It's been a long time since I designed a free Blogger template, so since Halloween is one of my favourite holidays I decided to design "Sleepy Hollow" - just in time for October 31st!
"Sleepy Hollow" is a simple, customizable template built to be used with the new Blogger Template Editor. It features:
Halloween themed background images (designed by Iaroslav Lazunov)
Customized fonts for titles, using the IM Fell font family (via Google Web Fonts)
Elegant, customizable colour scheme
As customizable as Blogger's new templates (width, height, colours, layout)
One of the customizations I use most when designing Blogger templates is creating a "featured content" section to be displayed only on the home page. I often use this technique to display a content slider, mini-portfolio or slideshow above the main posts section.
Take a look at the home page of my site, Just Great Film, to see an example of this in action (click on images for full screen previews):
Here's an easy way to restrict the display of a gadget to your blog's home page.
I'm curious to learn which type of Blogger templates are most popular among Blogger Buster readers.
Do you prefer to customize the design of your blog using the new Template Designer? Perhaps you're happier to use a third-party (free or paid) template, or have edited the HTML to create a design which is unique to you?
If you have a moment spare, please let me know about your Blogger Template preferences by voting in this poll or leaving a comment below:
In case you were wondering, it is possible to hide the Blogger nav-bar (which displays a search box and useful links). The principle is the same as in my previous tutorial in that we simply need to add a few lines of CSS to our Blogger template code.
Here's how my updated technique to hide the Blogger nav-bar in a few simple steps:
Last year was a great year for the production and quality of free Blogger templates. Designers from all corners of the world have produced...
Follow by Email
Browse through the Archives
All existing posts are still available to view while I'm working on the site, albeit seen in a much simpler interface. Feel free to browse through the archives to find tutorials, templates and articles to help you build a better blog:
