Easy Steps to Make Your Own Images for Blog Backgrounds, Headers and Other Projects

Recently I began looking into all the choices out there for blog backgrounds, headers and blog decorations. I saw many beautiful ones, but I didn't want a background and header that other people might be using. I also was looking for something more plain and personalized than the choices I was seeing.

As I was browsing, I couldn't help but wonder how people make them.

• Do they all own Photoshop or some fancy program?
• Did they learn this in college or art school?

• More importantly, could someone without experience and without expensive programs take his/her own photo and turn it into an image to build a background and header? 
• Could I do this? 

I can't answer the first two questions, but the answer to the last two questions is a resounding, "Yes"! and "You can too"!

My way may not be the best way, but it works. For this tutorial I chose to use Picmonkey and Paint.Net. I took a photo of a border punch that I will use for this step-by-step, but I will also show examples of other images at the end of this tutorial for ideas.

There are 2 main steps, but each is broken down for those who are new to these programs.

Step 1: Picmonkey

1. Go to Picmonkey
2. Choose "Edit" (A pop-up box will appear with your photos)
3. Choose the image you want to use and the click open
4. Click on "Auto Adjust" (you can make the adjustments individually if auto adjust doesn't give you the result you want).
5. Rotate your image, if needed, to make it straight
6. Crop your image

There are other programs out there, but I find this one to be the easiest.

Go to Picmonkey

Choose "Edit" (A pop-up box will appear with your photos)

Choose the image you want to use and the click open

 

Click on "Auto Adjust" (you can make the adjustments individually if auto adjust doesn't give you the result you want)

Rotate your image, if needed, to make it straight

Crop your image

Final Result

Step 2: Paint.NET

1. Find your image on your computer and open your image in Paint.NET
2. Choose the wand to make you background translucent
3. Click on a part of the image you want to remove (it will highlight blue)
4. Click on "Edit"and then in the menu choose "Cut". Continue with each section until are parts of the image you DO NOT want are removed
5. Once you are done click "File" and on that menu click "Save As". 
6. A box will appear. Name your image and then choose "PNG" in the "Save as type" menu. Congratulations! You now have an image you can use to build your blog background and header with or anything you want.

Find your image on your computer and open your image in Paint.NET

Choose the wand to make you background translucent

Click on a part of the image you want to remove (it will highlight blue). Click on "Edit"and then in the menu choose "Cut". Continue with each section until are parts of the image you DO NOT want are removed

Once you are done click "File" and on that menu click "Save As".

A box will appear. Name your image and then choose "PNG" in the "Save as type" menu.  

Congratulations! You now have an image you can use to build a blog background, header or anything you want.

Here are some other examples:
I used elements from one of my handmade greeting cards, circle of flowers and leaves and bow. Forgive my scraggly bow, it was my first try and doesn't matter anyway when used as a small decoration among larger things. Did you notice the wavy lines of my bow in my header? I placed it on my dog. You don't have to worry about everything being perfect.  When placed together it's not noticeable.

I made my blog button from the flowers and leaves I cropped from the card.

Blog button

One of my dogs

Handmade Card-in-a-Box

You may also like

Part 2:
Make Your Own Blog Background 
Part 3: 
Upload Your New (Made by You) Background Image to Your Blog

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Crafting!

Copyright © 2014 Angela Conklin - Heartedly Handcrafted

All Rights Reserved

Creating Your Own Digital Art

It's fun to make a card, layout or any project that you can share publicly or better yet sell, but finding an image you can use freely is difficult. Many blogs that offer free graphics also have a disclaimer that the images they share could be copyrighted and it's up to the person using it to pursue with the owner of the image what he/she is free to do with it and what can not be done with it. Basically it's "I made the image available for you, but use it at your own risk". I've also seen blogs state that the images are from before the 1920s and "should" be public domain now, but there is uncertainty. These blogs are great for personal use, but they don't help crafters who sells their craft projects.

My advice, if you feel that you may sell the project that you are making, buy one from a blog that makes and then sells them with your rights for use (which are usually very cheap) or take a chance and try to make your own. I decided to add an Easter bunny to some of my cutesy Easter cards and although I cannot draw animals and I'm not experienced at using the Paint program on my computer, I gave it a shot. It took me a few tries to get it to look like a rabbit and it wasn't easy, but I figure the more I try the easier it will be. 

I created the rabbit below from just putting shapes together such as circles for the body, feet, arms, cheeks and eyes, a diamond for the nose, the straight line cursor for the whiskers and stars for the flowers. As you can see my ears were drawn free hand and are messy looking, but overall I have the basic rabbit I was looking for. It doesn't have to be perfect. The nice part is once you make it, it's all yours. So give it a shot, then another. Don't give up. The first few times I tried the Paint program it was like trying to create something on an Etch-a-sketch; it wasn't good. In the end I got what I needed and this rabbit looks adorable on my cards.

You can also create animals with your punches and die cut shapes. If you're better at free hand drawing then draw the picture you want, scan it and save it to pictures so you can print it out as needed. Printing it makes it look as if you stamped the image, giving it a very clean and purposeful look.

Tip: If you make a mistake drawing in Paint or have a bad section you don't want people to see and are too afraid to erase it, just cover it with flowers or something. That's what I did to disguise the pointy head of my rabbit.

If you can get the shape right, but not the details; why not make your drawing a silhouette. There is a How-To-Draw site which is where I learned to draw this dear. You begin with circles and line connections. It was a very helpful site.

www.dragoart.com

If you decide to use your Paint program, making objects that are made of squares, rectangles and straight or diagonal lines are quite easy. With a little practice you'll be making images for your crafts in no time.

Copyright © 2014 Angela Conklin - Heartedly Handcrafted
All Rights Reserved