Once you load the tools up, you can pick from a number of different template designs, or browse through some of the most popular ones.  Then all you do is pick a color, change it – then move onto the next.  The entire thing is a very zen-like experience.  Well, it is if you were ever into coloring as a kid.

Here is a little ‘bit more about the tool from the developers:

Use themeleon to customize the way Twitter looks for you and how your profile looks to others. Use any of the more than 685,085 background patterns & 1,043,054 color palettes on COLOURlovers or customize any of the colors or patterns to get just the right design for you.

Here is what I was able to do with my own Twitter page after just a few minutes of playing with the Twitter design tools:

You know, you can always come tweet with me @mitchkeeler, anytime!

Go color your own Twitter page over at the Twitter Profile Designer, and leave me a comment if you are impressed!  Would love to see what design you come up with using this Twitter designer toolkit.

Sticky posts, will let you bump a story to the top of the homepage – without the need of editing the time stamp over and over again.  This is handy for me, because with the Web Hosting Show’s site, I wanted to keep the most recent podcast pinned to the top of WebHostingShow.com – with new content following bellow it.  With a little template editing, WordPress interface knowledge and some hard work – you can do the same.

How to Get Started with Sticky Posts

The best guide thus far on how to use this WordPress feature that was introduced back in WordPress 2.7 is Nathan Rice’s Definitive Sticky Posts Guide.  Here you can learn how to make a post sticky from within WordPress, and how to edit your theme’s templates to reflect the changes.

Show More Than One Sticky Post

What if you want to get more than just one sticky post in your WordPress blog?  Then you might need to check out how to get the latest sticky posts via WPRecipies.com.  That have a code snippet up that goes right before the loop, that retrieves X most recent sticky posts.

All in all, it is a fun weekend side project to try out – if your looking to add a little something special to your WordPress powered web site.

One thing I was able to get started on this weekend, and finished up just a few minutes ago was the new layout for MitchKeeler.com.  Being the most static of the bunch, MitchKeeler.com doesn’t just serve as my online resume – oh no.  It is the place to go if you want to know more about what it is I do, and how to get in touch with me.  More updates to come to that web site (as soon as I find that mysterious 25th hour in the day) so stay tuned, and let me know what you think of the new re-design thus far!

What have I been hard at work at this weekend?  A brand new layout for Mitchelaneous, my blog for tech tips, web development and geeky entertainment.  Based on the Press Box theme, I think this new layout is easier to navigate and read, but just as feature rich and useful as the old look was. 

Go check it out at Mitchelaneous.com and let me know what you think!

Searching the Web for a few great bookmarklets to make your web site coding a little easier?  I have found a great collection of them over at Squarfree.com.  You can drag and drop any of these bookmarlets to your saved bookmarks to use later. 

• test styles – Type in CSS rules to experiment or to create a temporary user style sheet.
• edit styles – Experiment with changes to the page’s style sheet.
• ancestors - Lists the ancestors of any element you hover over in the status bar.
• computed styles – Lists the computed styles of an element and of its ancestors.
• zap style sheets – Disables all style sheets.

Most of these bookmarks work for Firefox only, but a few will work with Internet Explorer and Opera too.  Go chec out the Web Development Bookmarklets page at Squarefree.com to check out the 18 other tools they have for you to use.

With KingStyles.com, you can quickly create the Web 2.0-ish banners and images you have been looking for.  The mix of different styles, attractive shapes, and cool fonts make for a very quick and simple way to get some basic graphics created in a hurry.  All you do is select your dimensions for the image, design it and then download. 

Working on a logo, a web site design, or any type of graphic work?  If you are, and your stuck in the design process – not knowing where to turn next – I have ten great sources to get your inspiration back. 

1. Open Source Vector Art – tons of logos, in vector form, to find your muse.
2. Design Snack – a great “digg-like” layout resource, where you can vote for the best.
3. CSS Princess – a showcase of some great unique CSS-powered designs.
4. Desizn Tech – great blog for design lovers of any kind.
5. Open Source Web Design – the name says it all, tons of free themes to check out here.
6. Best CSS Gallery – check out some of the best CSS powered themes here.
7. OriginMaker – another good blog the highlights some of the best layouts on the web.
8. Design By Grid – tips and tutorials to help you do grid-based layouts and designs.
9. Stylegala – awesome database of designs, layouts and resources.
10. CSS Bag – grab a sack of design goodness or just check out the gallery of sites.

Have another favorite of yours that you would like to share?  Let me know!

How do you like that new logo, by the way? It was designed my my good friend and graphic design specialist, Sean Barton.  I’m personally pretty proud of it – as it is pretty much the logo I always wanted for the show, but never had the time or the skill to put together.  Want to learn more about the web hosting industry?  The web hosting show is both a podcast and web site dedicated to helping anybody from novices to experts learn more about how to make the web hosting world work for them. If you haven’t before – be sure to bookmark WebHostingShow.com, subscribe to the e-mail updates, and add the RSS feed to your favorite news reader. 

checkmycolours – here you have a tool for checking the foreground and background color combinations of all DOM elements and determining if they provide enough contrast for those who may have color deficits.

ColourGrab.com – Type in the URL of any online image, and this online tool will grab the HTML color codes for that image.

COLOURlovers – Ever wanted a resource that monitors and influences color trends?  Did you ever know there were trends in colors?  Submit color palettes or review design and color news.

ColorBlender – Need an online tool that will help you match and blend colors?  Choose a preferred color using the color picker, and a 6-color matching palette (a “blend”) will be automatically calculated.

ColoRotate – This one is just a fun one to play with.  In 3D, you can see the multidimensional nature of the colors you have picked.  What does that really mean?  You get to drag your mouse over and around a color diamond to help you find the right color scheme. 

Know of another great color resource or which one of these is your favorite?  Let me know!

How Does Google Make Things More Social?

Once you setup a site with Google Friend Connect, you can select from a number of different widgets you can place on your site.  When visitors sign up for your site through the friend connect service, they can do so via their login information with Google, Yahoo, AIM, or their OpenID account. 

The idea here is to make your web site more social.

This video does a good job at giving a good summary of the entire service:

Overall, I think Google Friend Connect is something worth checking out and looking into.  I like the openness of it all, and can’t wait to see more people use it so we can get more widgets developed for it.