I've been attempting to make my own headers on both of my blogs. I have all these ideas in my head....but I can only do so much. (I could probably change it every day which is just crazy!)
But to get started, I have been getting many scrapbooking design kits free from various sites online. (I'll post a few at the end.) The header on this page I originally made with PowerPoint, but then used Adobe Elements to make it look better. If you go to my other site, you will definitely notice a difference in the quality. Many people suggest to go to Paint.net to download their program. For some reason, I struggle trying to get the different layers and elements that I want.
Due to many people not having Elements or some other sort of program, I will do a little tutorial in how to do a header in PowerPoint.
In PowerPoint, it is best to make a box that you will add all your papers and elements to. I usually make them 4x6 in size. Then you just need to 'insert picture' from wherever you saved your design kits. Sometimes I do lots of importing of the different elements that I use. But that's life.
**If there are any items that are hanging over the edge of the box, you will notice it once you make it a picture. So be sure to 'cut' any items that are too long, or resize things to fit within the box. **
Once you have resized, aligned, positioned, and set everything like you want, you need to do a 'select all', right click on your mouse and go to 'Groupings' and 'Group' everything. Once everything is grouped, right click again and 'Save As Picture'. Before you save it to a location you will remember, with a name that fits, make sure to change the picture format of the 'Save as type:' at the bottom of the box. It is usually set at 'emf', but I always change it to 'jpeg'.
After your new header picture is saved, go to your blog layout screen and click on 'edit' button in the header box. Upload your new header, click on 'Instead of title and description' (otherwise they will all be seen), and there you go.
Hopefully this makes sense. If not, send me an email and I can help you out. I'm no professional at this, or am very good at all. I just do it for fun. So if you have a better way of doing this, please let me know!
And if you do end up making your own header, please let me know so I can check it out!!
Design Kits: No matter where you get your kits from, be sure to give credit where it is due!! And this is only a few sites. There are hundreds out there! Not all are free...but most are.
http://summertimedesigns.blogspot.com/ (This is where I have gotten most of mine. They are great.)
http://www.shabbyprincess.com/ (These are sweet as well!)
http://scrappyweiss.blogspot.com/http://shelbellescraps.blogspot.com/http://digi-designs.blogspot.com/The following 2 link you to where free kits, elements, and alphas can be found.
http://raspberrypatch.blogspot.com/http://ikeagoddess.blogspot.com/Most of the kits are downloaded from the site 4shared.com.
Andrea wanted this one to be smaller than what I did for myself and Gina. I hope she likes it! If not, I'll be changing it later. :)
I made a very springy one last week, but wanted to change it already. And I made this in PowerPoint, since I don't have my laptop here at work, so I couldn't use Photoshop. To find the free papers and elements, go here to find a list of great sites I use.
It is normally to be used as a picture frame collage. But, to add a little color to my plain walls, I decided to add some fun papers instead of pictures. I would have too hard of a time picking out which pictures....not that I didn't have a harder time picking out which papers to put up. But this is my end result. I like it. It sure brings some spring in to my apartment.
I also had this cute little bird tag, and I found a way to use it. It brings a little dimension to an otherwise flat look.
