Occasionally you may need to convert a PNG file (especially one with a transparent background) to a JPG file. I find this necessary with my clipart graphics when wanting to upload directly to other sites and the transparency is a problem (more on that below).

There are a lot of other posts telling you how to quickly convert png files to jpg files without the use of design software. And almost all of these contain a lot of very bad information.

For this tutorial I'm going to give you just one option. It's a good one. It's free. No software involved.

We're going to use Adobe Express, a free online tool from the makers of the world's favourite design software programs. Reliable and trustworthy, it's also easy, and AD FREE!

NOTE: You will need to create an account in order to download the converted files, but it's an easy signup, no commitments and the same account gives you access to any of Adobe's free tools.

Open Adobe Express with the link above. Click the Upload Image button. Then drag and drop or browse for your image. Once uploaded to the web page it is instantly converted. Automatically. In a blink.

All you have to do is click the Download button. Files are sent to your computer's download folder. This tool is by far the easiest, smoothest and most reliable converter I have tried.

While we're here though, let's talk a little bit about PNG files and one reason why you might even need a tool like this. 

One of the downsides of PNG files that have transparent backgrounds is that not all websites play nicely with them. If you upload such a file to a site not specifically designed to handle them properly you're likely to end up with a hot mess.

Because I sell all my files in PNG format, and because my customers very often want to directly upload these files on various social platforms or shop fronts, it's an issue that comes up a lot.

Here's a couple examples using my Etsy shop. Etsy has not designed their site to handle PNG transparency properly. This is noticeable mostly in the profile pic or shop button slots where people are most likely to upload these types of file.

You can absolutely upload PNG files here, you just have to have a solid background rather than a transparent one. (this is what I do) For my customers though, a quick JPG conversion is the easiest quickest solution because it adds a default white background.

In the first example we're looking at my profile pic. The image on the left shows my avatar uploaded with a transparent background versus the one on the right that has a solid color background. See the difference? Etsy added a black background but there's also some ugly distortion happening as well around the images edges. 

In my second example you see my shop button PNG on left with a transparent background behind the circle. And what it should look like on the right when a solid background is added. This one has an interesting distortion effect that's actually not to ugly. But I've seen some real messes, it depends on the image how that turns out, it's not predictable.

So if you see something like this happening when you upload images to a website, just add a background or convert to JPG to solve the problem!

Happy creating!
Shawnna

In this quick tutorial we're going to re-size one of my avatar PNG graphics and save as JPG ready to use as a profile pic on social media. Every site has different image size requirements and while some sites allow you to resize during the upload process, for many other sites, you'll need your image to be exactly the right size.

For this example, just to show you how to do it, I'm going to take a 400px square image and reduce it to 200px using the free online editor Pixlr.

Start by opening your web browser and navigating to pixlr.com. 

It will look like this:

STEP 1:

Let's get setup. Pixlr has two editor options. We're doing something very basic so let's use Pixlr X (on the left). Click this box and the editor will open up right on your screen. 

It should look like this...

Now we need to upload our image. Click the "Open Image" button and navigate your computer files to find the image you want to re-size, select that file and click ok. 

It will appear on your screen like so:

STEP 2:

To size the image we need to open the "Layout" box. This is the third icon down in the left hand icon menu. In this menu we want the "Resize page (scale)" option. 

Click this button and another menu box will open where we'll make our adjustments.

STEP 3:

You should now see the following box, which tells you the current dimensions of the image measured in pixels. 

Like so...

All we need to do here is change the number 400 to 200. 

You'll see two toggle switches for constrain and smoothing. These should be on (blue) and left on, don't change these. 

You also want to size DOWN, never size up on raster images like this or they will be blurry. Your screen should now look like the example below. Click apply to make the change to the image.

STEP 4:

All that's left to do is save and download the re-sized image. At the bottom right of your screen you'll see a blue "Save" button. Click this and a menu box will appear. Most likely the save menu will choose the same file format the graphic is already in. In this case we have resized a PNG image so it's suggesting PNG as the save option.

However, because I'm uploading the image as a profile pic I don't want a transparent background (some sites replace transparency with black and you get a distortion in the image). If I save as a JPG a default white background will be applied and I'll get a better upload to my social media page. 

Choose JPG from this menu unless you know you need a PNG with a transparent background.

This is what the JPG saving options look like. I'm going to leave all the settings at the default because I want as high a quality as possible. 

Now just click save as, rename your file if you want to, click ok and the image will automatically download to your computer's download folder.

Job done!

Happy creating!
Shawnna

For this project we are going to use Canva to quickly and easily create a personalized avatar that you can use as your profile pic on any social channel, shop front or forum.

I'll be using one of my character graphics and adding a pair of eye glasses all on a nice colorful background.

STEP 1:

To begin, let's login to Canva and setup a blank canvas. Because we're creating this to use as a profile pic I'm going with a 4x4" canvas which will size nicely for any site I want to use it on as my profile avatar. 

Once logged in, from the home page click the purple button in top right corner "Create a design". In the pop up box at the bottom choose "Custom size". Then just enter the desired dimensions and click "Create new design".

STEP 2:

You will now be in Canva's editor with a blank document. I know I don't want a white canvas in the end, so I'm going to begin by adding a solid background. 

Because of the way Canva works though, I'm not going to use the background tool, instead I'm going to use the elements tool and add a color square shape as my backdrop. This is just personal preference because I find it easier to work with.

From the far left side bar click "Elements" and click on the square shape. A solid square should now be in the middle of your blank canvas.

Using the toggle nodes, resize the square so it covers the entire canvas. To change the color click on the color swatch icon in the menu bar above your canvas. This will open a new side panel where you can select as precise a color as you want.

I'm going to use my brand colors and enter a HEX code in the top search box.

STEP 3:

We now want to upload our first graphic, so look to the left hand side bar again and click "Uploads". 

Click the purple button "Upload media" and choose the graphic you want to use for your avatar from wherever you've saved in on your computer. 

Do the same for all other elements you want to add. In this example I'll just be adding eye glasses. 

NOTE: Add the graphics in the order you need them, going from bottom layers to top layers, but if you need to change the order, click on the element you want to move forward or backward and from the menu bar above the canvas click "Position". Then use whichever option you require. (see above)

To add a graphic to the blank canvas just single click on the first graphic from the panel, I'll add the character girl first, and it will be placed in the center of the canvas. 

Use the toggle nodes to resize the graphic as desired. I want my girl a bit larger and I'll re-position her at the bottom. I've left enough margin to be able to select my background shape though in case I want to change it.

Looking good so far! Let's do the same and add the glasses, just re-size and position to fit as desired. 

That's all I'm going to add. Just quick and simple. To save it, let's download what we've created.

STEP 4:

From the top right hand corner click on the "Share" button. Choose the download option further down the pop up box. We're using the free version of Canva so not all of the save options will be available. That's ok though, we want the high quality PNG so just click the purple "Download" button and the image will be saved in your downloads folder.

While we're still here, I'm going to quickly make some alternate versions by changing up the background color. Just click on the background square and go back into the color palette menu to pick a new color option. Then repeat the download to save.

And that's it! Personalized avatar created.

Happy designing!
Shawnna

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SVG files work a bit differently from other image graphics and so the exact same rules will not apply to opening, viewing or editing these types of files.

SVG files are made up of HTML code which is what sets them apart and makes them so very different from other image file types.

You should be able to open and view an SVG file simply by double clicking on the file. By default this will likely open the file for viewing in your default web browser. This would be the normal and expected action as the default but it is also a view only mode for looking at the file, not for editing or otherwise using the file.

If the above action doesn't happen, it means that your computer likely isn't recognizing any appropriate program to open an SVG file with (no default is setup). Or if it IS happening you probably want the SVG file to open in a specific program so you can actually use the file and not just view it.

You can always just open the design program you want and use the File>Open commands to open the file you want to see (you can also do this in your web browser if you simply want to view a file) but obviously this takes a bit more effort than simply double clicking the file to open it. For that, you'll need to set a default program to open your SVG files with.

You can manually set the default program for SVGs to any specific program that handles SVG files quite easily. Just note, if you choose the wrong program as your default, to something not compatible with SVG, the file is still not going to open!

So first you need to know what programs are actually compatible with SVG. Some of these include: Illustrator, Corel, Affinity, Inkscape, Gimp, Silhouette Studio Designer Edition or Cricut Design Space. 

To set the default program for opening SVG files on PC simply right click on any SVG file and from the menu box click 'Open with'. A smaller menu box will open with a few program options and at the bottom 'Choose another app'. Click this.

Another menu box will now open with more program options to choose from, if your option is listed right there you can select it by clicking on the one you want and ticking the box 'always use this app to open .svg files'.

If the program you want to use is not listed, click 'More apps' and an even longer list of choices will appear. If the program you want still isn't there you can 'Look for another app on this PC'. Navigate to the program you want, using the search field to help you find it if necessary. 

At this point, the program you chose will automatically open up. It’s because you’ve told it to open this one particular SVG file. What we want to do is choose that program to open ALL SVG files though, so close down the program, and start these steps from the beginning. The program you just opened will now appear on the short list of possible programs and you can choose the 'always use this app'.

To do the same thing on a Mac: Select the file, then choose File > Get Info (you can also Control-click the file, then choose Get Info). In the Info window, click the arrow next to “Open with.” Click the pop-up menu, then choose the app. To open all files of this type with this app, click Change All.

That is all you need to do to set a program of your choice to open any SVG file by simply double clicking it from within your folder and you can change your default choice at any time by following these steps whenever you need to.

Regularly backing up one's computer hard drive is the sort of thing most people know they should do, but don't do until they learn the hard way how painful it is to lose everything on their machine.

I'm sort of in that category. As a digital business I knew I needed to have a backup of my hard drive, but I was too cheap to do it right. So I manually did backups whenever I remembered and I tried to do it weekly, or at least monthly.

And then my computer picked up a virus. I lost a month of work from the resulting reboot. My computer had to be completely wiped and rebuilt. Most of that process was easy enough, if a pain in the ass. But a month's worth of work was a lot of wasted time and some of what I lost wasn't worth re-doing (financially) but was a disappointment to lose nonetheless.

Lesson learned. These days, even losing a single days worth of work would be unacceptable. It would just be so annoying to have to go back and do it all over again. And some things might not be replaceable.

Luckily backups have become easier and cheaper than ever making it inexcusable to put it off or to do it right.

There are so many ways to achieve a full backup of your hard drive and many services or tools to choose from. The topic of backups is huge, overwhelming and can seem a lot more complicated than it needs to be.

My approach and advice here is meant for tech nervous newbies who just want the job done without incurring a migraine in the process!

First, it is highly recommended to have two backup systems. A local backup and a remote backup.

Local - this is a backup that is right there with you, physically, in your home. I recommend plugging in an external drive (size will be dependent on your needs, but 2-4TB is the average). Then just use your computer's built in auto backup software or choose to install something that will backup your entire computer to that external drive on an automated schedule. Usually this will include a time sequence of backups, so you can go back to a previous backup a month ago to retrieve lost files which is super helpful.

This doesn't need to be complicated, just plug a USB drive of sufficient size into your computer and setup the backup software. Most computers come with this as standard and it is not complicated.

It's super important though that you periodically check the local backup process is actually working. Never take for granted that it will work, and continue to work, unchecked!

If you are using a laptop this can be a bit more challenging because you'll need to setup a routine to plug everything in on a regular basis in order to run that backup. But if that's your main computer and you have important files/photos on it imagine losing the whole lot.

An alternative many people are using instead of a local backup drive is to keep everything stored in a cloud service like google docs or dropbox. However, these aren't backup services, they are file sharing services and so they don't offer quite the same level of security and protection.

Local backups are great for file retrieval if your computer goes down or gets replaced. But it doesn't solve the problem of theft from burglary, your house burning down, flattened or flooded or if you've been evacuated and couldn't grab that drive on the way out.

That's where remote backup becomes critical. If you have a digital business like mine this should be viewed the same as an insurance policy. You're protecting your hard work just in case something awful happens.

I prefer cloud backup solutions that are fully automated and I can just set it and leave it. I also like it to be affordable and flexible for making changes.

There are quite a few choices out there, and you should pick whichever one you feel is best for you, but I've been using Backblaze for years now and I can highly recommend them. Their pricing starts at just $7 a month and their services are some of the best.

With an automated service you just setup the backup details for your hard drive and everything happens in the background without you having to do anything except leave your computer switched on long enough for backups to happen.

If you want to try Backblaze my referral link gets you one month free when you sign up.

Thankfully I've never had to get a full backup from them but they offer two ways to retrieve your full backup - via download over an internet connection, or they post a refundable drive to you. You can also choose an option to retrieve individual files which is awesome if you're traveling and need to access something.

I live in a region where wildfire threat is a constant worry so the peace of mind remote backups give me is absolutely necessary, and as a business it's a tax deduction anyway.

I will never lose another file ever again!

Safe computing
Shawnna

Everyone loves freebies, right? I mean, who doesn't!! The thing is, there are legit freebies, offered by very generous creatives as a way to promote their work (just like me on this blog!). 

And then there are stolen freebies. These freebies may seem 'free' because you are not paying for them, but the person giving them away doesn't have the right to do so, is violating copyright law with their actions and in the process is causing harm to the actual creators of that work.

You'll often find these in Facebook groups as phone dumps or mega bundles - beware of these as often these contain trademark and copyright protected stuff and/or are being distributed without permission.

I don't want to get all lecture-y on you, but there's just one word for that kind of behavior - Greed.

And it's totally unnecessary because there are soooo many places you can get totally free totally legit SVG files, often with commercial use allowed, and you won't receive a take-down notice for using it!

Cutting machine crafts are super huge right now, making SVG crafting files extra popular and thankfully very abundant - they are virtually everywhere! So here is my list of the best places to get free cutting machine files, either completely free, or nearly free.

1. Craft Bundles - this site has a huge selection for every occasion.

2. Design Bundles - subscribe to their email for weekly freebies 

3. LoveSVG - free for personal use only

3. The Navage Patch - access granted when you join their newsletter

4. Designs By Winther - loads of designs to choose from

5. Dreaming Tree - huge selection of 3D paper cut files 

6. Printable Cuttable Creatables - a nice selection of original designs

7. Creative Fabrica - freebies can be time sensitive

8. Poofy Cheeks - a small selection of cute designs

9. Free SVG Designs - free for personal use with over 1000 design

10. Designer Printables - free SVGs and more

11. Maggie Rose Design Co.- free files and tutorials

12. Craftables - they sell vinyl cutting supplies but also have free SVG files

13. Gina C Creates - craft blog with loads of freebies

14. Kara Creates - another craft blog with more great freebies

15. Cut That Design - not the easiest site to browse but nice designs

16. Hey Let's Make Stuff - lots of cute quotes and monograms

16. The Girl Creative - cute and seasonal quote files

17. SVG and Me - another blog with tutorials and freebies

18. Caluya Design - freebies, $1 SVGs and well priced bundles

19. SVG Cuts - loads of free craft files

20. Burton Avenue - password protected, sign up to the email list

21. Designs by Miss Mandee - gorgeous freebies for 3D paper crafters

22. Pineapple Paper Co - free SVGs and printables

23. Cutting For Business - all types of quote files

24. My Designs In The Chaos - fun craft projects and files

25. Bird’s Cards - specializing in paper greeting cards and 3D paper crafts

26. Monica’s Creative Room - more freebies for paper crafters

27. Jennifer Maker - for paper and vinyl crafters, a little of everything in here

28. Happy Crafters - variety of freebies, focusing on vinyl crafts

29. So Fontsy - a marketplace with free files and $1 designs

30. Vexels - has both freebies and premium content

31. Crafts with Sarah - layered paper cut crafts and tutorials

32. the Design Store - from Silhouette themselves, loads of free files

33. Craft House SVG - free individual files and great deals on bundles

34. Kimber Dawn & Co - blog site with some fun free svg files

35. Free Pretty Things for You - free digital resources of all types

36. Michaels - the store... yes, they do free files as well!

37. Simply Crafty SVGs - more paper cut crafts and 3D paper crafting

38. Love Paper Crafts - card making and hand lettering blog, with freebies

39. 100 Directions - craft blog with free svg files alongside tutorials

40. Crafting in the Rain - another craft blog with original free SVGs

41. Everyday Party Mag - a party blog with hostess inspired SVGs

42. Artsy Fartsy Mama - craft blog with free cut files

43. Happiness is Homemade - craft blog with free cutting files

44. I Should be Mopping the Floor - craft blog with free SVG files

45. Liz on Call - craft blog with free SVG files

46. Persia Lou - fun and cute original craft files

47. See Lindsay - craft blog with cute free cut file

48. Sweet Red Poppy - layered paper crafts and more

49. That's What Che Said - craft blog with free cutting file crafts

50. The Craft Patch - one last craft blog with free SVG files on offer

As you can see, this is a pretty big list of resources for free SVG files! And if you keep looking, there are many many more (feel free to add your own links in the comments).

As with any site, always check the terms of use and comply with all licensing conditions, not only is it the law, but it's just good citizenry. 

Happy Crafting!
Shawnna

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The clipping mask tool in Photoshop is a wonderful little piece of magic that quickly and easily allows you to insert any image into a specific shape layer, while still being able to move or edit your image.

PHOTOSHOP INSTRUCTIONS

For this tutorial I'll be using one of my photo board templates, but you can apply this process to any type of design or file in Photoshop. I'll cover the the same process for Photopea and PS Elements below.

To start, open your Photoshop file and the image you want to insert into it, or download my sample files to follow along.

With both files open, select the PS file by clicking on it and take note of the layers palette in the lower right corner. Select the layer for the shape you want to insert your image into. In this example we will insert a photo into the top left corner of the photo board, so I've selected shape 1 with my cursor.

Now go to your image and drag and drop it into the PS file.

Your canvas should now look like the image below. You'll see that the photo appears in the layers palette right above shape 1 where we want to clip it to.

With your cursor hovering on the photo layer in the layers palette, right click the layer to bring up the shortcuts menu. You'll see an option called "Create Clipping Mask". Click this and watch the magic!

You'll also find the clipping command from the top menu options under LAYER>Create Clipping Mask.

All that is left to do now is adjust the photo into the exact position you want it in the photo box. You can simply drag it with your mouse until it's positioned and/or sized just right. 

Now repeat for all other boxes on the photo board!

PHOTOPEA INSTRUCTIONS

The process in Photopea works very much the exact same way. The only difference here is that when opening your image to insert into the PS file you will use the FILE>Open and Place command instead, which opens the image right in your file rather than opening it separately and dragging and dropping it in. Otherwise everything else will look and work exactly the same.

PS ELEMENTS INSTRUCTIONS

Again, this is going to work almost exactly the same way as above. You will open and place your image in the PS file but here you will use a keyboard shortcut to apply the clipping mask - CTRL G does the magic! You'll also find the clipping command in the top menu options under LAYER>Create Clipping Mask.

And that's it! It's just as easy as that and you can do this with as many layers as you want.

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If you are brand new to Photoshop and are struggling to figure out what you are looking at, the following tutorials will help you on your way to becoming comfortable with simple tasks or projects.

Photoshop has a lot going on and there is a lot to learn, but rather than be overwhelmed and frustrated, with just a few simple tutorials you'll be well on your way to accomplishing whatever you're setting out to create. The following list should only take an hour or two and will be well worth your time if you are brand new to PS and feeling super confused by the whole thing.

1. Adobe Basics for Beginners - a series of video tutorials direct from Adobe that explain the very basics of the Photoshop software, from opening and saving documents to getting familiar with the work area. If you've never opened Photoshop before or just find it confusing and overwhelming this is a great place to start.

2. Dock or Float Your Windows - this helpful tutorial walks you through the difference of docked or floating canvas spaces and how to set that up. By default when you open a new document in PS it will be docked (attached to the top of the work area, and each new doc you open will do so in a series of tabs). Floating the docs (exactly as they sound) can make it much easier to work between docs and is often a preferred method to work with.

3. Photoshop Layers 101 - the layers palette is the powerhouse of PS so understanding everything that goes on here and all the options available is pretty crucial to working with the program. Once you master this you are well on your way to working adeptly in photoshop. 

4. Adding Fonts in Photoshop - this is a pretty basic tutorial, but if you're unsure of what you're doing with installing fonts then this will have you rockin' it in no time.

The above tutorials apply almost exactly to the free online editor Photopea, which is a photoshop file compatible program! 

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When purchasing digital files on Etsy it is advisable to do so through while signed into an account on their site. Using guest checkout is possible, but it has disadvantages. And while you can make digital purchases through the Etsy shopping app, you won't be able to download your files from there. 

Sign into Etsy to Purchase

For the smoothest transaction, particularly if you're wanting to download your new purchase quickly, start by logging into your Etsy account (or create a new account) using your web browser to access Etsy's site. You can do this from any device, you just need to be using the website rather than the shopping app.

Once you make your purchase and the order has been confirmed, access to your download links will appear right on the confirmation page. Etsy changes what this look like from time to time and it can be easy to miss so if you've closed that page already you can find your files in one of two ways:

1. locate the purchase receipt in your email, links will be found in here

2. navigate to the purchase history of your Etsy account on the website

Here's what the website navigation looks like:

Troubleshooting Email Links

Etsy sends a purchase receipt and download links all in one email. These will come from transaction@etsy.com. If it doesn't show up in your inbox you'll need to check your spam folder, or in gmail check the promotions or social tabs for your inbox.

The email subject line will say "Download Your Etsy Purchase from..." if the seller offers instant download. If the seller is emailing you the files you will get a normal purchase receipt from Etsy without download links and the subject line will say "Your Etsy purchase from...".

Links in the email will only take you to the download page if you are logged into your Etsy account, otherwise you will most likely get their 'uh oh' page. Simply login and try again.

If you checked out as a guest on Etsy, you can only access your download files from the email, so it's important when ordering to ensure you are using the right email address and that you've typed it correctly. (mistakes happen!)  If you can't find a purchase receipt from Etsy anywhere in your email, spam or otherwise, the only solution is to contact the seller to ask for assistance.

In this case some sellers may be willing to email the files directly to you. This isn't the approach I take personally as a seller though and you might find other sellers in the same situation, where emailing just isn't always possible. 

Personally I prefer to refund guest checkout orders where problems arise and have the buyer re-purchase through an account. This is better for the buyer because they will have future access to download those files again and again if they need to. And it's just nicer not to have to rely on someone if you want/need something quickly!

Either way I recommend always reaching out to an Etsy seller for assistance or advice, most sellers will respond quickly and offer exceptional service to you.

Happy shopping!
Shawnna

p.s. If you are just about to open an Etsy shop, open it through my link here and we both get 40 free listings!

CANVA

This design program is a closed system editor. What that means is, you can't create and save files the same way as regular software programs. Files 'in progress' can only be saved inside Canva and you can only download finished projects in flattened form such as PDF, PNG or JPG. 

Designers offering Canva templates therefore will always label their products specifically as Canva templates. If a designer (like me) does not mention Canva in the product details... a Canva specific template is not included.

However, Canva is still a very useful design tool and my PNG format files can be used here with a little creativity. Canva is very user friendly and reasonably quick to learn.

VECTORNATOR

I haven't used this one, but it looks comprehensive as a vector based program. It's free to download and also available as a mobile app. It looks to be built for pro designers so there should be good support and tutorials. An excellent option if you plan to do a lot of designing on the go.

PAGES

For Mac users only there is Pages. This is Apple's version of Word + Powerpoint combined making it a versatile editor capable of reasonably sophisticated graphic design, depending what you are looking to do. Usually included with all Mac devices it is available for free in the app store.