Getting Creative with Genea-Graphics

I was very excited to watch DearMYRTLE's (a.k.a Pat Richley-Erickson) recent Wacky Wednesday video on how she creates her graphics. I listened, watched and took a page full of notes as she demonstrated how to create them using PowerPoint. Truth be told, I had never thought of using PowerPoint and completely forgot you could even save PowerPoint slides as an image. 

I was feeling quite inspired after watching the video (which you can watch HERE by the way) and had a play around in PowerPoint creating a couple of images. I have an older version of PowerPoint, thus, I do not have as many themes available as Myrt does, but I still managed to find something I like. Please also note that I am not a whiz when it comes to graphics. I did Information Technology (Computers) in High School, however a majority of what I learned seems to have left my little noggin. This might be because we used advanced programs which I have not used since High School...and which would cost me a whopper to use at home, haha.

So far I have created the following graphics/images in PowerPoint...

Image 1 - Created in PowerPoint by me

Image 2 - Created in PowerPoint by me

I am not entirely sure if I am 100% happy with them, or what I would use them for at the moment. Your comments are thoroughly appreciated! I also created one to use at the end of my YouTube videos, but you won't see that one until my next video, hehehe.

While watching the video, Jill Ball (Geniaus) mentioned that she uses Canva. I had never heard of Canva, so naturally I headed to the website to check it out. Result: I love it!!! Canva lets you create images/banners for social media with the dimensions for your relevant social media platforms available. However, you can also pop in your own dimensions if you feel the dimensions they have are not suitable to your image creating needs.

I created the following banner on Canva using the Facebook Banner dimensions. I am quite in love with it and it is currently the banner on my personal Facebook profile. 

Facebook Banner created on Canva by me

I am going to see if Heather, my partner in genea-blogging-crime at Young & Savvy Genealogists is interested in a couple of graphics for Y&SG. That would be pretty cool to do.

On another note, I just thought of the word genea-graphics. Another word to add to the GeneaDictionary, Jill? 

Have you created any graphics for your genealogy profiles, talks or other things? Did you use PowerPoint, Canva or another program? I would love to hear your ideas! :)