Technically Blondish.net turned 3 years old during May. With the layout to be unveiled, it will be the 8th version. If all goes well with this version, I will be retiring the others (Premium Blondish and Mustang), and giving them out as free WordPress layouts. I have already been asked about the Premium Blondish layout and I will strip it of the ‘blondish’ information for the layout. If anyone wants customizations of it, I charge $50 and I allow you to do anything you like, plus you get support for your layouts. (Yeah, sorry, had to slip that in, but I have already done a few customs using this template.)

I am a bit late on a layout change, but the one previewed (It is just the top part), should be up and unveiled by Sunday evening! Some of the things on the site are getting moved to their more comfortable places, like another domain of mine. This is all tied in with the re-focus of the blog that I had mentioned months ago. Some of the pages will have their own templates. I am hoping with WP-PageNavi and Yoast Breadcrumbs to do away with the older navigation to come up with something more clean. From the preview, you can see that it will retain the black, white, pink and golden tones. The guitar is a vector I made. In fact, I will have a vector tutorial on it ready as a wonderful addition.

I have also asked a few people to please write some guest posts. I would not mind if anyone else wanted to. Just give me a shout out at Twitter or here in my comments.

So, what do you think? Does the preview image look promising?

A little strained for time, hence I did not update the layout page, but there are now 5 new WordPress layouts. All of the layouts are similar in layout format, but the graphics are different. I just felt like playing around with the same layout to do several things. I hope to have more of this type, as well as another layout format series too. I did this because it gives more choices, especially for those who may like the format, but not the graphics or one, but perhaps another layout.

Catty
2 column simple layout

Cherry Blossom Tree
2 column simple layout

Mousey Pencil
2 column simple layout

Pixel Chickadee
2 column simple layout

Winged
2 column simple layout

Yes, that is right… five more desktop wallpapers available for download.

All wallpapers come in JPEG format and 3 different resolutions: 800×600, 1024×768, and 1280×1024. The previous wallpapers were greatly welcomed. I even got tips in my paypal from them so I must have done something right.

Anyway… feel free to use them. If you want to use the images for layouts, you can. I even can provide the PNG format of each of them for clarity, but you will have to use the contact form to request the one you need.

Been busy at making graphics once again. In fact, 11 new emoticon smilies! After making the rounded smilies, I needed to make extras that matched all of the colors. Also, I added more colors to the bubble saying emoticon (ex: smilies that said ‘whoa!’ or ‘lol’.)

Here are examples of these:

This makes the total of different emoticons offered at 37! That is quite a bit, especially a variety of new characters that will be introduced soon too!

As internet users are finding rss feeds very convenient to catch the latest news of their favorite sites, I thought that making some creative RSS icons would be great to add to the site. Here are but a few examples:

There are 59 total rss icons available. Please, if you do use any, please remember to not direct link the images and to save them to your own computer before using.

Of course, If you have any ideas for more, feel free to leave a comment on this blog post and I will see if I can get more done soon. Since I am blogging from the library (phone is down due to someone running into the poll and taking down the line), I have had plenty of time offline to get a few fun things finished.

It seems I am always falling behind on some updates, but I did not forget the requests to try to make more avatar icons. Previous to March 2008, I had over 100, but due to the fact that some of them used celebrity images, I had to take them down. That left me with 35 that I could use.

I took the time to make 30 new icons for use. They can be used as avatars in forums or any other place. No real credit it needed, but if someone asks, be sure to link them here. All of the avatars are in GIF format. If you need it in PNG to retain the richness of the image, drop an email and I will send a copy in that format. I will probably put each in a zip file that will include a GIF, JPEG, and PNG formats. Of course, if you use them, save it to your computer. Do not direct link.

The new total is now 65 icons! I do take requests too, so feel free to email me if you have an idea for one.

Here are just some examples:

I added 2 more Computer Desktop Wallpapers to Blondish.net. Both are simple, but I think they are cute. They are offered for download in 3 resolution sizes (800×600, 1024×768x and 1280×1024), and are free to use. If you cut them up and use for graphics, please remember to give credit back.

One wallpaper is called ‘Ice Cream Cone’, and the other is ‘Paper And Markers’. So far Blondish.net offers 5 wallpapers, but since the beginning of February 2009, I have added the majority of them.

If you have any ideas for wallpapers, I can do requests, even fanart for celebrities, but only if they are using my vector method. I will not use the photos and do blends. I know most are girly, but most of the people who do visit Blondish.net are between 14 to 45. If you are a guy visiting, do comment here and make a request. I would like to face the challenge of making other types of graphics too. Again, just in case you missed it, you can view and download these wallpapers in the Wallpaper section.

As for more site news, there are a few WordPress Tutorials in the articles section of Blondish.net for your perusal.

The vectors tutorials I mentioned on the way will be ready this week. As usual, if you would like me to try to take a stab at creating a tutorial, I would be happy to hear about it.

Also, I may soon be a guest blogger over at WPThoughts. I encourage you to check it out as I think it is a promising site. I answer more han a dozen questions about WordPress in Twitter on a daily basis. Might as well write more about it, right?

As for Blogrity.com, I am thinking of making it a Blog directory. However, it will be using WordPress and submissions will be hand done. I would like to make a page on each site and then the page have stats like Google PR, Alexa Rank, and Technorati rank, Ability to leave a comment about the site and possibly a site rank and maybe editor rating. That is just the beginning of my ideas for it. I am thinking that perhaps the first 500 links would be free and the rest would be $5 submission fee. I just renewed it for its 2nd year and until now, I did not know what I wanted to do. What do you think?

I have been working diligently on a tutorial for vectoring. I introduced the idea last week to people on Twitter and had some interest, so here I am blogging about the final outcome of this project. When I started the tutorial, I thought it was best to start with something a little easy and make screenshots along the way. However when I finally wrote it down, the entry was so image laden that I had to just hyperlink from key places to the images.

The first tutorial I decided to do was a flower. It was simple and did not require me to move around any layers as some complex vectors tend to do. I also decided to do this tutorial using Paint Shop Pro. Some of the same utilities can be found in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, so I did not think this would matter. The concepts are extremely similar as a vector is creating many layered shapes to form a larger shape that gives some illusion of depth. My style of vectoring is not the smooth type. I do love that type but it is not my style and I like the stark difference between the layers. I will suggest that for those who like that smooth look that I also mentioned in the tutorial that you can create more layers to produce the effect you desire.

Hope the tutorial is helpful. Happy Vectoring.