I'd like to share with you how nice Lisa Lange's blog looks. I designed Lisa's blog and featured it here quite awhile ago. The reason I'm featuring it again is that Lisa recently changed the photograph of herself. In her new photograph, she is wearing a shirt in the same color as her blog design!

Take a look at how wonderful this makes her blog look! Now I must admit that purple is my favorite color (you can see Rich Razzleberry shading on my current blog design)… so I could be biased in this respect…. but doesn't her blog look fab with her matching shirt??!!!

You'd think this small detail wouldn't make much of a difference… but it does!!!

If you can possibly manage to pull this off yourself (if you have a shirt in your blog design color) I highly recommend doing this!!

Visit Lisa here and check it out! What a great idea, Lisa!!

This article was recently published in Open Forum. I'm sharing this article here because I think it gives excellent advice.

Apr 05, 2011 -

If you're a small business owner, your website is the central hub of your company, and it's a pivotal part of your marketing and branding.

 Potential customers visit your site specifically for its content—its appearance and usability are critical to its success and how those users view your company. Getting your Web design wrong can have a very negative impact on your business.

 Here are five common design mistakes to avoid in order to create a great user experience and grow your bottom line. Click to View Full Article

 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

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! 

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!!!

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!