Creating A Collage Banner

In this banner tutorial, I'm going to use both Picnik and Photoscape. I like Picnik's format for making the visual header. And I like the many fonts available at Photoscape. Both are free downloads. I do not pay any premiums.


If you'll print out these instructions, we can make one together. This is exactly what I did to make Kim's  banner.

If you've downloaded Picnik and Photoscape, then we're ready to go. 

First let's find out what size your banner currently is, to make things less complicated.


To do this, go to your blog and right-click on your current banner. A box will pop up. Scroll down until you see View Image. Click on View Image. Another box will pop up. Scroll down until you see Dimensions. Mine, for instance, says 980 x 315. Write down your dimensions. 

The only important one is really the first number. For you don't want to exceed the width of your blog. I know that I have my blog width at the maximum in the Blogger New Template Designer. Which is 1000. The same as Kim's. 

Should you want to change your width, you will have to go into Blogger New Template Designer. First click on Design, then Template Designer, then scroll down till you see Adjust Width. This is where you change your blog size. 

I suggest you create or use a test blog to play around with these things. That way it doesn't affect your real blog until you have it where you like it. 

When you're adjusting widths, always scroll down your actual blog page to see if you've cut into your photos, etc. If you haven't, you know you can probably use the width you've chosen. You must Save if you change your size or anything else. 

If you want to change your blog page text, or gadgets with text, or anything else, you will scroll down below Adjust Width until you see Advanced. That's where I play with my blog text and title and sidebar items.

You can play around with this all you want, but unless you save, it isn't going to change your blog. So play to your heart's content. And when you get it where you want it, Save. You can always go back in and change and Save as many times as you want.

First of course let's start with Picnik and create our banner. 

Picnik Instructions:

You will see at the top of the Picnik page: Home, Library, Edit, Create, and Save & Share. A little below this, you will see Collage. Click on Collage. 

Choose a collage size from the far left-hand side. I usually go with four. That is what Kim and I both currently have. So for the sake of this tutorial, I'm just going to say four as I give these instructions. 

After you click on the number, 4 equally square horizontal pics, you will see it appear. (There is also a longer vertical collage size, should you want this one.) 
It will have a dark color in between the pics. I always change this to white. 

To do this, look on the left again. Next to Spacing, you will see a black box. Click on the tiny box in the lower right-hand corner of the black box. A grid of colors in all gradients will pop up. 

To go with white, put your cursor on the little "dropper" and scroll down the first row of the black box. Click on white, which is just above red. Your spaces in between your still-blank photo squares will turn white. 

At this point is when I do my spacing in between the squares. It's in the middle of the far left work area. It sits at 10. I usually move mine down to 5. That's entirely up to you. 

Now we're ready for the fun to begin. There is a green Photo Basket at the bottom of the screen. I, for instance, click on Upload Photos, as I choose my photos typically from My Pictures, which is part of my camera software. You can also click on Get From Computer. In this, you have a bevy of choices, like Picasa. 

Wherever you choose to get them from, I have already gone into my photos and chosen some. Choose your photos and upload them to the screen. Watch the gauge as it fills and uploads your photo. When the full photo appears in the gauge, you can then click on it.

Click on a photo and drag it up to your collage. You can place it in any of the boxes. And the nice thing is, you can move them around to get the best visual effects. 

Unless you pay for Picnik Premium, which I do not, you can only bring up 5 photos per session. Or you can store some in History. If you've already chosen some photos, you've got some to play with. 

You can choose more than 5, but some will drop off the place where they uploaded and go into History. If you're already got them in your collage, they will remain there.

Fill up your four collage squares with four photos. Move them around until you are pleased with their placement. 

What I like about Picnik is that you can put your cursor on a photo and move it from side to side to get the best angle of that particular photo. It will slide some back and forth with your cursor.

When you are pleased with the look of your collage, click Done in the upper right-hand corner above your squares.

Now a screen pops up. Click on Edit. Then click on Auto-Fix in the far left-hand corner. This automatically makes your photos look their best. 

Now click on Resize. That first number is the banner width, and the most important. Mine says 1024 x 259. But I know from checking my dimensions that my blog span is 1000 pixels. I change the number to 980. Since it already has four numerals, as in 1024, you will end up erasing one, as you're only using three numerals. I leave the other box, the length, alone. 
Click OK.

Then click Save & Share. 

A box pops up with a File Name in it and it says Picnik Collage. I have various collages sitting on my Desktop, so that is too generic for me to remember. So I'm going to type in Brendas collage January 2011 and click Save Photo. 

Be sure to watch where it is you're saving it. Take a good look at the box where it says Save In. I usually click Desktop so it's easy for me to locate when I'm off the internet and working in Photoscape. 

Click Save. Now we're ready for Photoscape. Do you have it downloaded and ready for use? I have mine located on my Desktop, the same place where I've saved my collage.

The Desktop is the place your computer first goes to when you turn it on. Before you click onto the internet. It is where your Programs and such are located.

Photoscape Instructions:

Click on the Photoscape icon on your Desktop. A circle will come up that has words around it. At the very top it has Editor. Click on that.

When you get into Photoscape, at the top of the page, you will click on Combine. This is so you can add text to your collage, as in your Blog Name, if you want it outside of the banner.

Then it will say: Drop Your Photo Here. Which means in the middle of the screen. Look to the left-hand side where some small photos are located. I have stored my collage in Desktop when I saved from Picnik. 

You will scroll through this narrow box until you locate your collage. As your cursor goes over each small icon, it should highlight what the photo is. You're looking for the name you gave it. For me, it is Brendas Collage January 2011.

When you locate your collage, place your cursor on it and drag and drop it to the blank screen. It will appear there and stay.

On the right-hand side of the screen, it will say: Add. Below that it will say Save. And below that it will say Edit.

Click on Edit.

On the lower left-hand side, it says: Home, Object, Crop, Tools.

Click on Object. 

Under where it says Home, you will see a "T" (as in Text). Click on the first "T."

Type whatever you want in the space at the left side where they indicate you should begin typing. This is where you will type out your blog title, as in for me: Cozy Little House. You can change fonts, sizes, colors, whatever. There are lots of fonts to choose from. 

Once you find a font you're happy with, click OK. You'll have a toggle-like bar in which to situate your text. This is where you can also take it from the middle of your collage and move it up, down, or even outside of the banner. Mine and Kim's is outside of the banner.


When you get it where you decide you want to keep the blog title, just click somewhere else on the screen and the box surrounding the title will disappear and your text will remain. 

Then I want a sub-title, which I have at the bottom of my current banner. So I will click on the "T" again and the box in which to type will reappear. It might have the words you've already used in it. Just erase with your cursor, and type in your sub-title, should you want one. 

Then do the same thing as you did with your title. 

Once you are happy with your text on your banner, you are going to save. Now, if you have located your text outside your banner, as Kim and I have done, another step is involved when you Save. 

When you click on Save and have text located outside your banner space, a box will pop up that says: "If you've put text outside the banner, save as highlighted." Click that. That saves your banner with the text included outside the banner. 

A box will pop up saying: Enlarge Your Photo. Do You Want To Enlarge & Save The Photo Including The Objects Outside?" (This means your text you've placed outside the banner.) 

Click Yes.

Make sure you see where you're saving it to. It's easiest to just save it to your Desktop again. Give it a name to distinguish it from everything else. In my case, I am going to type Brendas Collage January 2011 With Text. This way I won't get it mixed up with the original collage I made before I took it to Photoscape. 
That's it!

Adding Your Banner To Your Blog:

To add a new banner to your blog, go online to your blog and click on Design. At the very top of your blog, you will remove the old banner, if you have one. Otherwise it might be your blog name, if that's what you had at the very top. Then you will scan/browse in the space on your screen to find the one you want to replace it with. In my case, it will be Brendas Collage January 2011 With Text. 
Save.

Click View Blog to see your banner. 

If you print this out, you shouldn't have any trouble doing all this when you have some free time and want to make a new banner.

Now, I saw in some of Kim's comments that questions were asked about the navigation just underneath her sub-title. These are Pages. Blogger allows you 10 Pages. Each one of those things below her sub-title is a separate page. 


For instance, one of mine says Contact. When you click on that you will see my email address. I simply Created A New Page, and typed in my email address. It looks like any page of your blog, but you just put that one thing on one page. You click Publish Page. 

You can have pages horizontally, like Kim's and mine, or vertically down your blog sidebar. And it will give you that choice. 

Kim already had these pages arranged horizontally underneath her banner. So when I changed banners, it remained.

To learn more about Pages, go to Blogger Help and they will explain all about this feature.

Enjoy!