What I've Learned: Quick and Easy Square Product Covers

Hello and welcome to Literacy Loves Company blog!  I wanted to take a moment to share with you a little bit of what I have learned as a TpT seller.  When I first started on TpT a little over 2 years ago, I didn't know a thing.  It was SCARY!  I felt like I had great ideas for resources, but I had no idea how to make a product, handle copyright, clip art, use PowerPoint....  the list of what I didn't know is endless.

Over this two years I have learned so much and I learned it from fellow TpT'ers and bloggers.  I read, watched videos, tried and failed many times and, in the end, I feel like I have learned more in the last 2 years than I have learned in the 10 years before that.

Because other sellers have been so helpful to me, I thought I would branch out and share a little bit of what I have learned in this TpT and blogging journey.  For my first video (Yikes!) , I'm sharing with you how I quickly and easily make square product covers for my TpT products.  After watching the video, please leave your own tips and trick in the comment section!  We can all learn from each other.

(This is all a learning process for me, so I'm trying to figure out why the video is blurry. Eeek!  You can watch a much crisper version by clicking HERE.  It will take you to Youtube.)

I hope the video was helpful!  If you have questions or would like me to make other short videos on TpT topics, please let me know in the comments.

As the video indicated, click HERE for a free download of not 2...  but 6 free borders (3 matching pairs)!  If you like the borders, please take a moment to leave feedback for the product on TpT.

Free from Peek-a-Boo Borders!

Free from Dot-Dash & Swirl Border Set!

Free from Cozy Corner border set!  

If you are interested in the full border sets, you can click on them here:

Thank you for visiting Literacy Loves Company!  I hope you will take a moment to follow me here, on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram where I share classroom ideas for lesson, organization, and management!

Until next time...

Designing TpT Product Covers - Color

I have to admit, sometimes I'm a little color challenged.  When we painted our deck I chose the color "espresso".  My husband's office is painted "peanut butter" and I'm pretty sure there is some "toasted almond" somewhere in this house.  So...  as you can see, I pretty much choose colors based on my favorite foods.

So, when it comes to designing my product covers for Teachers Pay Teachers, I needed a little help.  Luckily, while browsing the TpT forum, I hit upon a thread that really changed the way I work with color.

With the help of design-seeds.com and Pinterest, my product covers have a lot more POP!

I'm currently participating in a 4 week TpT Seller Challenge put on by Third in Hollywood and a few of her friends.  Week #1's challenge was "Makeover Madness!"  I decided to do a "makeover" on one of my best selling products: 

I created this resource early in my experience as a TpT seller.  I wasn't yet wise to the wonderful world of fonts and my experience with borders was my own hand drawn ones that I scanned onto my computer.  Time for a MAKE-OVER!

This product is part of a bundle and each resource in the bundle had a different colored cover page.

Originally, I wanted to keep the colors the same so I went in search of pink "Design Seeds" on Pinterest.

If you haven't been introduced to Design Seeds yet, trust me...  you'll get lost in them.  There are so many choices.  I finally chose this one:

I love the colors here.  Vibrant and a bit earthy.  Nothing too wild, yet eye-catching!  

The next thing I did was copy the image and add it to the PowerPoint page where I was working on my cover. 

Now, when choosing colors for my background and fonts, I chose "more colors" and then used my dropper tool to pick up the colors from the Design Seed.  

You can find Non-Fiction Text Structure HERE at a discount through Saturday (6/20)!  Only $3.00!   

Here is my cover after the make-over!  I not only have coordinating colors, but I also added my new logo and a photograph from my classroom taken while my students were studying nonfiction texts.

Here is the BEFORE and AFTER!  What do you think?  I'm actually really happy with it and can't wait to update the other three products in the bundle!

I also update the fonts and borders throughout the resource:

BEFORE - hard to read 

AFTER - more clear and border is neater

BEFORE - black and white, same font issue

AFTER- I added copies of each of the posters with a color border option.  Some buyer like a little color.  I didn't want to add too much as I know that colored ink costs and arm and a leg! 

So, there you have it!  An easy way to coordinate colors on your TpT products and other designs!  I hope this little tidbit makes designing your covers a bit more fun and makes your life a a lot easier!

Until next time!

{Hey!  For more tips and ideas find me on Facebook , Instagram, and Pinterest!}