Monday, September 14, 2009

Desktop fun

Since I've been working on my laptop all week,
I thought I'd make my desktop a more fun place to be by changing all the icons in my dock to pictures!
I can't help but smile every time I click on my friend Helen blowing bubbles, Matty on the swings, and Moo reaching out for a hug.
For all of you Mac lovers, I made a quick set of instructions on how to make your own fun icons. Click the image to see it larger.

89 comments:

Katie Palmer said...

Those are the coolest dock icons I ever did see!!! I'd smile every time I opened an app too!

Hannah said...

Oh, that is so cute! I LOVE the kitty-cat.

Little Scarf Girl said...

Aw, that's so cute! :) Way more personalized and fun.

Katie Elizabeth said...

That is just so cool.

Anonymous said...

I think this is great. I have a question though, I erased the background and it still creates a white box. What am I doing wrong? I would like the background to be transparent like the other icons. If you could help that would be great!
Thanks so much!!

Valencia Lia said...

Ohhhh,that so cool and changing icons to pictures just make looking at your laptop much more fun and interesting !!

I love your cat reaching out for a hug. Sooooo adorable <3

colormekatie said...

Try double clicking on your locked background layer to turn it into a regular layer. Then erase, it should work now!

MLG said...

I just love your idea. I wish I could do that with my PC at work. It would make working that much more fun.

Haley Lamb said...

fun idea!

Veronica Stoler said...

I have no clue what's been in the air but I've been all sorts of grumpy for a few days, and had to tell you your site made me feel SOMUCH lighter and better.

so, thank you!

Trish said...

How cool! Thanks for the instructions, I'm going to try it.

Sofi ♪♫ said...

I love it!!! ♥

Anonymous said...

Oh that is so cute but I'm not sure how i'd fare changing the icons. My sister changed the language settings on facebook to be pirate english and that alone is quite irritating

Tara said...

That is very adorable! If I had a Mac, I would probably try this.

Fred said...

so nice. one time i exchanged all my icons as well, but did not have the idea to do it with my own pictures!
super excellent. makes me thinking about getting a dock.

My heart asks pleasure said...

What a cool idea! I'll have to try it, too.
I love Moo's picture :D

togechan said...

nice concept.. hehehehe

Geisslein said...

I always love all your ideas! unfortunatelly I have no mac computer...damn...The MO-Button is one of the greatest! Such a cute cat! Hope you day will be a great one with lot of inspiration! greetings from germany, geisslein

Sunshine Sarah said...

Sooo funny! And adorable! :D

Chanel said...

Oh! What a great idea, I need to do this. ^_^ *heads to photoshop to make some icons*

Laura Trevey said...

very cool!
the cat is hilarious :)

xo laura
www.brightboldbeautiful.blogspot.com

raena said...

this is so awesome!!! i didn't realize you could even do that! i'm so excited to try this when i get home :) thank you!

Shokoofeh said...

Katie! you're fabulous! :D

kate said...

Love how creative and colorful you are. This is an awesome idea! Thanks for sharing the how-to info.

Joi said...

That's awesome beyond awesome.

Allie said...

The Moo icon is so adorable!

boots said...

wow what fun! your the coolest!

Live In Full Color said...

This is so brilliant! I'm doing it today! My desktop thanks you!!!

jdavissquared said...

This is fantastic! Thanks for making a tutorial...I'm definitely going to try this.

Anonymous said...

do u know how to do it with windows vista?

Courtney said...

Thanks for this. This post fun and informative! I recently launched a new website and listed you on the resource page under "blogs to make you smile". Thanks for being so creative!

Glamour Diaries said...

Ooooh That's to cool Katie!! Love it :D Your so freakin' creative..... Someone taught me out to change my icons a while ago, but i forgot. So thanks for the refresh!!

GM said...

What a great idea! I totally want to do that on my Mac :o)

_ffyona said...

You are so creative! Thanks for sharing this!

Becky said...

So cute! Thank you so much for showing how to do this!

Ashley Serena said...

How adorable! And thanks for posting instructions... I know I would've tried to figure out how to do it anyways and wasted away my day on the computer. :P You rock!

Unknown said...

I love this idea. I'm with Jess though. I got my background erased, but when I open it's still a white canvas with my floating people. I just want floating people no canvas. Can anyone help?

Thanks for your sight and your wonderful creative soul. It's so uplifting and contagious.

turtlebird said...

AWESOME!!!

totally gonna copy you.

thanks for the inspiration!

Anonymous said...

So very cool! Must try. I've posted a link to this from my site! Thanks so much!

http://colormekatie.blogspot.com/2009/09/desktop-fun.html

colormekatie said...

Hey Tallmisto! Before you erase the background , double click on the locked background layer in the layers palate and it'll turn it into a regular layer. That way, when you erase it'll take away the white background. then save it as a .psd and you'll have your floating people. I hope this makes sense!

emma said...

great idea :) thanks for including the instructions - now we can all have cute little personalised icons!

Pavithra said...

that was the awesomest technique. heck yes imma do it! :)

Ariel said...

im so glad you put up a how to! im changing the icons on my mac right now!

Unknown said...

Thank you! It works!

Dodo said...

I suck, I have windows ×_×

And those icons look great fun!

Jocefina said...

oooooh tht's adorable! (L)
Love it, but u must be acostumed to tht no? all ur jobs are lovely (L) and Moo too,it reminds to the name of the pig in tht movie "uptown girls" hve u seen it?.
Well,You make me wish I had a Mac:(
lol

Maaike Hartjes said...

What a great idea, I'm going to pimp my desktop with my illustrations!

Oh, and I got the white canvas as well, but now I know what I did wrong : I clicked 'copy' in Photoshop instead of Preview. (maybe some commenters did this too?)

Farmgirl Paints said...

That is like the coolest idea ever! Don't have a MAC, so I don't think this is possible, but I love the idea.

peewee said...

okay. I have a different problem :) did you know your awesome post would become a tutorial??

I did everything...and I have a transparent background....UNTIL I copy and paste into the icon, at which point it mysteriously turns to a black background. UGH! Help!?

Same New Story said...

yay! this is so fun, ill be doing it for sure. thanks for adding instructions!

Anonymous said...

ahh.. i hope i found someway to do it on windows :/

Children of the 90s said...

I love this! The cat is great.

HoustonGurly said...

Is this you dancing at the front? The one that starts the whole thing off? It certainly looks like you...

http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20090908-tows-flash-mob-dance

Lubna said...

Moo is a gorgeous kitty and you have a wonderful blog. I love watching clouds, as well. Next time, I walk, I shall look down for creative treasures.

Cole said...

Just letting you know I LOVE your blog! I had to share it with others!

http://mygodseyfamily.blogspot.com/

Vanessa said...

Wow! Thats amazing! I will try it out asap! Thanks so much!

Susie said...

oooh - love this!!! I have the same problem as peewee though.... if i copy from ps, i get a white background, from preview i get a black background :) maybe my software is too old?

Susie said...

lol - in case none of that works, do you know how to get the regular icons back? :)

christy mcdonald said...

what a fun thing to know how to do! Thanks!!

Emily said...

Yet another brilliant idea!

Anonymous said...

hi there - this is a really fun idea and i have a Mac so i tried it following your instructions to see how to do it as a practice run and it worked perfectly! except that now i can't re-edit the icon i created if i want to change it again. if you can only change it once for apps, maybe you should let people know to be sure they're happy with the icon they're changing it to. for some reason when i go back into the same app and click 'more info', and then click my new icon at the top, it won't let me re-edit it...i didn't realize i couldn't do it more than once if i wanted to change it later...

colormekatie said...

That's not true anonymous, you can change it as many times as you want! I'm not sure why your computer isn't allowing it..

Melissa~ said...

So cute!!!!
I love Moo photo and Matty in the swings. Amazing idea.
Katie, would you vivit my blog and watch my photoshoot if you have time? I'll really apreciate your opinion. is my first "professional" photoshoot, so I'm very excited.

Kisses and Hugs!

Es said...

I love the one of Moo! And thanks for showing us how to do it! I need more friends like you in real life =)

monica said...

love it.
i got it to work, but is there a way to go back to the original default icon? i can't figure it out...

colormekatie said...

Hey all!

If you want to go back to the original icon, all you have to do is go to the application, click the More Info button, then click on the icon on the top left corner and click delete! super easy =)

Susie said...

Thank you! I'm going to hijack my hubby's newer mac and see if I can make it work on his :)

Aline Correa said...

my favorite is Moo reaching out for a hug.

you're very inspiring! I was happy to find your blog :)

Lewis said...

hello do u mind sending me ur wallpaper ?

101lewis AT gmail.com


thankss sooo muchh! z

allison (白丽珊) said...

is it just me or does this only work for some applications???

monica said...

thanks. that was easy, who knew! now i really can go crazy with fun icons!

thea said...

FREAKIN AWesOme!


thea.
xx

www.forthevisionaries.tumblr.com

Anonymous said...

ohhhhh man this really makes me wish I never spilled coffee on my mac.

ArtCreations4U.co.uk said...

Great work....It makes me want to completely change my windows desktop...

Canvas Pictures on Demand

Anonymous said...

Wow awesome creativity!

rachwheel said...

I just stumbled across your blog. You make me smile, and cry and laugh. You are an inspiration and bring joy to so many through your talents! Thank you!!

{quixotic.elizabeth} said...

Thank you SOOO MUCH for this post and the HOW TO instructions!! I spent yesterday afternoon changing all my icons and I am just soooooo happy with it all! It is like I have a new computer and I LOVE IT!!

You're awesome! Thanks so much!!

angeleest said...

ure such a colourful girl, though ure just a year older than me. love this, love everything on ur blog! inspires my friends and i to bring smiles to pple in singapore!

stel said...

this was so much fun, thanks!

Lau said...

So cool! Thank you a lot for sharing! you are incredible!

You bring colours and joy to my laptop haha!

Reading you from France! <3

Jillian Downs said...

What's g o o d.

Jenna Eloise said...

So cool, and I've started to do it... but some of the icons can't be changed? It's really strange, I can change things like iPhoto but not iTunes... Any idea what I can do to change them?

Lotte. said...

Awesome!
Of course I had to try it out!
Love your creativity!
From the Netherlands!

Mari Flores said...

MINE WON't let me do it?

lena said...

hi there.

how did u do change into the birds/ plane ...?

i hope you're well and you're having a great christmas time

bisous

Anonymous said...

i tried double clicking on the layer and it erased everything i wanted it to, what do i do now? i saved it onto my desk top as a .psd, but it has that white background when it's saved. i'm very confused!

Anonymous said...

so i did everything you said, i double clicked on the locked layer to make it a normal one, than i erased the background. i save it, and the white box shows up. i do save it as a .psd. though, i don't want the white background! helpp! perhaps you can make a tutorial video at your earliest convenience?

Anonymous said...

cute idea but mine wont let me do it either. when i open my appilications menu..it's totally different looking than yours and when i find the application i want to change i can't figure out how to go from there. boo.

Jacqueline said...

Hi Katie,

I love this idea and wanted to try it myself on my Macbook, but it wouldn't work! I got up the step where I click the icon, but when I go up to Paste, the 'Paste' isn't clickable :( Does this only work on Mac desktops or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks!