I’ve known about WordPress for a while now and what intrigues me is the design aspect of it. How are those WordPress themes put together? And the question that intrigues me more is “How can I make my own and design it to make it look like it was a scrapbook or journal?”

I am not completely starting from a blank slate. I am aware that CSS affects how websites look. In fact, I used to dabble with inline CSS to make my past WordPress articles look a certain way, specifically, make them feel like a magazine layout. Basically, I made the most of the code mode of the WordPress editor, where you write the articles, and I insert CSS codes where I can.

What I actually want to achieve is to make my whole site feel like a scrapbook. I want it to look organic, like someone did some handwritten notes and stuck some ephemera, photos and whatnot, like basically a journal but I want it to still look clean as a website. I ChatGPT some mock images of what i want my homepage to look like. See below.

Inline CSS was alright to play around with at first. It was not enough control for me though. I wanted to create a whole WordPress theme so I do not have to code CSS into every article. I thought, yeah, why not make my own WordPress theme? While I’m at it, I might as well make a project out of it. Then, I can use this as portfolio for my website development skills set. Also, I thought of putting the project on GitHub and then figure out what tool would be best to help me manage the project.

So where am I now? The GitHub project is set up. I’ve also set up my project in VS Code. I know I do not really have to use VS Code. I asked ChatGPT what are the standard tools out there for website development. It spit out VS Code. Is this the best tool? I would not know. For now, I am okay with it. I made sure to put into GitHub the project, because I want the whole thing to be something i can share with people. Maybe even use it as a portfolio for future work.

I’ve got the GitHub and VS Code Project setup. Now, on to actually creating my first ever WordPress theme! For now, I’ll just leave you with this GitHub Project link. It’s quite exciting that I am about to learn how things work.