Sorry about the long absence!

Hey jammers! Panda here!

I know it's been ages since I last posted on here (over a month, I believe?), and I've truly missed all of you guys. I have tons of comments to go through and respond to, which I'm looking forward to! :D I'm so grateful that you guys stuck by the blog, even when there wasn't a ton of new content being posted, you still commented and viewed. Y'all are really the best, haha! :)

Unfortunately, I can't say that another absence like this one won't occur again. I'm in a lot of accelerated/advanced classes this year, and the workload is pretty crazy. Since these grades do "count" towards my college and such, I don't want to sacrifice my grades for blogging--even though blogging has and always will be my passion. I'm sorry if that sounds super lame and like a pretty bad excuse, but I really do care about doing well in school, and I just can't have both an active blog and the grades I'd like to get.

On a much happier note... I was featured in Julian2's video the other day! :internally dies: I feel like my purpose in life has now been achieved, haha! :P Seriously, though--like what did I ever do to be so fortunate? Nonetheless, I'm super happy that I got to be featured in his 10 Animal Jam Edits video, and it was a total shock to see my name mentioned alongside darkdog13's and other famous AJ editors. #lifegoals Also, thanks to Cosmic and Swirlshine for letting me know about this!

Oh! I nearly forgot! The September edition of Graham's Gazette will be coming out before the month is over (well... duh, Panda!) and it's super info-packed--I bet you guys will like it.

So yeah... I'd better get going, but I hope this post cleared some things up. I'll be adding some new authors to the blog as well soon, so I hope you will give them a warm welcome when they post!

Have a lovely day! I hope to see you all again soon!

-Panda

Minecraft in Animal Jam?!? [Weekly Digest Issue #2]

Hey jammers! Reporter Panda here again, equipped with the newest issue of AJGC's newest Weekly Digest series!

• This week's Rare Item Monday
• New and concluded contests or informational posts from The Daily Explorer
• Exclusive graphics relating to this week's events
• A round-up of AJGC's posts for the week

These Rare Sandals have the same colors as the Rare Sombrero mentioned in our last Weekly Digest! It seems as if these colors (neon purple, neon green and pink) are pretty common among RIM's!

These nifty sandals cost 5,000 tickets. Unfortunately, the high price may have deterred many jammers from being able to purchase this RIM. What do you think--do you agree with AJHQ's high pricing of the RIM's lately?

As Reporter Cosmic spoke of on her own blog, The Animal Jam Comet, you could definitely use both these sandals and the sombrero from last week to create a rockin' party outfit!

Reporter Ineffable here, with some of the updates from The Daily Explorer!

The Daily Explorer has hosted a ton of paw-some contests lately that you should definitely go participate in! They recently announced the winners of their ‘Make Music Day’ art contest! Here are some of the fabulous entries:

Each of the 10 winners won a cool Diamond Art Plaque for their den that looks a bit like the other Art Plaque, but with just a bit more pizazz!

If you're interested in entering any future art contests, then make sure to check out this helpful video tutorial by AJHQ on how to submit your artwork to them!

To celebrate this paw-some week, here are some fun graphics you can use! All of these can be used without any credit to me (Reporter Panda) or this blog (AJGC)!

The following graphics were all created based on the cute characters and pictures that appeared in the Wild Explorer's "Space Daydreams" music video! (Scroll down to the "Bonus Tidbits" section of this issue to watch the epic video for yourself!)

Sunday: Commission Coupon, @Cosmic (Commission), Pet Sighting

Monday: Animal Jam Theories

Tuesday: Eat or Be Eaten (Fanfiction)

Wednesday: Animal Jam Life Hacks

Thursday: Study Tips: Summer Edition, @KG (Commission)

Thank you so much for reading the second issue of this Digest series!

What did you think of this issue? What ideas and suggestions do you have for Issue #3?

And again, the Animal Jam Graphic Central Management Team outdid themselves! If it weren't for the endless contributions from these lovely people, this issue wouldn't even exist! Leave them all some love in the comments down below!

Well--until next time!

Did you know that many of the most popular Animal Jam YouTube stars went on a trip to VidCon with AJHQ?

The jammers who went to VidCon (like Aparri, Bepper, Snowyclaw, WisteriaMoon and others) were treated with special Wild Explorers backpacks, silly selfies with Clark Stacey and Cami Carver, and best of all...

Meeting their fans!

What a fun time, right?

But speaking of Cami...

If you haven't seen the "Space Daydreams" music video created by Wild Explorers (we mentioned it earlier), then you should really take a look...

You're welcome. Haha!

But seriously--isn't Cami just adorable?

And yes, it is a parody of "Wildest Dreams" by Taylor Swift.

How to Make Your Own Blog "Grab My Button" (With Custom Code)!

Hey jammers! Panda here...

So, yesterday I posted a notice up here saying how I was quitting the blog for about 2-3 weeks until my school ends, or at least until my school workload simmers down.

However, I posted a new video on YouTube (for my AJ YouTube channel) yesterday, and wanted to share it with you, since many of you have been asking how to make your own custom Grab My Button codes and button! :D

Here is the video!

 In the video, I show you how to make your own custom button, how to create code for it, and what programs/sites I use! :D The button made in this video is a present for my friend KG, who has always been so supportive and sweet!

I hope you enjoyed! As I said in my previous post, I'll probably be posting a few times here and there until I officially "come back," like this post.

Ciao, have a great Tuesday!

-Panda

@KG

Hey jammers! ^.^

So, I was thinking of ideas for videos to film for my YouTube channel (I'm just getting it started, and I want to get a few videos up before I begin promoting it a bit more ;D) and I remembered that Cosmic Cheetah asked to see a tutorial for a "Grab My Button!" and how I make them! ^.^

It's really quite easy!

I did need a blog to make a button for during the video, and I chose KG's Spirit Jamaa Club!

I had the pleasure of meeting KG on AJ a few weeks ago, and she is such a sweet and genuine jammer! Her blog deserves WAYYYY more views!

So, here is my little, spur-of-the-moment present to you, KG! :D

<div align="center">
<a href="https://kyliescreativecorner.wordpress.com" rel="nofollow" title="Spirit Jamaa Club!"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUV0JXqMu8kjITEcwEliItVAb4ppD1kaRHyHGxmrsPxaXIba9ceN8rOWEnMVFkn7-nWuHUhyphenhyphen9Rgu0-A0LVZf2ysbKMr7EJtleuAujOlBkc_upGPsHkONX8ic5VIeJ4RGB8n7saJmSeoGpp/s1600/Grab-My-Button-Tutorial-Button.png" alt="Spirit Jamaa Club!" style="border: none; height: auto; width: 200px;" /></a></div>

If you'd actually like to use the button, just let me know, and I'll email you the code! :D

Ciao!

-Panda

Better Gifts From The Daily Spin?

Hey jammers! It's Panda here! ^.^

I'm sure that a handful of you have already figured this out, but for the past week or so, Animal Jam has implemented a new set of gifts for when you land on the gift icon in the Daily Spin.

If you've been following along with the AJ YouTube community for awhile, then you may have also heard that Aparri's video helped push AJHQ to make this change!

I think this is a really awesome addition to the game, and not just because jammers can now get much better items from the Daily Spin! As Aparri said in his video, it also shows that we can actually help AJHQ make changes to the game.... which is pretty flippin' awesome!

Have a great day everyone! And don't forget to keep on telling AJHQ some suggestions for improving the game... it turns out that they actually listen!

-Panda

How to Make Custom YouTube Thumbnails : A Tutorial

Hey jammers! :D Wow, I've actually succeeded in playing Animal Jam for three days in a row... and blogging two days in a row! :D

Anyways... a lovely jammer emailed me asking for a custom YouTube thumbnails tutorial. Unfortunately they emailed me a couple of weeks ago when I had forgotten to check my email for awhile, and I'm not sure if they're still looking for a response. Nonetheless, I figured that some of you YouTubers out there might still find this tutorial helpful, and if you know anyone who'd like to learn how to do this as well, make sure that you share this post with them as well!

But without me rambling anymore, let's get into the tutorial!

-----------------------

To start, you're going to want to open up PicMonkey. If you don't know what PicMonkey is, it's a free, online photo-editing program. You can pay $4.99/month for more advanced features, but those extra features aren't necessary in this tutorial. 

Note: You can also use Pixlr or any form of Photoshop/Photoshop Elements, but since PicMonkey is the most capable free platform that I know of, I'll be demonstrating with it instead.

Then, click on the "Edit for free!" link at the top right corner of the page.

Once you do that, you'll likely end up with a screen that looks like this:

Now it's time to resize the canvas so that it is the proper size for the YouTube thumbnail. In order for your thumbnail to fit appropriately into the YouTube thumbnail container, it must be 1280 pixels in width and 720 pixels in height, or 1280 x 720.

Your screen should look something like this once you've resized your canvas to fit the thumbnail size:

We've got the "bones" of our thumbnail down, and now it's time for the fun part! Start your thumbnail by adding a cool Animal Jam background for the background of your thumbnail. You can find some on this page.

To add your background to your thumbnail, first download the background and then go to the "Overlays" tab on the side (it's shaped like a butterfly) and select the "Your Own" option and upload it to PicMonkey.

Now all you have to do is resize it to fit the canvas better:

Starting to look more Animal Jam-y after adding that background, right?

Then, you'll want to add some text explaining what you video is about. Go to the "Text" tab (it's says "Tt") select a font and type out what you video is about. I suggest making the font BIG since this thumbnail will be shrunk when actually uploaded onto YouTube, so you'll want to ensure that people can read your thumbnail from a distance.

Once you've added the text and styled it the way you would like to, you can add tons of fun graphics and icons to your thumbnail! I personally didn't choose to add graphics for this example thumbnail because I chose for the text to be so large, but adding in graphics of your own animals, of things that appear in your video or just of random, cute animal graphics are great ideas to catch potential viewers' eyes!

After you're sure that your thumbnail is exactly the way you would like it to be, you can save it! Make sure that you save it in either the medium or highest resolution to avoid the thumbnail from getting too blurry.

And there you have it! Your very own thumbnail! Of course, yours will probably be way better than mine, because I just whipped this up randomly as an example. :P

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I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial! 

-Panda

New Video: SpeedEdit

Hey jammers! I finally made a new video! I began a new series called SpeedEdit, in which I edit a photo or create a graphic! ^.^ It is kind of like SpeedPaint, but I can't draw, so I made this instead. :P

I hope you enjoy! Here is the graphic that I made in this video:

Have a nice day, jammers! ^.^

-Panda

Hacker?

My buddy Lovely1147046 informed me of a new hacker. This hacker goes by the name of Wretchedjungle. WisteriaMoon, WootMoo, Kosho and maybe WootMoo were hacked. Wisteria says that she was out having dinner, when her fried messaged her telling her that she was online. She says that she went through a login battle, and finally managed to get online long enough so that she could send all of her good items to a storage. But her magenta furry hat is gone, as well as all of her headdresses. I believe that Wretchedjungle has been banned, but Slushy AJ claims that this name is only there to take the fame of the events.

I'm not sure if this rumor is true, but it seems as though it wouldn't hurt to disable gifting and trading on your account. This way, even if the hacker gets into your account, they won't be able to take your items. I've disabled my trading and gifting, just in case. I think Wretchedjungle is after all of the famous jammers, but you never know when they might go for regular jammers as well.

Within the next few days, be extra careful of all suspicious activity around Jamaa. And as always, do not share your password, email or login information.

To see Slushy AJ's video about this, watch below:

Stay safe, jammers! ^.^ I hope that this is all just a rumor... but there's growing proof that it isn't. >.<

-Panda

Lion Flat!

Hey jammers! Here is a collection of graphics, videos and pictures from the new Lion Flat video by AJHQ!

You can watch the video below!

Here are some graphics from the video:

by awesomepanda868 (no credit needed)

by awesomepanda868 (no credit needed)

Which interaction with the lion and the animals did you like the best? The hamster? The bunny? Or the elephant?

Play wild, jammers!

-Panda

Bao Bao Blizzard

Here is another video of The Smithsonian's National Zoo's panda Bao Bao in the snow!



~arcticpenguin661

Change of Plans + New Graphics

Hi jammers! I changed the template to a spring one earlier, but it was VERY slow, so I changed it back for now.

Here are a few new backgrounds that you can use without credit! ^.^

Yeah- they are pretty useless. :P

And here are a few new ones that I made from the new video (featuring owls) that AJHQ made!

by awesomepanda868

by awesomepanda868

These both took an extremely long time, and made my arm sore for an hour. >.< Since using them is so easy, and it was so hard to make them, credit is required. 

Okay jammers- see you! ^.^

-Panda

Sewer Grate + Graphic + DE Post x2 + Vote + Mystery (sort of :P)!

Hi jammers! The new item is the sewer grate in Jam Mart Furniture! ^.^

This is a super creative item- I didn't know Jamaa had sewers! :peeks under grate: Yikes! It's very... dirty down there. :P

Here is a fabulous graphic of the new item that Mimi5000 made of today's item!

by Mimi5000

If you use that, please make sure to give Mimi5000 credit, not AJGC or me. 

I re-decorated my office space in my den- what do you guys think?

Hehe... if you have to study/read, or would just like a place to chat with your buddies (Quietly!!! :puts on librarian-like glasses and shushes everyone: XD), then make sure to stop by! 

I forgot to post the DE yesterday, so here is a daily DE post times 2. :P

Yesterday's post...

That arctic wolf is so cute! And I love how it is so easy to make the outfit that the arctic wolf is wearing! It is just like a mini outfit tip hidden in the drawing! From what I have interpreted, here is how to make the outfit:

What you need:

1 rare furry hat (RIM yesterday)

1 pair of blue or green colored candycane socks (one of the daily December advent gifts)

1 blue ribbon scarf (for sale in Jam Mart Furniture)

Too bad this outfit is only for members, but I suppose if you substitute the furry hat for an NM blue item, it would work! 

Today's post...

Tierney answered the question- how big is a giant squid's eye? Here is what she answered...

Here is a question for you all to answer in the comments: Would you like AJGC to have a posting schedule? For example: Den decorating tips on Monday, Blogging tip or gadget or freebie on Tuesday, scheduled graphic on Wednesday... etc. I'm wondering because often it it hard to come up with material to post. :P

I have a quick mystery/odd thing I noticed in the Crystal Palace den. Notice how the water in the fountain runs down into that bottom area, yet it never overflows!

Wouldn't the water level eventually just rise above the edge of the basin at the bottom? Come on AJ- learn some physics! XD Perhaps it is Mira's magic or something... :P Or (the more logical explanation) there is a filter at the bottom, leading all the water into... Jamaa's sewers! XD Oh Panda, you are so silly and odd... :P

Okay jammers- make sure to cast in your votes on the two polls- the one in this post mentioned earlier and the one on the right sidebar- How do you make your Animal Jam outfits?

Ciao!

-Panda