Monday, August 31, 2009

OCD-ed & OD-ed...all over a blog design!

so yes, if you haven't figured out yet, i spent quite a lot of time obsessing over the layout & design of this blog...so much so that i completely lost the whole point of a blog which was actual blogging! so after a couple of weeks (ok, maybe a little more than that!), i decided to stop obsessing and am finally quite happy with my current blog design. i've googled & googled & googled over & over again various topics on blogs & this is what i came up with:

 


the raison d'etre behind this design:
  • i love the concept of scrapbooking but have not had the time or resources to indulge in this art - the lovely bits & bobs available in malaysia are really expensive. so whilst looking at other blog designs, i discovered digital scrapbooking! hence i wanted to add elements of it into this layout. i'm thinking this is something that will come up more often in this blog ;)
  • the main part of the blog itself had to be plain & easy to read, which is why it has a white background in the centre with very simple fonts.
  • for the background, i wanted a damask print as i, well, love how a damask print adds  understated elegance & romance with a touch of the "old-world" charm.
  • i actually wanted to do more & design my own templates but that would mean learning photoshop which is next on my to-do list. so for now, it's just amateur editing on powerpoint slides!
  • last but not least, it had to be simple & sweet.
i used a few templates from various blogs; amended them here & there (the header especially) to make it a little more personalised. i hope in doing so, i have not violated any copyright policies and if i have, i sincerely apologise for my ignorance and of course, do let me know and i will amend it asap. 
many many many thanks go out to the following sites for without them, i would not have had such a pretty layout (well, i think it's pretty pretty...) :
  • kevinandamanda.com
    • check this site out for lots of wonderful fonts - all free too! Amanda also has tips for newbies to both scrapbooking & blogging. a site i will definitely visit very often.   
  • shabbyblogs.com
    • Shabby Blogs provides far from shabby blog templates - this is where i found the damask print for my background and also the pretty buttons found in the side bar.
  • ShabbyPrincess.com
    •  Shabby Princess also brings you not-so-shabby scrapbooking templates - lots of them! very pretty designs & so many frebies to choose from....and if that's not enough, they also have an online shabby shop for your scrapbooking shopping spree!
  • thecutestblogontheblock.com
    • this was actually where i first started with my design. they have lots of blinkies & lovely freebies - a great place to start for beginners like me ;)
  • independentfashionbloggers.org
    • i found great & easy to follow tutorial on realigning the blog header with the rest of the blog - a problem that was bugging me for days on end!
so now that i've got this design up...i am finally ready to start blogging - am stepping out of my comfort zone and announcing this to the world, and by that to my world of facebook! feedback & comments are most welcome...do go easy on me though - i am still learning through trial & error...
xxx
izreen

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts with Thumbnails