M from The Girl Who Wore Everything was another fantastic client to work with. She she wanted her blog to look more professional & convey her love for fashion (and sparkles!). Her blog was a fairly blank slate to work with, she didn’t have any insane templates going on and she didn’t want anything insane, either.

I liked the glasses she was wearing in the header the presence of white space in her old design. So I incorporated those two with more fashion-iconic typefaces, glitter and a more grown-up color palette and voila!

For the fonts I used Baskerville semibold italic and Open Sans Condensed Light. For the glitter, I made my own using Pugly Pixel‘s & Scrapbook Bytes photoshop glitter tutorials. I made an animated gif of the bloglovin button so the glitter actually sparkles (FUN!). Check out The Girl Who Wore Everything to see the design in action.

 • DESIGN TIP #4: LEARN MORE, DESIGN LESS •

There are so many fantastic resources for expanding your design knowledge. My favorites are: Nicole’s Classes, Pugly Pixel, Lynda.com. There you can begin or expand on your knowledge of design-based programs like Illustrator & photoshop. All have been a fantastic resource for me as I have been trying to branch out of my very 2-dimensional design box. Go check them out.

I’m definitely speaking out of experience/mistake here, but as you do learn new tools for photo editing and design you don’t need to use all of the tools all at the same time. I remember as I was learning photoshop my freshman year of college, I applied 4-10 filters to my projects and quickly realized that many of the tools offered in these programs are spices, not staples. In illustrator, I typically stick to 2-3 tools. In photoshop, it’s about the same. This same principle applies to blogs as well. Keep it simple.

Do you have any favorite resources for expanding your design knowledge?

(image by Uppercase Magazine)

I had a fantastic time socializing with friends and making new ones! The panels were all fantastic, but a big wake up call at the same time. To sum up my experience at Alt; here are a few things I learned, some good times that I had and the cool people I met.

• THINGS I LEARNED •

• Break out the good stuff (but not too much). Keep posts simple, unique & attention-grabbing.
• Include personal narrative & personality, but make and keep boundaries of what I’m willing to share.
• Be more aware of news (I should probably read drudge, but I never do) and current trends
• DON’T SIT ON IDEAS – I can always improve on them later
• Facebook is something I need to embrace, not avoid
• I need to figure out what I want to achieve from this blog (I’m a little aimless sometimes)
• I need to fix my about page
• Re-writing my media packet is a must
• I need to talk more with my brother (I don’t call him nearly enough & he’s a patent attorney)

While attending the various panels, I started a little to do list of the things I should change & improve on my blog & for you, my dear readers. The list is 3 miles long now. After the first day of sessions I felt completely broken: My blog sucks. My life is a mess. I’m not stylish enough. I’m not creative enough. I don’t have enough time to do any of this.

The second day was a whole new world. Each session was more inspiring than the last. That second day helped me build more confidence that I can do this, and many bloggers that I look up to are also in the same I’m-not-good-enough boat.

• GOOD TIMES I HAD •

Wednesday night I enjoyed some fantastic sushi with Pinhole Press. I had great conversations with Jensie & Melanie who I sat next to. It was a great & personal way to get the Alt Summit festivities started. Wednesday night I partied with fellow teachers and met designer pal, Angie, for the first time ever. I got to meet Natalie, Timothy and joke around with the reps of Mail Chimp. They gave out hand crocheted monkey hats at the social & you better believe I grabbed a handful & plan on using them for Felix’s 1st birthday. I do believe we will be going monkey-themed this year.

(image by Justin Hackworth)

Thursday night was the Winter Whites party. Since I taught a panel in the morning I was able to get my hair professionally done by She Lets Her Hair Down (Josphen was too adorable), so it didn’t take much to get all dolled up for the party.

I wore an off-white top (courtesy of ModBod, LOVE it!), necklace from H&M, earrings from the thrift store, belt from Grandma Newton, bracelets made by me (and one by my dad), floor-length skirt handmade by me, shoes from Amazon.

I had originally bought a white dress from Asos, but it failed miserably as it was practically see-through. Funny enough, I saw a girl wearing the exact dress that didn’t work on me, but it worked on her! I felt like too much of a dork to go up to her & tell her it looked fantastic on her. Oh well.

The Friday night parties were absolutely nuts. So many photo booths & fun treats. I believe I collapsed from a sugar rush at the end of the night. I wore a turquoise dress from Asos, pink belt from Asos, red patent pumps from Target, earrings from the thrift store & bracelets from Target. The Uppercase living party was a hoot where we made beaded necklaces. We finished the night at the Method + Smilebooth party where they had some classic hip hop jams & we got a little crazy with our dance moves. Super fun times.

(Image by Gala Darling)

Saturday was more of a restful day with sewing, printmaking & calligraphy. It even started to snow! I had a great time at Eva’s printmaking class & made some really fun prints that I plan on hanging around the house. I need to get on that! The calligraphy class went really well & both Jill & I were just floored at how quickly everyone picked up the pointed pen! Great times.

• THE PEOPLE I MET •

My roommies were fantastic. In previous years I’ve lived close enough to the Grand to just drive home at night. This time I had to drive 40+ miles each way, so I decided I’d rather spend that commuting time sleeping or socializing (it ended up being the latter). I had an absolute blast getting to know my roomies better. Nikki, Katie and Mica are so fantastically inspiring, beautiful and talented! What a fun group of women to be associated with!

It was an absolute thrill to meet Kathleen. She’s so real and witty! Jessica, Gala, and Jessie were all on the same fashion panel. I loved how passionate they were & how transparent they were willing to be at the Q&A section. There needs to be more of that in the blogging community! They’re all super adorable, too. At the Printmaking class I met my blog crush, Merilee, who turns out lives practically next door to me! We’re totally going to be BFFs now.

There were so many fantastic people that I met at Alt, I’m trying to sort through all of their cards/sites & add them to a Pinterest board for you all to see & visit. It’ll probably take a million years to add all of them on there, but I’ll try to get them on there.

Did you go to Alt? Tell me, what was your favorite moment of the weekend?

14 comments Add to delicious ]]> http://melissaesplin.com/2012/01/i-have-a-new-altitude/feed/ 14 http://melissaesplin.com/2012/01/redesigned-fantabulously-frugal/ http://melissaesplin.com/2012/01/redesigned-fantabulously-frugal/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:59:01 +0000 Melissa http://melissaesplin.com/?p=7132 During Chris’s two and a half weeks of Christmas vacation, we spent our time redesigning a few blogs. We had a grand time working together & making the interwebs a tiny bit prettier. I’ll be sharing a finished project each week along with a design tip (or two) for a better blog.

It was my sincere pleasure to work on the site: Fantabulously Frugal. Lisa was a gem to work with!

Before I got started the elements on the page had no heirarchy & the ads weren’t very organized. A lot of the work involved in this redesign was on Chris’s end of things, with reorganizing the sidebar so that it would read well on the page AND so that it could be easily editable on Lisa’s end of things.

There were a few things I did like about her blog & incorporated in the redesign: unexpected color palette, stripes and handmade elements. Since her site is deal/ad-based, I felt like the handwritten details made it look more approachable, but then kept it professional looking. I made a very fine diagonal stripe for the background & softened her color palette to a charcoal/navy/purple color family. Doing this redesign was so satisfying; like organizing-my-closet-by color-with-all-matching-hangers satisfying.

What do you think? Head on over to Fantabulously Frugal for the full after (and for info on killer deals).

• Blog tip #3: DESIGN + ADS •

If you’re thinking about starting a blog with ads or you’re planning on adding advertisements to your current blog; you need to know standard ad sizes. We talked about this a little bit at Alt this past year. Large companies that are looking to advertise with Google or ad networks use standard sizes for their ad campaigns. Check out IAB for standard ad dimensions, file sizes & animation length. It’s a fabulous resource for bloggers & companies. See below for the most popular of the standard ad sizes:

• Leaderboard: 728 x 90 pixels
• Medium Rectangle: 300 x 250 pixels
• Wide Skyscraper: 160 x 600 pixels

I’ve got access to a laser cutter, so I made little friendship bracelets with my “I still love you” logo on them. Cutting the leather took about 4 hours. Thank heavens I didn’t have to do all that by hand.

In the past, I’ve cut my vinyl stickers myself with my little Silhouette, but this time I didn’t want to deal with all that. I had them done at Fast Signs. That lifted a bunch of stress off my shoulders to have that done for me.

I got a lot of help this time around with my business cards!! My sister-in-law helped with the bracelets, My intern helped stamp the cards & clean the leather and my cousin & his wife helped me assemble it all. I wouldn’t have been able to do it in under 20 hours without them! Thanks, friends!!

So, are you going to Alt? What did you do for your business cards? Please do say hi to me at the conference! I have a little goodie for you & I’d love to meet you. If you’re not heading to Alt, I’ll be back here on Monday. Happy weekend!

Nikki is another girl who I knew before designing for her. We met when she took one of my calligraphy classes a while back & gave me the most adorable bow necklace ever (here’s her tutorial). She’s creative, sweet, unique & fun (in fact, I can’t wait to be her roommate for Alt next weekend!). I wanted her blog to reflect just that.

After seeing Nikki’s Neon Christmas post, I knew that I wanted to go for a grown-up dayglo theme. I also went for a more untraditional rendering of the pineapple: a circle. I kept the white space, unified graphics & justified the sidebar items. Her blog was so fun to work on! Head over to thesaltypineapple.com to see the design in action & check out all of Nikki’s fantastic ideas!

• Design tip #2: BE CONSISTENT! •

It’s a great idea to hire a professional designer to work on your branding, but you can make your blog look instantly more professional by just staying consistent in your content (and by doing that you make the designer’s job even easier)! Here are some great ways to achieve visual consistency:

• take & use photos of similar quality (avoid photoshop effects)
• take as many photos as possible in natural light
• edit all of your photos to be the same width as your content (it will look nice & your blog will load faster, too)
• justify all of your post text the same way: I prever left justified, but center is fine if you write more poetically
• use bold, italics, ALL CAPS and large text sparingly

See the video below on how to make your images consistent width with your post content (for blogger, but applies for other platforms).

What would you add to this list of being visually consistent? For me, that means taking photos in roughly the same place (which has changed every time we’ve moved) at roughly the same time of day.

Ellen was an absolute dream to work with. She’s been commenting over here on ISLY for some time, so I was familiar with her adorable family-centered blog: Black & White & Loved All Over. When she signed up for her bloggy face lift, I was SO excited to do it for someone I was familiar with!

Her before (above) wasn’t terrible, but it lacked a lot of cohesion. The font she had chosen for her header wasn’t bad & I definitely appreciate that she used it only in the header. With that in mind, I hand-lettered her masthead & used organic elements to keep things cozy & familiar.

I didn’t want to do a literal translation of Black & White the color, so I leaned more towards grasping opposites and mostly in font weight. The color palette we kept slightly muted to create more warmth & I included a large profile picture to add a personal touch. As someone who reads a lot of personal & commercial blogs, I want to know what the writer looks like. I want to see his/her face so I can get a sense of who they are. I love the about picture of Ellen. I don’t know her in person, but I feel like her picture embodies someone approachable, creative & kind. Which I assume she is, since she was awesome to work with.

I’m totally in love with the vintage handkerchief teeshirt update pictured above. Ingenius! I’m a firm believer that clean & cohesive design elements will help make her already awesome projects shine. So on to the first design tip:

• Blog tip #1 : COLOR! •

Don’t be too literal with your color scheme, but not so over the place, either. Find an image that inspires your style & glean your palette from that. I head over to Color Collective frequently for a starting point for color palettes. Lauren is great at picking very inspiring images (she credits them all correctly, too). It’s a fantastic resource for cohesive, beautiful & unexpected color combinations.

I’ve been thinking about what to do for this box since sometime in September, but haven’t nailed any design/style ideas until a couple weeks ago. I recently bought Folding Techniques for Designers a book all about taking paper into 3 dimensions. I’m loving it & learning a TON from it. Between that book & tribal pattern inspiration, I give to you this year’s box:

I’m not sure what it is entirely, but it definitely has a very scandinavian feel. This box is a BREEZE to cut out & fold (I say this about a million times in the video, it’s embarrassing) you’ll be able to make one for every one of your neighbors. This box measures about 2″x4″x2″. If you’d like it bigger, take it to your local printer & have them blow it up on 11×17 paper. If you can, print them on an inkjet printer, you’ll get better folds this way. Also, you’ll want to print on a mid-weight paper. Thick card stock is a bit much, unless you’re going for a bigger box.

I’ve yet to make caramels this year, but I’m sure I’ll get around to it. If not, I might just do a stack of chocolate-dipped cookies in here. It’s really the perfect size for macarons. I also plan on using Pugly Pixel’s glitter tape tutorial for sealing the box.

Enjoy! Click the button below to download & be sure to watch the video tutorial explaining how to fold it up! For previous year’s boxes: 2010 Christmas candy box • 2009 Christmas candy box • 2008 Christmas candy box • 2007 Christmas candy box.

This tutorial/freebie is free for personal use and should not be distributed/republished without my consent. Altering the file NOT ALLOWED. If you would like to use this printable for commercial purposes, please email me. Thanks!

Head over there & check it out!

Every once in a while I have bloggers emailing me to redesign their graphics/branding & most of the time I’m completely swamped with other stuff. Seriously, could I add a few more hours to the day? Well, this winter I can, because Chris’s office closes every Christmas for 2 1/2 weeks! Isn’t that crazy? I’ll get Chris for the holidays! This means Chris & I are looking for something to keep us busy. So. . . Let us rebrand your blog! Check out the options & details below:

Simple Header $70 (worth $100)

• header
• favicon
• up to 2 rounds of revisions
• final saved-for-web files

•

Basic Package: $275 (worth $550)

• header
• favicon
• social media buttons (up to 8)
• repeat background
• follow/read button
• style guide – complete with fonts, hex numbers & recommended image dimensions
• implemetation – pixel perfection, graphics and fonts
• final saved-for-web files
• 3 rounds of graphics revisions
• 3 rounds of web revisions

•

Plus Package: $375 (worth $700)

• header
• favicon
• social media buttons (up to 10)
• repeat background
• a style guide & image templates (perfect for lifestyle blogs)
• follow/read button
• style guide – complete with fonts, hex numbers & recommended image dimensions
• implemetation – pixel perfection, graphics and fonts
• final files – high res (good for printing)
• business card design
• up to 6 rounds of graphics revisions
• up to 6 rounds of web revisions

•

This is definitely a screaming deal since it includes all unique design & no-fuss implementation. I make all of my graphics from scratch (including calligraphy!), and my husband is a wiz at implementing graphics. Best of all? You’ll have it done by the new year. Perfect if you’re planning on attending the much-anticipated (and very sold out) Altitude Design Summit. This deal is limited to blogs & doesn’t include shopping cart implementation. If you’d like us to help you out with shop branding, please email me for rates. So, let’s get started! Select one of the options below & click the buy now button. To allow us enough time to finish before the new year, please purchase one of the following options by December 26, 2011. This offer won’t last forever, so don’t wait!

Once payment is confirmed, you’ll be directed to a google form. We will contact you soon after you submit the form for a brief consultation & then we’ll get started with your branding right away! Can’t wait. This is a fantastic gift to give for Christmas and can be transferred, but not refunded.

Script fonts are a funny thing. They can be fantastic or they can be horribly awful. It’s not often I come across a script that is in the middle. Another thing, you often times get what you pay for with script fonts. If they’re free, they’re typically nasty. My advice? look around & find a font you like a lot. Invest in it. Don’t just download a bunch of mediocre free ones.

With that said. Here’s a list of some great script fonts. Some are free, some cost money, but they’re all totally worth every cent.

1. Poem Script, $89 - this gorgeous font has a million alternates & is incredibly fancy= readability is not a priority. Use it in small doses for a major punch.
2. Lavanderia, $donation - this is my favorite “free” script font, hands down. It’s gorgeous! Please, support the designer behind this gorgeous font. At least send $10 his way, k? There are some fantastic alternates in this one.
3. England Hand, $0 - here’s a standard copperplate-style script font. Nothing terribly new or exciting about this one, but it’s well designed. Free for commercial use.
4. BlackJack Script, $0 - informal retro-type script. I like it for its readability. Could be used in longer titles.
5. Wisdom Script $donation - another great retro script. I like the more masculine/angular lines on this one. simple. readable. Again, DONATE!!
6. Rythm, $42 - I really like the white stripe running down each letter. Not totally a script, but in between.
7. Zierfische, $29 - it’s sort of masculine, fairly easy to read for a script & just different than what you usually see out there. Pretty cheap font for Veer.
8. Filmotype, $29 - great for retro styling & signage. I love the weight & angle of the letters!

A couple of things: never use a script for paragraph text. EVER. Script fonts are best in small doses! They’re meant to add personality & style, not necessarily readability (as a general rule). Never use a script font in ALL CAPS. It’s inscrutable. If you’re using a script font in your blog styling, be sure to use it as a flourish, not a staple. If you choose to use it for your post titles, write your titles out in sentence case, not title case (Hello, there. not Hello, There). Make sense?

If you find you’re having an impossible time finding the right script for you, email me for rates on custom calligraphy. I’d be happy to do some work for you!

• • •

. . . And one last thing! I’m looking for an assistant/intern to help me with marketing/advertising stuff so I can spend more time crafting & playing with kiddos. See the below & email me if you’re interested. Thanks!

The requirements:

• detail oriented person
• willing to work up to 5 hours per week scheduling ads & emailing potential sponsors
• tech savvy & quick learner
• has their computer
• has transportation to Orem for weekly meetings
• marketing experience preferred

The perks:

• commission-based payment
• learn more about social media & its platforms: wordpress, twitter, facebook, pinterest
• learn basic design/photoshop skills
• make valuable connections in the PR & marketing industry
• learn more about sewing, calligraphy, crafting, photography
• access to my studio for projects

I owe so many people thank you notes (especially with all of the awesome help with moving!), so this design is largely for me to kick my own butt in gear & spread the gratitude. This hand-lettered thank you is also available for you to enjoy & use to express your thanks to the ones around you (a lined version also included). Just click the download button below & print. The design is black text on a white background, so feel free to print it on colored paper or HECK, some adorable vintage wall paper or scrapbooking paper. I fully plan on doing just that as soon as the ink refills for our printer arrive.

What are your plans for this Thanksgiving? It might be cool to write a thank you to each person you attend Thanksgiving dinner with & write all of the things you’re thankful for about them. Just a thought. Other Thank You freebies:

Thank You Postcard 2010 • Fill-in-the-Blank Thanks 2009

This tutorial/freebie is free for personal use and should not be distributed/republished without my consent. Altering the file NOT ALLOWED. If you would like to use this tutorial for commercial purposes, please email me. Thanks!

While talking to her about the patterns & Megan’s vision for her brand, it seemed that the simpler the better. I went for a very simple, almost retro feel. I was heavily inspired by Collette & Oliver + S pattern branding. They both don’t use actual photos in their product illustrations. I loved the 50′s & graphic feel of Collette patterns & the paper doll idea from Oliver + S. I thought it’d be great to keep things simple & stick with a black, white & pink color scheme.

I designed the elements & gave Megan a style guide & she did the rest. I love her packaging choices with her patterns! The patterns are neatly & beautifully packaged in an off-white envelope with a sticker/velcro closure for safe keeping. Instead of having a confusing map for her pattern instructions, she has a beautifully stitched booklet equipped with step-by-step instructions, a shopping list & plenty of space for notes & a little sewing log. Brilliantly done, Megan.

I’m just thrilled to have all of these patterns in my hands right now! I can’t wait to get to sewing some of her patterns! Visit Megannielsen.com to view her patterns & fashion(the Dunes top kills me it’s so gorgeous).

I hand lettered this in Illustrator & cut out using my Silhouette. It was more than a little tricky to figure out how much space I needed to add in the tabs to keep everything one fluid piece. It’s pretty delicate, so it’s great that it’ll remain behind glass.

I love how this turned out with the floral/butterfly paper peeking out from behind the letters. I need to do this with the word Esplin for myself.