Tutorial: How to make a Banner for Your Etsy Shop Using Picnik

So, I wasn't able to get my Daisy crochet pattern done in time for this weekend, after deciding to spend time getting caught up/ahead with my summer work!

I was however able to make something I've been planning for some time - a tutorial for fellow Etsy sellers!  In this tutorial I attempt to give fellow sellers a helpful option for making their store banners, using the free online  software Picnik.  I hope it helps!
-------

Picnik, as many of you may already know, is a very useful internet-based photo editing tool.  Why is it useful?  Its services are FREE, much more intuitive and USER-FRIENDLY than Photoshop or similar photo editing programs, and provides a great VARIETY of tools to edit your pictures with!

As with all things however, the free version of Picnik ("Premium") does come with some limitations.  Not all of the photo-editing tools are available to you, and you can only upload 5 photos at a time when you register.  If you are unregistered, Picnik also doesn't store your photos.

But as an Etsy seller, I can vouch that the free services Picnik offers are more than adequate for my banner-making needs!  After being a faithful user for a few months now and gaining some experience, I decided to offer this tutorial for fellow sellers who might need some help.

I hope it helps!  And stay tuned for my next Picnik Tutorial - Making an Etsy Banner WITHOUT a picture.

Making an Etsy Banner with Picnik - WITH a picture

You will need: 
- A picture that you would like to convert into your banner. This can be anything - a picture of an item from your shop, your workspace, a field of wildflowers, anything!  It might be in your best interest for the picture to be an accurate representation of your shop.  A similar theme, in other words. I decided to use a necklace from my Etsy shop.
- A bit of time
- Some creative fancy!

Step 1
Access Picnik.com.  Click on the "Get Started Now!" button.
Click on "Upload a Photo".  Choose your photo and you will proceed to the next screen:

Step 2
Notice that Flickr automatically puts you on the "Edit" tab.  Here you can change the lighting, contrast, scale, and things of that nature.  I'm going to change my exposure, adjust my colors, and crop what I don't want out of the picture.  Feel free to experiment with these options, and adjust your photo to your liking.

Step 3
Now for resizing.  This is where you specify the dimensions for the banner, and it can get a little tricky if your picture is reasonably big (like mine).  Remember that the dimensions for the Etsy banner are 760x100 pixels.

If you like, you can just crop directly from the photo without resizing.  Click on the "Crop" button and input 760x100 under "Actual Size".  But as you can see in the picture below, the 760x100 window does not capture much of the photo.

What I do in this situation is resize the photo, making it smaller so that the 760x100 frame captures more within the photo.  Click on the "Resize" button and adjust the photo to your liking, making sure that the "Keep Proportions" button is checked to avoid weird warpy photos.  If you resize, make sure that your dimensions are NOT below the 760x100 frame - otherwise, Etsy will not accept your banner!

My photo was was previously 2640x1750:

...and now I changed it to 900x597.

Now, when I crop, the 760x100 frame captures a lot more of the picture!  I'm choosing to focus on the pearl part of my necklace for this particular banner.  Checking "Scale Photo" is helpful too - it fixes the dimensions of the crop frame at 760x100, meaning you are free to drag that crop frame out to be bigger or smaller, while the dimensions stay at 760x100!   Nifty.

Again, this resizing-cropping combo can be a little tricky, so be sure to experiment to attain the result you want!

Step 4
Now that I have my banner set the proper dimensions, I can dress it up!  Click on the "Create" tab to open up a vast amount of options to edit your banner.  Options labeled "Premium" are unavailable to free users, but there are still many options for free users to choose from!

"Featured" - Effects spotlighted by Picnik.

"Effects" - I'd like to think of these as "filters" for your pictures. Includes Sepia, Vignette (makes the outer border shadowy), Night Vision and many more!

"Text" - Input text into your photo.  Includes a great selection of cool fonts - not just your standard Arial and Times New Roman.

"Stickers" - Input graphics into your photo.  Also includes a great selection of free and good-looking graphics that look pretty cool!

"Touch-up" - Only for Premium, but you can enhance your photos here.

"Frames" - Put a frame around your banner.  The selection here is more limited than the others, but I've found that they're still quite versatile and look great.

"Advanced" - Only for Premium - more enhancement options.

"Seasonal" - Effects and graphics grouped by season (Christmas, Breast Cancer Awareness, etc).  You might find this useful!

Here you can get really creative!  Experiment with what you want to make your banner just the way you like it.

For my banner I used:
"Cross Process" effect at 21% fade
"Wenceslas" font
"Rounded Edges" frame

Step 5
Click on "Save and Share" to save your photo, and you're done!  Upload to Etsy and enjoy your new banner!   And let me know how it turned out with a comment or a link!  I'd love to see it.

And be sure to check out these helpful banner tips from the Etsy Blog!