Font Fun: What Font Tool

I've been a little absent here {okay, maybe a lot! But we've been super busy at Clover & Violet}, but thought I'd drop in and share one of my favorite new tools.  It's called "What Font" and it allows you to see what font is being used on a website (as long as the font isn't on an image, of course).

All you have to do is drag the "What Font" button to your bookmark bar {similar to the "Pin It" button on Pinterest}, then when you run across a font you're curious about, just click the "What Font" and then hover over the text. Here's an example from the Clover & Violet blog:

And one more from Rhonda, Quilter in the Gap {since I recently set her blog up on Genesis, I thought I'd show it too!}:

I really love this little tool to help find some great fonts that can be used in titles, and not just on images.  Remember how I posted about Google Web Fonts? Well, here's a chance to discover some great fonts and use them in your titles!

Blog Header {Better off Thread}

I've been spending most of my time sewing lately, but I have done a tiny bit of graphic designing still...so, here's the new header for Janice at Better off Thread!  After a few failed attempts, we arrived at this, I thought it was fun that the word thread might look like it was a bit of fabric stitched to the page, without being too busy either.

The biggest chanllenge was finding the right color scheme.  Janice likes bright colors, and while bright is beautiful in images, it can be hard to nail it down to one or two actual colors, without it looking just plain weird, here's one of my attempts that was great in theory, but ugly in real life:

While I was going for a bright rainbow, it turned out to look more like a muddy mess...so I tried this color scheme instead {and switched up the fonts too - Rockwell Extra Bold & Clementine Sketch}:

I have a couple other little projects in the works, which I love doing because it really helps improve my graphics skills while providing a little bit of prettiness for others, but it seems that the sewing commitments are never slowing down, so posts here will probably be few and far between.

In the meantime, you're welcome to visit me over at Clover & Violet and see the other stuff I've been pouring my time into!

Blog Design {Karen's Sewing Room}

Here is my most recent design.  It is fairly simple, and based on the colors of Vintage Modern by Bonnie & Camille for Moda.  Here are the colors I picked:

This design was actually part of my giveaway from Plum and June, but the winner of that giveaway had a blog design and just had me do a few customizations.  So, instead of letting this design sit idle, I put it to use.

The background chevrons and the background of the sewing machine were purchased from Katie's Wish, and the sewing machine silhouette is one I made from a picture of a vintage sewing machine.  I really like how this one turned out!

Blog Design {Little Bunny Quilts}

Remember my blog design giveaway...well, I am slow to deliver, but I finally finished Alison's blog, Little Bunny Quilts!  She wanted citrus and wine colors, I had a difficult time choosing, but with a little help, we decided on these!

I also experimented with the sidebar title images {tutorial coming soon} and the dashed line around the menu buttons {it took a ridiculous amount of effort to get those little lines, but I love them!}.

Design Stats:

Template: Blogger Simple White with some edits
Fonts: Stitch and Janda Romantic
Graphics: Bunny

using google web fonts in a blog post

I just discovered Google Web Fonts...who knew one could integrate fun, free fonts in a blog post?  Curious what I mean?  The pink words above are a picture, but the words below are actually typed into this post {both are the font Satisfy}:

Testing, testing, testing...

Pretty neat huh? I started with this tutorial.  Then, after adding the font to your blog, if you want to use it in a post add the following code right above the ]]></b:skin>

}h1 { font-family: 'Satisfy', cursive; font-weight: 400; }

But substitute the name for the font you're using!  Then, when typing a post, add this bit of code around the words that should be the web font:

<div style="font-family: 'Satisfy',cursive;">Text Here</div>

Then adjust the size of the font just as for any other text!

And voilà, custom text within a post!

Fun, huh?

Blog Design :: Bee-Inspired

I've been doing a couple blog designs lately, and one of them is finally launched, Bee-Inspired.  Gabi wanted a clean, cheerful blog with teals and coral, and this is what I came up with.  Our inspiration color palette was this:

Source: blog.photocardboutique.com via Jennie & Clara on Pinterest

Design stats:


Template: Blogger Simple White with some edits
Fonts: Sketch Rockwell, Pea Stacy's Doodle Script, & Rockwell {already on my PC}
Colors: See above
Graphics: Dotted lines from Delicious Scraps and by me, Bee from Pea Betsy's Doodles, background from Junelily, and the rest by me.

Blog Design :: GraceParfait Creations

I did a header for a friend of mine's blog not too long ago, and I wanted to share it.  This is the color palette that we used for inpsiration:

Design Stats:

Template: Wordpress Twenty Ten
Fonts: Special Elite & Pea Hart
Colors: See above
Graphics: Buntings by me using overlays from Delicious Scraps

this and that

I did my first photography session of kids other than my own a couple weeks ago!  My friend mentioned to me {not knowing that I am looking for photography practice} that she still hadn't taken her son in to get his pictures done since he turned 4.  I offered to take a few for her, since I need the practice.

We got out of the house early, hoping to get some nice light {it is usually overcast in the mornings, it figures the sun was nice and bright the day we chose!}, so some of the photos were more washed out than I had wanted.  But, overall, I think they turned out pretty good for a first-time.  This is one of my favorites!

I also designed this button after some of the Farmer's Wife quilt blocks for a blogging friend of mine's new series: Farmer's Wife in Your Life  Once I looked more closely at the blocks, I realized how easy they would be to turn into graphics!

And, I've been behind in posting the results of the giveaway, but the winner is:

Alison of Little Bunny Quilts!  I will be designing a new blog for her {and I may draw another winner or two in the next couple of weeks...we'll see how busy I am!}, how fun!

Blog Design {Life is a Breeze}

Here's the new blog I designed for my sister! She love cute things and this made me think of cupcakes. We started with this as a color palette and then went forward from here:

Design Stats:

Template: My Basic Template
Fonts: Pea Hanna Chocolate Swirls & Lucida Bright Semi-Bold
Colors: See above
Graphics: Doodle Tag & Heart Overlay

Blog Design {Bacon Then Eggs}

Here is the latest blog design I've finished for Duff of Bacon Then Eggs.  She came up with the heart idea and I designed the graphics from there.

Design Stats:

Template:  My Basic Template
Fonts: Pea Hart & Garmond
Colors: Red (#c61212) & Black (#000000)
Graphics: Heart & the rest my own design

Next, my sister's blog makeover!

free blog makeover {a giveaway}

Well, I hadn't initially planned to update Clover & Violet so soon...but while I was surfing the web I found a great tutorial here...and I had to try it! But I needed a compatible header first, and the next thing I knew, I spent most of Saturday designing new graphics.  But, I think it was worth it, and I love the new look!

Now, for the fun giveaway...how would you like a blog makeover?  Yep!  I'm going to give away a free makeover, just leave a comment to tell me why your blog needs a new look.  And, for an extra entry, let me know that you're a follower {please leave a second comment for a second entry}.  Giveaway closes Thursday, February 2nd, and the winner will be announced shortly after that!

First Custom Blog

Here's the blog design I did for my bloggy friend Kathy.  She's been blogging for a while, and I actually found her blog through a cloth diaper chat.  It's a personal blog, so I'm not giving the link here, but she just had her second baby girl, so I thought a blog makeover would be a great gift!  She chose the pink and navy, and said she loved Damask...I took it from there!  What fun.

Design Stats:

Template: Picture Window
Fonts: Vladimir Script & Georgia
Colors: Navy (#2b3856), Light Navy (#5e5a80), & Pink (#faafba)
Graphics: Ornate Wallpaper by Insurrectionx & Layered Tag Template by Delicious Scraps

Up next, a new header for Clover & Violet!