Make your own blog header!

Update #2: When I published this post over two years ago, I never imagined it would be one of the top in Google searches. It gets close to 100 hits every day. Wow! I know for a lot of big bloggers that’s no biggie, but this post by far brings the majority of my traffic here. I hope you stick around and see what else is here. I have begun posting more regularly again and would love for you to subscribe. 

Also, I no longer use GIMP to make headers, I’m using Photoshop now. Do my instructions still work in newer versions of GIMP or do I need to update? No one’s complained yet, but please let me so I can update if needed. 

Thanks for stopping by! Hope this is what you were looking for! If so, please continue to leave a comment and let me know! 

 

Update: So I see that this post has been getting at least a dozen hits a day, but no comments. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think of this tutorial. Was it helpful? Was one part confusing? Did you use it to make your own header? Send me a link if you did!

In honor of my new blog header and the frequency which it seems to change, I thought I’d put together a little tutorial on how to do one yourself. I ended up figuring out how to do it on my own, but I know not everyone is skilled that way, so I decided to share.

First thing you need to do is find a scrapbooking kit. You can purchase these if you would like, but personally, I like things that are free. So if your like me, head here! Once you have downloaded it, open the zip file and file it somewhere where you can find it later.

The next thing you need is a photo editing software, like Photoshop or GIMP. If you don’t have one, download GIMP, it’s free too!

Now open up your software program, and your ready to go.

First thing you need to do is determine what size you need your header to be. The Word Press layout I’m using says that the header size is 904 x 160 pixels, so that’s what I will make the size of my header. A standard Blogger size seems to be 650 x 300 pixels. Blogger accepts any size, but just keep in mind how it will look on your blog.

Okay so let’s get started.

Open up a new project and then set the size to what you need or want. I entered 904 X 160 pixels for my WordPress blog.

Now you should have a blank project open in your screen. Now your going to go in and pick your background “paper.” Go to File, and then click open as layers, and then select your file and open it.

Now my background is open, but the paper is very “zoomed in,” so I need to scale it down. How much you scale it down is really a personal preference. Play around with it until you find something that you like.

One thing you have to keep in mind when scaling is the size of your canvas as well as the size and shape of the item your using. See in the picture below how there is the square outline on the screen? That is showing the size of the “paper” that I am using in comparison to my canvas. If I tried to manipulate that into my canvas, it would get stretched and end up looking, well, odd. Possibly. It’s all about the look your trying to create.

So continue to add more “papers” and embellishments using the same method as before.  And also add your text. I usually make this the last thing I do. If you want some fun fonts, try looking here and here for some great free ones. I also highlighted some handy buttons in your toolbox in the picture below.

When your done, you need to save it! Very important!

When you click save, a box like above should pop up. Put in the title of your document, then select where you would like it to be saved, then, select the file type. You need to scroll down and select the JPG, JPEG file type! Then hit save!

Tada! Your done the hard part now. And here comes the best part, uploading it so all your adoring fans can see it!

For WordPress Users:

I strongly recommend choosing your theme before you create your header. Look for a theme that has the tag “custom header” or search by that feature. Once you have chosen, click on custom header, under appearances. Then look for the numbers that tell you what size will be used as-is. Create your header off of those numbers. Then come back and upload your header, and your done!

For Blogger Users:

You need to go into your dashboard and then choose layout. Click edit in the top box that should read the title of your blog. Then upload your header as a picture from your computer, and click on instead of title and description under placement. Let it upload your your done!

Hopefully you all found this helpful, easy, painfree and enjoy creating your own header(s). Please don’t hesitate to ask any questions that you may have!

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