One of my favorite hobbies is sewing. I taught myself how to sew while I was pregnant with my first child. I was in my third trimester of the pregnancy and my belly had grown so big I was in need of some new maternity pants. I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on new maternity clothes so I dusted off the "green anchor" (a.k.a. all metal HEAVY 1960's Singer Sewing machine), queued up some YouTube videos and learned how to use that bad boy machine! My first pair of pants had two left legs - rookie mistake. I fell in love with fabrics of all kinds and loved how a few hours time could produce such practical and useful items.
With baby on the brain I focused my attention on making stuff for the baby - bibs, blankets, burp clothes, itty bitty booties, toys! I was really cranking out the sewed stuff. My husband, after digging through a pile of bibs and car seat covers asked what I was going to do with all of these things. I had given away many items as gifts to friends and family who had babies, were expecting babies or knew someone who was having a baby. I was all out of people to give things to.
Then I had a "light bulb" moment - Etsy!! I could sell my handmade goodies on Etsy. So I once again plunked myself down to watch a bunch of videos to learn all I could about Etsy - and man is there a lot to learn! I have used my Etsy shop profits over the years to pay for some of our home school supplies and towards more fabric (did I mention how much I love fabric?).
Besides having great pictures of the goods you are selling in your shop, which I am still working on, a consistent professional shop banner is a must.
What exactly is a shop banner you ask - well think of it as your shop's sign similar to the signs a brick and mortar store has out front of their building. It is a tool you can use to create your brand. I've tweaked my shop banner over the years, using pictures of my handmade items or graphics in an effort to keep the shop looking modern and professional. Just recently I decided to re-do my shop banner once again but this time my goal was to have my shop banner and shop icon cohesive. By the way the shop icon is the smaller size picture or graphic located under your shop banner. I thought I would share with you how I made my latest Etsy shop banner so you can make one for your shop too!
My favorite tool to edit pictures or create graphics is canva.com. Canva's basic functions are free and in my opinion they offer a lot of options within their "free" package for a basic user to use. Canva.com already has pre-formatted templates to use for a variety of things like a blog banner, ebook cover, facebook event cover and for our purposes today an Etsy shop banner & Etsy shop icon!! These templates are already sized to fit perfectly with the program you are designing them for. You don't need to find out the proper width x height for your banner - Canva has already done this with the template.
After signing into Canva (or after you sign up) the first step is to click on the green rectangle on the left side of the screen that says: CREATE A DESIGN. This will provide you with a ton of options as I mentioned some of them earlier. Scroll down to the Social Media & Email Headers section and you should find the Etsy Shop Cover design. Click on it and it will open a new tab in your browser (I use Chrome).
Along the left side of the screen there will be a listing of Canva layouts. These are premade layout templates that fit the exact size you will need to make an Etsy shop banner. From the list there will be a mix of free layouts and ones you have to pay for if you select them. The free layout templates say "free" in the lower right hand corner of the template. In my opinion Canva offers a large variety of free pre-made templates that you can modify a million different ways to fit your needs. Click on the one you like and it will appear one the right side of your screen in the working/editing section of the web page. From this area you can select practically anything on the precreated graphic to modify like color, font, size of font, move the graphics/text around on the template. I love playing around with this to find the perfect look.
Along the left side of the screen are additional options you can use to customize your template layout. These options include: Elements, Text, Background and Uploads.
Elements are free photos, grids, frame, shape, line, illustration, icons, charts and I 💓Canva. In my recent Etsy shop banner I used the shape option to add a custom shape to my banner that looks like a wavy circle. I layered 3 or 4 of these same shapes on top of each other changing their color and size to make it look like a custom graphic.
Text option contains a bunch of free pre-made examples where you can customize what they say but use the combo of font/font sizes for your banner. You can also make your own by selecting one of the top three options (Add Heading, Add Subheading and Add a little bit of body text).
Background gives you the option to add a texture or patterned background to your pre-made template. The color choices are endless here and the patterns can really inspire your creativity!
Lastly, the Uploads option allows you to upload your own image (picture or graphic) and use it in your design. Once you upload an image you can click on it and then within the working/editing section you can change the size and edit the picture.
Hang in there you are almost done! All that is left is for you to save your work. Along the top right side of the screen is a Download button that you click and Canva gives you options as to how you want to save your graphic .jpg, .png or pdf. I usually select .jpg, save it to my computer and then open my Etsy shop up in my browser.
Once in your Etsy shop open up the shop manager and click on the pencil icon next to your Etsy shop which is found along the left column towards the bottom. This will open up your shop for editing sections such as your shop icon, profile, banner and other editable sections. Clicking on the small camera icon under your current shop banner will get you to the editing options. Since I downloaded my custom template from Canva to my computer I select the file from my computer and save my work. Etsy lets you preview your shop (how it will look to the public) before keeping your edits.
Congrats! you are done making a custom (and free) Etsy shop banner. Whew, that wasn't too hard now was it?
Here is what my new Etsy shop banner looks like:
Stop by my shop, Sapucha, and tell me what you think - oh and if you need something for a baby I'd be happy to make something custom just for you!
