How To Create an Outfit Post if You Don't Know How to Use Photoshop

If you're interesting in doing an outfit post but you don't have any experience with Photoshop or Illustrator there is a really great program you can use and it's free to download.

It's called Serif DrawPlus (the starter version). I'm going to walk you through the very basics of using this program to create outfit posts. Once you learn the basics, you will have the knowledge to use Illustrator as these programs are very similar.

STEP 1: Download Serif Drawplus at http://www.serif.com/free-graphic-design-software/

STEP 2: Once the program is downloaded, find the picture you want to use. Bookmark the page to use when you are ready. (Be mindful of copyright).

STEP 3: Open Serif DrawPlus and start new drawing. Select portrait. Select snapping and make sure pixels are displayed. Make a rectangle to suit your blog post width settings (usually 400px-500px width works).

Step 4: Create a title. Copy and paste the image into the picture.

STEP 5: Crop your image using the pen tool. Enlarge image and zoom in very close to get a good trace. The closer you zoom and the shorter the distance between the dots, the better your trace will be. You may have to practice with this pen tool for quite a bit before you get the hang of it. When you want to create curves you must click and keep your finger down on the mouse and drag before clicking again to make another dot. (PLEASE VISIT THIS LINK TO SEE A TUTORIAL ON TRACING USING THE PEN TOOL).

Once the image is fully traced via the crop tool, use the black arrow tool and select the trace. Do not move it's position. Then put your finger on the SHIFT button and make sure you select the original image. Once both are selected at the same time, right click and choose "crop" then select "crop to top image".

STEP 6: Keep pasting images and cropping as needed (or, use images with white backgrounds so you don't always have to crop them). Add text and shapes if you desire.

EXPORT IMAGE by following these steps:

Using your mouse, create an invisible box around the completed image, selecting the entire rectangle and everything inside. While everything is highlighted, click file->export->export as image. In the next screen, export it as a .png. file. 

STEP 7: Import your final image into blogger. Select 'original size' and make sure you enter information into the properties tags so Google indexes the photo!

Creative derivative work of original image by Eva Rinaldi

STEP 8: Email me if you have any questions!

Question - If you already know how to make an outfit post, which image program are you using? Have you used Serif Drawplus before? Would love to hear your thoughts.

-Tara