resources

Resources for Bloggers

07/21/2014 by Jennifer 3 Comments

I’m always pleasantly surprised by the effect that a thoughtful blog post can have on my whole week. I love when bloggers get real. It might be one of my favorite things ever. Hope you’ll love these inspiring articles just as much as I do.

1. Talk to Your Readers – I love this post by Breanna Rose about connecting with readers through comments. I’ll be the first to say that I’m terrible at replying to comments (sorry!). Whenever a blog post receives a new comment, I smile and get all warm and fuzzy and then I forget to write back. Whoops. Commenting in general is becoming a lost art, I believe, because it’s easy to feel like one tiny human in a sea of other readers. Also, it’s easy to get distracted when scrolling through a never ending blog feed. I’m trying to get better at commenting on blog posts I think are amazing.

2. I Blog vs I am a Blogger – Upon reading this title on Allyssa Barnes’s blog, I thought the post was going to be about something completely different. It’s all about the way we identify ourselves in the blogging community. Are we bloggers or are we creatives/designers/crafters/pretty-picture-appreciaters who blog? I don’t think it’s entirely necessary to choose either statement, but it sure is interesting to think about!

3. How to Talk About Your Blog in Real Life – Erika’s description of what it’s like to talk about your blog in real life is spot on. Bringing up blogging requires answering a ton of crazy questions like, “Oh blogging, you mean like Tumblr?” and “How will that ever make you money?”. Ahhh. It’s rough!

4. What’s in a Name? – In her post On Creatives and Titles, Amber writes about the confidence it requires to describe oneself as a “creative” or any other similar title. Even if everyone knows you as a photographer, designer, blogger, etc., it can still be difficult to call yourself one.

Do any of these topics particularly resonate with you?

Thanks to the ladies above for inspiring me this week with your genuine thoughts on blogging.

Making Product Collages for your Blog

07/11/2014 by Jennifer 20 Comments

Hi there! I’ve created a screencast tutorial to share how I make product collages for my blog posts using Photoshop. I wanted to keep it short and sweet, so it is pretty simple. Enjoy!

Photos Used:
1. Bella Sunglasses – Ruche
2. Just my Cup of Tea Cup – House of Rym
3. Open Heart Ring – Moorea Seal
4. Pineapple Ice Trays – Anthropologie
5. Curve 45oz Teapot – Red Sail
6. Golden Ratios Boxed Candle – LEIF
7. Little Guy Earrings – Kate Spade Saturday
8. Mountain Tote Bag – Nell & Mary
9. Senegalese Knitting Basket – Territory

Sheesh, videos are awkward! But sometimes you’ve gotta have them. Pardon my squeaky voice and the fuzzy quality. Have a fantastic, summery weekend. :)

Intro to CSS + Cheat Sheet

07/08/2014 by Jennifer 8 Comments

Over the past couple of years, I have grown to love CSS so much. It’s a very exciting feeling to completely style a website or blog only using codes. It’s like learning another language. A really nerdy (but fun) language. If you’re not too familiar with CSS yet, read on!

CSS? It’s like HTML right?
CSS and HTML are not the same thing, but they are definitely besties. HTML (Hyper-text Markup Language) is what creates the structure of a website while CSS is how we style the website. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheet. The “cascading” part comes from the fact that you can build on your stylesheet and override old codes. HTML knowledge is valuable but isn’t enough when it comes to really customizing your blog or website. Adding CSS is wonderful because you can just add little codes to a stylesheet without messing up the framework of the site.

How do I add CSS to my blog?
CSS can be added to a blog a couple different ways. On Blogger, the “Add CSS” option is in the Template Designer under the Advanced tab. Many WordPress themes come with a Style Editor that lets you add CSS, or you can install Jetpack which gives you the option to add to the stylesheet. If you’re dealing with plain old HTML files, you have a few options. I recommend having an external style sheet because it keeps your codes more organized. You can learn more about that here.

What are selectors and how do I use them?
A selector refers to the element you are stylizing. Maybe it’s your entire header or just your navigation bar. A selector can be an id, a class, or a whole section of your page. An id always begins with a hashtag and a class begins with a period. The class selector styles many elements within that class while the id selector only styles one main element.

The cheat sheet above shows some properties you can use in your CSS to style your blog or website. Every property must be followed by a colon, a value, a semi-colon, and a closing bracket at the end of the last property. Here’s an example of what my CSS might look like if I were styling my navigation bar:

A few trickier properties defined + examples
Display – how the element is placed on the page (display:block; display:none;)
Float – allows elements to be placed side by side (float:left; float:right;)
Clear – decides where the element on the next row will be in relation to the previous row (clear:both; clear:left;)
Z-index – sets the order in which elements are layered/stacked (z-index:1; z-index:9999;)
Overflow – decides what will happen if the content overflows the element’s box (overflow:hidden; overflow:scroll;)
List-style-type – sets the marker at the front of each list item (list-style-type:none;)

There are so many more CSS properties that you can add to your stylesheet. These are just the ones I happen to use most often. Specific definitions of each CSS property can be found here.

Thank you for letting me be nerdy today. Happy coding!

Free Fonts + Typeface Resources

06/24/2014 by Jennifer 2 Comments

Choosing the right fonts for a blog design or website can be extremely time consuming since there are thousands of fonts out there. Today I want to share some of my favorite free downloadable fonts, as well as some amazingly helpful font-related resources.

Lavanderia / Oswald / Sofia / Futura / Bebas Neue
Cursif / Prestige Elite / Nevis / Learning Curve / Josefin Sans

The Best Font Resources Ever:
Type Connection: A Typographic Dating Game. This site is adorable! It is literally a dating game for fonts. Pairing fonts is very important and quite tricky if you ask me. Some fonts go well together and others do not. Sometimes opposites attract and other times very similar fonts look nice side-by-side. Type Connection makes font pairing so amusing and fun.
Typetester.org lets you compare different typefaces side-by-side. I used this while deciding on a default font for all of my blog entries.
Wordmark.it allows you to quickly compare a word or phrase in each and every font installed on your computer. No more scrolling through fonts forever. What a timesaver.

If you have any favorite fonts/resources, please share them! You can never have too many font resources…that’s what I always say. Have a beautiful Tuesday. :)

How to Combine Photos & Text in Photoshop

06/12/2014 by Jennifer 4 Comments

Today I’d like to share one of my favorite photoshop techniques – combining images and text. This is a simple way to add a little something extra to a font in blog posts, blog headers, etc.

You can combine photos and text using any version of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, but I’ll be doing this tutorial using Photoshop CC. I am also using a Mac so of course the commands are a little different.

For this project, it’s helpful to use a tiled workspace. You can do this by choosing Window >> Arrange >> 3-up Stacked from the main menu.

First, open a blank document and add some text of your choosing. When combining images and text, it’s a nice idea to use large bold fonts in order to see the picture well. As you can see from the layer panel above, I separated my text into two layers. I wanted the photos to be combined with the bold words “photos” and “text” but not the smaller words or the ampersand.

Go to the image you’d like to insert into the text, Select All (⌘-A) and Copy (⌘-C).

Return to the document with text and paste (⌘-V) the image onto the document. In the layer panel, command click (or right click) and choose “Create Clipping Mask”. Or you can use the shortcut Command-Option-G.

Resize the photograph over the text if you’d like.

I decided to use two different photos, so once I was happy with the way the floral picture was placed over the word “PHOTOS”, I merged those layers.

To add the second photo to the word “TEXT”, I followed the same exact steps. Copy the image, paste the image onto the text, ‘Create Clipping Mask’. Pretty simple, huh?

Lastly, merge down the layers and unhide any hidden layers. Add a background color if you’d like.

And that’s all. :)

I’ve been planning to share more tutorials involving Photoshop, Blog Design, CSS, etc. If you have any specific tutorial requests please let me know!

7 Favorite Creative Reads

06/02/2014 by Jennifer 4 Comments

When it comes to reading, I like to find books that challenge me creatively and make me feel productive. Today I want to share some of my current favorite books. I haven’t gotten all the way through any of them, but they are so perfect if you’re the kind of person who likes to be reading ten things at once. :)

Creative Block
“Creative Block” is pretty much my middle name, and it is so refreshing to know that other people also experience this. Creative Block features amazing and encouraging interviews with highly talented artists. Each artist offers a project to help one get out of his or her creative slump. Many of these projects include making messes. Yes please. :)

Blog Inc.
Every blogger should pick up a copy of this one. Blog Inc. is full of advice about starting, maintaining, and growing a blog as a business. It includes dozens of tips on designing a blog, finding content inspiration, becoming a full-time blogger and so much more.

Made by Hand
This was quite the impulse buy, but can you blame me? Look at that cover! Some of the projects include making beeswax birthday candles, weaving fabric placemats (on a homemade loom!), and creating a batik-dyed beach blanket. I can’t wait try these this summer!

The Flower Recipe Book
At my work, a lot of people see The Flower Recipe Book and think it involves edible flowers. I thought so too. But nope! These are recipes for wedding blog-worthy bouquets and arrangements. The ladies from Studio Choo do a wonderful job providing detailed information about each flower. I can’t look at this book without wanting to run off to the SF Flower Mart.

Darling Magazine
I wrote all about how much I love Darling Magazine here. Still love it so much.

Ample Hills Creamery
I keep joking that this is how I’ll make friends when I move up to Portland. I’m not really joking though. There are so many delicious recipes in here straight from the Ample Hills Creamery in Brooklyn. Yum!

20 Ways to Draw a Tulip
In this book, Lisa Congdon doesn’t just teach you how to draw a flower; she gives you several creative ways to make that flower your own. Drawing isn’t my specialty, but I am definitely an avid flower doodler.

Have you read any of these books? I am seriously loving them. Let me know if you have any other recommendations!