How to make a blog in photoshop

Intro

This tutorial is to teach you about how to make simple, but nice blogs on photoshop. This tutorial is newbie friendly! :] (Note: Click to view images in full size)

Step One

First of all find a picture you want to use as the base of the blog. I chose one from neopets. You can get one from neopets too by going to Petcentral->Background->Choose one.

Open up photoshop click File->New. Then choose the size of it, make sure the size is in pixels! You can do any size, for this tutorial I'm choosing 300 width by 350 height, but I recommend choosing 300 by 300.

Step Two

Now that you've got your picture, paste it in by holding down Ctrl(Control) on your keyboard and then pressing V.
Move it around so it looks nice, then in the layers panel right click your picture, then click flatten image.

Now double click your flattened layer and then something will popup, click OK.

Step Three

Now that, that's done.. you can get on with more important things. For step 3, you get to do my favourite thing! Time to design!~
You can experiment, be creative! Use brushes, gradients, patterns, anything you want!
Here's how mine turned out:

Step Four

Once you're done decorating it, it's time to put the space where the actual writing goes. Click the "line tool" and on the top select the square, or whichever shape you want.

Now put your box somewhere. So now you've got this big ugly white box covering your picture. To make it semi-transparent, double click the box layer on the empty side.

A layer style box should popup. There's 2 opacities, I recommend changing one of the opacities to 75% and leaving the other as 100%, but you can change it anyway you like.

I also recommend clicking on stroke to add a border. Click the empty side of stroke to change the preferences of the border.
Like this:

If you wish to add more effects, don't let me stop you! ;]

Step Five

Once you're done with the box, don't forget to add text, and your credits!~
Just click the "T" icon, and it pretty much has the same effects.

Finishing Touches

Just add the finishing touches and you're officially done creating a blog! Congratulations! Keep a look out for my next tutorial.. coding a blog!
Here's how my blog turned out:

I hope I helped any newbies lost with photoshop. If you have any questions, suggestions, or comments, please fill out the "contact us" form under "sitely".