Blog layout in the works

Now that I've had my blog for a little over 2 months, and have 9 lovely followers (yay!), I think it's time I start working on making myself a blog layout. Make my blog a little more personal. I knew I wanted to design my own layout from day 1, but I wasn't sure how to proceed.

I've since found a few resources, one of my favorites being Making Cute Blogs. They've got tutorials, resources, designers, tips.

I quickly learned that I would have to find my blog layout elements. Those graphics, fonts, etc used to make the graphics for the layout. The blogs that I like the most usually use digital scrapbooking kits as elements, so I had been looking around for that. I found one site that I really liked the kits, Shabby Princess, and they were FREE! But the catch was that you can't use them for blog layouts if you're blog has anything commercial about it. Though my blog, I believe, would be ok, I don't plan on starting an Etsy shop, using affiliates, or basically making any money from my blog, I have still been iffy about using those kits.

There was also Just So Scrappy that I LOVED the kits. But they weren't free. I've been looking here and there for free kits I like but can't seem to find any. So when Just So Scrappy announced their Black Friday Sale, I knew I'd be getting my elements this weekend. For a long time I wanted the Happy Day kit, but then I really started looking at all the kits and what the elements in the kits were, and I thought Tweet Tweet would be much more usable. More elements that I would see myself using: cute little birds, bird houses, leaves, flowers, butterflies, ribbons, clouds, sun, picket fence!, grass. Not to mention 42 backgrounds.



So I bought it. For the low price of 0.75$! Regular 3.99$, but they've been at 1.50$ for as long as I've been looking at them. So I saved 50% really. With that saving, I decided to buy the extra alphas for 0.75$ as well (regular 1.00$). So I paid the same price for the kit AND the extra alphas that I would've normally paid for just the kit. I'm happy with that. Especially when that price is 1.50$ (a little more for me because of the exchange rate).



Now I must put my creative cap on to make my blog header, a button, social media buttons, a Facebook page, sidebar links, a signature, and maybe a footer. Anything I'm missing?

Other layout news. I've discovered FeedBurner, so I now have an RSS button on my sidebar, as well as an email subscription option. Things are coming along slowly, but I'm new to the blogging world; I jumped right into having my own blog after only a couple of weeks reading crafts blogs. I'm really learning as I go.

If you have ANY tips for me, resources, good blogs with tips, I would greatly appreciate them! About blogging, about making my own layout, about content, really anything that could help a new blogger.

Finally, I might be absent from my blog for a few of weeks. Got 2 exams coming up, and a grant proposal to write for one of my classes, so I should really be focusing on that. But I am a huge procrastinator so I might end up posting anyway. I'm having so much fun with my blog, and zero fun with my classes haha!