New Header, Collages, and More

For the last couple weeks, I have been searching online for a good free photo editing program. When I do the We Heart Wednesday posts, I want to display the photos in a fun collage, rather than taking up the whole page by posting each picture individually. I think it's easier on the eyes, don't you? I've also been trying to design a fun header that doesn't take too long to change. I get bored easily, and like to mix it up. Thirdly, I've also been working on making a button, in hopes that you guys would post it on your blogs to help share the love. *Insert cheesy smile here*

Well yesterday I finally found what I was looking for!! Picasa. It's totally free, super easy to use, and it doesn't bog your computer down a whole lot, like PhotoShop and Gimp tend to do. 

To make my header, all I had to do was pick my photos, click the "collage" button, and voila! I chose the polaroid border, and then arranged the photos. Arranging was super easy to, you just drag and drop! If you want them rotated, just click and hold while you move your mouse. Seriously, the easiest photo software that I have ever used. Once I wanted to add the words, I could have done that in Picasa too, but I wanted a fancy font. (Picasa has cool fonts, but I'm picky). So I clicked the "Picnik" button, and voila! I'm editing my photo in Picnik. They have tons and tons of fonts. I typed what I wanted, did a simple drag and drop to put it where I wanted it.. Then I moved the little slider to adjust the size. Click save, and it automatically saves it to my Picasa! Seriously, that is all I had to do. It probably took 20 minutes.

I had so much fun with that, I decided to make a button. Again, I used the collage setting to get my photo in the cute little polaroid frame. Then I added the words in Picnik. I then went back to the collage setting again, to get my green border. And I'm done! When you save your photos, you get to pick what dimensions you want. So I picked 800 pixels for my header, and I got an exact 125x125 pixels for my button. Seriously so easy.

But I'm not going to pretend that I'm super smart here and got this all figured out by myself, because I really didn't. I used these tutorials to help me out:

How to make a Blog Header for Free (Using Picasa)


How to Make Your Own Blog Button (And Add a Scroll Box for the Code)

If you haven't already, grab my button! Help share the love! I have a box over on the far left sidebar, with your buttons in it. If you have mine, and I don't have yours, please let me know! I want to return the favor =]

By the way, I was thinking about making a step by step tutorial, complete with photos, showing how I made my header. If anyone is interested, please tell me!