My blog makeover on a budget
You may have noticed that Tin Box Traveller is looking a little less green tomato and a bit more mustard seed. Don’t worry. Tin Box Tot hasn’t been making a mess going through my cupboards again. We’ve had a makeover!
This project has been on my 2015 blogging bucket list for some time. When July came round and I’d still not done more than spend a few moments thinking about blog headers and colour schemes, I decided to give myself a kick up the butt.
I’d love to have done a ‘bells and whistles’ redesign but while I’m on maternity leave that will have to wait. So what you see before you is a blog makeover on a budget. A £1.99 budget to be exact.
Here’s how I did it:
Preparation
I read a lot of advice from other bloggers about how to redesign your blog. I found the Blog Club posts from Abi at You Baby Me Mummy a great help.
The look I was after was vintage travel, sunny, light and airy. That’s about all I managed to jot down in between nappy changes and Tin Box Baby’s three-hour feeding cycle.
Next I started trawling Etsy looking for designs to match. I originally thought I might buy a pre-designed logo. But then I found some really cute hand drawn caravan clip art that I knew would be perfect for my blog.
This set of 25 hand drawn vintage caravans by SurfaceHug was my only out of pocket expense: £1.99. Money well spent!
Design
I set about designing my blog logo using the Design function on Pic Monkey. I made up different draft versions using the clip art.
Once I had found the design I liked best I took a note of the colours, fonts and font sizes that I’d used. I then used this information to create a Facebook cover, Twitter cover, business cards, favicon, and social media avatar.
I probably should have decided on the colour scheme for the rest of my blog before this point but it seemed to fit well with the look I was trying to achieve.
The techy side
Tin Box Traveller is hosted on Blogger which allows you to customise your blog template. I managed to change the template to a blank canvas, add the new header, set a matching background, rearrange my sidebar and footer, and coordinate my menu, links and text with my new colour scheme in one evening. I also uploaded the new covers to Facebook and Twitter.
It’s by no means perfect but I feel a little bit happier in my new blogging skin. Like I mentioned, I would like to do more and may make some other changes, particularly to the blog template, in the not too distant future.
What do you think? Have you done your own budget blog makeover?
I love hearing what people think about my blog so feel free to leave a comment below and browse around. You can also find me on Bloglovin’, or follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+ and Pinterest.
Well done, it looks fantastic! Love the caravan graphics. Thanks so much for linking up to #TheList x
Wow it looks great! Really cool graphics. Well done!
#TheList
It looks fantastic x #thelist
It looks fab! I love the caravan graphics, gorgeous. Well done! xx #thelist
This looks brilliant and I think the hand drawn caravans was money well spent they're so cute!!! #TheList
This is fantastic and looks absolutely amazing. While I wish I had done the same thing I am having someone help me on the logo side as I just can't find one I love not even a theme. lol You have done wonders so quickly and so easily with little expense. It looks fabulous hun. Thanks for linking up to Share With Me. #sharewithme
Etsy is fab. Do several different searches when you have something in mind. I stated looking for caravans and eventually found my artwork in a search for 'campers'. Good luck with your project!
Thanks *blushes* 🙂
It looks amazing! I'm self-hosted WP and I pay for a plug-in so that I can modify my CSS code without having to code as I like to do the design myself… that's as far as I've got, but a new theme is on my summer to-do list 🙂 I'm still trying to come up with a logo though, I think I may need to have a browse on Etsy and see what I can find!
It looks amazing I'm very impressed you've done it all yourself!
AliceMegan
That's good planning! I like your style 😉
Aww, thanks! *pats own back*
Thank you. That's a pain about yours. I don't know what I'd do if I had to make a choice between a pretty new design and losing everything. I think I would have to do a cutting and pasting marathon!
Thank you. Bargains make me happy!
Thank you!
Not at all. I know there's still plenty of work that goes into a redesign even if you aren't doing the techy side yourself. I'm planning on getting someone to help with some of the more technical stuff when I've saved up my pennies 🙂
Thank you! That's lovely to hear x
It looks really well done, congrats! It is always so satisfying seeing something the you yourself have made, always gives you a nice warm feel. I got my design for free, but that's because I married a graphic designer 🙂
That's beautifully done! U should be proud of yourself…
Aww this is where I am so limited. I can use new design for the blog but everything will be gone. The sidebards, links and badges would go to design heaven so I am forever stuck with the design that I have now. Yours looks nice! I love the changes! #sharewithme
Love it – your header definitely encompasses all the elements you wanted it to. Definitely money well spent 🙂 Can't believe it was only £1.99 total bargain! #sharewithme
Debbie
http://www.myrandommusings.blogspot.com
Love the new look!
Wow I love the new blog design. So cute with the caravan. Unfortunately I didnt do the budget. I paid someone for it. Lazy I know. lol
I love the tutorial, fascinating to see how you did it and a brilliant result, so very you! #Sharewithme
Love the new header, it's super cute!
Thank you! I'm a little in love with it 🙂
Aww thanks! It's so hard to find time isn't it? Especially when you're a 'words person'.
Thank you! I did have fun. It was just finding time to get around to it that was the problem 🙂
I love it! I am so impressed you've done this all yourself and for less than £2. I should get you to do mine (still on my 2015 blogging things to do list…)
It's so easy to pay someone else to do it for you but much more fun playing around with your own designs, it looks lovely!
Thank you! I had fun doing it 🙂 x
Well done you! It looks fantastic! I made my own header for free….lol It isn't as pretty as yours though. x