Simple Taupe

Screenshot:


Since transparent Header images no longer work in Blogger (happened around 14 Sep 10), I was trying out different Headers and playing with the gold, taupe color scheme idea. Ended up tweaking a Simple Template.



My header image is the light taupe part (560x150px). Blogger stretches the image taller, no matter what size I make it. Grrrr... The rust colored part is the Header background color. A happy accident.

Gotta get rid of that pesky image border again.



With this template, you do have color choices for the image border, but you can't get rid of it from within Template Designer. You have to tweak the above code in the Html section.

I like the divider at the end of each post. I made it a little thicker (3px).
That's a Footer Border in the Html section, but called a Shadow within Template Designer.

Picture Window Gold Pattern

Tweaked my template again.
How about gold, taupe, black, white

Transparent Header images no longer work in Blogger, so I went back to a plain text Header until that gets fixed.

Here's a screenshot (Laptop):


Border code:
dotted black on bottom of post and solid black on top of post.



Pattern:

Picture Window - Bottom Border Divider

I add a bottom-border divider to Picture Window Template.

Can change it to desired color via Template Designer, Advanced, Post, Border Color.

Border Screenshot:


Code screenshot:(Edit HTML area of Blogger.)

Picture Window Autumn

Same Picture Window Template.
Add autumn leaves background for the obvious choice autumn template.

I bought a Laptop, so now I get a 14" 16:9 screen view and the 17" 4:3 screen view of my old monitor.

Laptop View Screenshot:


The image:


Other autumn leaves background images:

Picture Window Sunrise

I've been hungry for orange lately.
Decided to fiddle with Blogger Templates again and see what I could come up with in the color orange that's "naturey."

Used my same Picture Window Template with the serene Mountain scene.
Changed the background image (Nature category) and used the suggested text colors.
Had to change the Post Border color and Post Background color to transparent (Advanced Section).



It was a little tricky getting the header text to be readable yet blend in.
I came up with a gradient for text on transparent png image.



Added one of my bird pics (70% opacity) on my transparent bg name avatar.
Not sure how I like it.

Here's the screenshot result of my template now:

Back To Picture Window Template

Back to Picture Window Template. LOL
I got on the minimalistic idea with that gray Awesome Template (previous post), but found I like the transparency of the Picture Window Template rather than the boxy look of the Awesome Template.

I found a nice serene soft mountain background under the nature category.



I did have to set the posting area to semi-transparent so the background would show thru that area. I also got rid of the borders. The right column is semi-transparent by default.

Then I fiddled with a header title, which turned out to be a selection with a soft drop shadow in Paint Shop Pro 9. Got rid of the splashy purple flower avatar by profile area and added my name in a fancy font but soft dark gray.

I'll sit with that for awhile.

Awesome Templates

I'm going to try out the Awesome Templates next.


It looks like it uses different bordering effects for each section.
I really like this plain grey one with the soft shadowing around the section edges.

Screenshot:


I wonder what it looks like in IE8. Will test. (It was a tad different, but okay.)

I'm using the same Header, which is just a transparent text png file.

Turned out that I didn't find much I could do with the template that I liked. Maybe I'm tired of the boxy columns/elements look because I had that on my old template. About the only background I liked with this gray theme was a gray bokeh under the abstract backgrounds section.



I could have tried making a gray texture tile as background, but decided I just didn't want to fiddle with it anymore.