A Post for Bloggers who use Blogger: Tutorials, Links, and Such

As promised, here is a post for those of you who have blogger blogs and are interested in custom blog headers, picture collages, and bigger pictures in your blog post. There is a ton of information in this post and especially in the links I've shared. Scroll around and see if there is anything you are looking for. Hope some of this info helps! Happy Blogging.

Just a few basic things worth noting {and then I'll share some links below} :

1- Photo Editing : I edit all my photos using Picasa and Picnik. Picasa is google's free photo editing software and Picnik is a free online based site for photo editing which is connected to Picasa and may be accessed through Picasa. Picasa can be easily downloaded from google. Just make sure to read each step carefully as to not activate unwanted settings on your computer. Like anything, there is a learning curve for using Picasa, but I think the tutorials I'm sharing today will put you on the fast track to learning your way around if you are not already familiar with this software.

2- Blog Templates: Your blog template {as I understand it} is basically your blog's design or layout. The template I use on my blog is Minima Stretch. I have found this to be the best for do-it-yourself blog customization. Since blogger has made some updates recently, the Minima Stretch template is not readily available as a choice when starting a new blog. The good news is it is still accessible but you'll have to go through some computer mumbo to change it on your blog. If you are nervous about messing with your blog settings, I suggest creating a test blog and experimenting on it instead of your real blog. Copied and pasted below in red are instructions for changing your template to Minima Stretch. Found on this site here.

Find the Edit HTML tab. It's now on the Design page. Click that and go to the bottom. The links for the old templates are there. There will be no fonts and colors tab anymore. Those functions will be found under Advance in the Template Designer once you have the minima set.

Here is a picture step by step: follow the RED.

Once you select Edit html, scroll to the bottom of page and go to "select layout template."

Then choose Minima Stretch or Minima Lefty Stretch.

Okay, now that that's out of the way here are some great links and tutorials and that have helped me tremendously. Hope you like!


How to make a custom blog header using Picasa by Sarah at Memories on Cloverlane.
In this tutorial you will also learn 1) how to make a collage using Picasa 2) how to erase the border that automatically comes around the header in the Minima templates.

How to make photos bigger in blog post also by Sarah at Memories on Cloverlane. {This how to is a little outdated since blogger only has the updated editor option now, but the content is still extremely helpful.}

The Blog Guidebook This is a great blog for blog how to's and specifically talks a lot about Picnik.

I really hope at least one of you out there benefits from this information. Please feel free to e-mail me with questions OR share any similar resources!

And because I hate to have a post without pictures.....
I'll leave you with a Picasa collage.
I recently had each of these photos printed in 8X10's and plan to hang them on a blank wall this week!