Blogger Backgrounds: Tech Tip

This post is not about quilting but about blog design.  In the past you may have noticed an absence of background from my blog, I happen to dislike all the "stock" blogger backgrounds and that got me wondering. There must be a way to put my own background on my blog, not just the stock backgrounds. I wanted something more personal that matches the overall look of my blog. Other bloggers are also using the simple blogger format and have pretty backgrounds.  Well there is a way. Here is what I did. 

First I needed to chose a picture that I wanted.  The site Comment Nation  had a good selection of backgrounds and they allow you to use them for websites. Make sure the image you pick is open source "can be freely used." I picked a diagonal peach pinstripe that went with the colors in my giraffe logo and downloaded it to my desktop.

Next, I had to upload my image to blogger. I am going to defer you to the Blogger Tips Pro website because there directions are visual and involve zero code! It was pretty simple and I followed the directions with no problem.  The result is the image above. 

Here are some other backgrounds that didn't make the cut, but are still good looking ... 

Also, while I am at it, here is another tip.  Want to center your title, or pages? While you are in template designer, three tabs below the background tab is an advanced tab.  Click the advanced tab and scroll down to the bottom and click add css.  Cut and paste the following code into the box add custom css.  Then click apply to blog.

.PageList {text-align:center !important;}

.PageList li {display:inline !important; float:none !important;}

.post-title {

text-align: center;

}

.date-header {

text-align: center;

} 

At this point your titles and pages should center :) Want to learn how to add social media links? Click on my earlier post to learn how. Happy designing.

- Patch and Chels