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Monday, July 7, 2008

Fried Okra gets a New Look!

When Megan of Fried Okra first contacted me about her upcoming blog anniversary, I was positively estatic about redesigning her blog for her.

She said that she wanted something that spoke "welcome" to her readers and suggested a porch swing or something of that nature. So, I commenced to look for a porch swing or something of that nature. (I'm so complicated, no?) However, finding a porch swing in stock photos that either did not have people already in it, or was large enough (as in wide) proved to be quite a challenge.

I sent her several shots that I thought would work (I was thinking I would just crop them down if necessary) and she picked out this photo:


Now, at first glance, I thought the photo would work - it was 819 pixels wide. What I wasn't counting on was the thing that Megan loved most about the photo was the arched windows. Ay-yi-yi. The only way I could keep the arches was to shrink the photo by at least half, which would mean it would then be only 410 pixels wide, about half the size I needed. What to do? I had already sold her on the photo - and now it was too small. (oh the horror!)

So I manufactured the rest of the photo in Photoshop - it took a bit of manipulation, but I think the outcome was beautiful. Her eye for color and detail was a guiding force in the overall design, but she left the details completely up to me. I think it's one of my absolute favorite designs so far - what do you think?




Photobucket

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9 comments:

Dorothy said...

I really love it, Karen! You did a great job...as usual.

Angie @ Many Little Blessings said...

Wow -- just beautiful! You did a great job filling in the rest of the picture -- I bet that was a lot of work!

Karla Porter Archer said...

it's very lovely, karen!

I love the background too.

xo ~K

Natalie Witcher said...

Makes me want to go have a glass of tea with her. Great job!

Beck said...

You did a BEAUTIFUL job! And that settles it: I AM painting my porch floor glossy white.

mzzterry said...

Refreshed & relaxed. Thats what that makes me feel. Great job, Karen. Beautiful.

Anonymous said...

I love the new Fried Okra design. You did a GREAT job on it. And then I come here, find out what you had to do to create that header image and I'm even more impressed. Kudos!

NicciN said...

Wow, that is so cool. You are amazingly talented! I was just re-inspired by the design you did for me as I was uploading the header to make a business card. I still love it!

Owlhaven said...

Beautiful!!

Mary