Pink Hippo Under 300 Followers Blog Hop

Happy Thursday Pink Hippos!

It's time for another EXCITING edition of the Pink Hippo Under 300 Followers Blog Hop hosted by mama hippo Amie over at Pinkapotamus

and the Lovely Lelanie @

So, this week I’m gonna give you the scoop on Lelanie hostess over at 
To Sew with Love,

first up, you know there are two of them right?

Lelanie and her sister Laarnie are the bloggers behind  To Sew with Love.

Both have made the move from their home in the Philippines to two pretty different places.  Lelanie is in sunny ol’ Spain with her family and Laarnie is embracing life in Japan with her family! 


How they manage to get the blog all up and running with tons of tutorials and giveaways whilst being in totally different places is beyond me.

{I can barely sort my own blog out and I live with me}

Be sure to pop over and say Hi.

And then there is me, the sleep deprived mama of 3 year old twin boys who are currently experiencing night terrors! So much fun for us all!

We hope you are enjoying finding fun new blogs to follow like this week's featured guest :

Hello!!!

My name is Jen and I blog over at The Crafting Fiend.


 I've been blogging for just over a year. I started my blog because I thought my facebook friends were getting tired of seeing more pictures of the things I was making than pictures of the family.

I've been married for 5 1/2 years I love shoes, and my husband thankfully knows to not waste money buying me flowers and to save it up for a pair of shoes instead.

and we have a gorgeous 22 month old - who loves to run and play and help me in the kitchen.

and we have another little girl due This coming September (and yes, I am looking for guest posters that month - mid- end... )

Most of my crafting is related to my girl (and soon to be girls).


 My blogging follows no schedule currently because the only schedule I keep is breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, snack, supper, snack, and snack again a time or two. (can you tell I'm pregnant? lol)

I have a few patterns up on my blog for free under the tutorials tab

I love to sew my kid clothing and pink is my favourite colour.

And that is a little bit about me and my blog! I Hope you'll check it out :)

Thank- you so much Amie for asking me to do a feature!

Pop over and say Hi to Jen, but make sure you link up first!

Don’t forget each week we have a different featured blogger, next week it could be you!

Now onto our Hop!

The rules are simple:

Follow me and my co-hosts and our featured guest blogger Jen @

The Crafting Fiend

{Let us know you have linked up and are following so we can follow you right back!}

Link up your  blog homepage

Grab a button and spread the word, feel free to tweet or whatever about this hop, blog hops are only as successful as the people who participate, and we know you guys are all

AWESOMELYFANTSTICAL ADDITIONS TO ANY BLOG ROLL

Grab a cuppa and a few cookies, maybe the whole packet if they are especially nice {I won't judge}.

Mix and mingle and make some new friends!

Be sure to let them know where you have come from {this blog hop not your hometown}

We are all looking forward to meeting some new bloggy friends, too!

Oh yeah don’t forget to let us know you are following and we will follow you back!

Love,

Pinkapotamus and Friends!

Making a Blogger Header Using PicMonkey Collages ~ A How To!

I’m sure you all know by now that PicMonkey now has collages!

Which means we can now make some snazzy new blog headers, woohoo!

I decided to mess about with it and see what I could come up with,  naturally I thought I would share it with you guys, you are so welcome!

First up you need to go into the collage section of PicMonkey, here you will find a selection of different types of collage, you can even make your own!

Decide which style you want to go with, for a blog header I think either ‘Ducks In a Row’ or ‘FB Cover’ work well.

I decided to go with ‘FB Cover’, using the curser you are able to adjust the size of each section to suit your needs. You can rotate the collages if you want something a little different, I’d suggest messing about with various options to find one you like.

Clicking on the artist pallet takes you to {Background} here you can add colour, rounded corners and adjust the spacing of each segment. I added a blue shade to the entire collage.

The mountain image takes you to {Photos} which is where you upload your photos and embellishments. Click the ‘Upload photos’ button and it will take you to where your photos are stored on your computer {I’m assuming your photos are stored there!}.

Highlight the photos / images / embellishments you want to use on your blog header and click on the open button, they will appear in the grey column on the left hand of the PicMonkey screen.

You can upload more than you have spaces for, which is great if you want to try a few different combinations!

Simply click on the image you want and drag it across to where you want it and ‘drop’, if you don’t like it there either move it to another section or click on the ‘x’ and it will go back to the grey column.

Once you are happy with your blog header, hit save and save the image to your computer.

{This is the only downside, you can’t actually add text to a collage so you need to do it in 2 steps, no hardship really though!}

Upload you blog header in regular PicMonkey, here you have all the editing options to make your blog header stand out.

If you want to add some more photos / images / embellishments or even one of PicMonkeys overlays you can do that by clicking on the speech bubbles icon, this takes you to {Overlays}.

Use ‘Your Own’ option to upload images from your computer.

Once you are happy with any {Overlays} you have added you are ready to add some text.

The ‘P’ icon takes you to the list of fonts available to use {you can also upload letters from digital scrapbooking kits, subject to T&C}. Decide on the font you want, or even mix it up a little and add your text, you can change the size and colour of the text.

Once you happy with your blog header you might want to add an {Effect} to the overall design. The potion bottle image takes you to the list of available {Effects} all of which you can tinker about with to suit your style.

I went for {Intrepid} which took the ‘shine’ off the overall header image.

 

Once you have your blog header the way you want it, save it, make sure you name it something easy to remember and save it somewhere you will remember! I’ve lost count of the number of times I haven’t taken notice of where I saved something, duh!

Next up you will want to upload your blog header to your blog, this is a simple process and you don’t need to host the image else where.

From your Blogger Dashboard you want to click on the {Layout} tab, you will see the section for the blog header towards the top of the page its called {Header}, click {Edit} to begin the process of adding your new header.

Once the {Configure Header} window is open you are given two options to add your blog header, you want the first one {From your computer}, click on {Choose File}, you will then be able to select your blog header from where you saved it on your computer.

Once selected, your blog header will appear in the {Configure Header} window.

Click save.

You then get the option to see a preview of your new blog header, if you are happy with it, click on the {Save Arrangement} tab, your new blog image is now saved and on your blog!

I hope some of you found this useful, if you have any questions just ask and I will try to help!

If you found this useful you might also like this tip on linking to blog hops / parties and how to avoid the blue frog that can take the place of your image thumbnail!

Linking up here

~ Somewhat Simple ~ Frogs & Snails & Puppy Dog Tails ~ H o H ~ A Crafty Soiree ~  Thrifty & Fabuless ~ A Creative Princess ~  Beyond The Picket Fence ~ The Shabby Creek Cottage ~ The Artsy Girl Connection ~ A Little Knick Knack ~ Delightful Order ~

Fabric Garland ~ How to Stop Birds Getting In Your House!

Did I mention last year that a BIRD flew into our house and got stuck behind the sofa?

Well one did, the poor thing flew in through the open doors and got all confused, I doubt the screaming woman running around flapping her arms in the air {that was me} nor the two kids shrieking and jumping like loons helped Bertie find his way back outside.

Once we established that the bird couldn’t free himself from the sofa and neither Ahren or Ethan were prepared to {man up} and free the bird it was down to me to pull on my big girl knickers and help the little guy out.

Eventually I helped Bertie back outside and have been worried silly of it happening again.

With baby birdy season in full swing I wanted to something in the doorway to put the little blighters off  from flying through the open doors. Taking into account hubbys height and the fact the kids can jump, I only had a little bit of room to hang anything, grrr those pesky tall people!

Anyhoo, sifting through my fabric scraps I decided a garland would be ideal, and what better than a 

summery flowery fabric puffball garland!

1 ~ Cut out a bunch of circles

2 ~ Fold them in half

3 ~ Fold in half again

4 ~ Thread a needle and poke the needle through the pointed end

{Repeat process again and again, I used about 18 or so for each puff ball}

5 ~ Once there are 18 or so all strung together thread the needle back through the pointed end of the first quarter circle, and pull the thread tight.

6 ~ Hopefully all the quarter circles will bunch together and form a puffy ball

Once I had made up a whole bunch I threaded them on to a piece of elastic and strung them across the door way.

I’m not sure how effective it will be, but it sure does look cute!

Linking up here