Blog Tip -- Making a Button!

 I'm no expert, but I love helping other people out! So if you want to start a blog but just aren't sure how, or if you have a blog but want to take it up a notch, I will help you through it. Email questions to randomosityblog AT gmail DOT com and I will answer them in a future post. If you want to make your blog better, this series will definitely help!

Today I'm going to walk you through making a button for your blog. There may be an easier way, but this is the way I do it. This is assuming you have a layout that you love (like I do).

First, take a screen shot of your layout. To take a screen shot, hold down the PRTSC button on your computer. With my laptop, I have to hold down "FN" and "PRTSC" at the same time. Then open up Paint (Start, Programs, Accessories, Paint). Right click, PASTE. Save the image in JPG format.

Go to www.picnik.com and register (it's free). Upload your photo from above, and then crop it. To crop, just go to EDIT, and then click CROP. Highlight the area you want to keep.

This is what it will look like after it's cropped.

Now, click on CREATE. You can do whatever you want at this point, but I always put a frame on my buttons. Click FRAMES. Then on the left, you will see BORDER. Change the thickness, colors, etc.

You can make your button any size, but I think most pages use 150x150. At this point, you want to go back and click EDIT then RESIZE. Resize to 150x150 (or whatever size you prefer). I chose 150 in the fist box, and checked "keep dimensions" so the other number ended up being 138.

Go back to the CREATE tab. Your dashboard will have less options because I have the premium version, but there are still tons of options when using the free version. Now is when you want to add text.

Top left hand corner: Type your text here.

Left hand column: Font choices.

Box on the right side: Colors, size, fade. If you click the area where the arrow is, the cursor will turn into a "dropper". Click the dropper on the button you have created, to match the color perfectly. I used the dropper on the lips section, so the text matches. You can click "fade" if you are using a bold color and want it to fade a bit. I do that on lots of my pictures.

Now, it's time to save. Just choose "SAVE PHOTO" and there you have it! You have created your own button! Picnik.com is great and a fun free way to edit photos and make buttons. Play around with the different effects and you will be surprised at what you can create!

To get the button to your blog, upload it on Photo Bucket and copy the HTML code into the template of your blog. 

Edit: The HTML code will have a link towards the beginning of the code. It will be something like "http:// target=_blank". Take the address out (http://blahblahblah) and replace it with your blog address (http://yourblog.com). Hope that makes sense!

I hope this was easy to understand... I didn't think it was going to be this drawn out. :) If you have any questions, just ask. I'd love it if you would leave a comment so I can see the buttons you have created!!