I wonder how many of those that used to follow b2l are still around, I certainly hope you are.

In more recent news I’ve joined forces with a friend MOin over at TechieSouls and we have both been working hard on a new website WP Codex

Its a new concept and we still have a long way to go before we can launch the site.. but hopefully everything will get back to normal soon. I hope to try and get the new skin on b2l as soon as possible.

Thats all for now

Feel free to use..

Happy Valentines!

Here are just a few variations of what I threw together earlier. I tried to make several sizes of each so you have some variety. But if you’d like to make an image to your own specifications please feel free to download both of the PSD’s

Download

Download

Download

Download

Download

The Plain Heart

This is a plain transparent png file

Download

On That Note..

Sorry these image are so late!.. I’ve been very busy this week.

I had intended to drop a nice love heart tutorial into the mix on Wednesday but I just didn’t get time.

I hope everyone has a great Valentines Day and hope to see you all real soon!

I’m back with some exciting news for everyone, Blog2Life is going to have a complete makeover from head to toe. Our aim to aim for a more specific niche (mainly making your blogs look beautiful). We’ve not got anything confirmed yet but I feel this is the new way for blog2life over the other areas we used to cover like development.

Themes, Themes, Themes

On a second point Blog2Life will aim to post a new theme every month or two (this will be based on money generated through advertisers and donations) as I am finding it very hard to find anytime to code. I will be getting the themes professionally coded which limits the number of themes I can push out at anyone time. So if anyone does know of any good professional theme coders (for a resonable price) please drop me a comment with the link.

Blog2Life Focus

As mentioned above we are going to streamline our operations into graphical based posts. Our soul aim will be to make your blog look beautiful for as little effort and money as possible. We will post graphics resources and web content and at the same time produce some nice looking icons and themes for you to download.

Redesign

Yes, it is time once again for blog2life to shead its old skin into a nicer new one.

The aim of the redesign is to allow a more visually based website interface with a clean uncluttered feel and at the same time allow me to place more advertisements on the website in which I can use to earn money for the conversion of these PSD files to working wordpress themes that you can download free!!

Oh I Forget To Mention

While Blog2Life will be shedding its old skin we will be getting it professionally coded for you to download and not only are we going to be getting the current theme coded.. we will be getting the new theme coded for free download too!

Thanks again! See you after the redesign!

As for subito theme I’ve thrown another few hours into the mix and designed from the comments down. So if you dont mind, your opinions please.

Screenshot

Here is the screenshot:

Thanks Again!

Style 1

This one is nice and simple following the original plan. I went for a plain header and a plan out look.

Index Image

Style 2

This style is to incorporate the index page style somewhat trying to standardise the look of the webpage as far as possible.

Index Image

Style 3

This following style 2 tries to incorporate the sidebar better.

Index Image

Thank You!

Thanks again for all the input!

Firstly I hope you all had a great time over christmas opening countless presents, indulging on rich food and splashing it all off with a little wine (I say little..). Now the christmas surge seems to be slowing down I am back with another design that I’d like you to give me some feedback on. We all know how good you guys are at this so this is the first place I come when I get stuck…

Whats with the name?

Subito, Well in all honesty I could not think of a decent name so I was subjected to try out a random word generator. And this was the end result. (Feel free it suggest a nicer name but I’d rather have you suggest design ideas).

Theme Thoughts

The basis of this theme is the same as I had intended for boxy. But in the case of boxy that eventually seemed to deminish. But don’t worry I will continue working on Boxy (If any coders are out there, and interested in coding for B2L please let us know!). Back to the main point, with Boxy I had invision a rich looking theme easy on the eye, simple to follow and very visually appealing.

However with boxy I feel that the main focus was lost somewhere on the design journey. The theme as mentioned in some of the comments just looks way too busy, and when it came to add a sidebar the theme just looked so cramped. This makes the theme hard to follow and makes it hard to define key areas.

With Subito I’ve tried my absolute hardest to keep it minimal yet make the theme look as if there is something there, not just a few lines and text. I’ve highlighted the “most recent” or “sticky post” in an individual zone. Tried to have a few nice fading effects with a dark background and a very defined website body, sprinkled with some nicely placed images.

A Few Things I’m Becoming Unstuck With..

There are however a few area’s I’m as of now struggling to develop. On key area is once again those darn sidebars. So any comments on this area would vastly help the design process.My current thoughts on this area are to run 2 columns as so many of you commenting were crying out for a theme that contains 2 sidebars. Of those 2 sidebars the left on is about 180px wide and the 2nd about 270px wide.

This allows for list style objects in the left (ie. categories, recent posts, pages, etc..) and for larger objects like adverts (250 x 250) or paid advert spots (125 x 125) allowing for a list 2 advert images wide.

Another area is the pages (but this is just a case of finding the right buttons the fit the theme).

Also any idea’s on the footer would be a big help.

The Theme Screenshot

Thanks, Let me know what you think.. and have a great new year!!!

Well either way we hope that this little chap will help add an extra christmas cheer to your site and save you ample time to wrap those all important presents!

Blog2Life Icon: Snowman

Yes, he’s nothing special but it is something for those that are short of time to run a full web search for a snowy figure.

Here is a full screenie of the little chap.

Download

Like I said it is a “no frills” graphic as I’ve had little time to improve him myself but he is the same fella that appears on B2L and we hope he’ll start popping up in many more places over the next few days.

PSD - Download Link

Enjoy!

This part will focus on how to make it snow on your website.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

Hello and thanks for taking the time to read part one of this series. Right, lets get started!

As it’s christmas we all understand that nobody has anytime to actually do any of this fancy designing shananigans but for that small percentage that do we’re here to make your site look great for Christmas.

Creating the feeling that it is snowing on your website (like that you can see on b2l) it could not be easier. Matt (http://ma.tt) recently requested for someone to create a snow styled wordpress plugin. And within just a few days he received the response he’d been after.

Scott Shiller created a simple, easy to use java based wordpress plugin which is now avaiable from wordpress.org.

Link to download

For more instructions on installation, and for extra options and tweets head over to the plugin homepage. Also for that little extra he’s created a funny Christmas lights plugin where the bulbs are smashable.. demo it here.

Enjoy!

Part 2 coming very soon, part 2 looks at how to build create a snow man using wordpress..

WordMimic

My work has far progressed on WordMimic since I revealed it to you guys. The coding is coming on nicely and I have successfully overcome most of the area’s that had been putting me off working on the theme. FOr example I was experiencing a huge glitch on long titles on the index in which the title would then appear underneath everything. It was very frustrating to the point of giving up coding for that day but I’ve spent the last 4 hours slaving away over my keyboard and have progressed leaps and bounds in terms of the coding.

Following the surge of replies about the layout of WordMimic I’ve made a few changes accordingly. I feel that this slight change makes the theme look even better and I fixes the main problem that was highlighted about the disconnected title on single posts and pages.

Here is a new screen shot of the single page layout for you to drop your opinions on (all of which are encouraged and greatly appreciated, don’t forget you guys are the ones that make b2l what it is!).

Whats New?

Ok here is a run down of what’s been changed (its not a huge deal but I think it looks better):

1. The Title has been moved following requests that it was too disconnected from the theme, moving away from the original I have now placed the title just above the content and shrunk the blue bar back.
2. The RSS has changed ever so slightly and is now encompassed by a nice curved box.
3. The Comment Cloud has been changed to a more visual and less text based format which I thinhk fits in nicely with the theme (but please don’t hold back on what you think).

Screenshots

Here is the origianl screenshot from the previous post:

Here is the screenshot for the new layout, let me know what you think:

Boxy

On to the next. As for Boxy I’ve been spending lots of time trying to pull all the best bits together into one. I’ve spent lots more time on the designing but I have still not started any coding at all.

I do feel that it is best to get this theme fully designed and finished to its full potential before diving in and trying to code a mish-mash theme thats just like any other wordpress theme. I have however been contemplating several different layouts in the release of this one covering all of what’s been said in the comments from your guys. I feel by adapting to those bigger demands many more people will be able to make use of the theme.

But for now boxy will remain on the art wall for further completion. We’ll talk about boxy in another update further down the line (hopefully by that time I will have started the coding process).

Quick Thanks

Thanks again to all those expressing their opinions on the themes!.. I can’t do it without you. One last thing. If I don’t get to post (hopefully I will) have a very merry christmas and a happy new year!

For wordmimic I have aimed to try and take the outlay of wordpress.org and try to implement that onto the wordpress framework. It’s certainly not been an easy task but after lots of thinking I hope you like the look of the almost finalised project.

How Does It Look?

Ok lets get straight to the point. Here are a few screen shots so you can hang of how the theme will look:

What Do You Think?

So now its your turn to give me some feedback on the theme.

But just before you do there are a few things you should know:

1. The main image on the index can be any size and any image easyily changed by using the custom field “image” and placing the image url in the value box.
2. All the middle and right index columns are widgetised.

Now fire away!

Thanks!