Scrapblog

Scrapblog is a great website out there is designed to help you create custom blog posts that are super creative and look like a page right out of one of the craftiest scrpabooks you've ever created by hand. I even use it to generate images that I use as a header or a footer on my personal blog. AND - to top things off, it is really easy to convert your creations to custom printed books and calendars and other great products (cards, etc.) - and the quality and creativity is way beyond what you could get at KodakGallery or Shutterfly (in my opinion.) I used them this year to make custom calendars for my parents and in-laws. They're a little more expensive ($24.99 per calendar vs. $19.99 at Kodak Gallery - but worth it.)

To use them you will have to set up a free account with them. They designed their service so that you can also publish a blog directly with them, but if you already have a blog with Blogger or one of the other big services they integrate directly so that you can publish to your service with one step. See image below. But because they provide their own blogging service, you always have to "publish" before you can share with your own service. When you share your scrapblog it will send all pages in the blog to which ever service you choose.

Their software is basically graphic and photo editing software that you use online - meaning you don't have to install it, and it is"dumbed" down so even the most novice computer user can easily create beautiful images, although a little background in image editing always goes a long way! They provide oodles and oodles of patterns, stickers and shapes to create your own design with - or you can start by using one of (currently) 144 themes, which will allow you to automatically start with multiple pages in a scrapbook already designed for you, and ready to plug your photos and text into - making it super fast to use as well! They have themes for every holiday you could imagine and more.

To use the software to create custom header images or to just use elsewhere you can always export your image as a .jpg file, save it locally to your machine, and then load it as a header or post it to flickr or do whatever. When you use this method to publish your blog instead of using their "share" feature you have the option of selecting individual pages from your book to download, which provides a little more control when you might not need all your pages.

So for example - If I start with a theme in order to create an image I would like to use as a header, it will load with multiple pages in the template to start with. But after I finish adding my photos and text to one of the pages, I am ready to export that page to use as a header, and I would just follow these steps:

1. Click Save.

2. Choose to Publish the Scrapblog - remember if you don't really use the scrapblog service for blogging - no harm, you can even choose to keep it private

3. Say No when it asks you if you want to Share - you'll be managing this yourself.

4. Select 'Export as JPEG' from the File menu once it is done saving and publishing.

5. A dialog box will appear which will allow you to select the page you would like to download. Select the page and click download.

6. A Windows File Download window will appear asking you whether you want to Open or Save. Choose Save.

7. Windows will ask you where you want to save the file. Navigate to your favorite folder and save!

8. Once your image is saved, you can either load it to flickr or any photo management tool, and add it as your header that way, or you can load it directly from your machine. See the section on custom headers for more specific directions.