How to make a teaser if you have zero artistic ability

Tons of people have zero artistic ability. People tell me so, and then ask me for advice, questions like "What colour should I paint my walls? But I don't want them to look like your house." My house is very colourful and not for everyone.

The companies that make the graphic apps like Canva and PicMonkey know that we are all not designers, and they've created templates. Templates let you use a design made by a professional designer, so they're going to look good.

Making a Facebook teaser graphic in Canva in a zillion easy steps

First, get a Canva account. You can use it for free and it will save your files. That means you can go back in and change them later.

Find a template

• Now look down the left panel, find "Explore templates."
• Hit that and then it will display a long white menu. Choose "All social graphics."
• Choose "Facebook posts."
• Look through the templates and choose one that appeals to you. Some will not be suitable, but many have inspirational quotes, those will work. Also ones that have a picture on one side and text on the other, they'll work too.

Okay, I've chosen my template. It's Julia Child of course, because I'm all about the food. Double click that sucker or a sucker of your own choosing and let's get started. First start out by clicking on all parts of the graphic and see what happens. If you mess up, there's an undo button that can restore everything. Too bad life doesn't have that too.

Now we're going to change the back photo because food on the table doesn't spell out romance. (But it should!) Let's look for a romantic photo of two people kissing. Where can we find them?

• Canva has an assortment of photos. Some are free, and some are $1. That's not a bad price.
• Deposit photos have a really wide choice, although you may have to buy a package to get to the $1 price. I use Deposit because I bought a package deal from them.
• Google free stock photos and see what comes up.
• Don't steal photos from the internet. It's theft the same way that book pirating is theft. If you fall in love with an image, try google image search to see if you can find the original owner and then contact them.

Adjust Photo 

• Now click on the background, anywhere around the outside edge where there is no text. A dotted line and four corners will appear. There is a white toolbar above your clipboard. Go to the right and hit the garbage can icon. Pick "remove element." The food photo will disappear and you'll be left with a dark background.
• If you are using a Canva photo, click on that now. Otherwise, go to Uploads and upload your new photo.
• Once that uploads, click it and the new image will appear as your background. It may be too small. In that case, touch down on one corner and pull it out. Make it bigger than the frame and you can move it around until you find a good placement.
• If your photo is bright and distracting go to the Filter option in the top left of the white toolbar. There are several filters that will darken your photo, you can see how your new photo will look with each one. Pick one and click it.
• If for any reason, you can't see all the original text, hit the Arrange button in the toolbar and keep selecting "Back" until the photo is at the very back layer.

Change Text

• First click on the big text section. There is a blinking cursor to show where in the quote you are. Then substitute your own quote for Julia Child's quote. 
• Next, go down to Julia Child. I stuck my name in there instead. Sorry, Julia.
• Now go up the the top text and put the title of your book there. Probably either your name or your book title will be longer than the original one. You can extend both the text and the white text box by choosing the middle dot of the three visible dots. Corner dots to enlarge, middle dot to lengthen.

And we're done. Looking very artistic. Pat yourself on the back and celebrate by posting it on Facebook.
Questions or problems? Leave them in the comments and I will answer. It's tough to explain in words something that I could show you in two minutes.