website design

Recent cool website designs

February 1, 2011 |

Real Life (TM) keeps interfering with all the blogging love I’d normally be sending your way this time of year, but I thought maybe you guys would like to see some of the new websites I’ve done lately… I really love website design – my techie geek side gets to play with my artsy side, so I’m very proud of these recent ones: 1. DabbledStudios.com I finally got around to doing a little updating of the look and feel for the actual Dabbled Studios website. It was very in need of it! I still need to go in… Read on...

Car Launcher Video, Kids’ Lunches, and more

July 28, 2010 | Also posted in Topic: craft, food

Car Launcher… In Action Just had a odd experience where someone left a comment on one of my Instructables accusing me of stealing the idea for my Hot Wheels Car Launcher. At first I was like ‘dude, I’m sure other people have thought of similar things in the vast internets’, then I googled and found what he was talking about. The car launcher in the video was exactly like mine. But the video was by Make Magazine, who had published my How To on the Car Launcher last December (the Kids Issue). … Read on...

Dealing with Comment Spam, Part 2

July 13, 2010 |

Here is part 2 on dealing with Comment Spam… the bane of a blogger’s existence. In part 1 we talked about Comment Moderation and Blacklisting, so, to continue… (If you missed it: How to deal with Comment Spam, Part 1) Those evil (more educated) comment spammers who look almost real Lately I’ve been noticing a trend of spammers who look like they have actually read your post, and respond with a somewhat intelligent comment, not full of spam links. These can be almost more annoying, because they can slip by automated checks, and because… Read on...

How to deal with comment spam.. Part 1

July 11, 2010 |

If you blog, you know all about Comment Spam. It’s those lovely little comments whose sole purpose is to link back to and/or promote some totally unrelated product or website. Honestly, I’m not sure what value the spammers even get out of it, but that doesn’t stop them from doing it. And it’s a pain to deal with. In my other life where I do web design, I’ve helped my blogger friends figure out how to best manage the deluge, and I figured the rest of you might like some of these insights too. It’s tailored mostly… Read on...

Don’t Panic! Understanding and backing up your blog

June 14, 2010 |

So last week I get an urgent message from blogger friend Carissa (GoodNCrazy.com) – She’d had problems with her host, and her blog was down, and she needed help getting a new host and getting her blog back up. Since I’d done her blog theme design, I was familiar with her stuff, and had a backup of her theme. I also recommended my host, Bluehost.com – since I’ve been very happy with them*. She had a pretty good scare that she’d lost her entire site, so I figured it would be a good idea to… Read on...

Craftdare..coming really soon!

April 23, 2010 | Also posted in Topic: Announcement

Although the #craftsocial people know about this, I just realized I hadn’t mentioned a new project I’ve been working on with some other cool craft bloggers. (It’s one of the myriad of reasons posting has been light on Dabbled the last few weeks — I just keep filling my plate full and going back for seconds!) So what is it?

We Dare You… We dare you to reach outside of your craft comfort zone and create pieces you’ve never dreamed of. We dare you to write about the creative issues most important to you. Most of

… Read on...

Logo Finalized – mostly

April 14, 2010 | Also posted in Topic: art

Thanks to all of your great feedback, here’s the mostly finalized version of the logo I shared a few weeks ago. Whatcha think?

Logo Design

March 25, 2010 | Also posted in Topic: art, my art

Here’s a new logo design I am working on… It’s for a wellness company (yoga, acupuncture, nutrition, etc) and based on a symbol for abundance that the client liked – It’s meant to evoke a sunrise. (I’m still tweaking the design a bit, too–a few things that I’m not happy with yet!) Which do you like best?

WordPress tips – Layout of multiple images in a post.

February 2, 2010 |

When you’re new to WordPress, working with multiple images in a post can be frustrating. If you just want to insert a single floating picture, it’s easy, but what if you have multiples close together? Well, there may be other ways to handle this issue (in fact, I’ve used several myself, including the gallery feature, using tables, and so forth), but this is one quick fix on how to get your images looking like they should, that just takes adding a line of HTML to the post. So if this has always bugged you, read on! And if you know… Read on...

Photoshop Class: Quick and Easy Brushes!

February 1, 2010 | Also posted in Topic: art, Tutorials/Tips

I use Photoshop all the time, but I hadn’t ever made any brushes. I figured there are a ton of good brushes out there, why make my own? And I figured it was complicated. But then I realized how easy they were to make, and that they could be really useful web work, using them basically as ‘stamps’ to create graphics that you use over and over. I used this technique to make the swirl for the Foodwhirl logo into a brush I could use whenever I needed it — easy peasy! Here’s a quick 2… Read on...