You might have noticed, but I underwent a complete blog layout overhaul lately, and I want to tell you all about it! Just in case you were wondering, YES, I’m still on blogger.
But before I got into lots of details, look what I saw on my phone last night then again in my email – – HUGE SALE at Pick Your Plum. Of Craft Stuff. Grab it while you can – I bet a lot will sell out! They are my go-to for ordering craft supplies to have on hand – I’m seeing thread and fold-over cute elastic, and tin boxes and who knows what else. Seriously, stock up!
This is a stock up day. A buy it now and save your wallet later day. A I-would-totally-make-the-
Okay, now, back to the awesome layout! If you are reading this in a reader click on over to see the cool new design (if you’re on your phone, hop on over via a computer – – to come will be a post all about my mobile layout). To spoil the finale, my design is from 733 Design and Kim is awesome. More gushing about her to come.
So, the first MAJOR change – – the frontpage view. Now you’ll see a glimpse of several of the most recent posts at once, instead of seeing a full post taking up the whole page. I went back and forth on this and asked readers a bunch about how you like to read blogs – and it was probably split 50/50. I went ahead and made the switch. What most people don’t like about snippets is the truncated posts – but don’t worry, I didn’t truncate the posts, so if you get my posts in a reader or email, you still get the full post! I really like how this cleans up the posts section visually.
So let’s analyze the front page above all the posts – – note the numbers, I’m going to walk you through them:
1 – – there is a mini clickable navigation bar at the very top, where you can go to the homepage or learn about advertising
2 – – this is the main navigation bar – when you hover over each of the topics, a drop-down bar comes down with several selections. For example, if you hover over “ABOUT” you’ll get 3 choices, “About Me” (which is new and updated – so go read all about me!), or “About Sugar Bee Crafts” or “About Contributors”
3 – – I absolutely LOVE having my most popular posts displayed right across the top and I’m so glad Kim worked out a way to include them in the layout. This way anyone coming here from Pinterest who hasn’t been here before can see right away other awesome projects that I have and want to stay around and check out the fabulous things I have to offer.
4 – – SLIDER! isn’t this so cool – it’s a scrolling large picture, and it rolls through 5 featured projects. You can click on it as they scroll through and be taken to that project. I’ll use it to feature more recent posts, seasonal posts, etc.
5 – – the Authorbox. This is amazing and I to go into more detail I have a whole other graphic for you…
The background is hexagons as I requested, to mimic a beehive, to stick with the bee theme. It’s nice and clean, but I’m kind of missing the bright background – I go back and forth – – here’s a stacked visual of my old and new background, so the verdict is still out on this one. Thoughts?
So that’s the redesign in a nutshell! I’m really happy with it and love that I can get a “WordPress feel” on a Blogger Blog. If you are on blogger and thought you were limited in design, you’re not!
Do you have a blog? Are you needing some design changes??
Kim from 733 Design is a pro with blogger and design and can get you set up. Obviously she can do a whole site design, including a wordpress-type layout on a blogger blog. But she can do just bits and pieces too – – like if you want an Authorbox added to your blog, ask her about that. Or if you need a blog button created, ask her about that. Do you know what Rich Pins are (sample rich pin)?? They are the pins on pinterest that have a logo and brief summary under them – and to get them you need to code in some html stuff – – while setting up my new layout, I had her set up my Pinterest Rich Pins, so you can ask her about that too. She’s your go-to for blogger design!
[email protected] says
Love everything! Now I’m itching for a blog re-do! haha! 😉
Angela Muir says
Looks great Mandy! i love it! https://www.handmadeintheheartland.com/
McKenzie @ Girl Loves Glam says
This looks awesome Mandy! Congrats on the new design!
Kassi Mortensen says
Ooh SO fancy!! Love how everything turned out!!
Diane VintageZest says
Awesome changes!
TheKimSix Fix says
Looks great Mandy!