Make a custom favicon for your blog!

Do you have a favicon? Do you even know what a favicon is? Read on. At the end, you will know it all!

A favicon (short for favorites icon) is a 16×16 pixel square icon associated with a particular website or webpage.
From Wikpedia

I'm going to show you the easy way to make one. There is one program that I highly suggest downloading. It is free, and you can use it for all your quick photo needs. It is IrfanView. I use this program as my default photoviewer on my computer simply because it is so quick and great to use.

When I do a custom favicon, I generally use part of my blog header. Take a look at SeaSide Sharon and Buttermilk Clouds. Do you see my favicon in the address bar? And in Firefox, the favicon is also displayed on the tab. Each of those favicons were taken from my header image.

Here is how to do it:

1. Open your blog so you can see your header (or the part of you blog you wish to make a favicon with)
2. On your keyboard, click the PrtSc Sys Rq button (top row, third from the right)
3. Open IrfanView
4. Click Edit | Paste

What you see now is a picture of your screen and a picture of your header.

1. Placed your cursor in the header and select a 16x16 pixel area
2. Click Edit | Crop Selection
3. Click File | Save As | ICO - Windows Icon 

Upload that image to an online hosting site. You will use the favicon's URL from the hosting site to put it on your blog. I use to use Ripway...but I'm getting away from it because my bandwidth issues. I now use Flickr.

Now you have a little custom favicon! To install your favicon, follow the instructions on this post Adding a Favicon. Since there was some sort of problem with favicons on blogger, I had to find a fix. So be sure to follow the link at the end of that post for a  easy fix.

EDIT: please post a link to your blog with your new favicon so everyone can see!!!!