How To Make a Featured Image ~ BAB Appreciation Days feat. Teacup

Hello friends! Today, Teacup is going to be showing you how to make featured images for blog posts. I hope you enjoy!

You also may be getting a sneak peek of our Camp Happy Heart logo for the year. It’s a bit strange that I’m not making a Camp Happy Heart post today, but it’s also freeing to be able to explore other content during the months of June and July. Anyway, I’ll let Teacup take it from here.

Hello friends! I’m Teacup, and I’m here to show you how to make featured images.

You may not know this, but I make most of the featured images here on BABF. I’ve learned a lot over the years, and I hope to share some of what I’ve learned with you.

First up, I always use Canva. There are other design platforms to use, but Canva is user-friendly and offers many features for free. I’ve been using it for many years now.

Various sizes may work as featured images, but certain sizes look better with certain themes. Here at BABF, we always choose a theme that works well with featured images that are the same size as an Instagram post.

It’s nice to start with a blank slate. Since I’m going to be working on our Camp Happy Heart logo, I decided to start by looking at various summer/camp-themed graphics to build the image around.

I found these graphics and I thought they were adorable! You know, because our summer camp has many bear campers?

Now that I have a few graphics, I usually add the text I want the featured image to have. Usually it’s either the title of the post or the title of a series of posts, such as with Camp Happy Heart.

Now, if you’re familiar with the bears we know at BABF, you’ll know most of them aren’t brown. They’re blue, pink, and purple. I had to change the colors to reflect that, and also to make a more summery image.

Yup! I like these colors much better. I also started moving the elements of the design around.

At this point, I decided I didn’t want a plain background. I put a black-and-white photograph of mountains in the background and set the transparency low. I also experimented with the font and determined that it would look better if the year was a separate element from the other text.

I usually experiment for a while with making different elements different colors.

I wasn’t loving the colors and placement, so I decided to add these circles behind the bears. I think it makes the logo look a bit better.

Finally, I switched the background to a photo I liked better, and I’m ultimately happy with this logo.

Here’s the finished graphic!

What do you think? I love the style of the illustrations. It’s very fitting for our blog. The colors are also bright and summery, which I love.

I can’t wait to see this image used during Camp Happy Heart. By the way, please let us know which posts you’d like to see during our shortened CHH! Your ideas are greatly welcome.

I hope you guys have a wonderful weekend!