A DIY Blog Makeover

The new look on my blog has been up for about a week and a half, but I haven't said much about it yet. This one was a DIY project. I felt like my sidebar was getting unruly and longer and longer and longer. I also wanted the look to be a little more cohesive. I'm really happy with how things turned out, so I thought I'd give you a little tour of what's new :)

I changed the header a little bit. I took a new picture and added a darker band and lighter text. I think it makes a big difference...

Old header

New header

My "Tutorials" page is now organized into categories. I used Windows Live Writer to create this page. If you haven't downloaded it yet, I really recommend it for things like this. It's so easy to make a table and add links to all of the pictures.

See that little button all the way over on the right directly under my picture? That's where you'll find my blog buttons now, and I created a new one. Love it!

Point of View has its own page now. This is where you'll find themes and dates for upcoming collages and link parties as well as links to previous Point of View reveals.

I'd really encourage anyone with a blog to get over their fear of HTML code. If there is something you want to try, make a backup copy of your HTML template first, then try it! If it doesn't work out, you can always go back to the way it was. There are so many HTML tutorials out there. Google anything you want to learn how to do and you can find the code for it. Check out my "Blog Stuff" Pinterest board for links to some tips, tricks, icons, and HTML code stuff.

But... if you don't want to take the time to learn or you're just too afraid to take the plunge or you want to do something that might be a little too complicated for a beginner, hire a professional. There are lots of blog designers out there with pretty reasonable prices. You can get a full makeover or just a new header or a snazzy nav bar. (This is where I'll plug my friend Kristin over at Simply Klassic Design. She did my previous blog makeover and was fantastic to work with. Check out her portfolio here.)

While I'm talking blog stuff, don't forget the Gwenny Penny Flickr Group! If you make something using or inspired by one of my tutorials, add it to the group! I would absolutely love to see it :)

One other thing that I haven't mentioned on the blog yet (even though I've had a button for it in my sidebar for a while) is that I am attending the SNAP creative blog conference out in Utah in April! I leave five weeks from today. I'm really excited to meet some of my favorite bloggers and blog friends in real life. And I'm really, really excited because I get to spend four days hanging out with this girl :)

I'll end this post with a blog-related warning/vent. About two weeks ago Blogger's automatic spam detectors mistakenly deleted my blog and about gave me a heart attack for almost 24 hours. Spam detectors are not an exact science and mistakes are made. The thing that really frosted my cookie, however, was that I didn't get an email from Blogger. I was given no notice, no explanation, and no information on how to resolve the issue. My blog just disappeared from my dashboard and the internet. Luckily I was able to do some research and figure out what hoops to jump through to get myself reinstated and prove that I'm not spammy. Let's just say that there were tears shed, but I am glad to have everything back to normal. So the warning... back-up your blog, folks. Do it now! Do it regularly. You never know...