Thanks to my friends Wendy and Rachel, I have now been able to get my newly designed blog background and header to work. It’s still a work in progress and I apologise if some of the headings aren’t yet that easy to read – for some reason the background is coming out much darker than my original design – it’s as if a dark semi-transparent layer comes down over it immediately after you open the blog. Hopefully we will iron out this small difficulty and you will soon see it as it should be.
Details of the Design
The header consists of a montage of photos (from left to right) of some knitting I did ages ago (now awaiting unravelling and knitting up again) – Kaffe Fasset style in yellows and purples. I love that tunic top, but unfortunately it is now too small for me, but one day it will be knitted again in all its former glory!
In the middle is a snippet of an interesting rock formation at the Bullring in Oban.
On the right is my first piece of hand-made paper made from recycled paper towels (kitchen roll), distress inks, DIY glimmer mist and gilding flakes.
The butterfly is an image I had on my computer, and the flowers are photos I took of several hibiscus flowers I made last year according to Penny Duncan’s cut file of the hibiscus flower – I extracted them from the background and they are now useful as digital elements in my projects.
I did the design of the whole blog background in a combination of Serif CraftArtist Platinum and Serif PhotoPlus, and the faux embroidered border along the bottom of the header was an element from CraftArtist. The montages were done by using different blending modes and transparency settings.
The main body of the blog consists of photographs I took last year of some ancient parish records dating back to the 1600s, from which I have created some vintage backgrounds. You can see some of them on this project – the book-style card I made for my mother’s 90th birthday last year.
Top left is a photo I took of some honeycomb, with a bee on it, and underneath this, and on the right as well, are some photos of a wonderful old cracked pot I photographed years ago when I got my first digital camera.
At the bottom on the left is a photograph of a beautiful wall that I photographed at Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire when we were on holiday there several years ago.
I have also made a texture overlay of this.
Bottom right (but not really visible, I’m afraid, as it seems to be a bit cut off!) is a photo of a glorious Norfolk split flint wall. (I also made a texture overlay of this one.)
I love taking photos of walls, tiles, textures…
On both sides, I have added to the montage some of my recent digital backgrounds created from a still-life painting in oils.
Unfortunately, while the dark layer is still over the background, these are not visible.
I think this new blog background expresses far better the sort of person I am than the previous one, which I chose when I first started my blog. The new background incorporates my love of colour and texture, and photographing such things, and also some of the creativity I enjoy. It’s been a long hard slog to get it up and running, and hopefully over the next few days we’ll iron out the final niggles and you’ll see it in all its glory!
You finally did it sorry I was not much help, As I said I keep changing this and that setting until it just ops into place on it own, Loce all the colours in this.
ReplyDeleteOne suggestion you might want to change the Purple link colour that's the only bit that I find hard to read as it all blurs into one and I cant make out the letters. Well done you
You've made a great start. I love the mix of ideas and as I recognise so many of the elements from your previous posts, it is certainly very personal to you. At the moment the purple script is almost impossible for me to read, but maybe that will be clearer once the problem with the dark overlay has gone. I'm sure you will do it, and I look forward to seeing the finiahed page. Kate x
ReplyDeleteI just love what you have done! I'd give it a go but don't know who could help me out when things go wrong!
ReplyDeleteSome amazing bits and pieces on here- I'm always inspired by your posts.
ReplyDeleteFabulous collage of your favourite pieces ... I'd love to create a blog background along similar lines. (Particularly love the bee on the honeycomb that I can see as I write this!) I've just got Craft Artist Professional, but will need to practice a lot before I can get to the point where I can even consider designing something as ambitious as this :) It's lovely. Elizabeth x (WOYWW #26)
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