Picture Posting: A How-To Just For YOU

 

****I wrote this a few weeks ago for a guest post on  Kenzie's blog (which you really should look at..she's such a cool kid), but I think some of you might have missed it,

so I wanted it to make an appearance here as well. :) ****

Today, I'm going to reveal all the magical secrets to picture posting. Get excited; this is gonna be fun.

Here is an example of what I'm talking about:

You can see more examples here, here, and here.

I truly believe that pictures are a vital part of blogging.
They keep your readers interested and help them connect to you as a writer.

 In fact, I'll confess:

My name is McCall, and sometimes if there are no pictures,

 I won't read your blog post.

 (I talk more about this here if you're interested.)

It's sad I know, but sometimes it's true.
 In order to make your blog appeal to more than just your mom,
you need to give your readers something pretty to look at, and this is where picture posting comes in ever-so-handy.

First- don't be intimidated-- I (unfortunately *insert dramatic sigh and frowny face here*) do not have access to Photoshop. I actually make these in Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007, but it's possible to create them in Paint as well. I also have two kiddos, so I promise this is not a lengthy process, otherwise this momma would not have time.

Ok, so to get started choose a picture or series of pictures that you want your post to focus on and get them in whatever format you'd like to use-- by this I mean, black or white, cropped and pretty, etc.

Go into PowerPoint and insert a picture. (Click on insert to the left at the top of your screen and then select the picture option.)

Insert your picture and then select insert, except this time you'll be inserting a text box. Place the text box wherever you think it best fits on your photo.

Sometimes I put mine down the side, like this:

Sometimes I put them on the top,  like this:

And sometimes I go all out and put them on two places on the picture, like this:

OK, so once you've decided where you want your words to go, the next step is to choose a font and a color. Just so you know, this is always my favorite part. I get most of my fonts from Kevin and Amanda because I love the hand-written look. However, I've also found some great ones at FontSpace.

In fact I found this one there:

It's called Cheri, in case you were wondering. ;)

So you placed your text on your picture, you chose the right font and color, you centered or aligned it however you so choose, and you made it the right size-- mine are usually done using 28 size font, in case that helps.

Now the 'tricky part', if you can call it that. Select your picture by clicking on the outer edge, hold the control key on your keyboard, and also select the textbox.

While still holding the control key down,  right click with your mouse.

 This should give you a pop up window that will give you the option to group your items.

Hint: if group isn't an active icon, then both of your items aren't selected so go back and try that step one more time. :)

Once you've grouped your items, select the picture again and right click. This time you want to save as picture. You can chose to save in whatever format you like; I always choose to save as j-peg.

This is also a great way to add scrapbook elements to your photos, like I did here:

It also happens to be the place where I created a series of these for my sidebar :

(with Kenzie's help, of course)

If you want more details on how I made these, be checking my blog because Kenzie has agreed to a guest post on this one sometime very soon. (Thanks again, Kenzie!)

So, in closing:

And let's don't forget about the giveaways here (ending Wednesday, Oct. 27)

 and here (ending Thursday, Oct. 28).