New Themes ~ Sea Gypsy & Scholastic Delight

Two new themes are making their debut today ~ the first is titled "Sea Gypsy" and features a lovely sea theme with magic abounding.  From shells and smashing waves to sandy shores and a haunting romance of lost lovers at sea, this theme is sure to enchant any summer blog!

Next up we've got a more down to earth theme, both in color and concept. This one's titled "Scholastic Delight" and features a soothing color scheme with a scholastic ensemble. It comes in three background colors, features two sets of sidebar tags, including one especially designed for school blogs, and the banner is customizable to include two of your own school photos, making it truly personal and one-of-a-kind banner.

Both are available for either WordPress or Blogger platforms. You can find more info by clicking the titles and/or images above.

Enjoy~

WordPress

I'm not sure if I should jump for joy or collapse in exhaustion but after over 2 months of grueling work I've finally finished my first WordPress custom blog template.

Much of the time was spent learning the ins-and-outs of working with WP themes and child themes, a lot of which was through online college video training (thank you Jordan♥).  I also had the occasional assistance of a techy who's help I could not have done without (thank you, you know who you are).

I ran into other issues with this particular project, in that this blog runs on the Genesis Framework. It's a fantastic array of built-ins but makes for some very complicated coding and dissecting too.

All-in-all I've learned so much it blows my mind and I'm really looking forward to transferring all of my prefab themes over to this new platform.  I've begun accepting orders from my previous customers who've migrated over to Wordpress and I'm looking forward to filling some long awaited custom orders too, as I've had so many requests throughout the years that it'll be nice to finally say "yes" to them.

You can check out the migrated theme at this link: http://thejohnsonfamilylive.com/

Best♥

Tutorial Revisions and Update

One of the trickiest parts about blogging over these past years has been trying to figure out how to offer snippets of Html code within my blog posts. If you've ever tried to do this it's a real headache because our blog posts are written in the same language so a simple snippet of code inserted within a blog post can easily be mistaken as part of the posting itself. It's been an especially big stumbling block with my most recent tutorial How to: Setup the Picture Window Template.  I feel awful for any headaches my previous tutorials have caused as I try to offer helpful assistance, not additional headaches.

The good news is that thanks to Rajib over at Techncom I've finally successfully overcome the issues, whoot!  Now, my tutorials will include the required Html code directly within the postings so there's no more cumbersome downloads and additional files to hassle with.  So if you've tried my newest tutorial, How to: Setup the Picture Window Template, and struggled in the past please give it another try.  You'll find it works great now without the error messages.  I even had it successfully tested by a novice with no Html or blogging experience and they were able to successfully setup and modify the "Picture Window" template, whoot! 
Here's the direct link for those of you using your mobile devices: http://plumroselane-tutorials.blogspot.com/2012/11/how-to-setup-picture-window-template.html

Enjoy~

New Tutorial ~ Installing the Picture Window Template

In between custom orders I've been feverishly working to update my tutorials list and prefab blog themes.  The tutorials have been terribly outdated and I miss being able to help empower other bloggers.  My prefab themes need new background sizes and codes as well as new additions to the list of sidebar tags.  It's a daunting task but I've been chipping away at it little by little.

Today I'm super happy to announce that I've finally finished writing a new tutorial titled: How to: Setup the Picture Window Template. This new tutorial enables bloggers to install and modify the Picture Window template so that most Designer Blog Themes can be beautifully displayed without built-in template features interferring with the look of the Designer's theme.

The Picture Window template replaces the old Minima template and works beautifully ~ yes, I'm even using it on my own blog, and updating opens up a world of additional features in Blogger's Template Designer that were previously unavailable with the older templates.

You can find this new tutorial by clicking the title link above, visiting the Tutorials page of my blog, or if you're a mobile user, here's the direct link: http://plumroselane-tutorials.blogspot.com/2012/11/how-to-setup-picture-window-template.html

And for those of you still struggling with understanding the basics of templates vs. themes, I've updated my questions and answers sheet titled: Answering Basic Design Questions for Blogger Blogs. You can click that title or this direct link: http://plumroselane-tutorials.blogspot.com/2011/10/understanding-basic-blog-design-issues.html

Enjoy~

New Tutorials Page Item

Recently I've received alot of questions and inquiries about how templates and backgrounds work and what the differences are. While this subject is tough to understand and even harder to explain, it's a real stumbling point especially for new bloggers and so it's one that needs to be addressed.

Since I found myself rewriting the same explanations over and over again I figured it was about time to put it all down in one convenient Q & A format. It's handier for my Followers and saves me time, whoot! I've also made it in PDF format so it's easy to download and keep on your own computer. So here's the direct link: Understanding Basic Blog Design Issues for Blogger and you'll also find it listed on the main tutorials page of my site.

I hope this helps to make things just a bit clearer for those of you who are struggling to understand the differences and allows you more time to do what you love ~ blog of course.

Enjoy~