Hello all,

So...you may have noticed something new as you opened up The Rebelling Muse within the last 48 hours.

Missed it? Look above.

Yes. I figured out how to make a header.

How did I make it?

Not Picmonkey.

Not Canva.

Not even Photoshop.

I used......Microsoft Paint.

It was time consuming to create this header, and one for my other blog, Frugally Fancy. Mostly it was a matter of finding and resizing all the images in order to make them all fit.

I did use a tutorial to get started: http://www.21rosemarylane.com/2013/02/creating-header-for-your-blog-using.html. Once I had the dimensions, I was on my own.

This header was around 888 pixels long and 250 pixels high, which is a good size. You can change the pixel size of the canvas on Paint really easily (just click and drag the little squares on the edge of the canvas) To start with, I added the blog title via the text option onto the picture I wanted it on. I resized it to 250 pixels high using a resizing site (http://resizepiconline.com/en) and redownloaded the image so I could copy it into Paint. The rest of the pictures I simply resized and arranged how I wished them (saving the resized picture and copy-pasting them in is much easier to use with the selection tool on Paint).

I will say that a lot of photo images sites have their own quirks when changing images. The resizing site I used for a lot of my images only let me change the width (when what I really wanted to change the height). And you have to make sure that you have the images exactly right in Paint before clicking off them (minor adjustments become major headaches). But if you really don't want to put out any more online accounts and are willing to spend some time and effort, I would recommend using Paint to make your headers.

For this header, I used all free images found by Pixabay or Google Images (CC Search). I make it a priority to find public domain pictures whenever possible in my creative works, if not my own images.

The Title Picture
Since I am a writer, I looked for an image that conveyed that as well as give a little color. I saw a series of pictures similar to this one on Pixabay, and this one was my favorite.

The Ship
Besides the Ships post that I've done (http://catherinesrebellingmuse.blogspot.com/2017/02/favorite-film-ships-other-romantics.html), this picture was really special since my one and only completed (unpublished) novella is a pirate-y sea epic.

The Mansion
My favorite genre of reading is historical fiction, and I have written some historical fiction pieces, so I thought this was a perfect symbol for that.

The Crocuses
You may have recognized these from my last story, The Snow Dancer of Iclyn. These were chosen more for an aesthetic color decision than for a nod to my story though.

Park Bench in Meadow
I love sitting outside (when it's nice out) when letting my imagination run loose. This picture seems to suggest a hiding place for a writer, especially one that likes to act out her scenes *snickers*.

Joan of Arc
Only downfall of free images is that sometimes it is super difficult to find what you want. As well as historic fiction and sea epics, I'm also experimenting with a fantasy novel. The main character is a young woman that becomes a Shield-Maiden (Tolkein's definition like Eowyn, not the historically accurate Viking Shield-Maidens). After long and fruitless searches through really crappy (and just downright inappropriate!) fantasy pictures, I finally found this one of Joan of Arc which is totally fine, since I admire her very much.

I thought about changing the theme on the blog too, especially with the new themes on Blogger now. But instead of changing the theme altogether, I found a new background image that I really like and have customized the theme colors to my liking.

Also for those that follow me, I have a new favicon. It's the seagull picture that I had on my first post.

What do you think of the new header and background? Yay, nay? Vote in the comments!

Keep smiling,

Catherine