Trick Out Your Blog

Yesterday I extolled the virtues of Google.  It has been an invaluable resource in customizing my blog and really making it my own.  Today, since I have already done some of the leg work, I thought I'd share some of the links that were particularly helpful to me.  {Really, I'm just trying to keep the links handy for myself in case I want to change anything. :-)}Keep in mind that I am by no means a graphic designer and I had next to no experience with HTML code before I started blogging.  If I can do it anyone can!  

Amanda at Kevin and Amanda dot com was my original inspiration.  The first tutorial I ever followed was "How to Make a Scrapbook Blog Background".  After following that I was able to play around and learn how to create all kinds of images.  Once you know how to make your own background (or if you just want to use the cute ones that are readily available online) you can "Assign Different Backgrounds for Each of Your Blog Pages" .   So fun!!  My personal favorite, however, is "How to Use a Cute Font for Your Blog Post Titles".  Amanda makes the cutest fonts out there  and you can download them for free!  Definitely check this site out!

ShabbyBlogs has a bunch of great tutorials in addition to their cute free backgrounds.  This is where I learned how to add a post separator.  

Beth at A Mom's Life taught me how to create a Favicon.  A favicon is that cute little 3 next to my web address in your browser address bar.  It also appears on the browser tab when my page is open or next to the link if you bookmark it.  It's a super cute, super custom, super simple addition.  Without a custom favicon, the Blogger "B" will appear in those places.  Not as fun. :-(

Isabella on HubPages has a couple of great, easy to follow tutorials: "How to add a personal signature to your blog posts" .

I learned how to customize the Newer and Older Post links at the bottom of my pages at SmartBloggerz.  That's how I got the cute little house and arrows instead of the text down there.  It's not a big deal, but it's a nice little detail.  You don't even have to switch to images.  This tutorial will help you just change the wording if you want.

You can add a link in the bottom corner of your screen that takes you back to the top of the page at Techknowl.  It's nice to not have to scroll back up to the top after reading a long post, or several posts. 

If you want to get a little more tricky, Blogger Sentral teaches how to stick different widgets to specific blog pages.  This is how I got different headers on each of my blog pages.  I created all the different images, added them as picture widgets between my front page header and post section, and then "stuck" each one to the page on which it belongs.  It is also how I got my recipe links on the recipes page without typing them all in and linking them individually. Not the simplest trick I did, but for sure one of my favorites.

Color Magic Photography offers a quick little chunk of code you can add to hide the side bar on your stand alone pages.  I feel like it makes those pages a little less busy.  That may not be important to you, but I wanted the focus to be on what I was spotlighting on each page with as few distraction as possible.


I know it's a little scary at first to click on that Edit HTML tab.  None of us wants to kill our blog by tinkering too much.  I think each of the links above mention this, but it bears repeating one more time:  ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR TEMPLATE BEFORE MAKING ANY CHANGES!!!  The button to do it is right there at the top of the page when you open up your template.  That way if you accidentally break your blog, you can restore it without losing anything.  Good luck!