These sites were all immensely helpful to me while I was creating my new design. If you are interested in trying some things yourself I highly recommend checking them out!
Tutorials
Blogger Buster - has great tutorials about every aspect of designing your own custom template and then tweaking it to look exactly how you want it.
Split Decisionz - lots of great tutorials for the beginner. Many of them were based on readers comments and questions.
Background Images
Split Decisionz - lots of great tutorials for the beginner. Many of them were based on readers comments and questions.
Background Images
GRSites - has tons of tiles that can be used as background images
BG Patterns - this is an awesome site that lets you create custom tiles with the designs they have on the site. Or, you can just download tiles made by other users. You can use these tiles in a repeating design to make a background.
Free Digital Scrapbooking - I used papers from this site for my backgrounds
Shabby Princess - Also has some great papers that could be used as backgrounds
Images
BG Patterns - this is an awesome site that lets you create custom tiles with the designs they have on the site. Or, you can just download tiles made by other users. You can use these tiles in a repeating design to make a background.
Free Digital Scrapbooking - I used papers from this site for my backgrounds
Shabby Princess - Also has some great papers that could be used as backgrounds
Images
iStockPhoto - One of my favorite sites to look for images for a header. The downside is that you have to pay for these. They're not horribly expensive but I didn't use them because I was going for the "totally free" look. I especially recommend looking in the Vector Illustrations category. You'll find images from some of your favorite blogs there.
Vector Magic - I used this to make the peanut in my header. You can upload a regular photo and this site will convert it into a vector image for you. Really cool! (and also FREE!)
Vector Magic - I used this to make the peanut in my header. You can upload a regular photo and this site will convert it into a vector image for you. Really cool! (and also FREE!)
Photo Manipulation
Paint.net - This is a program that is comparable to Photoshop but it's completely free! I used this to edit some background images and also to make my header
Fonts
Fonts
1001 Free Fonts - Download tons of free fonts to customize your header or whatever else you like
Urban Fonts - More free fonts
There are lots of other free font sites out there. Just google "free fonts"
Urban Fonts - More free fonts
There are lots of other free font sites out there. Just google "free fonts"
Color Palette
Color Palette Generator - You can upload any photo and this site will generate a color palette based on the image. This was extremely helpful!
Color Schemer - Pick any color and then the site will generate a group of complimentary colors and give you their hex codes. I've used this site over and over again! My favorite color site!
There were lots and lots of other sites that I used but the ones above were the most helpful. Especially the tutorials. There are links from some of the tutorials that may be helpful to you as well.
Have fun designing!
Color Palette Generator - You can upload any photo and this site will generate a color palette based on the image. This was extremely helpful!
Color Schemer - Pick any color and then the site will generate a group of complimentary colors and give you their hex codes. I've used this site over and over again! My favorite color site!
There were lots and lots of other sites that I used but the ones above were the most helpful. Especially the tutorials. There are links from some of the tutorials that may be helpful to you as well.
Have fun designing!
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