Saturday, April 12, 2008

Good stuff I want to share ~






Changing the background of your blog:

First, research on the web wallpaper websites or fabric websites till you find a sample that you really like right click it and save it to your hard drive. You can scan your favorite fabric and save it as a jpg or maybe even scan something that has a pattern on it that you love. I wouldn't use anything that you would get in trouble copyright wise.

Make sure that the sample you clicked on has no white border or anything around the edge.

Then what I do next is upload it to my free www.Flickr.com account. The reason being is that they store it there and offer you different sizes of this photo. Click on "all sizes" after you have uploaded it and you will have a selection of small ,medium and large. I click on the small. Then under the photo they will give you the http address where it is stored. Highlight and copy this (Ctrl c).

(Oh by the way I use the MINIMA template for my blog but on my links blog I used Scribe I think the name is and you can change the background there too!)

Go into your blog to the template area. click on Edit HTML and look for this section in the mumbo jumbo weirdo coding:



);margin:0;color:$textcolor;font:x-small Georgia Serif;font-size/* */:/**/small;font-size: /**/small;text-align: center;
}



Do you see the highlighted blue area? That is what you will highlight and PASTE (Ctrl c will copy what you've highlighted and Ctrl v will paste what you've highlighted) in your new photo image that will be your background.
It may look like this if your background is a solid color:
body { background:$bgcolor;
margin:0;color:$textcolor;font:x-small Georgia Serif;font-size/* */:/**/small;font-size: /**/small;text-align: center;
}
but you need to copy and paste the entire line below (but with your image from flickr.....):
body {background-image: url(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2201/2084631059_7baff00a96_o.gif
);margin:0;color:$textcolor;font:x-small Georgia Serif;font-size/* */:/**/small;font-size: /**/small;text-align: center;
}

PREVIEW IT first before you save anything. What you might do before you ever get started is highlight the original HTML of your blog that is in the window and paste it into a Wordpad file on you computer and save it to your harddrive just for safekeeping and if you mess up you will have it to go back and copy and paste back into your template area.

Please let me know if you have any questions, OK?

xxoo,
Dawn

20 comments:

A Wild Thing said...

Mumbo jumbo weirdo coding...you have such a flair with words Dawn...cool, thanks again for the info...Sharon

Nancy Hood said...

thank you!! I've often admired yours, and now look, once again you've shared several patterns with us~Nancy

Tara said...

Thanks

I have been trying to figure out how this is done!

Stokes and Company said...

I can't figure it out. This is the background I want.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stokeschicantiques/2408650258/

I have tried to change it but it won't work. Help.

Lori said...

i know...you are so sweet to share your info with everyone...i did try this before when you gave me the step by step, practically holding my hand and doing it for me instructions and i still couldn't do it...my latest dilemma is my new printer and photo cropping...any words of wisdom on that? i CANNOT use photoshop and i tried UNSUCCESSFULLY to download picassa this morning...i am SO hopeless...

LivingTheLife said...

You are such a sweetie to share...but you lost me at "hard drive" and "jpg"...lol...I am such a "Jessica"...Simpson that is...when it comes to anything technical...I'm also having problems with my computer...it is not showing colors properly...so I am afraid I would pick out something that looks great to me...but in reality it is heinous!!
Butttt...I'm going to forward this to my wiz of a daughter and maybe she will help me out...maybe she'll just do it for me!! Ahhh...now that's no way to learn.

Thanks Dawn...you are so generous...not many people would even think of sharing this...much less take the time to write it all out in step by step instructions and share...THANKS!

Blessings...
Teresa

Becky said...

Oh dawn, thanks for this. It is one thing I couldn't figure out.
I'm gonna try it.
Thanks for being so nice and sharing. I bet you shared all your toys when you were a little girl.

Smiles,
Becky

Sarah B. B. said...

Thank you so much! I've been trying to figure this out myself, to no avail, so I'm thrilled with my results! :) You're so sweet to help.

Charmingdesigns said...

Oh Dawn I am so glad to see I'm not the only one with problems :) This gal that did mine for me, said that it was stubborn, I'm wondering if different firewalls are causing issues?? I dont know...but now that there is a new one in there, she thinks I will be able to change it out easier. Laurie

FleasKneesStudio.blogspot.com said...

Wow, how did you get so SMART??? I am saving this little bit of amazing information for when I get to make my own blog; hopefully one day soon. Thank you! (I LOVE YOU!!!) :-) linda s.

Vee said...

I had several heart-stopping moments trying this. Obviously, I am doing something wrong. Good thing I followed your advice to save the information so that I could easily go back to what I had. I'll keep watching for further comments to see what may be going on. (I don't have nor do I want a Flickr account so that may be it. I was trying to use Photobucket.)

Teresa said...

Thanks for the tutorial! This has been something I've played around with, with very little success. I'll try again soon when I have a bit of time to work with it. I love learning new things!!

Anonymous said...

Dawn, this is exactly what I was pondering as I lay in bed last night trying to go to sleep. I will give it a try as soon as I can. Thanks!
~Joanna

Julie said...

I love this site for backgrounds and design elemements" http://www.motzgraphics.com/backgrounds/fabrics.htm

It has fabrics and wood grains and paper and stones and embossings and hides....

Sandy said...

Yum, more technology tips! I was wondering how all those lovely backgrounds were installed!

Mandi said...

will I be able to do it in blogger...sometimes it all seems so complicated...love your things tho ...

*S* said...

Thank you so very much for posting these instructions. I have been struggling trying to personalize my background and I haven't found anything helpful on the internet until I found your post. Thank you again.

Dementia : Our Story said...

Have been trying to use this great information but with no success. Not sure what I am doing wrong except maybe using Photobucket? Please help.
I just love reading your blog and all your ideas. Love your style. Will keep coming back to check.
huggs
Linda

Dementia : Our Story said...

Have been trying to use this great information but with no success. Not sure what I am doing wrong except maybe using Photobucket? Please help.
I just love reading your blog and all your ideas. Love your style. Will keep coming back to check.
huggs
Linda

Anonymous said...

Soy española, no entiendo nada. Quisiera saber como cambiar la plantilla de mi blog por una imagen guardada en mi pc o en un álbum flickr. No sé que hay que copiar y pegar. Porfavor, ayuda. Gracias.


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