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3:14 PM , , , ,
I wanted to start out WordPress week with a tutorial on how to set up a local server on your computer so that you can test out WordPress without having to spend any $$$ (I am sooo cheap :) on hosting, before you know if you like it or not. 

Not only is MAMP fantastic for not spending money to test out WordPress, it is awesome if you are a designer and you want to work on designs without having make a "UNDER CONSTRUCTION" page or if you want to just test some things out.


First off, MAMP is for Mac ONLY, so if you use Windows, I am not a ton of help (I don't even own a PC...).  So if you have Windows, I found a tutorial HERE, that is similar to MAMP.  If you are a MACaholic like me :)  I will show you how do set everything up right here.


Step 1: Download WordPress

Go HERE to download WordPress, and click on the Download Link.


Now you need to unzip the file you just downloaded and rename the "wordpress" folder to what ever you want to name it (don't use spaces, so just do a one word name, or use _ s in it).


Step 2: Download MAMP
Here is the Link to the FREE MAMP Download.


After you have Downloaded and Installed MAMP, you need to take the WordPress folder that you have renamed, and move it into your MAMP htdocs folder shown below. (you can see that I have a few different sites in there that I am able to work on simultaneously!)



Step 3: Check your MAMP Preferences
Open your MAMP application (when you start it up, it will open a web page, that you need to leave open).   When you open MAMP, you need to click on Preferences, then Apache.  Your document root needs to say this:  /Applications/MAMP/htdocs    (if it doesn't already, change it)  **if you want to save your websites in a different location, this needs to be changed to the location that you have your websites.



Step 4: Check that MAMP is running correctly
To make sure that MAMP is running properly, first, make sure that the Green lights are on.  If they are red, click Start Servers.  If it is working, it should look like this:

Now you need to go to:  http://localhost:8888/   if you see your folder(s), then you are good up to this point!


Step 4: Setting Up Your WordPress Site
Now you need to go back to the webpage that I told you not to close earlier, if you did close it, or it didn't come up it is:  http://localhost:8888/MAMP  (MAMP must be capitalized)

Next you need to click on phpMyAdmin at the top of the page.

Now create a new database, and name it the SAME thing that you named your folder earlier.

Now go back to your Folder on your computer and find the file that is called wp-config-sample.php

and rename it to wp-config.php

Now OPEN that file in Text Edit, and find this section.

Now, change 'database_name_here' to the folder name you have used (mine is Site_to_Test), then change 'username_here' and 'password_here' to 'root'   This is how it should look now:

Now SAVE your file, and go to http://localhost:8888/FOLDER-NAME-HERE  (change FOLDER-NAME-HERE to what you have named your folder), and you should see this!
Fill in the form, and Install.  Now when ever you want to work on your WordPress site, make sure that MAMP is running, and go here: http://localhost:8888/FOLDER-NAME-HERE/wp-login.php  to login.

**Note: MAMP is only a LOCAL server, so no one else can access your site on the net, you must purchase hosting in order to have your website up on the net, this is only good working on the design and testing.
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11:55 AM , , , , , ,
One of the biggest complaints/questions that I get about these tutorials, is that some people don't have Photoshop or they don't want to download any software and try to learn all of it to do a custom blog design.  So... I have been doing some serious searching and experimenting, and I am going to show you how to make a cute and completely CUSTOM Blog Design with NO software that you have to download!!

So the first thing that we need to do to get started is to set up a photobucket account. Go to Photobucket.com and set up the FREE account. Once that is set up, you need to make sure to click on "(more options)" see below, and select "1 megabyte file size"

Back in blogger, the very FIRST thing you need to do is to back up your template, to do that, go to "Edit HTML" and click on "Download Full Template". Take that file and make sure you know where it is so that if you need to go back you can.

We need to change our template to Minima, it is an older template, so you will need to go to your "Edit HTML" page, and click on "Select Layout Template", then you will see it :) When you click on "Save Template", it may or may not ask you if you wish to keep your widgets, if it does, keep them, unless you want to loose everything on your sidebars. 
That is all we need to do to get you started!


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11:20 AM , , , , , , , , , , ,
I used to make all of my blog backgrounds about 1600px X 1000px, which is all good....  but I hated it when I would look at my designs on my dad's 30in monitor and I would see all that nasty white space on the sides of my beautiful designs.

Hopefully with this simple tutorial, I can get you hooked on seamless patterns as backgrounds.  Not only are they simple to make, and oh so lovely, the go on forever and ever, no nasty white space.  Oh, and don't let me forget, they are smaller in file size, therefore, they will show up quicker when you are loading your page.

So on to the tutorial!  This is going to be the first of 2 tutorials, and this one is the UBER EASY way to do it.  We are going to take a dingbat font (this is "Davys" that I found at fontsquirrel.com) and make that into our seamless pattern.


First, go to Type and Glyphs.

Then find your font, and find a dingbat that you like, for the way that we are going to make this seamless pattern, a semi square font usually works the best, but just experiment with it :)  This is the one I chose:
Now go ahead and change your font to Outlines, by doing a Right-Click and Create Outlines.

Now I need to make a box with my Rectangle Tool.  When you drag your mouse to make the box, if you hold the Shift key, it will stay exactly square.  My box has no Stroke or Fill Color.
Then you need go Window and Align, to get your Align box.

Now select both your box, and your Dingbat and click on the Horizontal Align Center.  That will Align your box and your dingbat exactly center.
Then you need to click on the Vertical Align Center.  That will make it all centered now.  Now if you need to resize your box any (it should be slightly larger than your dingbat, as shown below), then use the corner to size while you hold down the SHIFT and ALT.  That will keep your box centered on the dingbat.

Now, select both the box and the Dingbat, and Drag it onto your Swatches Palette.  Then it will show up like this:
Now, make a box, and use the new swatch you make to preview your seamless pattern.

Now of course I CAN'T just leave this black and white, so I am going to go back to the box and the dingbat that I made, and change the box pink, and the dingbat a darker pink, then just drag it on to the Swatches Palette, just like I did before, and Voila!  Now it is cuter :)

Now if you want to use this as a blog background....  You need to save it like this:

First you are going to go back to the box and the dingbat that you dragged on to your layer palette, and you are going to find out what size your box is, by clicking on it, and using your Info palette. (if you don't know where your info palette is, go to Window, and Info).

Mine is 156px X 156px, so I am going to make a new document that is just that, 156 X 156.  Then I am going to copy and paste it onto the new document and put it exactly centered, like so:

Then, just to make sure that I don't have any sliver of white around my box, I am going to take just the pink box that is behind the dingbat, and I am going to size it up, by holding the corner and holding shift and alt.  Then it will look like this on your document:

Now I am going to do a File, Save for Web, and save it as a PNG.


Now just upload it to Photobucket and go to your "Edit Html" page in blogger. Paste this code where I have shown below:

background:url(your "direct link" code here) ;

Now you have a nice seamless pattern background, and NO nasty white space, even on a 30 inch monitor :)
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11:41 PM , , , , , , ,
I wanted to start this week off with a simple tutorial, so we are making a Custom Signature.  The fun thing about this tutorial, is that I am going to show you how to alter your font and so that your Signature can be even more personalized than just a cute font alone.  I am using Illustrator CS5, but you can use any version that you have (nothing in this tutorial requires CS5).


First I am going to make a new document.  I am sizing mine at 100px high by 175px wide.


Now, I have used the Type tool to type my name.

Next you need to find a cute font.  I have used "Pea Anna-Banana" from KevinandAmanda.com  LOVE her site!

So I love this font, but not thrilled about the way it lays out when just typed straight across.  So what I am going to do, is right click and select "Create Outlines".  **What "Create Outlines" does, is to change type to a Vector Object.

Now, right click again, and select "Ungroup"

Now you can see that you can select, size, rotate, each individual letters.

So as I started moving letters around, I decided that I would like to make my "L" taller, rather than just sizing it with my "Selection Tool" (the black arrow), I am going to use my "Direct Selection Tool" (the white arrow).  The "Direct Selection Tool" gives you a lot more control over objects.  So I am going to only select the top 2 anchor points of the "L" and drag it up.  I also used that same tool to adjust the "Y", I made the bottom part of the "Y" a little longer.

Now that I have it laid out the way I like it.  I am going to fix the "C", because I made it larger, it is to thick now.  So I am going to select the "C" and put a white stroke on it.

Your stroke will automatically go to 1pt, and that isn't exactly where I want it, so I am going to adjust it on my stroke panel.

0.75pt was still a little thick, so I manually typed in 0.6pt was just right.

I like to add little embellishments to my signatures, so I am going to go to my top menu bar and select "Type" and "Glyphs".

I found a cute butterfly that I liked, from the font "Pea Stacy's New Doodles", also from KevinandAmanda.com.  She has quite a few cute doodle fonts that are fun.

I wanted the butterfly to go the other way, so I right clicked, and selected "Transform", and "Reflect".

Select "Vertical".

All that is left is to add color, but I want to add more than one color to the butterfly, so what I am going to do is do a right click, "Create Outlines",  and then right click "Ungroup", and then right click and "Release Compound Path".

Now you can select each part of the butterfly, and change the colors :)

And there you have it!





The last thing you need to do, is do a File, Save for Web, and save it as a PNG.

Now if you need to know how to Install your Signature, CLICK HERE.

MKRdezign

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