imagine gnats has a new look!! earlier this week, i starting wondering if needed a fresh new look, and resistance was futile. after spending two days (ok, maybe three) sucked into the evil depths of html, i'm excited to say that everything is mostly up and running, just in time to enjoy the weekend.
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trust me when i say that this redesign pushed blogger to its limits. but yes, my friends, you can achieve a beautiful, responsive, and custom look using blogger... provided you have a lot of time on your hands, good friends who know a lot of important things about code, a little patience, and the right resources.
i don't know where the secret fountain of patience is located or how to manufacture time, and i certainly don't understand most of what i did well enough to really tell you how you can do the same things, but i thought i would share with you some of the great resources i found for everything from overhauling your blog to tweaking a few elements, changing up your social media icons to making sharing your posts even easier for your readers.
blogger templates
out of all the sites i combed through, the two shown below were by far my favorites. the template i used is Zikazev Blue by Kang Ismet, which i downloaded from the selection of blogger templates on Lovely Templates. though none were quite right for what i wanted, the templates on Templateify are all written specifically for blogger and some of them are downright gorgeous.
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here's a bit of help from google on how to upload a new blogger template. i warn you: uploading a new tempate is not for the faint of heart. but technically, as long as you follow directions and back-up your files, you should be good.
thumbnail photos
even with a template that was pretty close to what i wanted, i still needed to make some changes. one major edit was changing the default thumbnail photo size and aspect ratio for the post summaries on the main page. though it doesn't address that specific issue, the "Resize your thumbnails in blogger poplar posts widget" post from blogger xpertise was infinitely helpful. it details what information is coded into the links of photos hosted in blogger as well as sharing code for resizing thumbnails defaults which can also be applied for similar uses.
moving, adding, and manipulating widgets
so, all of the little boxes on the site with different links or pictures or whatever in them are widgets and you can drag them around and add new things in the blogger layout tab. there are lots of great things to put in these boxes, but there are also lots of ways to manipulate the boxes themselves.
with the help of "How to Add New Widget Sections in Blogger on Different Places?" from Blogging eHow, you can add new widget sections and you can also divide widgets into multiple sections. why do you want to do this? well, you could add a section above your header for ad display. with divided sections, you could have two widgets side-by-side that display under your most recent post, each with a separate social media feed perhaps.
you can take your widget sections a bit further by setting some to only appear on certain pages. that's right. see how there is a "posts to pin" section over there in the right sidebar? if you click back to the home page or any static page, like this page about embroidery... yep. gone. this is the same trick that makes it possible to display the large image slider on the home page only on the home page. i used a combination of the posts listed below to walk me through figuring out the page codes and where to add the code in the html for the correct widgets:
image slider
there aren't a ton of great photo sliders for blogger (free, at least), but i liked some of the options from Image Slider for Blogger. i used the JavaScript Image Slider (design credit: dimpost.com), shown below.
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alright, i have lots more to share about widgets i used in my sidebars and a bunch of pinterest-friendly and social media type stuff. so look forward to that soon. if there's anything specific you'd like to know about, i'm happy to do what i can to help. like i said, i'm mostly hacking my way through this thing but i'm willing to share what i've found!
a huge thanks to two amazing sewists and bloggers, Sarah of Sew What Sherlock and Anne of Play Crafts. without their help i would seriously be rocking in the corner right now. but beyond that, they are both just talented and lovely... if you're not already following both of these blogs, you're missing out.
happystitching coding!
xo,
rachael
trust me when i say that this redesign pushed blogger to its limits. but yes, my friends, you can achieve a beautiful, responsive, and custom look using blogger... provided you have a lot of time on your hands, good friends who know a lot of important things about code, a little patience, and the right resources.
i don't know where the secret fountain of patience is located or how to manufacture time, and i certainly don't understand most of what i did well enough to really tell you how you can do the same things, but i thought i would share with you some of the great resources i found for everything from overhauling your blog to tweaking a few elements, changing up your social media icons to making sharing your posts even easier for your readers.
blogger templates
out of all the sites i combed through, the two shown below were by far my favorites. the template i used is Zikazev Blue by Kang Ismet, which i downloaded from the selection of blogger templates on Lovely Templates. though none were quite right for what i wanted, the templates on Templateify are all written specifically for blogger and some of them are downright gorgeous.
here's a bit of help from google on how to upload a new blogger template. i warn you: uploading a new tempate is not for the faint of heart. but technically, as long as you follow directions and back-up your files, you should be good.
thumbnail photos
even with a template that was pretty close to what i wanted, i still needed to make some changes. one major edit was changing the default thumbnail photo size and aspect ratio for the post summaries on the main page. though it doesn't address that specific issue, the "Resize your thumbnails in blogger poplar posts widget" post from blogger xpertise was infinitely helpful. it details what information is coded into the links of photos hosted in blogger as well as sharing code for resizing thumbnails defaults which can also be applied for similar uses.
moving, adding, and manipulating widgets
so, all of the little boxes on the site with different links or pictures or whatever in them are widgets and you can drag them around and add new things in the blogger layout tab. there are lots of great things to put in these boxes, but there are also lots of ways to manipulate the boxes themselves.
with the help of "How to Add New Widget Sections in Blogger on Different Places?" from Blogging eHow, you can add new widget sections and you can also divide widgets into multiple sections. why do you want to do this? well, you could add a section above your header for ad display. with divided sections, you could have two widgets side-by-side that display under your most recent post, each with a separate social media feed perhaps.
you can take your widget sections a bit further by setting some to only appear on certain pages. that's right. see how there is a "posts to pin" section over there in the right sidebar? if you click back to the home page or any static page, like this page about embroidery... yep. gone. this is the same trick that makes it possible to display the large image slider on the home page only on the home page. i used a combination of the posts listed below to walk me through figuring out the page codes and where to add the code in the html for the correct widgets:
blogger xpertise: Using blogger page types to affect your blog design
image slider
there aren't a ton of great photo sliders for blogger (free, at least), but i liked some of the options from Image Slider for Blogger. i used the JavaScript Image Slider (design credit: dimpost.com), shown below.
alright, i have lots more to share about widgets i used in my sidebars and a bunch of pinterest-friendly and social media type stuff. so look forward to that soon. if there's anything specific you'd like to know about, i'm happy to do what i can to help. like i said, i'm mostly hacking my way through this thing but i'm willing to share what i've found!
a huge thanks to two amazing sewists and bloggers, Sarah of Sew What Sherlock and Anne of Play Crafts. without their help i would seriously be rocking in the corner right now. but beyond that, they are both just talented and lovely... if you're not already following both of these blogs, you're missing out.
happy
xo,
rachael
