Space to Create and Making a Free Blog Header

One of my goals this year is to carve out more time and space for creating.  My other blog, Wildflower, is about thoughts on life, an online journal of events and ideas I'm exploring.  However, I wanted a space where I could focus solely on recording creative endeavors.

My first entry is about preparing my blog space for these projects.  I used a simple design from Blogger because it's free and easy to do.  Open the Blogger account, pick a template, and away I go!  However, the  header needed a much more personal touch.

I am finding my way through Picasa and PicMonkey, learning as I explore various options.  This is a rookie learning process for me, but it's fun to edit and play with possibilities. 

These are two pieces of fabric that I'm planning to use soon for living room projects.

I laid them side by side on the laundry/craft room floor, overlapping slightly, and snapped my photo.

I opened the photo in Picasa 3, a free photo editing tool, and added the title using the text tool.  Using the crop tool, I cropped the photo to fit a blog header size.  It looked like this:

 I felt it needed some tweaking, so I added some frequently used craft tools...

 and took another photo to revise the header.

 Back again to Picasa 3 for more editing!  I experimented with various lighting options to brighten the photo, as our lighting is awful in the basement even in daylight hours.   I cropped the photo again.  I decreased the text size and used the direction tool to allow the text to "flow" more organically with the fabric design.

To give it a more "finished" appearance, I opened the photo in PicMonkey, a free online photo editing tool.  This allowed me to choose "Frames" and add details like borders and rounded corners.

Now my blog space and header are ready for more projects in 2013.  For a rookie photographer and photo editor, I'm happy with the result!  Anything new you're learning in 2013?

Sharing here at Five Days 5 Ways.  Also sharing at Skip to my Lou's Made by You Monday party.