A Social Media Miracle!

{ facebook, pinterest, twitter, independent fashion bloggers }
{ instagram, tumblr, email, bloglovin }

As you can tell, I’m really excited about my social media buttons!! Why? Because I made them, I think they’re so pretty looking, and they took me forrrrreverrrrrrr. oh my gosh! As of yesterday, they’re beautifully situated under my header on the right side bar, and they make me oh-so-happy to look at.  (note: my instagram and email buttons are still to be added)

My goal was: to have matching social media buttons that were round. light grey. white. linkable. in a horizontal row.

Barrier #1
I set out on an internet search for social media buttons, which are easy to find, but not how I wanted them. There were plenty of colourful buttons in all shapes and sizes, but not very many that were cohesive and matched the look of my blog. I attempted to change colourful buttons into greyscale on Adobe Illustrator; but that didn’t work because all the shades of grey were different. Not okay. I continued my internet search and found a few buttons that were cohesive in shape and of the same colour, which is easier to change into greyscale. Problem: they didn’t have all the buttons I required. Again, not good. I was about to give up when I had the epiphany to create my own buttons. Keep in mind I am far from a graphic designer and my techniques in this area are very limited. None the less, I put my Adobe Illustrator skills to use and voila, the final product! If I had of just made my own buttons from the beginning I would have saved myself a lot of time and frustration. C’est la vie. Noted for next time!

Barrier #2
I had tackled the design issue (yay!) but in came the technical issue: placing my buttons in a horizontal line while each one links to a different site.  Just as I am far from a graphic designer, I am far from a HTML code wiz. I had to take a computer science course in university with a section on computer programming…and let’s just say, I was thankful for the guy that sat next to me! He really loved that kinda stuff, was great at it, and, to my luck, was my partner for most projects. Whewf! So, the internet hunt began. How to make my buttons sit horizontally. I found a few sites telling me to download “this plugin” and “upload this folder to {insert random location that I’m positive does not exist} “…I was overwhelmed, lost and frustrated. Then magically (at least that’s what it felt like) I came across Kira’s blog “Her New Leaf” where she has listed step-by-step instructions on how to make your buttons horizontal…WITH the HTML code!!! THANK YOU KIRA, YOU’RE AN ANGEL!! Once you know the code, this task is soooooo simple and works like a charm! ppffffftttt to the people who were referring to “plugins” and such…Kira’s method is so much better! I am so grateful to her for posting such valuable information. Her blog is full of awesome things so I urge you to check it out!

After at least a month long task (because I often got discouraged and had to leave it alone for awhile; and repeat), I have finally accomplished what I wanted and it looks fabulous! Please give in to that urge to use my pretty little buttons (I know you want to 😉 ) and head over to my facebook, twitter, pinterest, bloglovin’, tumblr and independent fashion bloggers accounts. It would make me sooo happy to see my buttons being used.

My instagram (@hautecanada) and email buttons are not up yet, but feel free to follow my instagram pics or send me an email anyways! ♥