doggie, scrap stuff, coffee mug yum!, all her fav things)

Lyn Heppner with The Stamp Medic (New York State paramedic items combined with scrapping!)

Stacie Crain with Inking Paradise (a beachy theme for a Paradise CA demo!)

Loni Spendlove with Squeeze your Creative Juice (a fruity little creation!)

Alison Monk with Greetings from the Heart (showcasing her love of Christ and homespun creations!)

Dianne Shiozaki with Catchin’ the Stampin’ Wave (a surfer girl banner for a surfer girl stamper!)

Deb Greenwood with Gettin’ Inky (a horse lover’s banner)

Julie Lacey with Stamps & Taxes (Banner for a big city girl who does taxes!)

Robin Feicht with Stamping Country (focusing on her beautiful country home and stamp haven!)

There are so many more… but those are just a few!

Another option is to choose a style (Shabby Chic, Grunge, Cute, Elegant, Funky, the ’50s, Floating) and here are some examples of those:

Debbie Modrowsky with The Paper-azzi Connection (Shabby Chic)

Angie Kennedy Juda with Chic’n Scratch Shack (Shabby Chic)

Mary Ann Reiner with The Joy of Stamping (Shabby Chic)

Amy Allen with Pepperberry Keepsakes (Shabby Chic)

Vicki Parson with Stamped Smiles (Shabby Chic)

Rachel Brumley with Inspirations by Rachel (Edwardian style – Vintage elegant)

Judi Hays with Java Judi (Modern "Inchie" design)

Micki Harper with Artful Xpressions (Grunge)

Gerrie Johnnic with Queen of Grunge (Grunge)

Jaycene Morgan with "Ear"resistable Stampers (’50s vintage)

Becky Pressgrove with Honey B Designs (cute)

Andrea Hayes with the little online card shop (Minimalist)

Kim Warne with Kim’s Design Studio (Minimalist)

And here are a few "Floating" banners – these are banners that have no border:

Laura Evans with My Crazy Stamp Obsession

Andrea Hayes with Andrea’s Stampin’ Moments

Julie Jacobs with Julie’s Creative Therapy

Cheryl Powers with Paper Charms

Christy Tyler with Urban Stamp Girl

Those are just a few ideas…

Audience

While all blog banner should be created with audience in mind, here are some banners catering to a specific audience:

Muireann Quigley with Ecoberry (Catering to those who wish to learn more about Eco-Logical Living)

Maxine Conrad with In Honor of John Sims (For family)

Catherine Harwood with Albuquerque Beta Sigma Phi (Sorority members)

Sharon Caughman with Scrappers, Ink! (for members of her downline)

Emily Bracker with Your Winning Image (for her Image Consulting clients)

 

So when you need to order a banner for a blog or website, it is best to consider your goals in order to get the banner you want. Keep in mind the three basic questions above to help determine your goal – Longevity, Tone and Audience! If you consider these three areas you will make the most of your budgeted dollars for your blog design.

Hope this offers some design assistance to those ordering banner designs! 

 

Free Photo enhancer/ Watermark program

Download this free software for toning/sizing your photos and putting a watermark on!

System requirements: Windows Vista/XP/Me/98/2003/2000; .NET Framework 2.0

Regular price: $24.99

Download free watermark software here.

Get it while its still free!!!

What EVERYONE needs to know about image harvesting and hot linking

I have had it on my long list of things to do to write an article about this important topic. Seems like Julie just beat me to it!

Image harvesting is copying and pasting an image from someone’s website and putting it on their own. Not Cool

Hot linking is linking to the image located on another website so that it appears on your own site. Not Cool

Please read Julie’s excellent article here. and her second article here.

Just a small word about the free demo buttons and such that I make available to everyone…
 

These are free indeed, and please feel free to download them and use them on your blogs without asking. What I do ask is that everyone please download the buttons and upload them on your own blogs. That is the correct way of using these free buttons. Please do not hot link them to your blogs. You’ll be stealing bandwidth from my blog host.

Thanks, Julie, for the awesome explanation! I couldn’t have said it better!

 

 

Keep the number of animated items on your blog to a minimum!

Lately I’ve noticed that there are more and more animated cute items being posted in sidebars as well as animated post siggies being used.

While I can make animated post siggies for anyone who wants them (and I have made them for some by request), I recommend if you are blogging for Business Purposes that you keep the number of animated items to a minimum and be selective with what you choose to have animated.

The reason is that if too many items on your blog are animated, you are not making ANY of the animated items catch your reader’s eye. Instead, your reader will see a bunch of animated this and that and they tend to ignore everything animated as distracting.

The only items on your blog that should be animated are the items you REALLY want your readers to click on!

There is absolutely no good reason for a post siggy to be animated. First, a post siggy can easily end up 3 or 4 times on your page. In general, you don’t click on a post siggy (unless you include some sort of advertisement with it and if that is the case, I still wouldn’t animate it). If your readers don’t click on it, why animated it? (Unless you are a hobby blogger and you want the "cute" effect – and there is nothing wrong with that by the way!)

The only items that should be animated are special offers and invitations to visit a business site for ordering or for more information about ordering or recruiting.

If you stick by this policy of limiting the animated items on your blog to only the items you WANT anyone visiting on your blog to take action on, the readers are more likely to take notice of what is blinking/fading etc. and click on it because they are not distracted from other surplus blinking items.

This is why the buttons that I make for everyone to download for free here don’t have animation other than the ones I make for specials and other important buttons you want your customers to click on.

The project of the month buttons and selected project buttons do not have animation (can you imagine if they did??! If you use them all on your blog the entire sidebar would blink! oh my!!!)

So, it is important to be mindful of the amount of animation of your blogs. Only use animation when it is part of your goal to have someone take action on your button topic!

 

 

 

 

 

Print ads and color adjusting

In my previous post, I list some recent Print ads I’ve designed. These ads were designed specifically with Print configurations… special settings that presses need in order for the Print ad to look great on paper.

Clients of my print ad design receive "Ready for Printer" versions of their ordered designs. As part of my "day job" I work with printers on a daily basis and I understand their specific needs. This includes any professional Color Adjusting that needs to be done.

 I have training as a Color Adjuster… and I can give you an example of my color adjusting work here:

 

Before Color Adjusting:

 

Photo after color adjusting:

Before Color Adjusting:

Photo after color adjusting:

 

How does my skill benefit Blog Banner customers?

It means that when I receive photos from clients for banners, you can be assured that the photos will be properly Color Adjusted to look their best on the blog as well as in print!!

 

 

 

Digital art for your viewing pleasure!

I’d like to take a brief moment to chat about my co-worker Dave Geisler. Dave is an awesome guy that runs an art gallery in downtown Racine. I also have the pleasure of working with Dave! The digital art of my co-workers Bryce Ulmer and Emiko Shekem are also featured at Dave’s gallery and his blog. All three are pros at graphic design and I can learn a lot by watching them. The three of them make it look so easy!

If you’d like to see some awesome Digital Fine Art, check out Dave’s blog at: http://716fineart.org/

Digital art isn’t just for the web or for print publications. Here are some creations to admire:

"What were our parents thinking?"

"I Do"

"You"

"Untitled" (yes, and you are so modest, too, Dave…lol)

They also have a 716: Fine Art Youtube video channel.

Check out FEED – A Wordless Magazine of Graphic Design. Anyone can submit to the content!

Pretty great stuff, huh? And to think I work with these nuts! (Love ya Dave, Bryce and Emiko! I bow to your greatness!)

Keep your graphics small and your posts “above the fold”

I love visiting digital scrapbooking blogs. The art that can be created with digital kits can be simply gorgeous! When I went to this blog by Dawn Inskip I was in awe… except that my enjoyment of her blog was spoiled by the load time it took to pull up her site!

I admire Dawn’s creativity, but she needs a bit of training on how to keep load time down. It is going on 15 minutes using high speed internet connection and the banner still isn’t showing up let alone all her creations. As we speak, her banner is just starting to show up.

Do you really want your readers to remain on your site for at least 15 minutes before the title of your blog appears? I can tell you that I sure don’t.

Here are some tips to keep load time to a minimum.

1. Save your graphics at low resolution. Use a maximum of 72 dpi (Dawn’s are 300!)

2. For blogs that post creations with large graphics, limit "number of posts to display" to about 1 or 2.

3. Keep thumbnails smaller and link to a larger image. This gives the reader the choice of seeing the image larger if they want to.

4. Reduce the size of your banner. There is no need to have a huge "in your face" banner when the content "above the fold" is what your readers really want to see. "Above the Fold" is a newspaper term that means literally the text that is designed to appear above the fold. The masthead of a newspaper is not the main focus and neither should your banner be the main focus. The content your readers really want to read is your newest post. If your banner is too large, the content in your first post will be "below the fold" and thus, not visible to the reader. Do your reader a favor. Don’t make them scroll down to read your newest post!

Dawn’s blog has some incrediblely beautiful creations. It is a shame I have to wait so long to see them.