I hinted about a new face around here the other day. So what a better day than today to introduce to you Maritza Cander. Maritza is my dear friend, a fabulously talented writer, mommy, wife, and as of recently has added illustrator to that list.

Maritza has been working with me behind the scenes as customer support, keeping me organized and caught up with all the emails and questions that get sent my way. Just recently, Mari was showing me some little things that she was doodling on PSP and I couldn’t believe how good she was! So good in fact that I’ve decided to feature some of her illustrations on some of my freemades and premades. And by all means if you see some of Mari’s work that you must have on your site please let me know- we’ll happily oblige. And I’m not sure how much workload Mari can handle, but I’m sure she wouldn’t mind whipping up a custom illustration every now and then!

Click here to view some of Mari’s illustrations, and here to view some of the freebies she’s created for your enjoyment :)

Maritza’s Freebies for You!

Stitches in Blue Etsy Kit
Buttons Etsy Kit

If you’d like to speak to Mari about creating a custom illustration, Etsy Kit, banner, or any other graphic for you, feel free to contact her at maritza[at]betterinpink.com .

I think this is the one question I get asked the most, so instead of emailing each person separately, I thought I’d do a quick tutorial on the subject and link it for future reference. The first thing you will need to add your blog title to your new template is an image editor. Not just any image editor, like Picassa but one that will allow you to add text to your images. I’ve linked a few resources (free) online below. For this tutorial, I’ve used picnik since it was the first one that came up for me on google.
Picnik
FotoFlexer
Online-Image Editor

Part I - Editing your Image

Upload the blank header image that was included in the zip file you downloaded to the site.
Click on the “Create” tab.
Click on the “Text” tab.
Add your blog title in the text field and select your font, size and color preferences.
Drag your text into desired position.
Click on the “Save and Share” tab.
Click on “Save Photo” button.
You now have your edited header image which you can upload to imageshack, photobucket or any other free image hosting service of your choosing. I always use imageshack because it’s easy and requires no registration ;) But you can easily upload your image right into photobucket from Picnik if you have an acccount already.

Part II -Linking your new image

Once you have your image hosted, copy your image url.
Log into your blogger account and select “layout” from the dashboard.
Click on “Edit Html”
Scroll down to where you see the link to the sample header image. You’re looking for something similar to this snippet of code:

#header-wrapper {
background:url(”http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/5567/headerzo3.gif”) no-repeat;

Replace the image url with the url of your newly hosted and edited image and preview your template before you save your changes. Voila!

I’ve been promising a new Blogger freemade for a while now and it was finally time for me to come up with the goods! Here’s a cute little blogger template just in time for Valentines Day called “Quirky Valentine”. The little header is a custom graphic made by moi.

All images are hosted at imageshack for your convenience. I’ve also included in the zip file a blank header image for customizing along with a link to the free font I used for the sample header title. As always, if I’m not too busy I’ll be more than happy to customize the header image for you just drop me an email or let me know via the contact form!

Happy Early Valentines Day everyone, enjoy!

view demo | download .zip 

1. Login to Blogger Beta with your account.
2. Click on Layout (you’ll go direct to Template tab) or Setting where blog you want to Edit.
3. Choose the Template tab of your blog then click on Edit HTML.
4. Next scroll down to the end of your page and choose Revert to Classic Template.
5. Copy all the code of the template and paste it into your blog.
6. Click on SAVE TEMPLATE. Enjoy!