All of this changed when my blogging friend, Amanda, introduced me to Scrapblog (http://www.scrapblog.com/). Through tips from her and my other blogging friend, Elaine, I was able to make a cute, professional looking header. Scrapblog is a free (well, mostly) user friendly site that enables you to make awesome digital scrapbooking pages for free. What's great for bloggers is that the space they give you to work with is compatible with the size of a header!
Scrapblog has all sorts of stickers and backgrounds to choose from. Recently, I noticed that some of their stickers and backgrounds are no longer free and must be purchased. They still have really good free stuff to choose from and design a header with, though. I have yet to spend a dime there. It will take a few minutes to get acclimated to the site, but you will be cranking out masterpieces in no time.
Scrapblog is for personal use only. In other words, you cannot make money by creating headers for others by using Scrapblog images. It is against their terms of use to do so.
Some helpful tips for creating a header on Scrapblog:
Once you have created your header, save and publish it (circled in yellow above). You must publish it in order to view it again. It will give you the option of keeping it private or public. Once your Scrapblog has been published, go up to file and export it as a JPEG (circled in red). I like to save my headers to my desktop so they're easy to find and then I move them to another folder later.Uploading your header to your blog is easy. Simply go to customize-->layout and click on 'edit' in your header. Select 'instead of title and description'. Browse for your new header. Once it is loaded (you will be able to see a small pic of it) click save and view your blog.
I have made headers in Scrapblog before. I didn't want mine to be so big, so what I did was leave the bottom fourth of my page blank. Then I exported the file as a JPEG and opened it in Paint. I simply cut the blank bottom portion off, saved it and POOF! my header was ready to be uploaded to my blog.
If you have a minima template, you will notice a thin border interferes with your header. To hide it, go to your fonts and colors page, click on border, and make the border color the same as your background. It will still be there, but not as noticeable. I will go into more depth on how to remove this border by tinkering with the HTML of your template later on when I do a tutorial on borders.
Have fun and enjoy your new header!
Related Post: Create a Free Header w/Picasa
34 comments:
I love a mostly free help for making this stuff. I didn't design BlogMommas, but I have veen trying to do some other sites of mine - this is such a help!
Happy Tuesday!
:)
Becki@BlogMommas
You are so good at this stuff...I don't understand any of it!
You are so awesome! I love Scrapblog!
Thank you for all your helpful tips, I will put them to good use very soon, well as time allows, homework first.
Wow! Thank you! Very excite about going home tonight and fixing my header with those tips...I want it to be a bit bigger and I want to get rid of that box around mine! Thanks so much :)
This is great! I'm going to try it but will probably need your tutorial so I'll be looking for that.
You're the Bomb Biggety. I love Scrapblog...it's where I made my header, too, but I didn't know the trick about leaving the bottom fourth blank. Not sure how to do that, exactly....
Court
Neat...I am gonna have to check out their site. Thanks!
You are so awesome!
Oh thank you for posting this! I will try it right away....my kids are napping!:)
thanks for using my name. :0) i know you mentioned in your giveaway post how you don't know how to do anything but plain color for backgrounds. i have an easy html coding to add the pics. and can let you know how to do it all if you want. or if you want to use it as a tuesday tip. let me know. i'd love to help!! amanda
Great tip! I use photoshop for my header, but not everyone has that. Scrapblog is a good alternative!
Oh man -- where were you when I was just getting started? :o)
Wow, I am impressed with your knowledge. Unfortunately I just don't really get this kind of thing. Last week I won a blog header, I can't wait for her to be finished!!
I totally loved this tip, when you mentioned it in another post. I used scrapblog to create the picture for my daughters first bday cards! I did a 'cheap' tip on my blog about it for tuesday tip jar....which by the way i started because of you. I even decided to "pre-post" for tuesday under posting options!!!! I will remember the days of the week one of these days!
You make it all sound so easy! Thanks for the tip!
i got them from scrapblog thanks to you! I swear you mentioned it in another blog....or I was reading elsewhere and thought it was you.....either way, great tip. I just redid my layout also....we will see how it goes, I too had to make adjustments in paint to make the image fit in the header box
omg you make it sound so easy!! Thanks for telling us about this site, I'll be sure to check it out.
Thanks! I have been trying to do my own, but am pretty bad. These tips willhelp.
Thank you Thank you for the tips! I found them through my friend, Suzie's blog. I've been wondering EXACTLY how to do a great header. Thanks again.
Tiffany Smith
I created mine in Photobucket since they paired up with scrapblog. I could get scrapblog's goodies without having to upload pics to another account. Plus I am on a pasword strike. Any tips on password consolidation?? It is getting out of control. I tried to enter a password into the microwave this morning!!
I love scrapblog, I too made my header in their site. I love all their new stuff.
I made my header in Paint shop Pro :)
I cant wait to read the tutorial on how to remove the line around it because I cant get a color that matches my background! :(
i used your directions to create my three column blog, which was very easy by the way.... your directions seemed simpler than others i had tried and not been succesful with so thanks!!! But i have a question!! when you created your header at scrapblog how did you leave the bottom white, i tried and didn't really know how to do that. i made a header i just didn't want it as wide as it is!!
BTW your blog tips are awesome!!!
Thank you! Your post on headers was so ez to use! I made my own! It was simple and to the point! Thanks!!!!!
I can't seem to get an image into my header. I had a 3 column blog and it didn't work. I changed it to a 2 column, and that still didn't work.
Does the image have to be a certain size? If so can you please tell me? should I change my html code to accomodate my header. I'm cool with that too.
Thank you in advance for your help.
Both of your blogs are beautiful and you are so helpful. Thank you, truly!
Jennygirl73ATgmailDOTcom
I love your site...(did you know your right third column is way at the bottom?) and I am kinda bummed about the scrapblog charging for some stuff now...but I still love it for my header too!
Your blog is very helpful, thanks so much!
Hi,
I chanced upon your blog while looking for ways to jazz up my blog :-) and I LOVE it!!! its easy, fun and you've made life as a beginner blogger so much simpler.. Thank you and many blessings!!
I'm not quite sure how I stumbled upon your blog, but within an hour had made a new header for myself over at scrapblog. Thanks for all the helpful tips/hints!
I just wanted to say a million thanks for doing this post. I too was playing around with Paint to get a header that I liked and boy was that fustrating. Each time I tried one and did not like it, I had to redo the steps all over.
With Scrapblog, there are so many beautiful free feature and I can also go back and edit my header.
Take a look at what I just created. http://growthofblackhair.blogspot.com/
I am quite pleased with it.
How do you creat a background w/ srapblog?
I'm so glad I came across this...even if it's some three years after you first posted. It's probably the most helpful new-blogger tip I have come across. The header sets the impression for the whole blog, I think - I'm going to experiment with this for sure. Thanks so much!
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