Big Cartel Theme Support

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I download my Big Cartel Theme purchased from Tonka Park?

Our premium Big Cartel Themes and Templates are sold through our very own Big Cartel store and digitally delivered using Pulley. Once you purchase a theme from our theme store using PayPal an email will be sent to your PayPal email address.

The download link might require you to use right click + save as to save the ZIP file to your desktop.</>

How do I install my Big Cartel theme from Tonka Park?

Installation of Big Cartel themes from Tonka Park is fairly straight forward. Each of our theme downloads includes several files including the content to replace the existing content layout. You will simple copy and paste the code into place replacing the prior design.

Installation Steps

Put Shop in Maintenance Mode and backup

  • We recommend using Maintenance Mode during the installation. Check to turn on maintenance mode under your STORE->SETTINGS.
  • Download a backup of your current theme under DESIGN->THEMES->’Download My Theme’. This is precautionary if something goes wrong.
  • Revert your current theme to SEXY or BLOCKs as stated in README.txt

Swap out the CSS content

  • In the downloaded theme you will find a style.css file. Open this file in a text editor and copy the entire contents and paste into the DESIGN->BASICS->CSS editor.  Make sure to fully replace the content previously there.

Install Your New Page Layouts

  • Head over to the DESIGN->PAGES section. With the paid accounts each page can be edited including the layout.
  • Starting with the LAYOUT, click each page name to open the HTML editor.
  • Select the radio option for Custom to allow you to edit the html.
  • Open the similarly named HTML or TXT file from the theme download, copying the entire contents of the file and pasting to replace the entire contents of the layout on Big Cartel. Repeat the steps for each of the included files.
  • If the a file does not exist for a specific template leave the Default radio option selected.

We have an old video that might help you some.

Do I have to have a paid plan on Big Cartel to use Tonka Park themes?

For our Premium Big Cartel themes you will need to have the Platinum or greater plan to be able to install the customized layout pages. The paid plans on Big Cartel are inexpensive and provide great features. With any of the paid plans you have the ability to edit the HTML layouts of each page which is required for our Big Cartel themes.

For our free Big Cartel CSS design you can use the free account but this is limited because you cannot change the HTML.

I get an error, "You must include {{ head_content }} inside the <head> tag of your content."

This is a familiar error when installing premium Big Cartel themes, especially if you are using a Mac.

This error typically is only seen on the LAYOUT template when trying to replace the contents. The simple solution is to make sure to open the layout.txt or layout.html file in a plain text editor that does not render HTML tags.

On Windows use Notepad or Wordpad to open the files.

On Mac using TextEdit to open files with HTML requires a quick preference change in the app.

  • Open TextEdit Preferences
  • Under Open and Save,
    • Check to  ”Ignore rich text commands in HTML files.”
    • Check to  ”Ignore rich text commands in RTF files.”
  • Close TextEdit (command+q)
  • Reopen the layout.txt or layout.html file and now you should see even more content to copy and paste.
I purchased a Big Cartel theme and did not receive a download link, what now?

When you purchase a Big Cartel theme from Tonka Park we deliver the digital theme download through Pulley, a service that works with our Big Cartel Theme Store. The email with the download will be sent at the time your payment via PayPal has been cleared.

The email will be sent to your email address as defined in your PayPal account. So double check that email folder as well as the spam folder.

If you still haven’t received the link, did you purchase the theme with an eCheck? eChecks on PayPal can take up to 9 days to clear so the download will take several days to send. If you need the theme right away we suggest using a Debit or Credit Card or just use your PayPal balance. These options will get you your theme immediately.

If you still don’t have the email with the download link contact us with your order number.

Does Tonka Park offer custom Big Cartel themes?

Tonka Park offers around 15 premium Big Cartel themes for many different budgets. We have attempted to build some different options that meet many different needs. However, each store is unique and we believe should get special attention. So if you see a theme in our store that needs a few changes or you want to mashup features from different themes just let us know.

Big Cartel Theme Installation and Customization options

We have a standard package, around $350, that is very popular that will allow you to get any of our Big Cartel Themes installed on your Big Cartel account with some minor changes for a very reasonable rate. Let us know your shop url, the theme you like and the short list of tweaks that would make it perfect and we can get it done.

Custom Graphics and Images

Some of our themes have placeholders for graphics and other photo slideshows. We do not offer support in creating these images for our basic support packages. However, with our larger custom projects we will help get the right graphics created from images and photos you can provide.

 

I want a WordPress theme to match my existing Big Cartel shop, or vice versa.

Either way Tonka Park can help. Each site will be a bit different and have different needs so please contact us with your existing template so we can review and determine how to duplicate the design on your WordPress or Big Cartel shop. Typically creating the Big Cartel template will be less expensive than creating a WordPress theme due to the additional templates needed for a WordPress site.

We are considering creating WordPress themes to match our premium Big Cartel themes, it just takes quite a bit of work and we are so busy building stores for all of you.

Can I change the Colors and Fonts in a Tonka Park theme?

The answer is yes. But it might not be as easy as you would like it to be. Depending on the theme the process will be slightly different. Some of our themes come with alternate CSS provided in the README.txt file to give you a different color option.

So open the CSS editor and skip past the simple editor. The simple editor was changed by Big Cartel to make it more complicated to hook in for custom themes so we have to edit CSS directly. So it will display even when it is not hooked up to our themes.

Look in the CSS for elements like background-color: #f8f8f8; or color:#fff.  These are what you can change to update the colors.

Find the right colors: http://www.december.com/html/spec/colorsafe.html

I have a PSD layered design for my shop can Tonka Park code it for me?

This is one of our favorite things to do at Tonka Park. So if you are a graphic designer and have the ability to create an amazing shop design in Photoshop but don’t have a clue how to get the CSS, HTML and Liquid markup just right for Big Cartel send us a note.

We will estimate your project based on the overall design and features. When you add in animation and other detailed features we like to understand that before quoting a price so try to describe how the browsing experience will work on your website to give us a clear understanding of what you need built.

One of our favorite projects from PSD to Big Cartel is Kyrptonite Prints and Apparel.