blabbery: eleanor burns freelance design graphic design quilt guild uso quilt show valley of the mist quilters guild victory quilts web design web support
by Blabby
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web skills
I somehow became the webmaster for my quilt guild and I learned a new skill! The day before our quilt show this year, we’re hosting Eleanor Burns and her USO Quilt Show. I set it up so we can sell tickets on our website! This may not sound like a big deal, but I didn’t know how to do it, and I learned as I went, and it works great. I also created all the artwork - including the tickets and the web graphics. Next, we’ll tackle the show poster. In the mean time, I’ve also made some business cards (I got a great deal on printing from printrunner.com) for the guild - so members can hand them out at events or to people they meet in shops or whatever - anyone that’s interested.
Here’s what I’ve learned. I have skills. The things that I’m doing for free other people charge a lot of money for. Each month, I create the guild’s newsletter and upload it to the website. I even make a cool little thumbnail of the front page for the link. I found out that before I took over the newsletter and the website, the guild was paying a company $10 to upload ONE pdf to the site. We just got a bill for $20 for the last two months before I took over the job. CRAZY! They were also charging $5 per web button. I’ve uploaded probably 20 files and added at least 10 new web buttons.
The local copy shop charges $50 an hour for graphic design. I’ve easily spent 40 hours creating different stuff for the guild.
I am not a super talented artist or highly skilled graphic designer, but I clearly have skills that other people will pay for. Who knew? Either I’m giving away the farm or people are really overcharging for these services.
renewal
My webhost just came up for renewal. I’m sticking with AN Hosting - no big problems, and I think the prices are reasonable. I did check out web hosting choice first to see my options, and they have lots of good info. But ultimately, I’m happy where I am. If you’re just starting out, I recommend figuring out how much bandwidth and storage you need, whether you’re going to need a special language (like PHP, MySQL, PERL, etc.), email addresses, etc. you’re going to need. Then you can go through a site like web hosting choice and compare the ones that meet your requirements.
blogging istockphoto: bosco CSS iconbuffet photoshop snippets and blabbery Stampin' Up! web design
by Blabby
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Blog facelift…
Well, as you might notice, I’ve dedicated a little photoshop time to my blog. I’m not 100% happy with it yet, but it’s getting better. I especially like how it appears as though I’ve spilled coffee all over the screen - very appropriate for my house :)
If anyone knows how to make my header image a link, let me know. The problem is that it’s a background image on my style sheet. If it was placed there as part of the HTML, I’d know how to make it a link, but since it’s a background style for the header container, my CSS skills don’t quite know how to deal with that.
I removed the php text that was there (blog title and description) because I wanted to use a cuter font, but it was that text that provided the link home. Any suggestions, web smarties?
Credits:
- Fonts are from Stampin’ Up!’s Write Me a Memory CD.
- My head is from iStockPhoto, and I added the glasses in Illustrator. Because I need them to see, of course.
- Book background is stolen off of some book site - can’t remember, but it’s one where you list all the books you’re reading. I stopped going to it because it’s enough work to list all those books here, and I’m waaay behind.
- Textured background (diagonal stripes) I made in Photoshop by creating a pattern, then applying the pattern with very little opacity. There are a lot of tutorials online to do this.
- Cute little turtle is from the best icon-trading site ever, IconBuffet.
- And of course, big props to Solostream Webstudio for the free Bosco 2.0 Wordpres theme. I hope they don’t mind my mods.
