Hey, fellow TeachersPayTeachers friends! I have a quick tutorial for you today that will show you how to dress up your store. Check this out:
Can you spot the difference? This was my before:
In the new version, instead of a text quote and a link to my digital paper section I’ve highlighted this area with a picture and it still links to my digital papers. This is a great way to feature a section of your store, your newsletter list, Facebook page, or blog. The best part? It’s really easy!
There’s a video below, but here are some helpful tips with a few more helpful details.
How To:
1. Use your picture editing program of choice to design your picture. You want your picture to be 450 pixels by 150 pixels. This is the same was 1.5 wide by 0.5 inches tall.
I know a lot of teacher-bloggers use PowerPoint for their graphics, so we’ll look at that. Make sure the proportions are 3 inches wide by 1 inch tall. The actual picture size I used in PhotoShop was 1.5 wide by .5 tall, but PowerPoint wouldn’t let me pick those dimensions so I doubled the size to keep the ratio. Here’s an easy way to resize your picture before saving it in PowerPoint.
-Choose “file/save as pictures”
-Click “options” in the bottom left corner.
-Then look down at the bottom and change the width and height to 450/150. Click OK.
2. Save your picture now that it’s the correct size. For best results, use the same gray background as TpT (gray #f1f1f1) or make your image a transparent .PNG (clear background). This will prevent you from having a white background/box around your pretty new graphic.
3. Upload your graphic to the internet. Keep the file name short to stay under 120 characters total. Most people will use Photobucket, but you can also save the image to your blog, domain, etc. If you don’t use PhotoBucket, you can put your image into a blog post and grab the html code for the image there. You just need the URL of your image stored somewhere on the internet. If you need to use a URL shortener, use tinyurl.com. Bit.ly won’t work for this.
 |
| This is the link you want if you’re using PhotoBucket |
4. Copy the link where you want the quote section to go. In my case, it leads to the digital paper section of my store.
5. Shorten the link using a tinyurl or bit.ly. This will help keep you under the 120 character limit.
6. Type this code with YOUR information. You’ll need to put your information in where it has capital letters. You can type this code into a blog post as HTML to get a preview of what it will look like before you try it in your TpT store if you want. Be sure you’re using straight (not stylized) quotation marks, which will happen when typing the code in a Word, PowerPoint, etc. For best results, I just type the code right into my TpT store.
7. Now head over to your TeachersPayTeachers account and edit your profile. You will need to past your code into the “quote” section. Once you click save, you’ll see the preview if you did it correctly.
8. If you get an error, double check your links and be sure you’ve carefully completed the code. Leaving anything out or making a typo will break the code, so you’ll have to start over.
9. Admire your hard work!
I made a video tutorial so you can get an idea of how it works too.
Shut. The. Front. Door. You are a genius.
So glad you like it! 🙂
Wow! Thanks so much for this little tidbit!! Love it!
Wow! I am so amazed, and honestly I have been curious how to do this! What a fantastic video!
Amazing! THANKS! !!
Elyse 🙂
Proud to be Primary
Brilliant! Can't wait to try it! Thanks Christi 🙂
Kate
EduKate and Inspire
This tutorial is AWESOME! I ended up having to save my pic at 1" x 1.5" to make it fit into the box on my TpT store page for some reason (I'm not techie, so I'm sure I messed something up), but everything else worked perfectly. Thank you so much!!!
Heather @ Fun for Learning
Stop it now!! This is genius! Thank you for sharing!
Ashley
One Sharp Bunch
Thanks so much for this!
I cannot wait to try this!! Thanks for sharing.
This is SO smart!! Now to figure out what to put in this space…..
Angela 🙂
Hippo Hooray for Second Grade!
I'm so glad everyone is as excited about it as I was. Such a fun way to dress up your stores! 🙂
Thanks so much for the tutorial!
I think I've done it correctly, but it comes out SO BLURRY. Any recommendations?
Nevermind!! I've got it! AHHH!! Thanks, again, SOOOO MUCH! I absolutely LOVE how it came out! 🙂
Absolutely brilliant! Thanks so much for the excellent idea and tutorial!
You are amazing! Thank you so much for the video and for sharing your knowledge with us!
Have a great weekend,
Fern
Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas!
Fern Smith's Pinterest Boards!
Whoa! Genius! Trying right now.
-Maria
You made this so easy to do! Thanks for the great directions and code! Super stoked!
♬Mrs. Samuelson's Swamp Frogs ♬
LOVE LOVE LOVE…thank you!
Julie
The Techie Teacher
Wow! Thank you so much! You are so creative! I am having a slight problem, my picture is not clickable for some reason. Could you please tell me what I did wrong? Thank you for your time!
Scarlett, Speech Is Sweet
Sure! I just need to see what code you have so I can check it. You can email it to me msfultzscorner at gmail. 🙂
I thought that I left a comment this morning, but I guess it didn't post! This idea is GENIUS!! I've shared it with a bunch of TpT friends and we all agree. YOU ROCK!!
Thank you so much for sharing your amazing knowledge with us! It took me a couple of tries but I got it!! I LOVE THIS!! THANK YOU!!
Mrs. 3rd Grade
Thank you SO MUCH for sharing this awesome tip! Not only are you so generous to share it here, but you were super helpful when I emailed you with a question! THANK YOU! 🙂 Krista
This is SO fantastic!!! Thank you so much for sharing this great tutorial! 🙂
YOU are Amazing, thank YOU for sharing this knowledge. I had no trouble following your instructions and now my store is looking fantastic. Thanks once again…… RebeccaB Designs
Such a great idea! Thanks for sharing!
It looks amazing. Thanks so much for sharing your expert knowledge.
Drinks on me in Vegas! 🙂 Thank you for this!
Amazing! I played with the dimensions a little until I was happy with it! It still wants to be slightly blurry, but I think that is going to be part of the learning curve for this! What a fabulous tool! Thanks so much for posting about this!
Carol
Teachers Are Terrific!
This is awesome!!!!
Absolutely amazing!!! I love it! Thanks so much–great tutorial! 🙂
Hey Christi – I've had my tagline graphic updated for a few weeks. I saw today that you had written a tutorial for it. One thing that you might mention to your readers is if the size of the graphic is too tall (larger than the 450 x 150) that it pushes down the store content. I've seen several TPT Sellers that have followed your tutorial either miss the part about the sizing or just made it bigger. What this does is mess up the alignment of the top of the store. So instead of it looking pretty, it looks a bit wonky. So I thought I'd mention it. Best wishes,
Danielle
I moved the video down to the bottom so they'd see the written directions with tips right up top, but I definitely can't be responsible for everyone's sizing. No way I'm touching that one with a 10 foot pole!
WOW you are awesome! Thank you SO much for this! Worked perfectly.
-Brigid
Thank you Christi This information is very helpful. I have a quick question. What would the code look like if you only wanted to add an image?
Greg
Great questions! You would take out the a parts. So it would start with <img and you'd leave off the final </a too.
Thanks Christi! It worked just fine.
Greg
Mr Elementary Math
There are no words!!! This is amazing!! After a bit of trial and error (I may or may not be "photobucket-link-challenged") I finally figured it out. Love it! Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge so generously!!
Ummm…. You are amazing! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge of technology with the rest of us! It is incredibly appreciated!
-Jillian
Thank you so much Christi! This is such a great way to dress up our stores! Do you know how to match the gray in Power Point? I'm not sure how to use the code referenced in the body of the post and although I made my image with a transparent background, it posted as a white background. I love how yours blends in with the TPT gray. Thank you so much for sharing your tutorial with us!
Aimee
Primarily Speaking
I am searching for the same thing! Did you ever figure it out? Thanks Christi for a great tutorial!
I found that you need to change it so the Red, Green, and Blue values are each at 241.
Thank you so much! It was so quick and easy!
SO awesome! Thank you, Christi!
FlapJack
You ROCK! Thanks so much for providing such practical tutorials! You make it possible for us al to keep learning!
-Great Minds TEACH Alike
You are a gem!!! I really appreciate the amount of time it took for you to create the tutorial & walk us through it! I am so lucky to be able to learn from you!!! You are the BEST!!!
Karen
Planet Happy Smiles
Thank you so much for sharing this!!!
Thanks so much for this tutorial!!!
This is mind blowing! I never knew you could put an image there. Thank you so much for this tutorial! I will definitely be adding this to my to-do list 🙂
You are brilliant! And so generous to so freely share. What a difference! Thank you, Christ!
This is the bees knees!! Thanks so much for taking time to create a tutorial for the TPT community! I just designed mine and am so excited!
Amber
PeppyZestyTeacherista
This is awesome! Thank you so much for sharing!
Don't Let the Teacher Stay Up Late
Awesome! Thank you for the tutorial! 🙂
Amazing! This also appears to work in the other sections of the store profile as well! What a great tip, especially before the big site-wide sale. Thank you for sharing!
YOU ARE AHHH-MAZING!!! That is so stinkin' awesome!!
Thank you so much. This makes me feel so AWESOME!!!
Thanks, Christi!! This is AWE.SOME!!
Thank you!!! Such a great idea.
Brilliance indeed 🙂
Mind blowing! 🙂 Thank you so much for sharing!
Thank you so much for sharing! I had a lot of fun trying to persevere with that code! 🙂
Adventures of a Techie Bookworm
Oh my after fighting with Photobucket sigh…. I did it!!! Thank you so much for your instructions and for sharing tips likes this. You are awesome!
This was SO easy! Thank you so much for your explicit instructions! 🙂 Hugs!!
Thank you so much!! This is incredible! Your instructions are so good, even I figured it out! ☺Thank you!
THANK YOU! Such easy instructions.
When I tell you I was able to follow your directions and fix my store, you have no idea how AMAZING that is. Thank you so much for the step-by-step,
This is fabulous!! Thank you so much for the easy tutorial!
Wow! Just WOW!!!! Thank you!!!!
Thank you so much for this information. You make it seem like I can do it – now I just need to make that happen! I appreciate it!
A-MA-ZING!! Thanks for making the TpT stores a more interactive (and prettier) place to shop!!
Thank you so much! Your instructions are so helpful and clear. Love it!!
This is fantastic. My page is so much brighter and friendlier now! Thank you so much!
Thank you so much! I so want to make mine beautiful like yours! Thanks for offering to look at code that doesn't work! I am emailing you with my code – I cannot get it to work 😐
Thank you!!!! You are amazing. I own you dinner if we ever meet!
AWESOME!!
Some people might not know that the image is "clickable" so you might want to put some sort of call to action such as "click here" in the image so people know that they can click on it.
Awesome idea, thanks for sharing!
Brilliant!! I pinned it to my TPT Business Ideas board in case I can't find it when I am ready to do it! Way to go Christi!
Thank you for posting this AwEsOmE tutorial! I can't wait to try it!
You are incredible! I'm so glad that you thought to do this and thankful that you are willing to share with the rest of us! THANK YOU!
Kristin
My Carolina Classroom
Hey Christi!
I just wanted you to know what a great tutorial you have and I mentioned it in my most recent blog post about GIF images. You inspired me to extend your tutorial and use a GIF image instead of a JPEG (or any other still image) in the quote section of my TpT Store.
Here's the post about it: http://sciencegirllessons.blogspot.com/2015/02/techno-help-adding-more-gif-to-your.html
Let me know what you think and if you like it!
Rebecca
Science Girl Lessons
Thank you so much for such a detailed and easy to follow tutorial! You rock!
This was AWESOME! I love it!
Kimberly
Loving Kinders
Thank you so much! It worked. I had put the url's in the wrong place on the code but I worked it out. What a difference his will make when I'm promoting my products. Sandy
Worked exactly as you said it would! My store looks awesome!
Thank you for a great tutorial!!
karen
Thanks so much for these excellent directions, Christi! I got turned around in circles for a while because I tried to upload the image to Google Drive, but as soon as I put it on Photobucket, it worked like a charm!
I love the "new look" that so many TpT stores now have, thanks to you and your generous sharing of your talent!
Linda Nelson
Primary Inspiration
Christi, you are my hero! Thanks for sharing your brilliance with the masses =) I couldn't get the f1f1f1 gray code to work in PowerPoint, but I'm just thrilled to have a picture instead of words!!
Denise
Light Bulbs and Laughter
AMAZING!!! Thank you for this wonderful tutorial. You're the BEST!!
Tammy
Teaching With Tammy
That worked perfectly! Thank you! Carol's Teaching Garden
Thank you so much!!! I love that I got to hear your voice too, I feel like I know you since I follow you on IG! Hope to meet you in LV 🙂 Christina
Thank you so much for this great tutorial! I'm so glad that I found this on your Instagram page!
-Melanie
A Trendy Teacher
I can't believe how easy that was!!! Thank you so much for sharing this. Looks so much better than plain text! 🙂
-Kady
Thank you! Just added some pizazz to my Store! 🙂
-Lisa
You are A-W-E-S-O-M-E! Thank you for your help!!! 🙂
-Elizabeth
2TeachersAbroad
Many Thanks for Sharing This! One more great post on here.
Love your blog, valuable and inspiring!
I am just a newbie blogger and thanks to you I already got my TpT Store Widget Working 😉
Wow this worked perfectly! I have been trying to figure out how to do this for quite a while. I stumbled across your blog and am amazed. Thank you for making the video!
Thank you so much for sharing! It totally worked!
Thank you so much for this tutorial! I have been looking for this information EVERYWHERE! I am your new follower on blog loving.
Mary
My blog: http://www.carrberrycreations.com
Thank you so much this is fantastic! My store looks so much nicer now! I found some stores where it looks like the actual grey box is larger (see https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mister-Science and https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kristine-Nannini as examples) Do you know how to make the grey box larger so we can add a wider graphic? Thank you again!!!
Sue
The gray box will automatically adjust in height to fit a taller image. I don't recommend it, only because TpT has worked on that consistency for each store.
Thank you! I just added mine and will change it to a GIF soon.
Thank you so much! That was fun to do and watching your video made it SO easy!
Thank you so much! That was fun to do and watching your video made it SO easy!
Wow! That really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Now my store looks cute and professional. Thanks for showing us each step, it was really helpful.
http://www.anchoredinlearning.blogspot.com/
Thanks for this awesome tutorial! I'm wondering if I messed up the pixels. I made my image 3 by 1 inch in power point and then resized to the pixels you listed. It looks blurry. If you can take a look I would appreciate it.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Teaching-Resources-For-The-Classroom
Maybe I should not have resized! I am going to continue to play with it.
Thanks,
Sarah
Hi there, I’m having trouble… when I copy the link from Photobucket
my url is long I’ve used Bitly to shorten the link but the picture link is too long please can you help me?
Little Birdy
bit.ly doesn’t handle graphics well. That part has to be done on Tiny Url.
Hi,
Ive tried so hard but cant get it to work…can you take a look at my code? I used bit.ly for the link and tiny url for the photo….
I just get a question mark 🙁
Thank you,
cindy
Amazing!!!!!!!! I tried one and I obviously wrote my note too small… OR somehow when I saved it, it shrunk like Honey I shrunk the kids?!! Any advise?
You can add a code to resize it, which might be easier than trying to do it in a photo editor. Simply add a width code beside your image and adjust the number until you’re happy with the size.
img src=”PICTURE” width=”450″
I loved this tutorial and did it a couple months ago. I decided to change the image and now it is not working. I used tiny url, followed your exact instructions and it won’t upload to my TPT store anymore 🙁 Needless to say, I am super frustrated and have been trying for about an hour to make it work. I would like to pay you the $15 to make it but can’t find that option on your other blog. Could you send me the direct link? Thanks!
I don’t have a direct purchase link because I like to discuss the project first to make sure we’re a good match. You can email me at msfultzscorner AT gmail DOT com if you’d like to get started.
Also, try clearing your internet browsing history/cache. Sometimes that helps when graphics that were previously working become glitchy.
Thanks for this great tip! I will definitely have to try it out. I am very new to the blogging scene, TPT, and this crazy social media marketing world, but am seriously enjoying it!
I’ll make sure to follow you on bloglovin and subscribe to your YouTube channel too.
http://www.penelopesportfolio.com
I followed your directions step by step from the video and my image isn’t transparent nor is it the right size. Here is the link:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/I-Love-1st-Grade-By-Cecelia-Magro
Would you be so kind to tell me what I did wrong? I typically do not have problems with tech stuff and am a bit frustrated. Thank you
It looks good now!
I saw a few people who had done this so I googled it not knowing how to word my question. Your blog was the first to come up! You are genius! Thank you so much for taking the time to explain this.
I bow to your awesomeness queen of the helpful tutorial! Your tutorial on the quote banner was so clear and easy to understand! THANK YOU for making me feel so much better about my storefront!! I am no longer ashamed and starting down the road toward proud! THANKS for ‘paying it forward’ and sharing your knowledge!
It took me a LONG time – but I am new at all this html coding and hyperlinks. Great directions & video. My issue was those silly curved quotation marks! All I did was re-type them and it worked just right. THANKS SO MUCH!!!
Thank you! I have been wanting to do this forever but was worried that it was too difficult for me. It was actually super easy! Great tutorial.
Angelia
Thank you SO much!!! I finally got around to doing this to my store, and your directions were so easy to follow!!! Amazing!!
I have done this successfully several times and am SO grateful for your help and expertise but always mess up one step because I hardly ever change my banner. I am not sure what I did wrong this time but am wondering if it is related to what I am supposed to insert where it says “PICTURE” in the coding. I know that you said in the video yours links somewhere else but for myself in photo bucket am I supposed to do a tiny url of the coding for IMAGE or HTML and insert that in where it says “PICTURE” – I feel slightly dumb as I have done this before and can’t figure out what I am doing wrong:) Thanks for any help. When I post to my TPT store it is just showing up as a little box with a tiny blue question mark inside of it.
Ooh – yay yay yay – I figured out the error of my ways and got it uploaded properly! Thanks again for sharing this with us!
Did you ever know that you’re my heeeero? Seriously, thanks for the tutorial. My store looks so much cuter now!
Amy @ Everything Elementree
When I do this the image is small – it doesn’t fill the box like yours does. Any suggestions?? Thank you for the help and tutorial!!
You can add width=”450″ after your image URL to force it to resize.
Hi there!
I have tried several times and can’t get this to work! It keeps coming up blank……thoughts?
Beck 😉
I’m having the same issue as Beck! I used this tutorial in the past and it worked beautifully… All I did was change to a different photo hosted on photobucket and the box just shows up blank. It won’t even show me the preview. Did TPT change something on their site? 🙁
No, it still works. I’d double check your code. The quotation marks are usually the culprit.
Thanks so much for this Christi! Took me a few tries to sort out the coding but your blog post was so helpful, I managed to sort it! Thanks 🙂
Thank you! I spent hours on this and your “pixel” step that was missing from so many other tutorials solved it all! Thank you so much! 🙂
Kristine
@whatiwishilearnedinschool
Really helpful Christi! Thank you!
I’ve been saving the link to your tutorial for what seems like forever! I finally got around to it today and have such a feeling of accomplishment! Thank you so much for this helpful blog tutorial!!
I am new to this TpT and want to get started, but it seems overwhelming and lots to learn. How much so you charge to help set this up? My email is amybanty@gmail.com.
Thanks
Hi, Amy! It can be a lot to learn, but I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it soon. One things at a time. 🙂 Here’s a link to my TPT branding options: https://design.christifultz.com/product-category/teacherspayteachers/