One of my new favourite websites is PSDTUTS.com (PSDTUTS is short for Photoshop Tutorials - the PSD is the Photoshop file extension). It’s laid out really well for the novice by showing step-by-step instructions on how to do stuff in Photoshop from scratch, and with existing photos. I was having a play around with this tutorial and thought I’d adapt it for my own website banner.

You may have to refresh the page to see the new banner, or here’s a thumbnail.

If you’ve clicked over to look at the tutorial you’ll note that mine is very very different from it. I took the principals of the tutorial and went quite off track - really off track. Instead of using a gradient I used a pattern which explains the texture, although there still is a gradient or two included. I also used some brushes because I love brushes. I already had some brushes I’d downloaded previously but I found some more at Obsidian Dawn. Did I say I love brushes?

I don’t begin to use half of the features in Photoshop but I want to make it my mission to learn to do so.

This was my old web banner.

(click to view larger image).

I don’t have any particular schedule for when I change my blog banner but today is the day.

When looking back through all the old ones I can see that my graphic design skills aren’t that great, but I think there has been an improvement over the three years I’ve been doing this blog.

As usual I add my old one for posterity (click to view full image).

When I update my blog banner I choose a colour I like from it for my text link colours and change them also. I usually just change the link colour and the active link colour (the colour that you see when you hover over a link).

This is fine for the text in my actual blog but it also now involves changing link colours in a couple of widgets I have also. Luckily I’m somewhat familiar with HTML so this makes my job a lot easier.

The offer for you bit

Are you bored with your blog banner? Do you want a new one?

If you want, I’m willing to do you a new one and help you implement it if the thought of getting your hands dirty in your blog scares you silly. I’m only offering this for one person, so plead your case in my comments and I’ll pick my favourite out of the comments and then work with you to design a new banner.

You have one week from today, so last comments in by midnight Friday 17 August my time, that’s GMT +9.30 hours. (I’ve extended the deadline because I’ve had no takers yet even though people who’ve commented reckon it’s a great idea).

Disclaimer: I’m not a graphic designer, just a dabbler in Photoshop. If you want a professional graphically designed blog banner, then this offer isn’t for you.

I got bored with my old weblog banner so I’ve created a new one. I read or thought of the old ‘So and So Bloggs’ yesterday and thought I would use it just because of the ‘Bloggs’ bit. It could be interpreted in two ways. That is ‘Jaycee - Bloggs here, and Jaycee Bloggs - here (the ‘-’ used as a pause in these instances).

It’s particularly pertinent for me because I blog here fairly anonymously and Bloggs is the epitome of a pseudonym.

As I usually do when I update my blog template, I include a picture of the old one for posterity (click to view full image).

As we welcome in a new year, I welcome in a new blog template. I would like to do more than just flutter around this year. I’m trying the tack of reverse psychology here. I quite often find myself literally fluttering around the house like a butterfly not really achieving anything.

Here’s my old blog banner.

The new banner uses some Encre Photoshop brushes. The possibilities are almost endless with Photoshop brushes and my use of them is very basic, but I have fun doing it.

Having said above that I find myself sometimes not achieving very much, when I look back over 2006 I think I have achieved a fair amount.

My son turned 5 and started primary school. It was a big change for both of us and brought up issues that I never envisaged, ones we’re working through still and will continue to work through in 2007.

I turned 40 in 2006. I guess that’s an achievement in itself, lasting that long without any major mishap in my life. I managed to organise a 40th birthday party which was great fun for me and confirmed that I do have a bunch of great friends who will help me out, and come along to yet another party the third week in a row.

In November I posted to this blog every day for the whole month for NaBloPoMo - the whole excruciating 30 days. Goodness knows why. Perhaps because I like a challenge. Perhaps because I’ve got nothing better to do? Hmmm.

I organised my house around it being painted on most of the inside. This was a mammoth task and one that’s still not quite finished. I still haven’t had the garage sale of the things I don’t want and/or need any more. I have to have it before the end of January though, when my 16 year old nephew comes to board with me while he goes to school in Adelaide.

I joined an online readers’ group - the challenge being to read a Patrick White book - The Vivisector. I’d never been in any sort of readers’ group and I’d never read Patrick White. I found it tough going as you can see here, here and here.

Not being content with just having one blog, I turned a website that I started in 2004 into a blog. This meant I had to teach myself how to install and run Wordpress. Since I released it in November I’ve managed to update it once a week - with a bit of a lapse in the last couple of weeks over Christmas.

At work I filled in for my boss twice while she was on long service leave - about four months in total. That gave me some extra stress, stress I could have done without the second time, but I managed it without too many stuff ups.

I haven’t made definite plans for 2007. Truthfully, I haven’t made any plans. I still can’t decide whether I want to try and change jobs as I’ve been in mine for nearly four years and while I quite like it it might be time for a change. But at the moment, with my son only having recently started school and with my nephew boarding here for potentially the next two years, I think one day at a time will suffice for now.

There’s change afoot. My blog template has moved from 2 to 3 columns so that items are more visible, in particular, I’ve joined the BlogHerAds network. Not sure how that will pan out but thought I’d give it a go.

Also, my new banner is pre-empting a change, a change of leaving my thirties and entering my forties. I’ve got a bit of time to go but more on that later.

The photo in my new banner is me when I was a baby. There’ll be more of that around my change in decades.

And for posterity, here is my old banner.

Even a Photoshop novice can experiment with brushes and make something that otherwise might be beyond their means. When I say ‘their’, I mean me in this instance. I’ve changed my blog theme yet again because I found this website that has a heap of brushes you can use so long as you give a link back to his site. The site being Photoshop brushes.

I liked the stars, hence the ’stars in her eyes’. Not really sure what else this alludes to but I guess it’s also a bit of a cliche and therefore easily remembered.

My old banner ’tis here.

Time for a change with my blog template. It also gives me an excuse to see what’s happening out in Photoshop land and have a bit of a practise. Generally my Photoshop skills aren’t that great and I don’t have heaps of time to spend. I did find this site where you can download heaps of free brushes. It looks really good on the site and I don’t know that I do it justice. I just visited his site and it appears as though he’s moving. I’ll try to keep this link updated though.

Here’s my old banner.

‘the grass is greener…’ bit is a reminder to me that the grass isn’t always necessarily greener. For example, people who earn more money aren’t necessarily happier, people in relationships aren’t necessarily happier, people who don’t have to get up early because they don’t have kids aren’t necessarily happier, people who live in really nice houses aren’t necessarily happier etc etc. It’s a reminder to me that these things don’t mean that the grass is greener.

My singledom, sole parenting and the financial worries that entails, and living in a house that isn’t what I’d really like to live in is really okay. I’ve got a good social life, I’ve got a pretty great kid, my house is at least on the way to being my own and I’ve got a reasonable job so my grass is really quite green. I don’t have to look over the fence in envy.