Challenge 52

Right - in a concerted attempt to try to write more often on this blog (and also to get working through my supplies stash!) I've set myself a challenge-for the next 52 weeks I need to complete a brand new project, photograph it and write about it here. This could be making a new product for my online shops, a personal project (making something for me or producing a promotional item for example), a tutorial showing you how to make something, a new design for t-shirts/hoodies or a new project in my graphic design business. Basically anything that's new!


I'm hoping this is a good way to keep my business moving forward and to spur me to spend time creating promotional material (something i always put to the back-burner) and discovering new product lines; and hopefully make my blog interesting for you to follow.

Big challenge I think will be documenting it all, finding time to write up pieces and, more so, photographing things as this is where the Scottish weather works against me. Here's hoping the spring comes back soon and we get some nice, camera friendly weather.

So wish me luck, and if anyone else wants to join in with the challenge just add your blog link below and we can start out own wee challenge 52 club!

Make a ‘Contact Me’ page

Following on from step three - Making ‘about me’ static page

Before you start making your contact me page you need to create an html form. I found the easiest way to do this was to use a free online form generator. I used emailmeform but there are plenty to be found if you search online. All this site requires is a free registration then it takes you through the steps of making your own form, you can choose what you want the fields to be and how it’s delivered to you etc. Now you’ll get to a point where it asks you for your ‘Thank You’ page url. At this point I went back to my blog and created this page in exactly the same way as the about me instructions describe, but this time called it Thank You and didn’t add it to the linkbar. You can see mine here.

Once you’ve created your page remember to view it and copy the url just like before. This time paste it into the relevant box in the form generator site. This page is essentially hidden on your blog, no-one sees it till they’ve filled out the email form. If you want to see how I’ve done mine feel free to send me an email through the contact me form!

Ok so complete all the steps on the form generator site and you’ll get to the point where it gives you the html code for your form. Copy this, go back to your blog and, just like you did for your about me page, create a new page pasting this code into the page content box. Give your page an appropriate title and add to your link bar the same way as before. You can test it by sending yourself a practice email.

You can add other static pages in this way, blogger limits you to 10 pages in all though.

Go to step five - Hiding the sidebar on the static pages

Link to homepage and shop

Following on from the Previous step - Set up a navigation bar

Ok so you’ve clicked edit on your linkbar widget – a window should pop up now allowing you to add the first of your links. The first one I added was ‘home’. Simply type home in the ‘new site name’ box and paste your blog url into the ‘new site url’ box. Click on ‘Add Link’ and you’ll see Home appear at the bottom of this pop up window. Now enter ‘shop’ in the new site name box (or whatever you want to call your online shop link) and this time type or paste your online shop url into the new site url box. Again, add link, and it will appear above home at the bottom of the window. You can reorder the link using the wee up and down arrows beside them - the item at the top of the list will appear furthest left. Now you can click on save and go to ‘view blog’ and see if your new links appear on your blog! Remember we haven’t yet added any static pages so clicking ‘Home’ will just reload your blog. Clicking on your shop link should, hoever, open up your online shop if you’ve linked correctly. Now to add some pages.

Go to step three - Make an ‘About me’ page