DIY Blog Design | Create an 'About Me' Profile

Hi everyone!  Today I am adding to my DIY Blog Design Tutorials collection with a very heavily requested "how-to".  I believe that every blog should have a photo and a little blurb about the author in the sidebar.  It's a great sneak-peak into the person behind the blog.  There are so many ways to do this one and I contemplated which to demonstrate here because mine was done through Photoshop and I don't have access to that right this second.  So I'm going to use PicMonkey to make things simple.

1. FIRST, go PicMonkey.com and upload your blank image (Find tutorial of how to make this HERE).
KEEP IN MIND.  Since you can not use a transparent background with PicMonkey, the background color you use will HAVE to be the same exact color as your blog background.  To find out what exact color your blog is, you can go to your blogger dashboard, then TEMPLATE, then CUSTOMIZE, then BACKGROUND.  There will be a 6-digit number with a number sign in front of it, looking like this #000000.  You need this number.

In PicMonkey, once you have your blank starter image uploaded, resize.  Depending on the size of your sidebar, it should be arounnddd 300-350 pixels wide and maybe 450 pixels long.  You can adjust that.  But then you need to change the COLOR to match your blog.  Ctrl-Copy the 6-digit number from your blogger template.  In PicMonkey, go to Add an Overlay and add a rectangle shape.  Change the color of that box by Ctrl-P into the color option, as shown below.

*If your background is a patter, you will have to go to Add your Own Overlay, and Upload an image of the background you used to use as your background in PicMonkey.

2. NEXT, in Overlays, Click Add Your Own at the top.  Upload the picture you would like to use.
You can add a border to it by adding a rectangle overlay and placing it behind the image, so only the edges show.

3. FINALLY, you can add a description of your blog, yourself, or whatever you feel like jabbering about below your photo.  Simply add text below the photo and customize it to your liking.  You can also add another shape below it to make it stand out.

That's really it!  The basics, anyway.  You can crop it down and make it fit nicely into your sidebar.  There are so many different, creative things you can do to make it your own.  Change sizes, colors, fonts, add graphics, etc.  Let your creative juices fly.

As always, feel free to email me with questions!