So I updated my blog header...

First let me say, Happy Memorial Day to everyone! Please make sure you take a moment today to say thank you to all the men and woman who have served or are serving in the military. I have two current family members serving and several other family members that are former military. They and their families sacrifice so much for all of us. So thank you so very much for all that you do and did do for us.

I had a few hours alone last week and I've been kicking around ideas in my head for a blog header update.  I get tired of things and wasn't really digging what I had that much anymore so hey why not right!

I knew I wanted to add some sequins or glitter or something shiny somehow and I always wanted to update the basket image.  I looked online for some line drawings but everything I liked was not free and I was kind of stuck. I decided to see if I could draw something myself, crazy! But after a few tries, probably at least a few dozen I had one that didn't look too terrible or at list looked kind of cute. I drew it on my ipad on a drawing app and snapped a screen shot of it and it found its way to my icloud.

I designed the whole header in Photoshop Elements and it's actually not as hard as it might seem. I think the hardest part is coming up with the idea and then making it happen.

I created a document that was 1100 pixels wide by 350 pixels high.  My blog is pretty wide so of course you'll need to play around with sizing for your particular blog layout. 

I scanned a bunch of sequins (Studio Calico Atlantic the woodgrain, silver and light pink and some other ones I had on hand), erased the background and started layering until I had what looked like a pretty descent random scatter of sequins.  I added in my drawn picnic basket and the title, using the free font 'Ever After.'

I wrestled for awhile on whether I should add the word 'the' I omitted it because I couldn't figure out how to put it on there without it looking odd so let me know if you think its a) weird that its not there or b) okay that I left it off.

After the design was done I saved it as a .jpg and then from my Blogger dashboard clicked on Design in the upper right hand corner, choose layout on the left side, then choose the edit button for the Blog Header area, select remove image for whatever is there, then choose browse to where you saved your .jpg copy of your new header, once it's open make sure you select the button below it that says Placement, "Instead of Title and Description."  That way it will replace whatever is already part of the template you chose when you initially set up your blog.

I see a few sequins that need some fixing so I need to get on that but all in all I love how it turned out.

It's funny that I've never had one person comment or say "Um, did you know that you've misspelled the word Picnic...?" Perhaps its clear from my about statement up on the right hand side but yes, totally intentional.

I hope you give designing a blog header a try, if you need any help, just let me know.