Elaine is a busy mum of three, and the blogger behind Stars & Roses: a funky, fashionable mix of parenting, cooking, crafts and lifestyle.
First Impressions
LOVE the bold header and the funky background – eye-catching without being distracting. Colours are contemporary and complementary, and we just love your use of mood boards, collages and photo filters.
TOP TIP: Calling on our glossy magazine experience, we’d suggest adding more white space. Your blog already has a ‘high fashion’ look to it, which is why we think this would work well. Leave a few more lines between your text and your photos, and add a few empty lines at the end of your post so there’s space before your ‘Link Within’ boxes.
Header and Menu Bar
Because you’ve used the dark grey colour for your main text font, we reckon you could get away with having more striking colours on your menu tabs and/or your blog post titles to draw the eye.
TOP TIP: The magenta or cyan colour schemes you’ve already implemented might add a dramatic splash of colour to really lift the page. But if you prefer the simpler colour palette, bolding the black might give your headers more impact.
Sidebar
Your social buttons look great, and they’re well positioned ‘above the fold’ on the home page of your blog. Your side bar is nice and spacious, and keeps a constant theme with your use of spotted sub-headers.
TOP TIP: Fill all but one of your vacant advertising spaces with ‘place holders’ (badges of your favourite blogs, or links back to a Stars and Roses feature, etc). This way advertisers can see that space is potentially available, but your sidebar still looks full and attractive.
Main Content
Your tone is friendly, and personable, and readers really feel like they’re getting a peek inside your world. We noticed a few missing apostrophes and wondered if perhaps you were uploading from a mobile phone, where it’s awkward to add punctuation? We’d hate for typos to distract people from your fab content.
TOP TIP: an old magazine-editing trick is to read posts backwards to spot typos you might not notice otherwise.
Final Thoughts
Fab blog, gorgeous family: looking forward to reading more!
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Elaine Croft says
Thank you for doing this, got some great points 🙂
Uju says
You’re welcome Elaine, we enjoyed taking a look at your blog and we think it has standout potential, especially in your alternative fashion and lifestyle niche. Keep up the good work!