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Oh yeah.
And once again I've been rudely ignoring every neomail in my inbox.
~Syrup
PS: I won't be geting around to filter-proofing all my layouts yet, so until I do go here to do it yourself. ;)
22nd of July 2009
I added a new lookup. It's a cow lookup. And, yes, I do think there are certain people out there who would use a cow lookup. doesn't work in IE. Grr.
I never thought I'd say this, but STOP ERASING THE CREDIT! Yeah, I'm actually seeing people (who don't know me) using my layouts and brushes. The only thing is none of them felt the need to leave the credit it. Um, wth? And it's always the people who tell me on a board that they like my graphics, or ask to be affiliates. Take off the credit, and then have the cheek to do that? Well...At least...At least...? There is no at least.
I opened a guild review site today. CLICK! Check it out?
~Syrup
21th of July 2009
New layout. I'm not sure if I love or hate it. I spent so long making that stupid helicopter though I'm not going to change it. ^^
And...I made a tutorial on reflected text in Photoshop, which apparently works pretty well in GIMP.
I cleared out an old ugly layout or two. I really should get to work on actually adding layouts.
Hmmm...I'm really thinking of closing affiliates. I almost never bother to reply to or even open them any more.
~Syrup
17th of July 2009
Hey, exactly one month after my last update. That was handy, because I could just copy and past the date and change "ne" to "ly" in the month. ;)
I kinda half have the excuse that I was away for two weeks. Anyway, pffff...I've been in and out of a LOT of guilds lately, all of which have closed, which leaves me with a lot of graphics I made for them that would go to waste, so I'm being lazy and turning them into premades. Today I added a premade-ified screenies petpage layout and petpage CSS.
While I was gone I figure out how to make guild layouts. Or really I realised that it's the same as any other coding and there's nothing new to learn for it. I'm not sure I want to make guild layouts though. Only really really bad guilds use premades, right?
I feel like making a tutorial...
~Syrup
17th of June 2009
I'm back. ;D
I don't know if my graphics have improved that much, but my guild died, school is over, and my daily page views somehow shot up by 100 while I was gone. So how could I say no? ^^
I added a new lookup a moment ago. It's different to my old graphics, I think. I haven't made my usual minimal/professional-y graphics since I went on hiatus.
SORRY about my total failure to respond to ANY of the neomails being sent to me. I haven't come online often lately, and the neomails sorta pile up to an amount I'm too lazy to bother with. x_x So if I ignored your neomail, it wasn't because I rejected whatever it was you were saying, so please resend it? (=
~Syrup
26th of April 2009
On hiatus to make a portfolio so I can improve my graphics. Byeee!
~Syrup
19th of April 2009
Tutorials is the newest addition to the navigation links. I've started off with a tutorial on how to make a simplistic (that's a word?) petpage with a combination of Miscrosoft Word and Microsoft Paint. 'Cause not a whole lot of the graphics tutorials out there cater for those with zero graphics programs except Paint.
I'll have a new petpage layout in two or three different colours made soon. Just haven't gotten around to coding it yet.
~Syrup
15th of April 2009
TA-DA!
Yeah. New layout. Told you it would be a little bit more colourful. And the everything-on-one-petpage thing is gone. Yeah, it had a good run, but not only does it restrict the layout, it also isn't suitable for a lot of content. I'm pleased with the loading time though. Once you load the home page, the rest of them load almost instantly after that.
It's not quite perfect yet; the site page is a mess. But I've it's been taking forever and I just want to put it up already. Oh, and it will never be perfect in IE, but IE smells bad, so meh.
Sorry that I haven't been replying to neomails lately. I can't get online much, and when I have been online I was working on the new layout rather than my inbox. ;)
I closed my tutorials site. I hadn't really done anything to it since the day I started it, and it was just so pointless and wasteful of petpage space. I might add some tutorials to Square One instead. Maybe.
~Syrup
11th of April 2009
Gah, I need to stop forgetting to post updates until I've forgotten them all.
Today I added one new petpage layout. It was originally supposed to be a userlookup, but then I figured out that image mapping doesn't work on userlookups, so I petpage-imified it. I also fixed the affiliate problem. From now on I'll have my ten favourite sites in my sidebar, and a full list on a separate page.
Oh yes, and yesterday I added some lookup CSS also. ^^
~Syrup
13th of April 2009
Working on a new layout for the site. I think it's going to take a while. But I think it'll be worth it. I hope. I got so much positive feedback on this layout, I'm afraid to change it, in case I can't get it this good again. But some people mentioned that they thought the colours on this one were very dreary. I can assure you, this next one is certainly not dreary. ;) But the main change with the new layout is that I won't be doing that gimmicky thing where there's loads of different pages on one page anymore. It REALLY restricts the layout, and it's just a gimmick. From now on the site will be spread out over six different petpages. Because there'll be less on each page, I have to worry about loading time less, so I can have bigger previews. xD
~Syrup
11th of April 2009
Gah, I need to stop forgetting to post updates until I've forgotten them all.
Today I added one new petpage layout. It was originally supposed to be a userlookup, but then I figured out that image mapping doesn't work on userlookups, so I petpage-imified it.
I also fixed the affiliate problem. From now on I'll have my ten favourite sites in my sidebar, and a full list on a separate page.
Oh yes, and yesterday I added some lookup CSS also. ^^
~Syrup
7th of April 2009 My goal for today is to apply to three review sites. I think I finally have a decent enough amount of content. I just want to know what people think. I'll probably update again later with more content.
later It is now officially later, and have I added more content? Nope, I haven't. I've really just been doing publicity-type things. Directories, affiliates, etc. And a TONNE of review sites, which I've realised are very worthwhile.
On the subject of affiliates, I've decided that I'm eventually going to have to split them up into top affiliates and not-top affiliates. My sidebar is filling up fast.
Anyway, I'm going to try adding some content now. But of course, chances are, I won't. (:
~Syrup
5th of April 2009
I added two userlookups today. Both of them I think are my best yet. I'm promising myself now to spend more time on each layout. Quality over quantity, right?
I'm off on an affiliate hunt now. ;)
~Syrup
4th of April 2009
How do hit counters work? I saw mine had reach ninety-nine, so I refreshed the page like a million times to try get it up to three digits, but it's staying at ninety-nine. Can one person only give a page one hit a day or something?
Well, anyway, I added a "Sorry we're closed", and something else to I think, but I can't remember what it was.
Oh, and on a side note, we had a poster contest in school. With the unfair advantage of Photoshop and two years of practicing, guess who won? ;D Now I have a fancy German chocolate bunny prize.
~Syrup
28th of March 2009
I added a past layouts section, and added one new CSS petpage. I asked for it rated on a rating board, the kind of rating board where EVERYBODY gets at least 7/10. What did my CSS get? Four. 4/10. I'm just telling myself that the reason it scored so low was because the rater didn't know about CSS only layouts, didn't GET them. I hope.
Anyway, I've suddenly gotten this wave of motivation for Square One, and I'm totally prepared to make tonnes and tonnes of content. Too bad I'm supposed to be studying right now.
I'll see what I can do.
~Syrup
26th of March 2009
Small update. I added petpage CSS and a PSD of a grey chomby. I seriously amn't sure whether or not PSD is the right term here. I think it stands for Photoshop Document, but it also means images with the background cut out of them to make them easier to use. Yes? No? Well, that's what it is anyway. Because all of the good neopets images have tonnes of junk in the background that don't fit well into layouts.
I'm working on the CSS codes section at the moment.
~Syrup
24th of March 2009
I changed the layout. When I first made the site I liked my layout so much that I thought it'd be one of those sites where the layout never changes, not one of those sites where the layout changes every other day. But that old one was starting to bug me. I admit that this one is a little...colder feeling than the last one, but I really do like it. I haven't added layouts in ages. I know what's next on my to-do list then. ;)
~Syrup
18th of March 2009
GRR! I typed out a really long blog but then accidentally closed the window and...you know. I'm too frustrated to type the whole thing out again. The gist of it was:
1. I'm back.
2. Happy St. Patricks Day.
3. I finally have affiliates.
4. My tutorials site is for some reason getting more page views than Square One is, which is annoying, because I put way more effort into Square One than into it.
5. My link back button is YUCK, and I need to make a new one.
~Syrup
13th of March 2009
I'm starting to think the site smells bad or something. After all my countless affiliate applications, how many have accepted me? One. Hmm... I mean, I know the place isn't exactly swimming in content or anything, but I've never found it this difficult to get some affiliation before. Maybe I should put a link in my siggy...Nah. Don't wanna ruin my font. I'm also being very fussy about what sites I apply to. Some sites just have the most AWFUL affie lists, in super speedy marquees and an affie count of four thousand five hundred million GAZILLION. And it's always in alphabetical order. How is that fair? I mean, if you list your affiliates in order of when they became affiliates, sites will sometimes be at the top of lists, sometimes at the bottom. But alphabetically, if your site starts with a letter like mine does, your ALWAYS at the bottom. Grr. Too late to change the name to 'A Square One'? ^^
Well, I'm going to go and double-check the lookup coding (exciting stuff, huh?) and then make a petpage layout or something along those lines. ~Syrup
12th of March 2009
I applied for affiliation to three sites. I've so far only been accepted by Turbulence Graphics. xO No reply yet from the others, which stinks, because I'd say I've been rejected. It's really difficult to find good affiliates. Every site seems to be either far too good and well-known to be my affie, or some dingy little thing thrown together in MS Paint. There's very few of a happy medium.
I added a templates section, and a userlookup and petpage template. I was reluctant to make a template section, because it might draw more attention to the fact that I haven't ever really tried to code a guild layout, and probably don't know how to.
I'm thinking of adding backgrounds now.
Oh, by the way, I'm going away tomorrow and won't be back until Wednesday.
~Syrup
7th of March 2009
I'll start off with what I added yesterday.
First thing I did was make a mainly CSS-ish petpage layout. I made it in three different colours, because it is so easy to make billions of different colour versions of CSS layouts.
Next, I added a Sorry we're closed banner and an on hiatus' banner. I think I'm going to delete the on hiatus one, it really didn't turn out well.
Finally, I added four icons. My favourite is the "I love money" one. Why are you giving me strange looks? What? You DON'T like money?
That's pretty much all, except for the unimportant first-day-of-the-site stuff like a credtis page and such.
I've been putting off adding affiliates. Mostly because it's unlikely any site would accept me with my, you know, lack of content.
~Syrup
6th of March 2009 So this is the first day in the site's existence. Well, I thought of the name yesterday, but that doesn't count. Wondering about the name? Well, I've made about a billion gazillion graphics sites in the past, and...well. My graphics sites have the life expectancy of a pet goldfish. So, as I say on the first blog entry of every graphics site I've ever had, this one will be different. No, really. I mean it. I've got a good feeling about it. I like the way the layout turned out. All my past layouts always had really dim colours, and the whole site just felt really dark and miserable. This may not be the best layout I've ever made, but at least it feels HAPPY. So I have layout? But content? I'm on it! ~Syrup
screenies
Small tiny credit somewhere or other is required. Sorry about the white outline. But I think it looks kinda nice anyway.
Pink:
Lime:
Requirements
1. An organised, high-quality petpage site that your working hard on.
2. That's all. ^^
Form
Name:
Site name:
Site URL:
What site offers:
Anyway, long story short, I am a fifteen-year old girl from Ireland. Syrup is not my real name. (seems obvious, I know, but you wouldn't believe the amount of people who ask me about that.)
I joined Neo when I was twelve, and have been playing since.
The main reason I'm still on Neopets is the wonderful guild that is Redux. Everyone says their guild is great, but this one is something special.
I've been making graphics for nearly two years, and I love it. This is the billionth graphics petpage I've made, but that isn't discouraging me.
Rather than make long lists about the various things I love and hate, I'm going to wrap it up here.
Can I edit your layouts?
Yes, but the only layouts you can edit and redistribute as premades are the templates.
And please leave in the credit, and SAY THAT YOU EDITED IT. I know this sounds stuck-up, but if you make a total mess of the layout, and you don't say that you edited it, nobody is going to click my credit link. -_-
Are you taking requests?
Nope.
Wanna be affiliates?
Sure, but send in the form. ;)
Would you like to join my guild?
No, sorry.
Are you *insert Irish stereotype here*?
Why yes, yes I am. x_X
Reflected text is pretty simple, this should be a short tutorial.
1. Open a blank photoshop document, and write your text normally:
2. At the top of the screen, click layer, duplicate layer.
3. While on the duplicate layer, hold down one of the top corners of the dotted line box around the text, and drag down:
Drag until the text is upside-down.
4. Select the move tool (top right of the toolbox), and move the duplicate text directly beneath the original, like so:
5. Still with the duplicate layer selected, at the top of the screen, click layer, rasterize, layer.
6. Go to the eraser tool, select a large (mine was 65px) soft (blurry) brush, hold down shift, and drag it across the bottom of
your duplicate layer. Drag it back and forth a few times, until about the bottom two-thirds of the duplicate text is gone:
7. Finally, change the eraser tool opacity to about 35%, and rub out out what's left of the duplicate layer with that brush, so it's a little bit more see-through.
Click here to view the finished result
NOTE: This is a graphics tutorial, not a coding tutorial.
Step One: Main Box
First we are going to create the main box of the layout.
Open Microsoft Word. On the bottom of the screen the is a toolbox. Select the square tool and make a large box. (to make things easier for yourself, make the box fit inside your screen without scrolling)
Right-click on your box and select "Format AutoShape".
Under the heading Fill, click on the colour box and choose "fill effects". Change the settings to the following:
As you move the slider you'll notice the contrast between the black and the white of the gradient will increase and decrease. Try to get a very subtle contrast, like the example above.
Click "okay", and then right-click your box and select "Format AutoShape" again. This time, under the heading "line" change the settings to the below:
You are now finished with the main box of the layout. It should be a shiny gradient-y pale grey box with a darker grey border, like so: (except much bigger. ^^)
Step Two: Main Banner
Again in the toolbox at the bottom of the page, choose the rounded rectangle in auto shapes:
Draw a rounded rectangle at the top of your box. Don't make it as wide as the whole box, leave a couple of pixels of space at the edge, like so:
We're going to add some colour to this rectangle similar to how we did with our main box. Right click, select Format AutoShape, and under Fill, first choose what colour you want your main banner (this rectangle) to be. I chose orange. Now go into fill effects under color like you did the last time, except this time, select the "pattern" tab and choose a diagonal striped pattern:
If the contrast between the two stripe colour looks like too much, try changing the "background" colour to a paler shade of orange.
There's one last step for the main banner. Right click, go to "Format AutoShape" and under "Line", change the colour to "no line", and click okay.
At the end of step two, you should have something like this:
Step Three: Star
Now we're going to make a star to put in our main banner. You'll find the star shape I'm using here:
Make the star and drag it here on your banner:
Now to add colour to it. You should be familiar with how to do that at this stage, so I'm not going to go into the details this time.
First, change the colour to dark orange.
Second, go to fill effects, and make a gradient, a little bit less subtle then the other gradient you made.
Finally, set "Line" to "no line". This is how mine looks now:
Final Step: Adding Text
Make a screenshot of it (by pressing the "print screen" key beside f12), open MS Paint, and click "edit, paste".
Cut out the parts of the screenshot that aren't you're layout.
Choose a nice modern looking font (I'm using one called "round"), and write your petpage's title in the center of the orange banner, in a colour SLIGHTLY different to your banner colour, like so:
Now, write your title again in the same font family and size, except and white. Place it directly on top of your first text, except a TINY bit to the side, like this:
I know. It's barely there. But if you're squinting at your "shadow" trying to see it, you've done it right.
Finally, and I mean finally, write a short, slightly cheesey description of your petpage in the star. Here's mine:
And we're done!
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