Sunday, March 21, 2010

How to create your own blog button

I will take you through the steps I took to create my button. Let me know if you have any questions!

1. Design your button. You need to have some kind of image editing software. I used Photoshop Elements to create mine. I opened a new canvas and sized it to 150x150 pixels. You could also do 125x125 pixels. You just want to size it to fit the average sidebar. I chose a resolution of 300, but a lot of folks use 72. I wanted mine to look like my blog, so I used a section of my header as my picture. (Since I didn't create my header myself, I emailed Karen over at thegraphicsfairy.com to get her permission to create a button out of her work.) You could also design a button using free clip art you can find on the internet, or you could even design something out of your scrapbooking papers and supplies and just take a picture of it. Then I chose a font and typed my blog name onto my image, put a black border around it, and I was done. Make sure you save your work as a jpeg.

2. Upload your button to an image hosting site. I used Photobucket.com, which is free.

3. Open your blog to where you add page elements. Click on "Add a Gadget" and select HTML/JavaScript.

4. Copy this code into the text area:

<img src="http://YOURBUTTONLOCATION.jpg" /> <br /> <textarea style="text-align:center" rows="4" cols="22"><a border="0" href="http://YOURBLOGADDRESS.com" target="_blank"><img src=http://YOURBUTTONLOCATION.jpg></a></textarea>

Replace YOURBUTTONLOCATION with the location of your image. If you used Photobucket, they provide you with a direct link to your photo's location. Replace YOURBLOGADDRESS with your blog address:)

Let me know if you have any trouble, I will help any way I can.

11 comments:

Pam said...

Thanks for the tutorial. I've been blogging for only a few months and still have much to learn. But between remodeling projects and life in general, I haven't taken the time to devote to learning about the blogging world like I should.

I have Photoshop Elements on my wish list. Hope to get it soon. Thanks again for the blogging lesson.:-)

- - Sheryl - - said...

thank you - I always wanted a button.
I hope I can do this in Paint... going to give it a try.
Why do you have to have the picture at a free hosting site?
I can't use it from my hard drive files???

Unknown said...

Tanya thank you so much for this. I'm trying to figure this all out but haven't quite got it yet. I might be asking for some help soon. Thanks for doing this for us.

Jana said...

Thanks for the tutorial! I will have to give this a try.

Angela Mclean said...

Yay, I've done it. Thank you SO much!!
You can see my efforts on
[url]http://crafterscroft.blogspot.com/[/url]
Angela xxx.

Anonymous said...

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Unknown said...

Thank you so much I got my button. You are the best!

*BJ* said...

I want to try it.. thanks for the tips. I too want to know what my options are for photo hositng. I do have photobucket but have not used for a long time. I just add my pice to my blog from my computer..

Julie said...

Thanks!!

Shelly @Crafty Creative Studio said...

This is great! When I get more followers, I will definitely use this info -THANKS!

Blah said...

First time on your site...very nice btw. Thanks for posting this...it touches my heart when people share.