I have two BIG chunks of news to share with you today! 

Firstly, I’m going somewhere pretty incredible in just a few days’ time: Necker Island, Richard Branson’s private island in the Caribbean! 

 

Yes, I am fully aware how crazy and amazing this is. And to be honest, I’m equal parts excited and terrified. 

I mean…NECKER ISLAND! RICHARD BRANSON! 

He’s the person I admire most in the world of entrepreneurship (I totally relate to his innovative, “woo hoo” approach to life and business), so to think that I’m going to be meeting him and soaking up the creative vibes on Necker in less than a week is nothing short of mind-boggling. 

Especially because of the way this happened. I quietly decided, a few months ago, that I was going to go to Necker Island someday. And it feels like I barely had time to blink before the opportunity to go fell into my lap. 

I’ll be there for 4 days of fun and networking with a group of other entrepreneurs, including my dear friend and coach Renee Airya, who is a master healer, visionary, and all-around fairy goddess (my words, not hers). I’ll be meeting Renee face-to-face for the first time on Necker, and I cannot WAIT to run up to her squealing and throw my arms around her! 

The moral of this story? Never underestimate the power of intention. No matter how big or outlandish your desire may seem, the Universe is always there to support you. You just need to decide what you want and trust that you’ll receive it.  

(Oh yes - I suspect I’ll be taking lots of photos and video while I’m on the island, so if you want to see them, definitely follow me on Instagram and Twitter). 

Alright…now on to the next thing I want to share with you: the launch of my new site, Creative Bloom! 



The site has actually been live for a few weeks now, but I’ve been waiting for the right moment to tell you all about it. Creative Bloom is a major “coming out” moment for me, as it represents the official melding of my branding and web design work and my “psychic stuff” – so I’ve been feeling a bit vulnerable about unveiling it (yep – if you didn’t know this about me, I’m an empathic psychic medium who happens to also love empowering women to design gorgeous websites. Haha).  

The Creative Bloom site is where you’ll find all my magical new services, which I’ve designed to support you in blossoming into who you are at soul level (I can tune in to your soul purpose, soul family of origin, natural gifts, and tons more juiciness about you, so that you’re able to use it to take a shortcut to happiness and abundance!). 

Starting right now, you can sign up to work with me in several different ways, including Creative Kismet Readings, Soulful Brand Vision Boards and Soul-Centric Websites. Interested? Read all about them right here. 



You may also be intrigued by a free mini-guide I put together called The Secrets of Your Soul: 5 Fascinating Facts You Probably Never Knew About the Deepest Part Of You. I’ll send that your way instantly if you opt in to the Creative Bloom list (in the bright, yellowish-green bar that runs along the top of the site). 

Ok -c’est tout for today! Thank you for reading, and as always, if you have any questions or comments about Creative Bloom or anything else, don’t hesitate to drop me a line and let me know!

~ Amanda 

P.S. Digging the Creative Bloom vibe, and want inspiring and magical images and written tidbits delivered to your Facebook feed? Click here to “like” the Creative Bloom page on FB!

Sitting with my husband Justin having breakfast yesterday morning in our little bungalow village in Koh Samui, Thailand, I found myself hemming and hawing about something for the umpteenth time.

See, for a few months now, I’ve had a strong intuitive urge to raise the price of The Girl’s Guide to Web Design. But knowing I should do it and *actually* doing it are two different things.

“But what if people get mad?” I asked Justin between bites of toast and jam.

“Well, that might happen,” he said gently.

“I really don’t like making people mad.”

“I know you don’t. But sometimes you have to do what’s right for you, and what’s right for the business.”

“But what if no one buys the course anymore?!” I bleated.

“I don’t think that’s going to happen, Amanda.”

(Sound of knife and fork scraping plate anxiously).

Our conversation continued on like this for a few minutes. And somewhere in there, it hit me – I was being awfully silly.

I mean, we all have insecurities – especially when it comes to the creations we’ve poured our hearts and souls into before setting them free in the world.

But The Girl’s Guide to Web Design is tried, tested, and true. It’s been around for a year and a half, it’s continually updated, and it’s changed the lives of hundreds of women by empowering them to unleash their creativity on the web and never need to hire a designer again. We get new rave reviews coming in every day, and many of our students now bring in healthy second incomes creating gorgeous sites and blogs for clients!

So when it comes right down to it, I have nothing to feel insecure about. And that’s why I’ve committed to myself (and to Justin, my unfailingly supportive partner in crime) that it’s time. Time to raise the price of the course that’s worth a heck of a lot more than what it currently costs.

It’s a little scary, but it feels right. Because the REAL lack of integrity doesn’t come from raising your prices “for no reason” – which is what I’ve really struggled with in this internal debate of mine. It comes from having a stellar offering whose price is out of alignment with the value and results that people get out of it – which is what’s going on with GG2WD currently.

So, here’s what I’ve decided to do. On the afternoon of Wednesday, February 20th (Eastern Standard time), the price of the course will go up to $797.

If you buy the course before then, you’ll get in at the current price of $397. To put that in perspective, that’s HALF what it will cost starting in a few days.

If you’re ready to dive in with our incredible community of women, unlimited lifetime support in our private Facebook group, and knowledge of all things web and design that will kick your year into awesomely high gear, you can sign up right here.

I’d love for you to be one of the ladies who gets in before I double the price on Wednesday. And I’d also love you to tell your friends, family, and coworkers who have secret (or not-so-secret) webby aspirations, by simply sending them a link to this post.

Here’s to your creative & techy liberation – and to charging what you’re worth! – in 2013!

P.S. If you’re pretty sure you want to sign up for the course, but you have a burning question you need an answer to first, just head over to our Conact page, shoot us a message, and we’ll get back to you with all the info you need.

Do you know my friend Jackson?

I met him several years ago (he maintains it was on a dancefloor somewhere), and he quickly became one of my favourite people to hang out with.

We’ll often mix up a few cocktails and talk entrepreneurship for hours on end – which is super fun for a marketing geek like me, and which always results in my picking up some golden nuggets of business wisdom from him.

Jackson is a proud sneaker collector (check out the kicks above) and a seasoned communications and PR pro (he runs his own agency, the hilariously titled Proper Propaganda), and kind of like me with The Girl’s Guide to Web Design, he secretly has a thing for empowering others to do what he does, instead of hiring him.

So when he told me that he was coming out with MakePR, an online course designed to teach bloggers, small business owners, and entrepreneurs how to get featured in the media, without paying the thousands per month that PR agencies charge, I was pretty pumped to help him spread the word.

And I was even MORE pumped when he informed me that he wanted to offer $100 off the price of MakePR to all the members of the Girl’s Guide to Web Design family – including you! (More info on that below).

Here’s the scoop: MakePR is an 8-part, at-your-own-pace learning experience that walks you through every single step you need to take to get awesome press, without paying a dime. Jackson will lead you through exercises to help you map out your compelling story (trust me – you have one!), teach you exactly how to find the people who are looking to report on topics you’re a pro at, and show you how to pitch – all without being sleazy for an instant.

I personally have used Jackson’s strategies to attract a major publisher that offered me a book deal, to land a story about The Girl’s Guide to Web Design on the front page of The Montreal Gazette, and to rack up tons of online media placements that have made a HUGE contribution to the success of my lil’ ventures.

And there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have the same awesomeness going on for your project or business! All you have to do is pick up some know-how from Jackson.

For all the details on how the course works and for more on how getting killer PR can help you take your blog or business to the next level, tune in to our interview right here:

…And if you’re ready to start seeing your name in lights (ok, maybe not in lights…but in some seriously impressive publications and media outlets!), then you’ll want to take advantage of the extremely limited-time coupon code that Jackson is offering to you.

** MakePR is normally priced at $498, but if you act fast, you’ll save $100. To claim your discount, go to http://makepr.net/register, click “Add To Cart”, enter coupon code GG2WD in the box, and complete your purchase. You’ll get immediate access to the course, you’ll become a PR pro in a few short weeks, and the rest’ll be history!

P.S. Got questions about the MakePR course? Feel free to post ‘em below in the comments, and Jackson will answer them for you!

I’m shaking up just about everything in my life and business, and I recorded a video for you that explains it all!

Here’s what you’ll hear me talk about:
- The new (very personal) site I’m launching
- The far-flung adventure I’m taking off for on November 16th
- The upcoming “Level 2″ Girl’s Guide to Web Design course
- Your chance to work with me to build your stunning, soulful brand online

Press play below to get the scoop on all this and more.

Want to be sure to stay in the loop about all the stuff I discuss in the video? Click here to get on the GG2WD email list!

P.S. Big thanks to all those who sent out tweets last week to help me nab third place in Ali Brown’s “Entrepreneurs who Thrive” contest! The lucky winners are @AnneCuthbert, @EmilyKVA, @NaturalChica and @joannajg! They’re all getting their choice of a free spot in The Girl’s Guide to Web Design or an in-depth website review from yours truly. Yay!

On the heels of last week’s post about giving your posts and pages an instant design upgrade with a sexy “Feature Box”, today I’m bringing you another tutorial that will forever change the way you blog.

In fact, by the time you’re done with this post, you may find yourself overcome with the desire to shower your computer screen in kisses and dance a jig in your living room. At least that’s what I’m shooting for.

So, let’s get to it!

Today I’m going to show you how to create those cool collections of images that you see on all the top design, fashion, and decor blogs.

Think Coco + Kelley, Mrs. Lilien, and Design*Sponge. (Speaking of which, have you checked out my articles on CSS, WordPress, and copywriting on Design*Sponge yet? You’d probably like them!).

You might call them “collages”, “mood boards”, or “inspiration boards”, but however you refer to them, the bottom line is that they are the ultimate blog post enhancer.

Why are they so awesome? Well, because when you know how to make a mood board, you’re no longer stuck inserting images one at a time (stacked one on top of the other) in your blog posts. (Cringeworthy, right?).

Instead, you can create artfully-arranged collages that perfectly illustrate the topic you’re talking about in your post – whether that’s “magical places”, “modern little black dresses”, or “the best digital cameras money can buy”.

Today’s tutorial is also extra-special because I’ve taken it straight out of the course material for The Girl’s Guide to Web Design.

It’s basically a sneak peek at the laid-back, non-intimidating teaching style I use throughout the entire online course – so if you’ve been wondering what the “tone” of the course is like, this will give you a good indication.

The tutorial is a little on the long side, but I guarantee that once you press “play”, time will officially begin to fly. You’ll instantly begin to see all the possibilities for YOUR little corner of the web, which is one of the most wonderful feelings you can have, if you ask me.

You can watch the video in full screen mode if you click the little icon with the expanding arrows that you see at the bottom right of the video. That will make it easier for you to see everything that’s happening. I suggest you open up Pixlr in another browser window so that you can follow along as you watch (choose the “Advanced” editor for best results).

So, without further ado…here’s the tutorial! When you’re done with it, don’t forget to keep reading the rest of the post to find out how to place your newly-created mood board on your site or blog.

So you’ve got your mood board ready to go. Now, how do you put it on your blog or site?
- First, save the image by going to File –> Save at the top left of the Pixlr screen.
- I recommend saving your mood board as a .JPEG, because in general, JPEGs load faster than PNGs on websites. The other file formats are weird, so you don’t have to worry about them.
- When you click “OK”, you’ll be able to choose the location you want to save your file to on your computer. Make a mental note of where you put it.
- Not it’s time to add the image to your post or page. If you have a WordPress blog or site, you can use the Upload/Insert tool that’s located immediately above the big white window that you type your post content in. In the “caption” box, you may want to put the description of all the items in your mood board, like this: “Clockwise from top: x, y, z”.

You’re done!

Now you can repeat this process for every post that you think would benefit from a mood board – and you can use the skills you learned in this tutorial (manipulating layers, drawing your own geometric shapes, etc.) to create endless combinations of items and elements in your mood board projects.

What’s next?
For more on Pixlr, check out my posts on designing your own logo:
Design your own logo: video tutorial #1 (the “sophisticated” logo formula)
Design your own logo: video tutorial #2 (the “playful” logo formula)
Design your own logo: video tutorial #3 (the “clean” logo formula)

And if you’re liking the way you’re feeling right about now (empowered, excited, and full of creative “can-do”), I’d love to teach you to create the web presence of your dreams – so that every last element of your blog or site looks exactly how you want it. To learn more about The Girl’s Guide to Web Design, click here.

* The lovely mood boards at the top of this post come from Mrs. Lilien and Coco + Kelley.

Are you less than thrilled with the boring-looking posts and pages on your site?

You know – the plain white background and the black text, with the only break in the monotony being a slightly larger heading every now and then?

Then you, my friend, are not alone. There are literally millions of sites out there that have a great-looking overall design (think stunning header, eye-catching sidebar and lovely layout), but that fall flat as soon as it comes to the interior part of the page. Otherwise known as the part that you, the site owner, are updating on a daily or weekly basis. The part that you desperately wish you could bring “up to speed” with the rest of your site.

It’s a sad state of affairs, and it’s enough to frustrate any blogger or online business owner.

But the good news is, injecting some visual chutzpah into your site is easier than you think.

All you need is a bit of CSS to give your posts and pages an instant facelift.

And you don’t need to actually “know” CSS to do it.

Instead, I’m going to give you a single chunk of code that you can copy, paste, and tweak to your heart’s content – to get the exact look you want for your very own “feature box”!

Plus, this tip works no matter WHAT kind of blog or site you have (read: even if you haven’t moved to WordPress yet).

So, let’s get to it!

To begin, choose a page or post on your site that has a section of text you particularly want to draw attention to. Maybe it’s a really important paragraph, or a recipe you’re posting, or a headline that you don’t want people to miss when they scan down the page. That’s the chunk of text that we’re going to turn into a cool-looking “feature box”.

Now go into edit mode for the page or post, so that you can make changes to it. Check that you’re editing your page or post in HTML mode (not Visual mode). On WordPress sites, the “HTML” tab is located at the top right of the area you type your content in. You click it to switch to HTML mode.

When you switch to HTML mode, you’ll probably see a bunch of weird-looking code on your screen. It may be stuff you’ve never seen before – but don’t freak out. You’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.

Now look through the code to find the section of text that you want to turn into a feature box. You’ll probably find that the text in question is surrounded with some HTML tags, like this:

<p>This is your text you want to pretty up</p>

…or this:

<h3>This is your text you want to pretty up</h3>

What you’re going to do here is add some CSS code to the opening HTML tag for the chunk of text in question.

The opening HTML tag is the one that comes first. So, in the examples above, it’s the initial <p> tag (in the first example), or the initial <h3> tag (in the second example.

The CSS code we’re going to add to this opening HTML tag will tell people’s computers to display the text in a new, fun way – thereby creating your feature box.

(If you don’t see any HTML tags surrounding your chunk of text, don’t worry – you can add them yourself in a jiffy. I’ll tell you how in a minute).

But before I tell you about the five cool design elements you can apply to your chunk of text to change it into a sexy feature box, let’s take a quick look at how your code will look by the time you’re done with it. When you’re finished, you’ll have something that looks more or less like this:

<p style="width:400px; border:3px dashed #000000; background-color:#31bfc7; color:#ffffff; font-size:20px; font-style:italic; text-align:center; padding:10px;">This is your text you want to pretty up</p>

…which will result in a feature box on your post or page that looks like this:

This is your text you want to pretty up

Now for the really cool part: If you scan through the code above, you’ll likely notice that a lot of the words make sense to you, even if you’ve never touched a bit of HTML or CSS in your life. See? This is easier than you thought it’d be!

But what if you don’t like my blue box with the black dashed border?

No offense taken! Your feature box doesn’t have to look anything like mine does (and in fact, it should really mesh with the overall look and feel of your blog or site, so that it doesn’t clash horribly).

Let’s walk through the process of deciding how you want to dress up your chunk of text – and then I’ll show you exactly how to do it, by tweaking the chunk of code we’ve already looked at.

Step 1: Choose your design elements for your feature box

Grab a pen and paper as you read through the 8 design elements below, and write down the characteristics you want YOUR feature box to have.

Feature box width
You may want your block of text to span the whole width of the page, but you may also want it to be not quite so wide. So, defining a width for your feature box is a good place to start. You’ll be defining your feature box width in pixels (“px” for short), and you can set it to whatever you want. A good width for a block of text would be something around 300 pixels or so, I’d say.

Border style, width, and color
A lot of the look of your block of text will be determined by the style of border that you choose (if you want one, that is). You can set the border style to dashed, double, solid, or dotted. The width you set for your border will also be defined in pixels, or “px”. A border that measures 1px wide will be super thin, whereas a border that measures 20px wide will be really thick.

You can also set the color of your border. A bright red border would be really attention-grabbing, for example. Or, you may prefer to pull in a color from some other part of your blog or site design, for a nice, cohesive look.

You can mix these border elements together in whatever way you want. So, you could have a border that’s dotted, 1px wide, and bright blue – or you could have a border that’s double, 30px wide, and light grey. It’s totally up to you.

Background color
This one’s super easy: just pick a background color for the box, and you’re good to go. This is the color that will “fill in” the box, and that your text will sit on top of. You’ll need to define the color by its hex code, which you can grab from this cheesy but useful site. Or you could check out this recent Backpacker post to find out how to extract the secret hex code for your favorite color.

Font color
Depending on the background color you chose for your feature box, you may want to change the color of the font for the text that sits on top of it. There should a good amount of contrast between the background color and the font color, or else the font color won’t be readable. For example, a black background with a white font over top of it works, whereas a black background with a dark brown font over top of it will be illegible. And by the same token, you’ll want to avoid pairing two super loud colors. A neon green background with neon pink text over top of it will be pretty puke-worthy.

Font size
Want to make the text in your feature box bigger than the rest of your text on your post or page? No problem! All you have to do is choose the pixel height you want the letters to be. To give you an idea of font sizes, a 10px font is pretty small, whereas a 50px font would be huge.

Font style
Feel like throwing some bold type or some italics into your feature box? Can do! You can set this bit in the code to “bold” or “italic” to get that goodness going.

Text alignment
The text in your feature box will automatically align to the left side of the box, but maybe you want it centered or right-aligned. Your options for this particular chunk of the code are going to be “left”, “right”, and “center”.

Padding
Without any padding added to your feature box, you’re going to end up with the text butting up against the edges of your border. It’s not a very slick look, so you’ll probably want to add some padding to give the text some breathing room. Padding is also measured in pixels (or “px”), so all you have to do is specify the number of pixels that you want there to be between the edge of the text and the border that surrounds it. The more pixels of padding you specify, the more space there will be around the text, and the more breathing room it will have.

Step 2: Prep your HTML

Ok – so you’ve written down the characteristics you want your feature box to have. Now it’s time to plug them into the code for your page or post.

If the chunk of text that you want to turn into a feature box is surrounded by HTML tags (anything inside pointy brackets, like this: <>), then you’re good to go. You may skip directly to step 3 below.

If the chunk of text that you want to turn into a feature box is NOT surrounded by HTML tags,then you need to add some. The easiest way to do this is to surround your text with <div> and </div> tags.

So if your chunk of text looks like this (not the lack of surrounding HTML tags):

Oat cake cheesecake applicake halvah marshmallow sugar plum chupa chups tart. Lemon drops candy canes jelly jelly beans sugar plum pudding oat cake. Tootsie roll candy dessert jelly-o bonbon jelly beans cake biscuit jujubes. Biscuit toffee jelly wafer powder. Sesame snaps marzipan cake jelly candy canes. Chocolate bar chocolate topping tart. Wypas bonbon tiramisu tiramisu. Pastry toffee candy tart fruitcake lollipop wafer chocolate cake. Gingerbread wypas oat cake soufflé chupa chups lemon drops gingerbread. Tootsie roll faworki liquorice.

…then you’ll want to add div tags around it, like this:

<div>Oat cake cheesecake applicake halvah marshmallow sugar plum chupa chups tart. Lemon drops candy canes jelly jelly beans sugar plum pudding oat cake. Tootsie roll candy dessert jelly-o bonbon jelly beans cake biscuit jujubes. Biscuit toffee jelly wafer powder. Sesame snaps marzipan cake jelly candy canes. Chocolate bar chocolate topping tart. Wypas bonbon tiramisu tiramisu. Pastry toffee candy tart fruitcake lollipop wafer chocolate cake. Gingerbread wypas oat cake soufflé chupa chups lemon drops gingerbread. Tootsie roll faworki liquorice.</div>

*Note that the closing div tag has a slash at the beginning. This is very important.

Step 3: Copy and paste

Now you’re ready to paste in the code that will let you create the desired effect for your feature box.

Go back to your chunk of text, which should now be surrounded by opening and closing HTML tags, and add a space at the end of the opening HTML tag, just before the first closing pointy bracket.

Immediately after the space, paste in the following:

style="width:400px; border:3px dashed #000000; background-color:#31BFC7; color:#FFFFFF; padding:10px;"

Once you’ve done this, you’ll end up with something like this:

<p style="width:400px; border:3px dashed #000000; background-color:#31bfc7; color:#ffffff; font-size: 50px; font-style:bold; text-align:center; padding:10px;">This is the text you want to pretty up</p>

Or if you added your own HTML tags in step 2, like this:

<div style="width:400px; border:3px dashed #000000; background-color:#31bfc7; color:#ffffff; font-size: 50px; font-style:bold; text-align: center; padding:10px;">This is the text you want to pretty up</div>

Step 4: Tweak

Now all you have to do is plug in your desired design characteristics to get the effect you want!

Here are the values to change in your code, using the example from immediately above:
- The “width” value (change the “400″ to whatever you want the width of your feature box to be)
- After “border”, the “px” value (this will control the border width)
- The “dashed” value (you can change this to “solid”, “double”, or “dotted”)
- After that, the six-character hex code (this controls the color of your border)
- After “background-color”, the six-character hex code (this will be the background color of your feature box)
- After “color”, the six-character hex code (this will be the color of your font inside the box)
- After “font-size”, the pixel value for how big you want your font to be
- After “font-style”, the value of “italic” or “bold” (If you want to specify this at all)
- After “text-align”, the value of “left”, “right”, or “center”
- After “padding”, the “px” value (this will control the amount of padding between the text and the edge of the box or border)

To tweak these values in the code, you will literally just delete the numbers, hex codes, and other values in the sample code I gave you, and replace them with your own stuff.

So, if you want to change the border color to white, you’ll change the “#000000″ to “#FFFFFF”. Or if you want to give the feature box more padding, you’ll change the “10px” padding value to “30px”.

You can leave out any of these CSS elements, too. So if you want a solid-colored box without a border, just delete the CSS code that talks about the border. Or if you don’t want to set a background color for your feature box, you can just leave out that part in the CSS, and the box will automatically have the same background color as the page it’s on.

The important thing is that each individual element (width, border, background color, color, and padding) is followed by a semicolon, and that the whole collection of CSS “style rules” is surrounded by a pair of quotation marks inside the opening HTML tag. This will keep the structure of your code up to snuff, so that people’s computers know how to interpret it.

And finally, while we’re at it, here are some other examples of different-looking feature boxes to get your creative juices flowing:

Step 5: Preview and publish your page or post!

Once you’ve got your code tweaked with the values of your choosing, you’re ready to check out your handiwork!

I recommend starting by previewing your page or post (before you publish it with your fancy new feature box on it). That way, you can see if you like how it looks, and if you don’t, you can go back and edit the code by changing the border width, or the padding, or whatever.

Once you love how it’s looking, hit “publish” on your post or page, and you’re done!

Final geeky remarks

You can put as many feature boxes as you want on your site. If you want to use the same feature box design and apply it to another chunk of text on your site, no problem: you can do that. Just copy and paste the code. Or, you could try a couple of different styles: one to use for your really important paragraphs, and one to use for your headings. The sky’s the limit with this one.

Want to make feature boxes that look even more awesome? There’s WAY more you can do with this stuff! (Think fancy fonts, background images, gradients, drop shadow effects, and more).

For example, check out this feature box, below – which uses a cute pink chevron background image:

 
If you like the looks of that, and you’re kind of digging this coding thing (who knew, right?!), my online course, The Girl’s Guide to Web Design, could be JUST what the doctor ordered!

You’ll learn the REAL ins and outs of CSS, so that you can customize every last element of your blog or site with background images, fancy fonts, and TONS more.

I’d love to have you on board as a student. Click here for more info on the course.

First off, apologies for the radio silence last week. I was in St. Lucia on my honeymoon, and I got too caught up with last-minute trip preparations to write and schedule a Backpacker post for while I was away. Oops!

In any case, I’m back in action – and today’s post is inspired by the beautiful colors I saw while I was away. I was super excited when I found out that Ladera, the (completely amazing) resort we were staying at, offered a tour of the gardens to guests. I met up with Ray, the extremely knowledgeable gardener, and he took me around, patiently explaining all the plant life to me (the photos above are two of the pictures I snapped during my tour).

It was one of the highlights of the vacation. He even told me how he always introduces new plants on the night of the full moon, because the trees, flowers and shrubs just seem to “take” better. Super cool stuff.

But I digress. Let’s talk your website – and colors.

You know when you can picture a super-specific shade of yellow, or blue, or purple in your head, and you’ve got two images or examples that are ALMOST it – but you can’t seem to find one that’s bang-on? If you’ve got two graphics that are close-but-not-quite, and you’ve ever thought to yourself, “If I could just smush these two colors together, the color be JUST RIGHT”, then you’re in luck.

Yup – you can magically combine any two shades (like I’ve done above, with my flower pics) using this awesome tool from Colortools.net!

All you have to do is stick the hex codes for the two colors in question in the first two boxes (If you don’t know how to figure out their hex codes, read this Backpacker post about how to grab them), hit the “combine” button, and you’re in business.

You’ll be presented with two hex codes on the right side of the screen – one called “combined” and one called “web-safe”.

The “combined” color is the one that’s a perfect blend of the two hues you asked the tool to mix.

The “web-safe” color is the closest approximation to that blended hue that you can use on a blog or site when you want to know with 100% certainty that it will look exactly the same on everyone’s computer.

Once you’ve got the hex code for the exact hue of your dreams, you can email it to your graphic designer, or you can use it to make DIY graphics in Pixlr (which is free), or in Photoshop or Illustrator (which you can now access for $50 a month thanks to Adobe’s new subscription plan).

So there you have it, folks! Never compromise on color again! And go to St. Lucia if you have the chance! It’s an absolute paradise!

Ok…and now for the part you’ve all been waiting for: who won a free spot in our Jetsetter course for the month of July?

Drumroll, please…our lucky winner is Julia Guthrie! Julia, please drop us an email to arrange to get access to the course. And welcome aboard!

Want a shot at being our winner for August? All you have to do is post your feedback about today’s Backpacker tutorial on the GG2WD Facebook page. We pick one winner at random every month!

First things first: today’s Backpacker post is NOT a guide to illegally downloading software…but if you’re a design nerd, it’s just as exciting!

I’ll cut right to the chase: Photoshop is now available on a subscription plan that costs $49.99 a month!

Quite frankly, I think this is is the best thing since sliced bread – and I’ve been looking forward to today all week so that I could share this news with you.

If you’ve ever looked in to the whole Photoshop thing, you’re probably aware that it normally costs big bucks. So this new subscription option is a pretty sweet deal. You can cancel it at any time, and when you sign up, you get access to all the other programs in the Adobe Creative Suite (such as Illustrator and InDesign), too!

It’s all done through the Adobe “Creative Cloud” system. The software is actually housed on your computer, but you download it from “the cloud”. And once you’ve got it, you’re set to start creating gorgeous graphics for your site or blog!

Love this idea, but need some guidance when it comes to actually USING Photoshop?
You didn’t hear it from me, but the secret project I mentioned last week will soon have you covered in that department!

In the meantime, though, you may want to check out the Photoshop tutorials on Lynda.com.

Happy Photoshop-ing!

If there’s one thing no one really tells you about being an entrepreneur, it’s that a lot of the time, you’re flying by the seat of your pants. In other words, you’re totally making stuff up as you go along – trying to balance the ideas that excite you personally with the ideas your customers will love.

That’s what this post is about: a lesson for me, and a price drop for you.

But let’s back it up a bit, and look at how this all came to be.

I haven’t announced this to anyone yet, but I’ve been working on a new project. It’s something I’m so revved up about that it’s consuming my every thought. I’ve been waking up in the middle of the night with my brain racing, and I’m finding myself zoning out of conversations left, right, and center.

I’ll tell you more about this project soon, but for now, let me just say that a few weeks ago, my apparent obsession with it led me to a bit of a weird place: I got out of sync with the great thing we have going with our past and current web design students.

See, I tend to have a super active imagination, and I’m one of those people who can’t stand NOT being in forward motion. So in spite of myself, I let my future plans interfere with the amazing things that are happening in the here and now. I got so amped about what I have planned for you all that I tried to squeeze some of this “new thing” into our “current thing”. And it left me feeling squirmy.

What am I talking about? Well, if you’ve been hanging around GG2WD for a while, you’re likely aware that we recently raised the price of The Girl’s Guide to Web Design to reflect the fact that we added two new, awesome features to Jetsetter: unlimited support for your course questions in our private Facebook group, and energizing, soul-aligning “Website Therapy” sessions with the brilliant Sally Hope.

It seemed logical that we would increase the price of the course to reflect these new add-ons (after all, we have to get Sally and our Student Support Gurus paid for their fantastic services), but what I didn’t consider is that not all of you may be on board with the whole “coaching” thing.

See, Sally’s sessions are truly out of this world, and I believe in their power and benefit with all my heart (I’ve seen firsthand how they help my clients get crystal clear about how they want their sites to look and function), but I sometimes forget that not everyone feels they need extra encouragement when it comes to learning design and code.

Raising the price of the course also made me realize how tremendously important it is to me that as many people as possible can afford to sign up for The Girl’s Guide to Web Design, so that they can get their hands on these super-empowering, life-changing skills. And we got quite a few emails from people who recently discovered GG2WD, and who were sad that they could no longer afford the course.

All this got me thinking. After all, it’s YOU guys who matter. You’re the ones who decide if you like what I’m creating and offering – or not. Without you, I’ve got nuthin’ – and I take your feedback very seriously.

Which leads me to today’s announcement. Starting right now, we’re reducing the price of The Girl’s Guide to Web Design – back to what it was before. That means you can once again purchase the course for $397 – and there’s an installment plan, too.

Or, if you love the idea of turbocharging your learning process with some rockstar-caliber coaching, you can also choose our Jetsetter + Website Therapy option for $597.

And you can even add a Website Therapy session later, if you decide you want it down the line. (Speaking of which, we’ve put together an awesome checklist that will help you decide if a session with Sally might be for you).

So if coaching’s not your cup of tea – no problem. The same well-loved Jetsetter course is yours for $397. And we’re giving everyone who buys the course (no matter whether you take your Website Therapy Session right now or not), unlimited support for your questions in our private Facebook group – because we’ve seen how valuable it’s been to people, and we want to do everything we can to ensure your success with design and code.

I’m pumped to be offering you this new choice – and I hope you’re jazzed about it, too.

Here’s the link to find out more about the two packages we’ve got on offer – or to sign up: http://girlsguidetowebdesign.com/sign-up

Be sure to refresh the page when you get there, to force the new content on the page to display. If you don’t refresh and you’ve visited that page before, you may see the old content (and that would be no fun at all!).

As for the new project I’m working on? I’ll fill you in on the details next week.

But in the meantime, I hope you’ve been enjoying the Backpacker tutorials we’ve been sending out every Wednesday. If you’re not on the list yet, click here to hop on it. So far we’ve covered how to pick the perfect color palette for your blog or site, RSS feeds and buttons, how to make a link open in a new browser window, and some other fun design and coding topics. I’ve got tons more content up my sleeve, so don’t miss this chance to brush up on your webby skills, free!

Well, that’s all for now. As always, thanks for reading – and I hope to see you in our Jetsetter course very soon!

Blog feeling a little blah? Site lacking in spice?

Here’s a little-known tip for giving your online presence some kick for minimal $$: pick up some lovely new graphics on Etsy!

Yep – I said Etsy. It may not be the place you normally think to go to for buying “digital assets” such as social media icons, header graphics, and fun background patterns, but you’d be surprised at what you can find there.

Check out some of my favorite Etsy treasure troves below, and be sure to keep reading for the scoop on how to incorporate these goodies into your site.

All The Adorables: Specializing in watercolor-style stuff, which I’m a total sucker for.

The Photospot: Funky, decoupage-style graphics that are like a wackier version of the art by Papaya.

Primp My Blog: Great for getting complete sets of blog or site graphics made, for cheap.

Lasagna The Cat: Offering up awesome “digital papers” that you can use for opt-in backgrounds or virtually anything else on your site.

 
How to find this stuff on Etsy
Unearthing these little gems is deceptively easy. Just search for “blog graphics”, “header graphic”, “about me” graphic, “social media icons” or similar at the top right of Etsy when you land on the site. You’ll be able to scroll through dozens of results.

And if you want a particular color or style, just throw it into your search term, and type in “yellow social media icons” or “vintage style blog graphics”.

Design tip: If you have a minimalist, black/white/grey site, adding solid-colored, highly saturated social media icons to your site is a foolproof way to punch it up. Just pick a shade you like (think hot pink, bright green or cobalt blue), search for it on Etsy (e.g. “hot pink social media icons”), and buy the graphics that speak to you. If you want a particular color that you can’t find on Etsy, you can usually “convo” an Etsy seller whose style you enjoy, and ask him or her to make some graphics in the color you’re lusting after.

 
Want to take a crack at this graphic design stuff yourself?
Check out my Pixlr tutorials (here, here and here) to get your feet wet – or enroll in The Girl’s Guide to Web Design to get more robust training in making graphics for your site or blog.

‘Til next time!