You’ll notice that the “Gilmore Girls” blog has changed a little. I believe the technical term is, I slapped a wreath on it. Quick, easy & hopefully pretty. Again, I just found clipart that didn’t have any copyright issues. Then I opened up my header in paint, & pasted the wreath on. I pushed the transparent button (when you paste there are these brightly colored boxes that appear on the toolbar, one of those is for transparency). This is so the bottom background will show through. Then it was just a matter of filling in the few white lines that remained with the background color. Quick & easy blog decorating.

One of the easiest ways to decorate your blog for the holidays is to simply change the colors. I’m sure everyone who owns Photo Shop right now is screaming.  This is a tutorial for beginners, if you have any more tips please share.  This is how I make my banners using only the free program IrfanView.  My “Gilmore Girls” blog has a very simple header.  I just wanted to change the color from purple to green (actually teal, but it will still fit in with the holidays).  This doesn’t take a lot of time, & doesn’t seem like a big change, so people won’t wonder what website they are at.  My “brand” will stay intact. The green will still fit in with all the other blue accents so I won’t have to change those. First I open up the header in IrfanView.  Next I go to the image menu & choose swap colors.  I try all the options until there is something I like.  That’s it.  Then all I have to do is save it & upload it. It doesn’t look like much now, but it is a good start & could easily make it through the holiday season.  Next time, I will spruce it up a little.

Here is how I created the new “Surviving the Holidays” banner using only paint & IrfanView.

1.  Found a bunch of pictures I liked, & checked the copyrights.

2.  I checked & double checked to make sure I had my own banner safely hidden so that my fibro fog wouldn’t accidentally overwrite it.

3. Then I resized them in IrfanView as well as changed the colors so they all matched a little better.

4.  I opened up my old banner in paint & cut out what was there so I’d have the perfect size.  Then I pasted in the pictures I liked.

5.  If you wanted to add a special effect, (I made it look like an oil painting), then save it & open it up in IrfanView & add the effects you want.  If not, you can just type your logo over it 7 save it.

It is a lot of back & forth, but it works.  I’m not a professional, but it’s fun & oddly rewarding to know I can do this without any expensive programs.