some changes

Okay, so it's been kind of like five million years since I've updated my blog here.  Anyone remember me?  I almost don't remember me.  These little kidlets of mine have been keeping me busy.  But maybe one day soon I'll have time to finish some of these kits I've started (there's actually several of them that I need to spend a little time on to finish).

Today, I was looking through my blog, something I knew I needed to do for a while.  I realized how unorganized it has become, how confusing it must be for newcomers (where are you all coming from anyhow?), and how badly it needs some cleaning and organizing.  So, I decided to do that - to clean it up.

I went through and deleted a TON of old posts that are not relevant anymore - all my posts from the stores I worked at in the past that have dead links that don't work anymore.  I think it's just confusing to have all of that still up.  So, now I hardly have any posts on my blog, but at least it's not too confusing anymore.  I'm going to slowly be working my way through the free kit posts and will organize them a little bit better and repost them.

Apparently the theme of this blog entry is my desire to avoid confusion, but that doesn't apply to this next part, since I'm pretty sure this will cause a lot more confusion in the long run.  But I'm doing it anyway.

I don't like my design name.  It's just boring and...boring.  I chose it because I hadn't come up with anything else by the time I started selling at a couple stores and had to have something quick.  Then I was kind of stuck with it, but I never liked it very much (though I did like the little button and papers...).

I've gotten into photography lately and finally thought up a name.  Apparently it only takes me about 3.5 years to finally think up something.  Here's my new name and logo:

I'm sure half of you are wondering why I would choose that over my previous name, and I have no answer for you, except that I love it and it makes me smile.  I don't know why, but it does!  Kind of like how I love making homemade potato chips...actually I don't like making them, but I LOVE eating them.  It's the same happy feeling.

So, I'm going to be switching things around to say "owls and fireflies design" instead of "teresabelle designs".  I realize this may cause confusion with file names.  Since I have hundreds of files under my previous name, I don't have time to go in and change all of them (for when I put them up for sale again).  So, rest assured, if you see a file begin with "tbd" or "ofd" - they are both me.

On to other news...

https://www.facebook.com/ourlittletasteofheaven

For those of you who have followed along with us regarding our daughter Emma (sorry, removed those posts too!), she's moving along in her illness.  She was hospitalized this January, and her immune system (all cells lines) are in critical bone marrow failure ranges.  It looks like we've stretched our time out almost as far as we can, and we need to start looking into a bone marrow transplant.  I've started a Facebook page for her, it's public and anyone can join.  Or you can follow on our blog HERE.

I'm considering putting up some of my other kits for sale again in hopes of helping us prepare as well as we can financially for Emma's transplant.  She has Fanconi Anemia, and there's only three hospitals in the nation that specialize in her type of tranpslant.  So, I'll need to take her and be gone from home for several months.

I've had some people ask to buy my other kits, but I've never been sure how to do it without a store.  If you have any ideas, let me know!  I did look at Etsy and saw that crafthub.me has an automated service for digital products.  It looks kind of new!  I might try that.  I would sell through a store again (would be easiest!), but I really don't have the time to meet the requirements they need (can't make a kit a month or participate in their store collabs).

Anyway, I promise I'll get more kits up some day and will hopefully have some of my other kits, that haven't been available for a while, up for sale again.

I hope you are all doing well!  Thank you all for sticking around while I've been busy surviving every day with my five little ones and haven't been able to give this blog as much attention as I would have liked.  hehe.

Thanks everyone!
Teresa

Freedom Kit (freebie)

(04/04/13)  I've been going back and redoing some of these kit previews and links.

Here's a freebie kit I made a while back (maybe a year ago - whatever the date is on this post).  The previous preview to this was embarrassingly horrible.  And, admittedly, it's really not the most fabulous kit out there.  hehe.  (I'm doing really good at selling my skills, aren't I?!)  It was part of the pathway to getting to where I am...and will hopefully end up...so it's a good thing, right?  You can still make cute pages with it, despite what I'm saying!

Anyway, links are below for any who might want it.  :)  Totally free.

Download Links: 

Freedom Elements
Freedom Papers 1
Freedom Papers 2
Freedom Papers 3

TUTORIAL: How to create/install your own background

The video I created on how to make your own blog background is a bit outdated.  So, I thought I would create this entry to update the video a bit.
 
Blogger changed how they do things a while back.  There is a CSS code you can enter to place your new background, but I haven’t found a way to do that that works as well as this way (unless you want a repeating background with little control over how it looks).  So, I’m sticking to this.  Please know that I’m NO EXPERT when it comes to html or css.  It’s all gibberish to me...mostly.   

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STEP ONE: Create your blog background.

A:  I like to use the dimensions 1980 X 912 pixels with the resolution at 72 (when viewing things on the web, you don’t need a resolution any larger than 72).  This creates the background large enough to fill most screens, but you can adjust these numbers if you want.  Just know that if you make it smaller, it will not fill the screen on all other computers, even if it appears to do so on yours.

(you can click on any image to see it larger):



B: MAKE YOUR MID-SECTION 
Make it 15 inches wide.  

C: CENTER IT OFF THE BACKGROUND (a tip if you use Photoshop): As seen in red in the image above, in the LAYERS PALETTE highlight your background and mid-section layers, then press the “Align Horizontal Centers” button at the top (which you’ll see available when you have your “move” tool selected). This will center your mid-section on your background. 

D: ADD A SHADOW TO YOUR MID-SECTION (if you want).  These are the settings I usually use, give or take some.



TIP:  If you want a header for your blog, do not add it to your background.  Add it as a separate element on your blog.  If you put very much on the sides of your background, it will depend on the screen shape and resolution as to how much will be visible on any given computer.

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STEP 2: Save your background to use on the web.

• Go to FILE, SAVE FOR WEB & DEVICES.
• Save your image a size smaller than 1M (something with a K at the end is what you want).  See image below to see where to look for the size (the circle in the center).  And, you adjust the size of the background by changing the quality size (upper right circle).

(You can click to see image larger.)


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STEP 3: Upload to Photobucket (or another similar site). 
www.photobucket.com 

Make sure your settings are set to allow for large size files.  You can do that by following the images/instructions below:

(You can click to see these larger)



1. Click on “customize your upload options”.





2.  Select “Best possible quality (while staying 1 mb or less)

3.  Save it.

4.  Then upload your image.

5:  Once it’s uploaded, you can view your image.

6:  Locate the “direct link”, as seen in the image below.  You don’t need it yet.  Just remember where it is. 



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STEP 4:  Add your background to your blog!

1.  Go to your blog.

2.  Go to the TEMPLATE option.

3.  Choose a “picture window” template.





4.  Go to LAYOUT.

5.  Click on “Add a Gadget”



 
6.  Choose “HTML/JAVASCRIPT”





7.  Paste this code into the box that pops up.  Within the code, add your direct link from your background that you uploaded to photobucket: 

<style type="text/css">body {background-image: url(ADD YOUR DIRECT LINK); background-position: center; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; }</style> 

8.  Save it. 

It should now show you your new background when you view your blog.  If you want to change the background in the future, just change the direct link to your new background link.  If you ever want to get rid of your customized background, just delete this gadget off of your blog, and it’ll return to whatever template you have chosen on blogger.

If you want to customize your blog a little more, use the Template Designer.

Choose TEMPLATE, then CUSTOMIZE:



Choose ADVANCED:  You can scroll through all the options and change the font, size, coloring, etc…on all the different areas of your blog. 

On my blog, I don’t want a title since I created my own, but I haven’t taken the time to figure out how to remove it.  So, instead, I changed the font size to 1px and matched the color to my background (as you can see in the example below).  Now it’s not visible. 



Special thanks to Easy Custom Blogs.  I had originally had a different code that I used for my background, but when Blogger updated things, my code wouldn’t work for new backgrounds anymore.  Jeanette had a code that worked great – so yay!!  If you want more tutorials on how to customize your blog, she has great ideas over there:  http://easycustomblogs.blogspot.com/ 

Please let me know if you have any questions!