Looking for some free printable labels, gift tags, and fun stickers for your handmade creations? Everything Etsy has teamed up with World Label and designer Erin Rippy of InkTreePress.com to provide you this incredible collection of printable labels and other goodies. All for free and available for download right here!

All Downloads are PDF 8.5×11

Click the download link beneath the design you want!

4″x5″ Designs — 4 per sheet

Download Design Above

Download Design Above

4″x2″ Designs — 10 per sheet

Download Design Above

Download Design Above

2.625″ x 1″ Designs — 30 per sheet

Download Design Above

Download Design Above

Download Design Above

Download Design Above

Download Design Above

Download Design Above

Download Design Above

Download Design Above

2.83″ x 1″ Designs — 33 Per Sheet

Download Design Above

Download Design Above

2″ Round Designs — 20 Per Sheet

Download Design Above

Download Design Above

Download Design Above

Download Design Above

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Wow! That’s a lot of free printables!

These are totally free for your own use. Please don’t share them from your own blog, but feel free to point your friends and followers here to get the downloads.

These designs fit many common printable label sizes and if you’re handy with a pair of scissors {I know you are!} you can forget all about trying to line-up your designs and just print on a full sheet label. Easy! For more information on sizes or to order labels, check out WorldLabel.com

Have Fun! ~ Kim

Create. Every day.

One of the most full-on amazing features of being human is our ability to be creative. We can create just about anything. We can create mesmerizing art, soul-gripping music, and life-changing opportunities. Incredibly, through children, we can even create an entire life.

The act of creating builds us up and strengthens us. It gives us a chance to see with our eyes what we previously could only imagine. The more often we convert our ideas into reality, the more confident we become. We learn that what we see in our thoughts and ideas is within our ability to do.

Better still, when we forget about the future and don’t worry about the long-term benefit of creating, we find that the act of creating (making, building, designing, writing, painting, drawing, doing) can be a powerful release from the pressing realities of today.

Taking at least few minutes to be creative every day is worth the effort and the time.

If you agree and think a little reminder might help, here is a free 8×10 printable of the image above. Print it out and put it somewhere you’ll be sure to see it.

Free Printable

Do you love to create? Have you experienced the benefit of creating every day? Share your thoughts in the comments — You never know what impact your experience may have on a future reader!

I’m always looking for new ways to organize and change things up a bit. Pretty organized craft supplies seriously make me happy.  So, here’s some of the newest and coolest ideas out there, and I’m sure there’s one you can make this afternoon.  Many are made with supplies you might already have at home.

These frosted mason jars are an awesome way to organize…make some for yourself in minutes!  You can find out all the details from Happy Hooligans!

Organize all those annoying cords with this simple idea from Our Thrifty Ideas.  All you need are some toilet paper rolls and some cute washi tape.  Another reason to buy tons of cool washi tape in every color…that’s my kind of organization project.

{HGTV}

Recycle cans and use them for all those little things that you really want available and looking organized at the same time.  That can be a challenge!

These cans have heavy duty magnets hot glued to the back so they can hang on the metal cookie sheet on the wall.  Cute and inexpensive!

One Thrifty Chick shares how she keeps her fabric organized…that’s a constant problem in my life!

I’ve shared lots of fabric organization ideas here, here and here.  Maybe you’ll find just the right idea for you there.  I keep all sizes of fabric, so it can get a little tricky trying to store it.

These DIY cereal box drawer dividers are adorable!  I soooo need to do this…my kitchen has one super scary junk drawer that needs a little love.  Do you have a drawer like that??? Please say you do…lol!

If you are looking for a few, or maybe a whole house full of organization ideas, this is for you…25 DIY Home Organization Ideas.  Have fun organizing your home creatively!  No need to buy more plastic containers!

Care to share a creative storage solution???  I can use as much help as I can get.  At least that’s the way I feel today!  What’s your trick for keeping clutter under control?

~Kim

Other posts you might enjoy…

• Organize Your Ribbon {18 Inspiring Ideas}
• DIY Organization Ideas
• 22 Tips to Organize Your Craft Room

Free photo editing has never been easier or more feature rich. Tools and websites designed to crop, edit, and enhance your photos are almost as abundant as places to share them!

It’s no secret that I’m a Pinterest fanatic (EverythingEtsy on Pinterest), I love Instagram, and I’m in constant need of photo editing for my blogs and Etsy shop. My guess is you do to, right?

Even though I have Photoshop, I’ve been doing lots of my work using PicMonkey. We’ve written about using picmonkey for photo editing and Tim did a tutorial and video to demonstrate using PicMonkey to create a blog button or Etsy Banner.

Today I found a new (to me) site that just might turn out to be my new go-to website for photo editing, especially if I need to do a collage, which I do all the time.

Free Photo Editing with iPiccy

iPiccy.com is very powerful and full of great features. It’s a tiny bit more effort to learn than PicMonkey but most of the tools and steps are easy and intuitive if you’ve got any photo editing experience. The extra features are totally worth the effort, and there is no cost at all.

iPiccy is totally free.

I haven’t used it enough to offer a full review of iPiccy, but I can point out a few of the things that I liked and were different than PicMonkey.

Local Storage

The first thing I noticed was that iPiccy wanted to store my work on my computer rather than online. That involved allowing it permission which kind of freaked me out a little. But since I really wanted to try it, I took the time to Google “iPiccy Local Storage” and didn’t see anything negative in the search results so I gave it a try.

As it turned out, I really liked the features that local storage opened up. You have a photo library of all the pictures you’ve uploaded to iPiccy as well as a “history” tab where all of your finished picture saves live. This is in addition to the normal file location on your computer.

Overall, I found working with the iPiccy storage easy and very helpful compared to the way you have to upload one thing at a time to PicMonkey and do that again for every time you work on a photo, even if you’ve worked on it before.

iPiccy seems better here though I am curious why the history shows the picture saved on Jan. 4 when it was Jan. 24 (no big deal I guess…).

Easier Color Controls

It was easy to adjust colors in iPiccy for things like added text, overlays (called “stickers”), and shapes. I also really liked having easy access to the eyedropper tool which allows you to select a color from within your image. That’s great when you want to use a matching color for your text or shapes. iPiccy also shows you the new color on the screen as you move the color selector around.

Great Cropping Tools

It might be hard to see in the image below, but iPiccy has built-in cropping sizes for many of the major Social Media sites. Need a Facebook Cover Image or a background image for your iPhone, it’s already built-in as an option in addition to all the standard options such as square, 4×6, 8×10, etc. Now if they would just add some Etsy Banner sizes we’d be cookin’.

Tons and Tons of Collage Options

This feature was one of my favorites. The collage options here were much easier to use than PicMonkey. First of all it seems like there are quite a few more options to choose from. Secondly, you can see them all without having to click on curious terms like “Biggie Smalls”. Finally, once you’ve selected an arrangement you can adjust the aspect ratio of the collage which can be helpful if you’re having a hard time making a picture fit just right.

The screenshot below only shows about half of the collage layouts available:

Full Featured Editing and Effects

iPiccy has ALL of the bells and whistles. You have a full set of adjustment tools such as Brightness, Contrast, Hue, Saturation, etc. as well as a great selection of effects such as HDR, Sepia, and lots of cool vintage effects.

Great Selection of Fonts and Easy Font Tools

One of the things I love about PicMonkey is the font selection so I was really pleased to see that iPiccy has a great selection. Maybe not quite as extensive as PicMonkey, but huge and all for the same price (free). I pay extra on PicMonkey to get all the fonts.

Font editing is easy. Change colors, alignment, opacity, and font size in no time flat.

Overall Seems Great So Far

I’ll keep using iPiccy for awhile and let you know how it works over time. I haven’t used it enough yet to know if it’s glitchy or does anything totally horrifying. If it continues to do well I’ll get Tim to do some tutorial videos to really show how it works.

Am I ready to give up Picmonkey? Not yet. I’m still pretty in-love with that site, but iPiccy.com is one to watch and one you might want to try.

Any photo editing tricks you’d like to learn? What’s your biggest picture editing challenge?

What’s your favorite free photo editing website?

~Kim

For a long list of free photo editing sites, check out this post we found and shared on Google+

This post is sponsored content from BlogHer and Panasonic Lumix.

Have you ever set one of these two goals only to meet with either total frustration or some “consolation-prize” level of semi-success?

1. Learn to use a quality DSLR camera.
2. Learn to use Photoshop in a really useful way.

If you have, then you and I are in the same boat because I’ve gone for both of these a few times, complete with buying how-to ebooks and a “decent” DSLR camera. Yet I still don’t feel even close to “getting it”.

But that, I’m happy to say, is yesterday’s news thanks to the camera I’m going to share with you today.

Readers of EverythingEtsy know a couple things about me. One is that I’m not very techy at all. If not for the help of my sweet husband and blogging partner, Tim, I would spend much more of my life in a state of extreme techno-frustration, stubbornly refusing to be beaten down by my “useful” gadgets.

The other thing is that I think pictures are probably the single most important part of success online. They’re important for selling on Etsy, blogging, building a great website, social media (Pinterest, Instagram, etc), and more. But most important for me and other Etsy sellers is product photography.

One camera has changed my world, so let me tell you a little about it.

The Panasonic Lumix G5

First things first. If you don’t have time to read all the fun details about this camera, let me just give you the most important points I’ve noticed since I started using it.

It takes incredible pictures. -

Obviously the most important thing. The 16 megapixel sensor coupled with interchangable high-quality lenses makes for outstanding results.

It’s smaller and lighter, by far, than comparable DSLR cameras. -

A really big deal when traveling with the camera or holding it still for video recording.

The low-light capabilities are shocking -

I’m really not kidding, it’s amazing. This feature totally makes a major difference for me and anyone doing indoor photography (such as products) or who photographs concerts or events (such as weddings).

The video recording is (to my untrained eye) professional quality. -

I’m no expert, but we have an HD Flip camera and the difference is night-and-day.

Maybe I just don’t know what I’m doing…

A critical reader of the above four statements might say I just haven’t ever had a decent camera before or don’t know how to work one. To point A, untrue: we currently own an Olympus DSLR and before that we had a 35mm Canon EOS with a bag full of fancy lenses. To point B, not knowing how to work a “decent” camera, true dat.

And that’s probably the most important point about this camera and why I’m so thankful to have one. It takes pictures that look great and I can actually work it. What a concept.

The Two Best Features of the Lumix G5

(aside from the awesome pictures, that is)

1. Easy to Use Menus

The menu system on this camera is intuitive. It only took me a few minutes to get the hang of my most frequently used settings. I can change from one creative filter to another with just a couple of clicks.

The more in-depth settings are also easy to follow and the camera actually explains choices to you as you scroll through options.

2. Creative Filters Built-In

Jumping back to the two goals mentioned at the beginning of this post, the second one was learning to use Photoshop in a really useful way. I already used Photoshop to do some basic edits such as cropping and adjusting brightness and contrast. But I never really could figure out how to really get the great results I knew were possible.

Well my frustration is over. Now, the camera does it for me. And it does it better!

The fourteen creative filters found under the “Creative Controls” menu are amazing. I use one of them with almost every shot I take.

Again, I’m NOT a photography expert, so I really don’t know what I’m talking about. This is all about ease of use and results for me. Easy is putting it mildly and the results are great.

These are a few of my favorite options:

High Key

High-Key is the setting that really made a difference in my life. No more waiting for the perfect time of day to get a good indoor close-up with realistic color and great detail.

Dynamic Monochrome

Impressive Art

More Features You Should Know About

16 Megapixels means excellent detail shots. Take a look at the comparison below. I took one shot with my 7.1 Megapixel Point-and-shoot, and the other with the G5, then zoomed in for a closer look.

Image 1 (above) – 7.1 Megapixel point-and-shoot

Image 2 – Lumix G5 – 16 megapixel

The point-and-shoot takes a decent picture for sure, but as you can see when you zoom in, the extra resolution of the 16mp Lumix camera means much better clarity and sharpness even up-close.

Great HD Video Shooting

We’ve done a couple of videos with the new camera and it was incredible. The same great effects can be used for video which really helped with a less than perfect lighting scenario. We previously used a flip HD video camera, but it now lives on the shelf next to my old point-and-shoot.

Interchangeable Lenses

I can’t wait to get a chance to try out some of the available lenses for this camera. I’ve read that the 20mm f/1.7 Pancake Lens will open up a whole new world of low-light and shallow depth-of-field photography that I’ve always wanted to do but couldn’t. There are dozens of other lenses available for every type of photography imaginable.

A Perfectly Designed LCD Display

I totally love the LCD display on this camera.

• It’s huge and beautiful
• It is a touch screen allowing for snapping the shutter and other functions by touch
• It rotates and flips to make it useful in a vast number of shooting positions (like holding it down low on the floor or a table and shooting upward)
• It has an auto-off feature to shut the screen off when I want to use the viewfinder, which is really great in its own right.

Advanced Face Recognition and Face Follow

Another feature I’ve really enjoyed is the automatic face recognition focus option. When this feature is turned on, the camera does a great job of finding the face(s) in the shot and focuses quickly and perfectly. It can also be set to follow the “face” and maintain focus, even as you or the subject move around.

Way More Stuff I Can Actually Use

I’m forcing myself to stop going on and on. This isn’t a “photography blog” and I’m really not well-versed in the features of great cameras, so trying to explain them in writing is a little bit of a challenge for me.

The bottom-line is that I can actually use this camera. I have a fancy DSLR that I can’t figure out because I don’t know much about ISO, shutter-speed, exposure, focal lengths, etc. And I don’t really want to learn.

This camera works great and produces professional quality pictures without forcing me to learn more than I want to learn. The transition from a simple point-and-shoot was simple and quick. Now I can increase my knowledge of the more advanced features of the camera slowly, at my own pace, while totally enjoying the camera in the meantime.

Add it To Your Wish List!

The notorious economic downturn of recent years hit our house pretty hard and my spending habits will never be the same no matter what, so I’m pretty shy about telling anyone they should buy anything (unless it’s handmade!). But if you’re thinking of getting a new camera, and you’re ready to invest in something a little above entry-level, then my experience so far with the Lumix G5 has me ready to recommend it without hesitation.

If anything happens to change that opinion I’ll let you know, but if you just keep seeing great pictures on my blog, you’ll know its just my awesome camera!

~Kim

This post is sponsored content from BlogHer and Panasonic.

You know how there are some things you just know you’ll never change? I’m talking about things that are just ingrained into your psyche. Big stuff such as how you like your eggs, what side of the bed you prefer to sleep on, and what kind of camera you use to take your most important pictures.

For me these were all very clear. Over Easy for sure, the right side (depends on one’s perspective, I guess), and a Canon ELPH point-and-shoot camera.

Well, I guess even the big stuff changes sometimes because there is a new camera in my life and I won’t be going back. Not a chance, sista!

The Panasonic Lumix G5 Solves My Natural Lighting Woes

Take a look at the comparison pictures below. These were taken at the exact same time and from the exact same spot. I haven’t touched the pictures with Photoshop except to crop them to size. The difference you see in lighting was all done by the camera.

Image #1 – Canon ELPH Point-and-Shoot

Image #2 – Panasonic Lumix G5

As you can see, the Panasonic image is substantially brighter and I didn’t have to do one second of photo editing to get this result. This is straight from the camera. I also love the softer focus of the second picture. Notice the difference in the wall texture between the two shots.

Amazing Shots w/ 14 Built-In Creative Filters

There really is so much to love about this camera that we’re already working on a much more in-depth review, but the coolest thing and the feature I’ll be using more than any other, are the 14 creative filters programmed into the camera.

The filter that makes my low-light problems a memory is called “High Key”. Other favorites are the High Dynamic and Impressive Art settings. Truthfully, all fourteen of the creative filters are really great.

These filters essentially take what (for me) was a pretty big deal in Photoshop and does it better with a total of three clicks of a button on the camera.

1. The first click opens up the main menu.
2. The next click chooses “creative controls”
3. The final click is where I select which one of the fourteen filters I want to use.

The greatest thing about this process is that, as you scroll through the filter options, the picture changes before your very eyes either on the beautiful LCD screen or in the electronic viewfinder (which is crystal clear). This gives you a fairly accurate representation of what your final image is going to look like.

It’s so much fun to scroll through the various filters and try a few of them on any given picture!

Here are a few more shots taken with the Panasonic Lumix G5, all directly from the memory card, no editing software at all.

This Camera is a Keeper!

I love this camera and, even though I never thought I’d do it, I’m moving on from my trusty little point-and-shoot. The Panasonic Lumix G5 is just so, so much better.

It’s so good that, even though Panasonic was nice enough to send us a camera to review, we’re planning on buying another one (You can get free shipping at Panasonic.com until December, 31 2012!) to help with the newest problem in our house.

Who has the camera?

I’d love to know … does your camera produce photos that pass the “Art I Would Hang on My Walls” test? Answer in the comments to be entered to win a Panasonic Lumix G5 camera, courtesy of BlogHer and Panasonic! (Please note that a winner will be chosen from a pool of all participating reviewers’ blogs.)

Rules:
No duplicate comments.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
b) Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the
following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
c) Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.
This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.
The Official Rules are available here.
This sweepstakes runs from 11/19-12/19

Be sure to visit the Panasonic brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win!

Stop! Collaborate and listen.

Ok, now that I’ve got your attention I’d like to take this opportunity to quickly point out a few free resources here on EverythingEtsy.

Maybe one of them will grab ahold of you (tightly) or will lead you to a brand new invention.

Free Etsy Banners

Close to 100 free banners for your Etsy Shop. And a step-by-step tutorial for personalizing your free banner using the free online photo editor “Pixlr”.

Free Printables

I love printables. Luuurrrve them. Really. We’ve got a couple we’ve made and offered for free download and links to a bunch more. You can find 101 of them in one place.

Here are a few:

Live a Colorful Life – In 5 Color Schemes

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Life is a Great Big Canvas – In two colors

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Wonderful Handmade Label Printables

Free Blog Button, Facebook Cover Image, and Etsy Banner Blanks

We did a video showing how to use the free PicMonkey web app to create stuff from scratch. To make it a little easier, we provided a bunch of pre-sized blank images you can use as a canvas for your creative mind to run wild on.

Tutorial and Download Links for Blanks

Free Videos

We have a {baby} video page with video tutorials we’ve done, including a couple on Etsy Shop SEO.

EverythingEtsy.com/videos

Tutorials Gallery

I’ve lost count of how many awesome tutorials you can find here. I’ve sorted through thousands and thousands and put the best in more than 20 great lists. But we’ve also got dozens more complete tutorials right here on Everything Etsy.

Lists or full tutorials, you can find them all in our fun and pretty gallery page.

Oh, I almost forgot. If you’re an Etsy Seller you might also like some of the stuff on our Etsy Seller Resources page.

This stuff tends to get lost in a blog after awhile, especially one that’s updated daily and nightly.

Will it ever stop? Yo, I don’t know.

I hope not! It’s too much fun.

~ Kim

Creative Camps for Adults Rock!

Why should kids get to have all the fun??  Wouldn’t you love to go off for a week {or even a day…or a few hours…20 minutes?} and enjoy learning something new while hanging out with creative freaks like yourself?  I know I would!

We‘re spending most of our summer in North Carolina and I’m finding inspiration at every new turn.  There’s a difference in the type of creativity you see in different areas of the country and I can’t help but want to learn something new while we’re here.

Wouldn’t you like to learn something new?  Check out these super cool classes and camps that are sure to inspire you to a new level of awesomeness!

Not far from us there’s John C.Campbell Folk School located in Brasstown, North Carolina!  Hmmm…I might have to stop by and check it out in person.

Enjoy learning batik dyeing, basketry, calligraphy and more on this 300-acre camp located in the beautiful Smoky Mountains!  They offer family-style meals with organic produce grown right on the property!  Sounds cool, doesn’t it?  Visit folkschool.org for all the details and the latest information.

Santa Fe is one of my all-time favorite destinations and I would jump up and down with sheer joy if I could spend a few days at Santa Fe Photographic Workshops!

Workshops include subjects like digital photography and Adobe Photoshop while you are located in an active monastery near the Sangre de Cristo Mountain.  You know that sounds awesome!

I just noticed a workshop for dog photography…oh my gosh!  How fun!  Check out all the information at santafeworkshops.com.

Imagine the cool stuff you could make if you were able to spend a bit of time at The Steel Yard in Providence, Rhode Island!  Learn ceramics, stone setting, or blacksmithing just to name a few creative classes.  Oh, and you’ll also enjoy awesome food while your there…what more could you want???

Get all the details for current courses at The Steel Yard.

How about a quilting get-a-way?  You will love Country Threads!

There’re so many creative courses available all over the world…just look for them!  You might find a new type of craft that you can’t live without.

To find a few more cool summer camp ideas, check out this lovely article in Country Living Magazine.

If you would like to add a camp to this list, please leave the information in the comments and I’ll take a look!

Camps aren’t just for kids!

~Kim

(don’t miss the video and free blank image downloads below!)

One of the first things you need when you start blogging, selling online, or getting into social media, is a button or profile image. But wait, that’s not all… you’ll probably end-up needing dozens of images all over the place. For example:

• Etsy banners
• Facebook Cover Photo
• Profile Photos for Facebook, Google+, etc.
• Blog advertisement graphics
• Graphics for your own blog or shop
• Tags for your Etsy shop items
• Business cards
• etc., etc., etc.

Use PicMonkey for Free to Create Buttons and Banners

I wrote a quick post the other day about how awesome PicMonkey is for photo editing and doing simple things like placing text on-top of your images.

Today we’re going to show you how to go even further and create entirely custom graphics.

All you need is some time, a warm cup of coffee, maybe some clip art or images you want to use, and a whole bunch of creative can-do attitude.

Video or Pictorial Tutorial — You decide!

Pictorial tutorial? Don’t laugh. I don’t know what else to call it. It’s first and the video, done by my hubby Tim, is second.

Step 1

Visit PicMonkey.com and click on “Edit Your Photo“. Then, using the free files provided at the end of this post, choose whichever size you want to work with.

For the purposes of this tutorial we’re using the 200×200 size.

Step 2

Once you open the blank image you’re going to work with, you’ll have a plain white box on the screen.

Using the menu icons on the left, go down and click “overlays” which has an image of a little heart and a couple of cartoon talk bubbles.

Once those options reveal themselves, you’ll see a button at the top labeled “your own”… choose that one.

Step 3

The previous step will lead you to bring in another image to this image. The real key to success in creating great graphics is in having a great selection of images to choose from.

Before you start, collect a group of images you want to work with. You may want to crop just particular parts of images, or download various clip-art and graphics from the Internet.

You can also use things you already have had made such as your logo.

For this tutorial, we’ll just choose a simple image of a flower and a butterfly that I had on my computer.

When you select an image, PicMonkey will bring that image into your file as a new layer.

You can resize that image and move it around as you wish.

Step 4

You can then start adding elements to your design. In this example I’m adding a rectangle and choosing a color to give the effect of grass under the flower.

You can play with the large number of overlays available within PicMonkey, or you can add more images of your own.

Step 5

Add some text and play with fonts. PicMonkey comes with a great selection of fonts. All free. (for now, they hint toward charging one of these days)

You add your words in the little text box above the list of fonts. Make sure you use “enter” to create any line breaks you want in that text box. You can also do each line of text as a separate layer.

Your text options include:

• font
• size
• color
• opacity (called fade)
• left, center, or right justify

Move your text around, play with colors, and even adjust line breaks. As you can see above, I had “Etsy Shop” on one line, but I decided to put shop on another line. I did that by going to the box at the top of the list of fonts and moving Shop to the next line there.

Step 6

Learn to use layers.

It’s important to think of your work in terms of layers. Each time you add something, that is a new layer. They go in order of placement unless you change it.

So at this point my image is a “stack” of layers in this order, the top (number 1) being the most recently added item:

1. Kim’s Awesome Etsy Shop
2. The green rectangle at the bottom
3. The image of the flower and butterfly
4. A blank white square

I’ve decided I want a little bit of the flower to go over top of part of the words. So I need to move that layer up to be above the words.

I right-click on the image I want to move and choose “bring to front” which takes it all the way to the top. You can also move layers up or down one step at a time by choosing “bring forward” or “send backward”.

Step 7

Finalize your design.

I added another rectangle to create a blue background. Then I added a talk bubble and flipped it upside down to create a cloud.

Any part of an item that you drag outside of the original image area will not be saved, so I could use only part of the talk bubble. I left the little arrow out of the image.

Step 8

Save your image! You’re done.

The save button is at the bottom of the left column. Then choose a name for your image and you’re all good.

That’s it!

Like I said, the hardest part is having “components” to work with. You’ll learn to find stuff online, how to create your own parts, and how to crop other images to create parts.

With a little practice, you’ll be creating incredible buttons and banners in no time!

See More Detail in The Video!

The video below follows all of the steps above and discusses them in much greater detail. It also goes on to start on an Etsy Shop Banner and demonstrates how to use a picture from your Etsy shop in the banner creation.

Free Blank Image File Download

Just below is a link to a zip file with all of the blank images you’ll need to work with.

Download the above file which includes free “blank” images which are already the correct size.

Using a Windows computer you usually just right click on the link above and choose “save link as” or “save target as” and then save the whole folder to your computer.

Then you find the folder and right-click on it again, then choose something like “unzip” or “extract”. I usually choose the option that creates a new folder, such as “extract to folder”. This creates a new folder on my computer that has all of the above images inside.

NOTE: If you have trouble downloading the entire ZIP file, the sizes below are linked directly to that particular image so you can get them one at a time. When you click on these files a new window will open. You won’t be able to see the picture because it’s solid white, but it is there. Right-click and choose “save image as” to save it to your computer.

The folder above includes all of these:

• Facebook Profile Image (160×160)
• Facebook Cover Photo (851×315)
• Etsy Shop Banner (760×100)
• Etsy Profile Image (75×75)
• Standard Blog Button (125×125)
• Google+ Profile {and our large ad size} (200×200)
• EverythingEtsy.com Ad(100×100)
• EverythingEtsy.com Ad(200×100)

Also, don’t forget we have a whole collection of almost 100 free etsy banners you can use as a base for your banner.

Enjoy and keep learning!

~ Kim & Tim

Have you tried PicMonkey yet?  Take your product and blog photos and make them awesome!  Picmonkey is ready to take the place of Picnik for all of your free photo editing needs.  I’ve tried it…and I like it!

I’m a serious photo taker even if I can’t take my digital camera off of auto.  I take most of the photos for Everything Etsy and lots and lots of product photos for my shops.  Great photos can really help you sell and it’s not as hard as you might think to crop, brighten and add a few words to your photos.

Fun, fun, fun…I’m telling you, you are gonna love it!

You can easily drag a photo from your desktop and start getting creative with it in seconds.  There’re lots of features available beyond your basic editing and I’m sure you could spend an hour or so over there playing around with a few photos to try them all.

It’s super easy to ad text to a photo!  This is perfect for watermarks on your photography and all your Etsy item photos.  I love to use it for graphics for blog posts.  The way Pinterest works it always helps to have a graphic that can be shared.

Don’t forget to check out the Paper Scraps and all the cool textures!  I can imagine it would be a dream come true for some scrapbooking fans. The possibilities are endless and all it takes is a photo and an idea to get started.

Have you tried it yet?  What’s your favorite feature?

~Kim

Do you have an Etsy shop???  Check out our Resources Page for more online business information.