New Blog Background

Last night I made a new blog header and background for my blog.  I loved picking pussywillows back when I lived in New York, so this digital paper from Stampin' Up! was perfect!  I used My Digital Studio to create both the header and the background.  In Blogger, adding a header is really easy.  The background is a bit more complex, but thanks to Melissa over on Stampin' Addicts, I was able to figure out how to get the background to work.  How'd I do it?

In the past, I've used backgrounds from The Cutest Blog on the Block, so I started with one of their backgrounds.  I usually pick a two column background.  I just followed their directions on how to copy and paste the code into Blogger.  Then I needed to create my own blog background, so I created a blank 12x12 project in MDS.  My background image was added as a page layer, then sized and set where I wanted it.  I did this twice, once for the left side, and again for the right to create the pussywillow borders.  I then added the center panel, which starts at the 2 inch mark and ends at the 10 inch mark along the top guide.  Once I'd added everything that I wanted, I saved the project, then exported it as a JPEG.  I then opened the image in my photo software (I love GIMP because it's so easy to use).  In GIMP, I rescaled the image to 1100 x 1100 pixels and resaved the file with a new name.

Then I logged onto my Photobucket account, uploaded the image there, and looked at the image code.  I copied and pasted it into the code that Cutest Blog had generated, and took out all references to Cutest Blog in the code.  Viola, it worked!  If you want the code to try this yourself, just email me and I'll be happy to send you the code I use to create my backgrounds:  lovetostampandscrap@yahoo.com