Amanda was looking for a blog makeover that incorporated a great color scheme with easy navigation. We went with bold colors and a very simple menu bar. You’ll have to go visit her blog Maggiano Takes Austin to check out some of the little details like the full welcome image, shooting arrows on the fancy social networking icons, and pretty post signature & post-footer area.
C Squared W
I’m so excited to share this blog with everyone! Meet Clare, my island bestie. Somehow I convinced her to switch from wordpress.com to blogger.com, and in the process was able to work with her on a re-design of her blog: C Squared W.
First of all, the title of the blog is über fitting because her name is Catherine Clare Wilkinson (C²W) but she is also married to Charlie Wilkinson, so together they are also C²W. Clare comes from Virginia, where I’m learning there is a lot of southern tradition & manners. She had a flash of inspiration to use her monogram on the header, along with big bold stripes.
I couldn’t be more pleased with the result, and am so happy to introduce you to my fabulous friend who is a wonderful writer and awesome artist. Go check her new blog out!
Keep Your Sunnyside Up
Leah from Keep Your Sunnyside Up asked for a blog with a touch of yellow, beachy feel and of course a sun (that I drew myself!). The color palette we choose shows up in the social networking icons, and I love how the yellows and blues work together. We even put a real picture of a sunset on top of the word Sunnyside. Thank you Leah, this design was a blast to work on!
Human Sparkler!
When Tess from Human Sparkler contact me, she was having trouble figuring out how to bring the “sparkle” into her blog in a professional, fun way. I suggested glitter, of course! We decided that the style of her blog should be be crisp, bold, with a touch of pizzaz.
Blog design inspiration can come from anywhere, not just other blogs. In this case, it came from a photograph of uniquely used paint chips. I have been loving the ombre look recently, and used this photo from Colour Lovers as inspiration for her custom design:
If you get a chance, you should check out Tess’s blog to see the hover images on the social networking icons and menu bar. There are also some other goodies tucked away beyond the fold. Plus, she is awesome & you might just find a new person to follow!
You are the Roots
Once I saw Lindsay’s Pinterest inspiration board, I knew that we were going to create something special. Lindsay wanted an eye-catching outer wrapper with geometric leaves for her blog, You are the Roots. Incorporating the fresh colors with various textures made this design unique.
The sweetest thing about this design is that Lindsay’s husband purchased it for her as a birthday gift! Thanks Lindsay for having such encouraging words along the way, and for putting together such great inspiration for the design. Happy Birthday!
Reading, Eating, & Dreaming
As an up and coming book blogger, Morgan, from Reading, Eating and Dreaming had a lot of content on her blog that was clogging up the sidebars. The first order of business was to create a drop-down menu with clear categories & a search bar. Then, I added accordion style drop down widgets to help clean up the long lists of book titles & authors on her sidebars. We widened the overall layout and added a fun blockquote style for the book synopsis sections. To help meet her book blogging needs, I also created a 5 star widget that allows visitors to search books by rating.
I had a lot of fun working with Morgan on my first book blog makeover. She played an active role in her site design as we spent some time chatting via Skype which allowed me to share my screen with her. I think our teamwork paid off!