Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Linky Calendar For ALL Teacher Bloggers! How to make a button .png! Technology Tuesday & Tried It Tuesday!

Why do you blog? I blog because I use it as a sense of enjoyment and stress relief. I feel accomplished when I can help someone or write about my classroom successes or even failures. 


(Feel free to use my new button on your blog! I am linking up for Tried it Tuesday & Technology Tailgate below to teach you all how to make your own button!)

Lately, when I am on the verge of losing it... between taking care of the kids, cooking dinner, cleaning the house, keeping Spring fever out of my classroom, writing my end of the year reflection, starting report cards, organizing my classroom, worrying about my 48 students, washing the 500th load of clothes, dealing with classroom drama that sticks with me, trying to have fun, thinking about how today's lesson went, being a good mommy and wife, planning for tomorrow's lesson, taking care of my Lyme's Disease with a weekly blood test and Dr. visit, spending time with my family, grocery shopping, and getting some exercise in my day...I still think about "hmmm, what can I blog about?"  Talk about multi-tasking!

So to make my life easier and hopefully help out some of you, here are some of my favorite linkys. What are yours? I know I am missing some, so be sure to let me know! Be sure to comment and leave a link. I will add it to my calendar! 

Click on the linkys to go to their link!  

*I will be linking this blog post to the top of my blog so people can have easy access to the calendar* 

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday

Friday
Saturday
Sunday








           
Friday Flashback





Monthly: Currently 


Okay...and as promised, here is how to make a button for your blog or any image saved as a .png (see through background, not big white square).

Last year at this time I had NO idea how to make buttons, pictures, or anything on power point except a presentation. I didn’t know the difference between a .jpg or .png or what a blog linky even was. I’ve come a long way in one year.

Since then, I’ve figured out a lot on my own, but also have learned by searching the net. I love blogs that improve my technological skills, so I wanted to give back to my bloggy friends by helping them create buttons. Obviously there may be 100 ways to create one, I am just going to show you how I do it.

Step: 1 Open Power Point! I love using power point for creating any type of clip art. It is much easier than Word.

Step: 2 Delete the pre-created boxes, so you have a blanket canvas to work with. Do this by clicking on the box, until all four sides are highlighted, and then pressing delete. 

 
Step: 3 Open the Formatting Palette and click on the Shape symbol. If you aren't familiar with this, it's an addicting tool! 



Step: 4 Choose a shape for your button. I tend to love circles...maybe because I love polka dots, hence Pinkadots! Click on the chosen shape and then click on the power point slide. Drag the shape to the size of your choice. 



Step: 5 Click back on the little book in the Formatting Palette. 


Step: 6 Click on the shape and then on the "Colors, Weights, & Fills" portion on the Palete. I find this is where I can change it the most. I almost start with changing the color fill and the line fill. You can even go to "fill effects" and fill it with a "picture" which can be a background of your choice that is saved to the computer.


I chose to make this Pink...because, face it, everything looks better when it is pink! :)


Line fill changes the outside of the shape's color. I made it black here.


Step: 7 Set the thickness of your boarder. I made this line thick. 


Step: 8 Get ready to add writing on your new button. Click back on the Format Palette to the little book. 

 
Step: 9 Add a text box, position it, and change the font.



Step: 10 You can now add a picture by dragging any picture from your computer desktop onto the button & resizing the image.


 
Step: 11 Time to save! This is where it gets tricky! Click on each piece you've added to the button. (Text box, circle, & picture) Hold down the shift button while clicking on each one until they are all highlighted. Next, while holding down Control, click on the image. Options should pop up, one being "Grouping" and then "Group" Click that!

Important: If you don't do this step correctly, your image will not save correctly. This image would just be a pink circle. 



Step: 12 Click back on the image. It should be all grouped together. Hold down control and click. "Save as picture" should be an option- click on that! 




Step: 11 Post and be proud! :) 


I hope this makes sense. It was my first time using a full screen shot to make a tutorial! Please let me know if there are any questions or if I can help you out! :)


19 comments:

  1. Thank you for creating this calendar. I'm new to the blogging world & was just thinking the other day that there seems to be a linky for each day of the week & was trying to remember them all. This is a big help, I'm a little forgetful. Thanks again!!!

    Stephanie
    PolkaDotPalace

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    1. So glad I could help out Steph! I know there are more, I just need to figure them out. Thursday is pretty empty! :)

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  2. Awesome tutorial on creating a button - thanks!

    I have just started a Thursday linky party: Tricks of the Trade Thursdays - I would love it have it added your calendar! :)

    ~Jessica
    Joy in the Journey

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Jessica! I just edited the calender and added you on! :)

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  3. Ooh thanks for this! I'm going to try it when I get back from camp!

    x Serena x
    Magic Mistakes & Mayhem

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  4. Love the calendar! Thanks for keeping us organized! Quick tip for that tricky selecting of all the objects...instead of clicking each individually, you can click CTRL A and they will all be selected. :O)
    Joanne
    Head Over Heels For Teaching

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for the great tip! That will surely come in handy!

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  5. Thanks for the calendar, really appreciate that. The step by step button making is pretty cool. Much appreciated for that too.

    matt
    Digital: Divide & Conquer

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  6. Yay! Thanks so much! I love the little calendar. I'm copying it down...I wondered why people needed those blog planners and now I know. I know of a couple more link parties:

    Wild, Wacky, Wonderful Wednesdays: http://www.firstgradefollies.com/2013/05/introducing-wild-wacky-wonderful.html

    Quick Tips Thursdays: http://hippohoorayforsecondgrade.blogspot.com/2013/05/classroom-quick-tips-first-edition.html

    Jessica
    Literacy Spark

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  7. LOVE the calendar! Thanks for including my Monthly Goals Linky! Great tutorial on creating a button too :)

    Jess

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  8. Yay! Thank you for including us! And your linky is still on my to-do list! I will probably link up Monday. I'm with you! Things have been super crazy! It's hard to balance it all!

    Hang in there friend!!
    Amanda
    Collaboration Cuties

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  9. Wow!! You really demonstrated all these steps so well! This is great!! The blogging calendar is awesome too. These days I feel like I need a secretary to keep track of everything:) I was nodding my head with your to-do list, except for the Lyme Disease part:( I am happy to be home today with my daughter recovering from a surgery to get some things done. Of course, I am procrastinating getting housework done and blogging instead! :)
    ~Holly
    Fourth Grade Flipper

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  10. So I made my button. Its a simple one, but I am getting there. Thanks for the very descriptive instructions! Now I can join linky parties. Yay!

    ~Amy
    The Teacher Next Door

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  11. This was so helpful! I just followed the steps and it worked like magic. (I tried it in Keynote first but I can't find "save as picture". It had a white background.) I will just use Powerpoint. :)
    -Lisa
    Grade 4 Buzz

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  13. I have a summer linky going on through at least Labor Day. "Eating, Drinking, and Linking...Oh My!" :)

    Thank you for creating this calendar!

    Christy
    Teaching Tales Along the Yellow Brick Road

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