How To Easily Create Beautiful Graphics For Free | behind the blog

Hi Everyone!

Today I wanted to share how I create beautiful graphics for free. I am not very artistic but I still want my blog graphics to look good and I thought this could be interesting for those of you that have blogs of your own. 

1. Use Editing websites/apps

This is number one on the list, of course. I would not be able to make any graphics without the use of these websites and apps.

 Canva

Okay. I know you've probably seen a million ads with an American voice telling you to use canva.com but it is seriously amazing! It's so easy to use and very quick and simple to make stunning designs. You could get the subscription but I'm fine without it! There is also no watermark or branding on the final product, which is the downside of many other websites and apps.

PicCollage

This is what I used before I started using canva more. It is a great app but there is a watermark and the font positioning isn't as easy as canva. There aren't as many options and in my opinion it can look a little more outdated but it's still a great resource!

PicsArt

I would say using PicsArt is good if you want to add something such as a flower or something on top of your image. On it's own it isn't great but if you use a bit of that and then a bit of something else it can look fantastic!

2. Use online images and take your own

I take a lot of my own images, but there are a few times when online copyright free images just can't be beaten. The image above is an example of this! Online images are beautiful, although I wouldn't use them for everything. 

Taking my own pictures of books is something I enjoy and I would recommend doing this wherever possible. I use my phone camera and usually place the books on a blanket, floor or table. I find some things to put around it and that's it!

Here are some copyright free image websites:

Pexels

This is probably my favourite website to use. It's easy to navigate and I've found a great selection of images that I like.

PixaBay

I don't like their image choice as much and there are more that you have to buy but it is still a good place to look if you want a specific image. I have also found that many of my searches come up with nothing, not sure if that's just me!

3. Take Time To Play Around With It

It's important to feel happy about how your graphic looks so I would take your time ensuring you have tried lots of different combinations and styles. Try to keep it simple and not too cluttered - I know I like my graphics to look clean and professional. For example, if I wanted to do a post about who can read YA I could design something like this:

This is very simple and easy to make. It's neat and
looks good but most importantly gets the message across
clearly. It does feel a little empty though.

 

This is very messy. You don't really know where to look and
you can't see the information very easily. It is more exciting though.

In making the one above though, I saw this image of the girl
reading which I really like and so added to the original. However,
the blog url would need to be changed because it is hard to read and unclear.
I could also add some of the stars I had above.

 

I think that it is so important to make your graphics look clean and simple. Overloading it with all the cool stickers you can find on canva won't do you any favours in the long term. Just save them for next time! It sounds like such an obvious thing but I've seen some graphics that just look so messy. The one above is an exaggeration and there is an element of taste, but I still think there is a minimum you can do to at least make people not feel too overwhelmed!

It also takes a while to get used to the editing software so I would make sure to take the time to figure out all the options, especially at first.

I hope this post has been useful to anyone who is interested in how I make graphics for my blog, either for their own purposes on their blog, or out of pure curiosity! Thank you so much for being here and if you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments, I am always happy to help and love hearing from you!

How do you make graphics? Any tips that I have not included? Comment any further questions too!

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p.s. Casual magic of the day:

(If you are new here and have no idea what I'm on about, click here to find out more)

My local church set up a pop up cafe every Monday for students getting off the bus. There is hot chocolate, biscuits, crisps and someone in the village makes cakes for us. It's all free of charge and an opportunity to sit in the sunshine and chat before we go home. It's such a nice thing to do and it makes my Monday every time!