Our new blog title banner

I thought it would be fun to try making a new banner that matched the picture I have on our Google+ profile. Here's how I did it:

For the profile picture, I had to scan a sheet of white paper with a business card in front of it -  the scanner wouldn't just scan white paper, so I had to do that. I'll tell you how I put the other stuff there, but for the blog title banner, I now scanned a blank sheet of colored paper, because the scanner will scan blank colored paper -- weird.

Ok, now using Google Picasa, there's lots you can do. Click on your photo, and with the editing tools they have available, hit "Text" so you can add what you want. Of course, I wanted it to say "Noe and Cindy write", and I liked the font that we had chosen for the banner, so I picked one as similar to that as I could. (You'll have access to all the fonts on your computer, so if you don't have one you like, go get a free one to add.) You get to choose the color you want your lettering to be, and whether or not the letters have a border around them, even how wide you want the border... just fiddle with that till you like what you see. You can also make it big or small, and even angle it if you want.

After that, I used fonts that have symbols, such as the stars, butterflies, pencils, scrolled paper, and hand writing picture. Those were just the fonts that came already installed with the computer, such as DF Diversities and Monotype Sorts. These you are also able to make whatever color you want with borders, but they won't color solid unless the font symbol is colored solid. And you can place them where you like, and angle them too -- aren't my butterflies cute?

Now you need to hit "Apply" and everything you put in will be on your picture (in this case, it's just my blank sheet of purple paper, but you could have a photo of something behind instead). Next you can choose a border, with either one or two colors to it, or do a vingnette shade around it -- there's several choices. 

Once I got it to look the way I liked, I hit "save a copy" -- that way, if I decide to change it later, I can go back and not have to redo the whole thing. Then go to your blog dashboard, hit layout, click edit and say you want to upload a picture -- but first, be sure to click the "shrink to fit" button, 'cause you won't be able to choose that after you upload. Now test it to see if you like it, and if so, save... if not, go back and do your tweeks.

Free Fonts:
Urban Fonts
SimplytheBest Fonts
Font Squirrel

Thank you for reading what noeandcindy.write !

cindy