In my original template, the picture at the top was of crayons. It came with a premade homeschoolblogger template that I picked when I signed on to the blog site. I loved the crayons at first, but after a while (and seeing everyone else customizing their sites) I decided I wanted my own blog picture at the top.

You can use a jpeg that you find on the internet somewhere, use a photo (straight or maodified) from your hard drive, or make your own. I made this one from a picture of Timothy from National Chemistry Week a few years ago. I cropped away the original background and made the 'set the smoke alarm off' new background. I used PaintShop Pro, but you could also use the free software tool called GIMP and do just as well. When you make your banner design be sure to pay attention to the dimensions you will need. I matched the new design to the exact dimensions of the original template's banner by doing the right click on the mouse and using copy/paste to bring it into PaintShop Pro. In there I was able to tell what the pixel X pixel dimensions were. Once you are happy with your design, upload it to your favorite image host. I use http://www.imageshack.us/. It is free. Once you upload it, copy the url. It will be the link that starts with http.

Now it is time to replace your old picture with the new one. Go to Control Panel for your blog. Click on 'Edit Template'. You will see all the html code. Look down the list for '.head {'. It should be very near the beginning. Once you find that section, look for the line that says 'background-image:". It will be followed by a url. That url is where your old banner is located. You will want to use the backspace button to carefully erase the old url - make sure that you leave the parentheses and the semicolon. Now use paste to put the new url in between the parentheses.

Take a look at the result before you save it. Look below the edit window for the button called 'Preview'. Click it to see how the new template will look if you accept it. If you like it, go back to the control panel template edit window and hit save. If you don't like it, play around some more. If you have created a monster, don't worry. Merely hit the close button up in the top corner of the control panel to leave without any changes to the original.