Chic & Sassy Designs

2015-05-13T16:05:00.000-07:00

A little about the Designer

With this website, I have managed to combine two of my loves: illustration and the internet. Bored with my premade blogger template, I began to research blog design and drew my own. Soon after, many of my friends asked me to create a design for them as well and this is how this website came to be! Now, during my free time I create sassy and chic illustrations for your blog. My main goal is to help bloggers express themselves through every aspect of their blogs. Enjoy browsing through the template section and feel free to ask me any questions. Have a pleasant visit!

Custom designs: if you are interested by a custom design please read my FAQ and Design Process before contacting me!

Latest Blog Posts

Newest Template

An eco-friendly design for the
fashionable woman!

Go Green

2009-07-03T18:25:00.000-07:00

Theme: environment, green, cosmetics, beauty, fashion, nature
Primary Colors: pink, purple, green, blue, yellow, white, gray
Type: Premade
Layout: Magazine style: 3 column, 3 bottom boxes, fixed width, centered, horizontal navigation menu, selective expandable posts, label cloud, tabbed content box, author highlighted comments, spot for 125x125 ads.
Package: 1 header (title clickable),1 icon set, 1 divider , 3 rounded corners, 2 background tiles
Platform: New Blogger (widget friendly)
Created: July 2009
Status: Available for 65$

Entrecard June Top Droppers

2009-07-01T07:46:00.000-07:00

Thank you to all my droppers!

Layout! Layout! Layout!

2009-06-26T04:21:00.000-07:00

There are so many kinds of templates out there... some with one sidebars, other with little boxes instead of columns. As a blogger what kind of template is more useful to you? Feel free to tell me why in the comments after you voted!

What type of layout do you prefer?

It's just been one of those week!!! $%#@%

2009-06-24T16:02:00.000-07:00

I only made 2 designs in a little over a week, which isn't much compared to my normal 3 or 4. It all began in the beginning of last week when summer hit the skies abruptly and the sun called and took me prisoner and gave me an awful sunburn (regardless of the ton of sunscreen I had on). I couldn't keep still long enough to sit at my desk, my thighs burnt so bad :( so I've been bathing in moisturizer for the past week or so. It's pretty much the only thing I could do. Just when I started feeling better I went out to do the mandatory chore of grocery shopping. I pack all the bags in the car. My glasses where annoying (they kept falling off my face) so I place them on the hood while checking the grocery bags and making sure they do not tilt over while I'm driving. I get in the car and drive off.... forgetting my glasses on the top of the car... %$%@!@#... sigh! Yup no more glasses... I'm half blind without them! The next day, I visit the optometrist to buy a new pair 500$!!! and 10 to 14 days wait to get them done... Thank god for my semi decent old pair of glasses at least I can somewhat see with them. It's just been one of those weeks that never seem to get any better!!!

But I have managed to create 2 new customs worth seeing.

The first was for the Phyllis Bourne, a romance author, her stories are filled with heart-stopping heroes and happy endings. Phyllis is a 2001 and 2005 RWA Golden Heart finalist. When she’s not writing, she can usually be found at a make-up counter feeding her lipstick addiction!

It's the cutest design I've ever created with flowers, rainbows and a lovely mom and her little boy. I also had to draw an Hijab, which was the first time I attempted to do so. It was a fun challenge and I believe it turned out alright!

Cute garden walk with mommy

2009-06-24T15:49:00.000-07:00

Theme: mother, little boy, walking, garden, family
Primary Colors: pink, green, blue
Type: Custom
Layout: 2 column, fixed width, centered, horizontal navigational menu, selective expendable posts, author highlighted comments.
Package: 1 header (title clickable),1 icon set, sidebar rounded corners, 2 background tiles, 1 sidebar title set.
Platform: New Blogger (widget friendly)
Created: June 2009
Status: Sold

The web seems half dead at the moment!!!

2009-06-18T20:08:00.000-07:00

well i took off the entrecard widget for the moment... it was preventing my blog from loading. I also cannot receive any of your emails right now, Yahoo seems down! I can't even access facebook... or amazon....
only twitter seems like its working ok so if you absolutely need to contact me tonight and maybe even tomorrow go through twitter or leave a comment here. I'll try to check often!

*************UPDATE**************
well everything is back to normal this morning... email is working, the entrecard is loading... that was weird last night!!!!!

Reading in the bath

2009-06-18T09:52:00.000-07:00

Theme: romance, writer, bath, bedroom, reading, book
Primary Colors: green, lilac, pink
Type: Custom
Layout: 3 column, fixed width, centered, horizontal navigational menu, selective expendable posts, author highlighted comments.
Package: 1 header (title clickable),1 small icon set, posts& comments rounded corners, 2 background tiles, 1 sidebar titles set.
Platform: New Blogger (widget friendly)
Created: June 2009
Status: Sold

Icon Freebie

2009-06-14T09:10:00.001-07:00

Here's a cute pink and blue set of icons to use as decoration on your sidebars!
Read how to install them here with my useful tips. Please leave a comment if you use any of these icons so we can go visit your blog!!! :-)


40px by 40px	33px by 38px	40px by 26px	39px by 40px	28px by 25px

Right click or Ctrl click (for macs) to download
Free for personal use only. You may not redistribute or sell these.

Help Column ~ Decorating your sidebar ~ part 1

2009-06-14T06:38:00.000-07:00

These tutorials are written for the blogger premade template and more specifically the minima design but should be valid for all templates except the names might differ.

Sidebar Title Images (little icons beside the title)

1. Find an appropriate icon (it shouldn't be too big no more than three times the size of your titles approximately) and host it on your favorite photohost... I recommend photobucket or flickr but you can use blogger if you do not own a custom domain. Make sure you know it's size (width and height) and url.

2. Log into your blogger account and go to the layout page and then to the "Edit Html" section. If you have a custom template, as a precaution, make a backup by using the download feature.

3. Scroll and find the sidebar section of your blog. Look for the sidebar title section. On the minima it looks like this

/* Headings
----------------------------------------------- */

h2 {
margin:1.5em 0 .75em;
font:$headerfont;
line-height: 1.4em;
text-transform:uppercase;
letter-spacing:.2em;
color:$sidebarcolor;
}

But it might be something else for example on my templates it's .sidebar h2 .... it might be things like .right h2 or .left h2 .... use your common sense normally these are named logically. Do not forget that there's a preview on blogger so if you modified the wrong section you'll see it before saving.

4. Now we add the image to the sidebar title section we found. We will be doing so by using the background image function. Add the following 3 lines before the last }

background-image: url("http://www.thelinkofyourimage.gif");
background-position: left 50%;
background-repeat: no-repeat;

The background-image (the first line) is for the link of your icon. Change the bit in red in the above code to your own image url.
The background-position (second line) is for the placement of your image relative to your sidebar titles. You have different options. The first value (in pink) is the horizontal positioning (left, right, 50% for center) and the second value (in blue) is for the vertical positioning (top, bottom, 50% for center).
The background-repeat (the third line in green) is pretty straight forward it repeat the image or it doesn't for an icon it's best to not have it repeat unless you want to create a sort of divider. In any case there are different value you can enter for the repeating factor (no-repeat, repeat, repeat-x, repeat-y). Repeat-x... repeats the image only horizontally while repeat-y ... repeats the image vertically.

5. Now preview ... you will see your icon but it's covered by the title right? As if it was underneath. Or it's cut off at the top and bottom?

We can fix that. You need to know the height and width of your image.
Add the following beneath the pasted code of before but before the }

padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;

Yes four zeros. You will need to modify these zeros to fit your image. The first zero is for the top, the second the right, the third the bottom and the fourth the left.
Play with these until your image appears nicely but a quick trick I use. Divide the height of your image into two... and replace the first zero (top) and the third zero (bottom) with that number. Preview, now your icon should not be cut off anymore but it's still hidden by the text.
Now this will depend on the positioning you choose earlier. If you chose left then place the number equivalent to the width of your image instead of the fourth zero (left) and if you chose right replace the second zero (right). You may want to add a slightly larger number than the exact width of your image... so there's a bit of extra space between the words and the image.

Preview. Is it to your liking? No? keep modifying the padding numbers until it's perfect.

6. Save! and you're done. Now a little icon will appear beside each sidebar title. If you have more than one sidebar you will probably have to repeat these steps for the other sidebars as well.

I will post some freebie icons later today or possibly tomorrow so you can use them on your blog.

My Latest Designs

2009-06-13T08:29:00.000-07:00

This week I created 4 designs: 1 custom and 3 brand new premades.

The custom I made was for Stinkee Pinkee a blog of 2 women sharing their uncensored opinion about the world and everything in it. They'd like it to become a community and are thus accepting guest writers! It was a fun project because it was a group blog and there's neat things one can do with blogger in those case like different colored posts and icons for each author plus it was a really fun color scheme with hot pinks, greens and purples, all my fav colors!!! I also had to draw dogs something I'm not that great at but the challenge was interesting!

I also made 3 premades this week. The first for mommies and daughters. I've had the idea of drawing a cute little girl hiding behind bushes and playing for a while now but I wasn't quite sure how to express it. I think it's turned out quite cute! She playing hide and seek with her mother. I'm especially proud of their expressions mainly on the mother. She winking and smiling pretending she didn't notice the whereabouts of her daughter who is trying to sneak up on her!

The second premade is a travel themed design for those who are about to go on vacation and would like to keep in touch with their friends and family through their blog. I made it to have a very summery feel with turquoise blues and bright palm green. She's also wearing very fashionable clothes: a tank top, a cute skirt and knee high boots. The character is smiling while walking away from her plane into the land of vacation!

Finally, my latest design, which I am totally proud of! It's totally chic and sassy! It's the second in my series of cosmetics templates where the characters are the same size as the makeup products. In this case it's all about mascara. The reason I like it so much is because I inspired myself of Radim Malinic's art for the background. There's was an article on him in one of my photoshop magazine where he talked about the various techniques he uses to create his fabulous colorful art. I thought it be perfect for a new summer makeup design! It was actually harder than I thought it would be to create such a look. I had to restart many times to achieve the right feeling!!! The difficulty was in placing all the different elements to make it look good as an ensemble!

Mascara Fashion

2009-06-12T20:47:00.001-07:00

Theme: mascara, makeup, cosmetics, beauty, fashion, summer, flower
Primary Colors: pink, purple, green, blue, yellow, white, gray
Type: Premade
Layout: 3 column, fixed width, centered, horizontal navigation menu, selective expandable posts, label cloud, tabbed content box, author highlighted comments, spot for 125x125 ads.
Package: 1 header (title clickable),1 icon set, 1 divider , 3 rounded corners, 1 background tiles
Platform: New Blogger (widget friendly)
Created: June 2009
Status: Sold

New Stuff

2009-06-11T13:19:00.000-07:00

I've updated my "Link Me" page with some new things.
I've added a summer button for those who would like to link me. I've also added a twitter update widget so you can now follow my update straight from the site instead of visiting my twitter page (you can still access my twitter page through the icon below my menu). I figured it was a good addition since I do not update my blog very often unlike my twitter where I post what I am currently up to in designer and drawing. It's a great way to see if I am currently busy or not!

I also added along with the followers widget, at the bottom of all pages, a search by theme and color label cloud to help you navigate through the templates. I've only added so far the labels for the templates created within the past 6 months.... I'll slowly add the rest as free time allows! I hope you find this new search method useful!!! Do not hesitate to share your thoughts to help me improve this site!

Due South

2009-06-10T14:21:00.000-07:00

Theme: travel, south, tropical, suitcase, plane, palm, vacation
Primary Colors: turquoise, blue, green, tan, brown
Type: Premade
Layout: 3 column, fixed width, centered, selective expandable posts, label cloud, tabbed content box, author highlighted comments, spot for 125x125 ads.
Package: 1 header (title clickable),1 icon set, 1 divider set, 2 rounded corners, 2 background tiles
Platform: New Blogger (widget friendly)
Created: June 2009
Status: Available for 65$

Stinkee Pinkee: smart, scathing and silly

2009-06-08T06:38:00.000-07:00

Theme: beach, blogging, wine, women, dogs
Primary Colors: pink, purple, green
Type: Custom
Layout: 2 column, fixed width, centered, selective expendable posts, author highlighted comments.
Package: 1 header (title clickable),1 small icon set, sidebar& comments rounded corners, 2 background tiles.
Platform: New Blogger (widget friendly)
Created: June 2009
Status: Sold

Hide and Seek Mommy

2009-06-07T13:42:00.000-07:00

Theme: mom, daughter, family, hide and seek, play, fun, shopping
Primary Colors: pink, blue, green, white
Type: Premade
Layout: 3 column, fixed width, centered, horizontal navigation menu, selective expandable posts, label cloud, tabbed content box, author highlighted comments, spot for 125x125 ads.
Package: 1 header (title clickable),1 icon set, 1 divider, 2 rounded corners, 2 background tiles, 1 page footer
Platform: New Blogger (widget friendly)
Created: June 2009
Status: Available for 75$

Most recent Custom templates

2009-06-04T07:08:00.000-07:00

Here's the last 3 designs I have made...

The first is for Diva's Closet a blog for women to hang out and discuss fashion, finance and travel. So go check out what's in her a true Diva's closet!

The second is the summer design for Musings of a Muse
A lovely tropical waitress design giving out makeup samples!!!
Visit for the latest cosmetics reviews and tips!

The third design is for the author of Dork Diaries a brand new tween book for girls aged 9 to 14 all about school, friends and enemies as well as boys!!! I made the design to match in style the book cover as well as to give a feeling of a written journal with many scribbles and lined paper!!!

Dork Diaries

2009-06-02T09:46:00.001-07:00

Theme: dork, diary, girls, teens, highschool, book
Primary Colors: fuschia, pink, yellow, purple
Type: Custom
Layout: 2 column, fixed width, centered, horizontal navigation menu, author highlighted comments.
Package: 1 header, rounded corner set, 1 icon set, 1 divider set, 2 background tile, 8 word titles.
Platform: New Blogger (widget friendly)
Created: May 2009
Status: Sold

New Summer Look for Chic & Sassy

2009-05-31T15:26:00.000-07:00

After a year and half of wearing purple and pink, I was getting a little bored of seeing my template everyday!
With the nearing summer months I thought I'd add some greenery to Chic & Sassy with patterns of tropical leaves and butterflies. I also decided on a very summery color theme with greens, sage and yellow.

I also took the opportunity to upgrade to the now not so new blogger platform with the layout page and gadgets. You can now follow me through the google gadget!!!

I'm still working out all the kinks so do not hesitate to comment if something isn't working properly!

Do you like Chic & Sassy's new template?

Musings of a Muse Summer edition

2009-05-30T07:49:00.000-07:00

Theme: makeup, beauty, lipstick, cosmetics, women, summer, love, waitress
Primary Colors: yellow, turquoise, green, pink, gold
Type: Custom
Layout: 3 column,3 extra footer boxes, fixed width, centered, horizontal navigation menu, related posts, selective expendable posts, author highlighted comments.
Package: 1 header (title clickable),1 small icon set, post, comments & box rounded corners, 1 background tile, extra set of post graphics.
Platform: New Blogger (widget friendly)
Created: May 2009
Status: Sold

The Diva's Closet

2009-05-24T18:59:00.001-07:00

Theme: women, chic, closet, beauty, travel, finance
Primary Colors: tan, red, purple, orange
Type: Custom
Layout: 3 column, fixed width, centered, horizontal navigation menu, author highlighted comments, tabbed content box, spots for 125x125 ads.
Package: 1 header (title clickable), rounded corner set, 1 icon set, 1 divider set, 1 background tile.
Platform: New Blogger (widget friendly)
Created: May 2009
Status: Sold

Help Column ~ Sidebars

2009-05-21T13:49:00.000-07:00

My very first question comes from Tina at LuvemOrLeavem and she's wondering how to make her sidebars more attractive.

CLUTTER
First and foremost, as a general comment on sidebars, it isn't an issue for Tina but I can't seem to repeat it enough. Your posted articles are what's most important... it's the whole point of a blog not all the stuff placed in the sidebars. So please try not to clutter them with random widgets, gadgets, useless blinkies (I know they can be cute but make a post about it instead) and toooooo many ads.
It's like a house if it's cluttered it won't look good and you'll feel miserable same goes for blogs.

GROUPS
Secondly, try to keep things grouped within your sidebars. It gives a nicer look. For example everything relating to blog navigation, in other words, everything that has to do with your posts (recent post, recent comments, archives, feed, search, keep these together. The main reason being this is to make certain your readers do not have to search around to find the important things because most won't... it's just too much trouble. Again it's like trying to find a pair of clean socks in a teenage boy's room... no one wants that! Secondly, it will also be more pleasing to the eye. Mainly because all the widget I cited they are all text based so no ads, no images, so it looks neater in a column. Place all your ads, entrecard, buttons... anything image based together below post related widgets (if you have only one sidebar or in your second sidebar)... it will look much neater and also have a bigger impact. Readers will notice them more if they are grouped rather than lost among other sidebar things specially for ads. As for images based sidebar stuff try if at all possible to have them match in colors to your blog or at the very least make sure they are in themselves attractive. This is mainly for bloggers that place 125x125 ads of other blogs or entrecards in their sidebars... some are just plain ugly and won't help your blog look attractive so do not use them!

SHORT TITLES
Thirdly, keep your sidebar titles to a minimum. I often see sentences as titles and sidebars aren't very wide usually so the words have to be on several lines. It doesn't look very attractive but rather bulky and cluttered.

COLORS
Fourthly, on my designs I like to make links and text on sidebars all the same color and posted articles in another color. Technically speaking it's a no no! If one follows the normal web practices links ought to look different from normal text so readers know they can click on it. Now, the reason specially in your case Tina since your sidebars and posts background is all white without any separations, is that readers, with only a quick glance, will be able to differentiate sidebar from post. Here's what I'd do in Tina's case. Since all your links are red in the sidebar, make the sidebar text red as well... Now do not worry about your links they are underlined so they already look different and your readers will know they are links.
Now since your blog is a wordpress one I cannot tell Tina exactly how to achieve the change in color... As for your sidebar titles I'd make their background red and the text white so you get white text on a red bar... which would act like a divider. Or you can go with an image beside the title words like I'll explain further down.
I am not familiar on how easy it is to modify the template in wordpress but if you know how or can find tutorials on the matter it would be worth while.

DECORATIONS
Also, when it comes to sidebars I like to decorate them a bit using elements from your header graphic to tie everything together. In Tina's case I'd use a little red heart beside the sidebar titles. You may not know how to draw or make a heart? If that's the case try searching for the words free icons on google and you'll find some of various sizes, shapes and colors.
Tina's sidebar titles are made with the h4 tag... if she has access to her stylesheet on wordpress she should find the h4 tag in her stylesheet already all she would need to do is add the little heart image with the aid of background images. Here's a link where it's explained very clearly and tells you exactly what to do. It's quite simple but feel free to email me if you have issues I'll help as best as I can since I'm not to familiar on how wordpress accounts function.

If little images beside the titles doesn't appeal to you... there is also the option of dividers between each widget in your sidebar. Make sure to use an image that fits within your sidebar... you do not want it sticking out. The simplest and easiest way to add a divider between your widgets is to add an image widget in between your other widgets. It can be a longer process than playing in your stylesheet specially if you have many sidebar elements but if you're not a coding-wis it's definitely the easiest way and everyone can do it!

On another note, there's a few things I also recommend for Tina that are not directly involved with the sidebars but would help separate them from the posts.
1. There's a nice wordpress plugin (I wish blogger had something similar) that makes your post titles into images of words... now why would you want to do that... simply because it allows you to use a less common font or a non web standard font. For example in Tina's case I'd used the font from her blog tagline... it's pretty an readable small. But please make sure it's readable if you want to use this plugin.
2. Tina's blog is part of her website and on the other pages she has different elements and they have a nice rounded red border around them. I recommend doing the same for each individual post. Although, she would need to contact her web designer for this so there would be fees involved.

Well, hopefully, this helps clear up issues on the topic of attractive sidebars. Do not hesitate to send in more questions!!!

Stay tuned for tutorials on how to add title images and/or dividers to your sidebars!!!!

What I have been up to lately

2009-05-19T06:25:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven't posted for a while, I've been busy illustrating a friend's fantasy roleplaying game. It's been a while since I drew fantasy art. It's been fun! After all, fantasy has always been my thing... I began to draw with fantasy illustrations!!! It be nice to receive a fantasy blog makeover demand!!!!

I've also worked on a few things blogs... I've made a few premades. A new makeup theme, I blogging beach theme for the coming summer and a recipe theme... you can view them in the template section.

I've also made a new fitness theme for a custom request... it was fun since it was with a bootcamp flavor!!! It's called Winner or Whiner Fitness Blog so go check it out if your getting fit or want too. It has plenty of helpful videos and recipes!!!

I also made a header request for My Über pet the blog... It has a very glamorous and cute feel and it's new well the blog... they have a website to buy products from which has been around longer. If you love your pets go check it out it's going to be a great blog!!! I also made them this badge since I felt bad that I couldn't do their whole template it being a wordpress blog... I did though match the colors of their theme to fit the header image when I installed it!

I also have a new custom request about women, travel, beauty and general empowerement... I'll be starting on that shortly after I finish the current fantasy illustration I'm making for my friend.

On another note Musings of a Muse will also be changing her blog wardrobe for summer gear shortly... which is already made just needs a few more matching graphics and we're all set!

Glam Mag

2009-05-17T10:11:00.000-07:00

Theme: glam, makeup, fashion, women, cosmetics, beauty
Primary Colors:pink, silver, black, white
Type: Premade
Layout: 3 column, fixed width, centered, horizontal navigation menu, selective expandable posts, label cloud, author highlighted comments, search bar.
Package: 1 header (title embedded),1 icon set, 1 divider, 1 rounded corner (post & comments), 2 background tiles
Platform: New Blogger (widget friendly)
Created: May 2009
Status: Available for 65$

Bootcamp Fitness Girl

2009-05-05T18:00:00.000-07:00

Theme: fitness, bootcamp, women, health
Primary Colors: orange, green, blue, camo
Type: Custom
Layout: 3 column, fixed width, centered, horizontal navigation menu, selective expandable posts, author highlighted comments.
Package: 1 header (title clickable),1 icon set, 3 background tiles, 1 sidebar title set.
Platform: New Blogger (widget friendly)
Created: May 2009
Status: Sold