Friday, July 6, 2012

MY FIRST GRAPHIC DESIGN

Photobucket

Today I spent nearly ALL day creating my very first piece of graphic art......see my lovely button above!! Not too bad for my first considering I didn't even know where to begin, other than seeing how popular photobucket is with everyone. Took me a while to figure that one out too! I've never really done any type of digital art before! I'm not really super happy with it, but it will do for now until I can learn more on designing.

It's hard to tell that those are the letters of the alphabet at the top and my crayons kinda look like rockets, hehe! It's definitely a work in progress!

I have no idea how everyone creates all of these lovely graphics and classroom resources on here....I hope to learn! All I know is microsoft clipart and Word. I'm discovering tons of wonderful clipart resources out there through other blogs and just downloaded a couple of freebies today to experiment, but then what? What platform do I use? Do I need to purchase a software program? I have NO idea! I'm so anxious to start designing my own things!!!! I'd love to be able to share as much with all of you as I take from everyone here!

Logo Design by FlamingText.com
Logo Design by FlamingText.com

11 comments:

  1. I could tell it was the alphabet! I've had pretty good luck making things on PowerPoint. It's a lot easier to navigate than Word for making graphics. You can save them as jpegs as well to upload as a photo. Hope that helps!

    Dede @ 1stgradeevents.blogspot.com

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  2. Thanks Dede! I saw people were using PPT, so I tried that today. I've made dozens of powerpoints, but had never made art on it. I always ended up with a white background behind it though that I had to crop. Is there a way around that? And then ionce I transferred it to my blog, it looked blurred, so after doing some research I found that it was better to save in png. than jpeg. It came out much clearer! I had never worked with png. before!

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  3. Cute button! Way to go on making it yourself! I found your blog through a comment you left somewhere else. I am your newest follower. On Tuesdays, I feature a new blogger. If you are interested in being featured, checkout my blog or email me!
    :) Dana
    Fun in 1st Grade

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  4. Powerpoint is definitely the way to go - so much easier to make things than on word. That said, I am no expert on making graphics, but, to get rid of the white around a picture here is what I do. Select the picture, go to Format at the top of your bar. On the left hand side of your bar will be a box that says "recolor" select that and a drop down menu will pop up. At the bottom of that menu it will say "set transparent color". Select that and click on the white in your picture. It will now be transparent! Also, if you hit "print screen" on your keyboard and then open up Paint (or a similar editing program) you can hit paste and a picture of whatever screen you were working on will appear that you can then crop and edit as you wish. Hope that helps at least a bit! Holler if you have any questions!

    Jennifer @ Herding Kats In Kindergarten

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  5. Loving your comments here. I have the same questions. So glad that their are teachers out there willing to help us newbies out.

    Traci, I love your button design. I want to make one for my page too but I don't know how and I don't want to pay a lot of money for it. How did you get started with yours? Thanks for helping a new bloggy out.

    Mrs Flickinger's Butterfly Oasis

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    1. Hi Tammy,

      I hope I can remember how I did it....it was a lot of trial and error, believe me...it was no easy task. I have seen where most people are using ppt (even see the comment above from Jennifer). So here goes. I will try to walk you through what I did as best as possible.

      1. Open a new ppt slide and insert your image. My images all came from Microsoft clipart. When you click "insert clipart" the clipart menu will come up on the side of your screen and you can search images you want.
      2. Once I had my button like I wanted it I saved it to my computer. I was told to save as jpg. but my button came out very blurred. After doing some research, I found that you should save as png. if using the image on the web for better results. So after going back in and saving my pic as png. the end result was the clear button you see now.
      3. After you save it as png. go to www.photobucket.com and upload your button. This is where you will do your editing. At this point, your button is on a white page. In photobucket you will crop this white background. You will also go into the advanced editing tab and make your button 120 x 120, otherwise it will be too large.
      4. Save your button in photobucket.
      5. Open your album, drag cursor over your button and it will display the html code you need to put it on your page.
      6. Copy that code and insert it into your page by adding a gadget. If you need help with this let me know.

      Now to get the link box underneath the button is another story!! To do this I used another website and if you've read my other comments to see that my computer crashed....well that website was saved on that computer so I do not have that. But I will keep looking and try to find that site for you. You may also want to follow "aturntolearn.blogspot.com as she does a "Technology Tuesday" blog that is very helpful.

      I am very new at this too, but if I can help you with anything else, just let me know and I'll do my best! Good luck and please let me know if you get it created! I'd love to see it!

      ~Traci
      The Bender Bunch

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  6. Your button is adorable and I am so impressed that you made it! I love powerpoint but just for creating activities. I had someone do my blog design but I love it and cannot have asked for anything better! =)

    I am happy to be your newest follower. I would love for you to hop over and visit me when you get the chance. =)

    Heather
    Heather's Heart

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  7. Hi Heather! Thanks for complimenting my button. Your blog design is cute. I'm envious of your cruise! Looks like a great time. My family is taking a houseboat trip next week, our houseboat is awesome but cannot compare to your cruise ship! I've always wanted to take a cruise but my husband gets too seasick!

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  8. Hi Traci! Saw you were a Sp.Ed. teacher so I had to pop over and say hello! As far as making activities, games, buttons etc I also think the easiest way is using Power Point. In the beginning it took some practice because it was new to me, but now I can make games fairly quickly. My friend wrote a tutorial on making a button. I'm going to see if I can find her link and post it for you. I am your newest follower. :)

    Nancy
    joyoflife2011.blogspot.com

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  9. Thank you Nancy. I am your newest follower! That would be great if you could find that tutorial to share!

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