Hey All!
Im here today to talk about my little shop on Etsy, LovelyParis Designs. Throughout this time that I have had my blog, I have loved to design and re design my blog but also found myself struggling with designing a bit and then stopping and starting again. But lately, I have had so much fun doing this for long hours. It seriously relaxes me and I love it so much. I have learned SO much since I started to design along time ago for free, and now I sell templates on Etsy. But, yes I just wanted to share some of the templates that are now for sale on my Etsy store and tell you a bit more about why I do this and how you can do it too if you are looking to start designing yourself!
Why the name LovelyParis Designs?
For the longest time I have had an obsession with Paris. I don't know how it started but I just fell in love with everything Paris and French things itself. My room is covered from wall to ceiling in Paris things. Big Eiffel Tower stickers, little french sayings, vintage French things too. My restroom is COVERED in Paris things too! My soap pump is a little Eiffel Tower. My friends and family find it easy to shop for me whether it be for Christmas or for my birthday because they know if they get me anything with a little Eiffel Tower on it or Paris themed I will love it! So with that said, I wanted my design "studio" to be called after something that I love love love! So thats why I picked LovelyParis. At first it was going to be called PrettyParis, but it was taken :). I love the name and when you think about Paris you think of cute, elegant, and just happy things (well at least for me), and so I decided that it would be perfect for my designs.
How do you design?
At first it was all a bit complicated. I made it MORE complicated than it actually was. When I first started, I just used the simple blog template that was provided by Blogger and added little images to it to make it look better. I never messed with the HTML codes and that was it. I just made cute little things on Photoshop, made it an image, turned that image into an HTML here in the Blogger Post Edit, and added to and HTML/Javascript and that was it. If you are just starting out this is a great way to start doing it, it not just easy, but also simple to change as many times as you want.
This time, It gets a bit more complicated than that. Now that I got the hang of it all with ALOT of trial and error and about of year of practice, I do it all in HTML format. I go and create a whole new template in the HTML section of Blogger. I can manipulate codes and add images straight to the blog and change the colors and add custom fonts using Google Fonts. I still use Photoshop and I find it really easy now to use, but It is just a matter of finding out how to use it. There are classes you could take to learn all this crap, but I found that It was fun to just learn myself and didn't have to sit through boring classes that start by showing you how to "open Photoshop" -_-. So I just learned to use it myself! I also looked up a lot of things on Google. Like whenever I wanted to add a sticky nav. bar, I looked it up and found great websites that had the codes available and explained what to do. I would love to do that to, but I suck at explaining things.
When I design. I create different blogs. Just as like "draft" blogs, so I can go back and forth to it to see how it is all coming along and just so I can design (duh). I create little sample blogs I use to display my designs and therefor serve as a sample blog in the end too for when I sell them on Etsy and people want to see it live and in action.
How Do I get Started?
Just start! Sit down one day and just play around with Blogger and Photoshop( or whatever editing program you want) and have fun with it. Have Google opened and look up EVERYTHING! That is really what I did. Make sure you have time to do this. I know it was hard for me to find time to do this, and it might have been why it has taken me so long to figure it all out, but I finally did it and I am still learning too. Create sort of a Draft Blog and just mess with the codes and add different colors just so it is more hands-on learning. There are also a lot of YouTube videos that help too (like The Wonder Forest, she is AMAZING!) She has amazing tutorials and designs some amazing blogs. She designed Sprinkle of Glitters blog and Zoella's too!
And yeah! I guess that is really all I have to say about that! Remember, if you are starting to design by yourself, have fun and don't get frustrated if it doesn't turn out correct. You will get the hang of it and figure it out. And with all of that being said, I hope that you enjoy my little designs!
Here are some of the templates that are available on Etsy Now! It would mean so much to me if you went and checked it out!
Thanks for stopping by and Have an amazing week!
<3
