Older Posts Gadget: Blogger

Wednesday, March 11, 2009 by Cathe Holden


Ever worry that your blog readers stop at the end of your current page? Do they click on the OLDER POSTS link at the very bottom? I realized my blog page was loading pretty slowly for some readers because I have too many posts per page, but worried that if I shortened to only 15 posts per page that they wouldn’t go any further once they’d scrolled to the bottom. And there’s just so much more to see! So I put on my designer hat and went to work on a fun gadget for the very bottom of my page. I made extras for you and instructions on placing one- here’s how:

  1. Choose an image you want and either drag it off as is (small) or click to enlarge and drag or copy to your desktop or a file folder. (The pointer images are designed to point right at the words “Older Posts” when enlarged. Scroll to the bottom of my page to see what I mean.)
  2. Go to CUSTOMIZE on your blog.
  3. Choose ADD A GADGET on the very most bottom center of the page, (I have a standard blogger template, so it’s the very short and wide gadget box at the bottom.)
  4. Choose PICTURE.
  5. Leave the Title and Caption area blank.
  6. Un-click “Shrink to fit”.
  7. In the LINK area, paste the file or link to the image you chose.
  8. Step 7: For the image, BROWSE to the image you want to use.
  9. Step 8: Click SHRINK TO FIT and SAVE.
  10. Back on your CUSTOMIZE page, make sure it is the very top gadget of any other bottom-page gadgets you might have if using a gadget image with a pointing finger.
  11. Comment here and I will visit your blog and check out your new gadget, and of course, I’ll click on your older posts link!! freegadgets

For more FREE blog gadgets and buttons, CLICK HERE!





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Cool Patches with Vintage Graphics

Tuesday, March 10, 2009 by Cathe Holden

More Graphics Fairy Fun today! As I mentioned in a recent post, I’ve been enjoying the use of the cool vintage graphics that Karen, The Graphics Fairy, shares daily on her website.

This time I made patches from my favorite images. The only modification was adding borders to each to allow for stitching around the images and not having just white around each patch.
Click on any image to enlarge.

I printed 2 pages onto Colorfast Sew-In Inkjet fabric sheets. I’ve included these bordered graphics as downloadble PDFs for you.
{PDF 1} {PDF 2}
But you don’t have to limit yourself to my favs, there are many more to choose from on the site.

Once printed, I peeled the fabric from its backing and heat-pressed as directed. {1} I cut out each patch {2-3} and moved them around on my GAP jean jacket until I was happy with the layout.{4}

Once positioned, I took a photo for layout reference, then using spray adhesive, lightly sprayed the back of each patch to keep them in place while sewing. {5-6}

I stitched each patch inside their color border, overlapping some patches over others. {7-8}

Once all were sewn {9-10}, I tossed the jacket, along with a good load of clothes, into the washing machine then the dryer to distress the patches. It worked like a charm, all the patch edging fraying and the patches have a great worn appearance. Once removed from the dryer there were a lot of threads fraying from the patch edges. Instead of cutting I pulled each thread creating more fraying.

This is the final jacket!

Vintage patches would look great on a tote, pillow, jeans, shirt, you name it!

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Fundraising: Spare Change

Monday, March 9, 2009 by Cathe Holden

I came across a couple of art files today and thought this might make a good post for those of you looking to raise some money for an event in the future.

All of our children have had the great privilege of experiencing Yosemite National Park through their school’s outdoor program. It’s a 5-day program for the 5th and 6th graders that happens every other year. We have a very small school with only one class per grade. Fund raising is essential to these kinds of programs and every little bit helps.

Two years ago when we were looking for different ways of raising extra money to offset the parent’s and the PTA’s cost, I headed a spare change fund raiser about 6 months prior to the trip.

Using a modified vintage fruit crate graphic, I labeled 3 large gallon paint cans donated by a local paint store and sent each kid home with a labeled mason jar to collect change at home.

The jars, too, were donated by the local supermarket. Both the can and the jar labels gave credit to the stores for donating. I sent home additional labels with the kids to use on soup cans for grandparents, etc.

I made up a flyer with doodles and information about the program. The students could bring in their jars of change and pour into the large can in the classroom. Each Friday, a designated student would haul that can into the office and dump the change into the office can. I would pick that up when full and head off to the change counting machine at the grocery store.

The kids were encouraged to keep their jars at home over the summer and bring them back in the fall. That year, the 5th and 6th graders raised nearly $1000…IN SPARE CHANGE!!

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