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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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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