TPT Seller Advice: Creating Covers for Pinterest Boards Tutorial

Hi TPT seller friends, 

Today, I spent some time looking at my Pinterest account. Quite frankly, it felt chaotic and overwhelming. In order to make my account look more professional and aligned with my TPT store branding, I decided to design some board covers. I'm excited to share a brief tutorial about how you can join me in sprucing up your Pinterest account.

To give a bit of context for what my Pinterest account looked like before making board covers, here's a photo of some of the messy, mismatched boards. 

To get started, conduct visual research and study successful Pinterest accounts by other businesses

Before you jump into designing board covers for your Pinterest account, spend some time getting inspiration. Go onto Pinterest and study accounts you admire. What type of imagery, fonts, colors, and layouts do they use to create compelling designs? Jot down notes about what you love or what you dislike about other businesses' boards. These notes can inspire your own creative process.

Next, sketch out design ideas for your own Pinterest board covers 

I recommend drawing at least seven thumbnails on a sheet of notebook paper. Play around with compositions for organizing text and imagery. Then, share your thumbnails with friends or family to ask for feedback. Pay attention to how others perceive your design ideas. Do they say supportive words like "eye-catching" or negative terms like "too busy"? Getting feedback from real people matters because the teachers visiting your Pinterest boards will likely have similar opinions.

Then, create a Pinterest board cover template on Canva 

I recommend making all of your Pinterest board covers similar, so that your Pinterest account feels cohesive and clearly aligns with your brand. Making templates takes more time on the front end, but they ultimately allow you to save time and reduce decision-making fatigue in the future. 

For my Pinterest board covers, I decided to include my logo, a simple title, and a background color from my brand on every cover. My primary brand colors include turquoise, orange-red, and tan, so I tried to alternate those colors on different board covers. 

Steps for creating a cover template on Canva: 

• Sign up for a Canva account if you don't have one already (it's totally free, and they have lots of great resources!) 
• Click "create a design" and pick the "custom size" option 
• Select a square size option (1000 x 1000 pixels recommended) 

• Use the tools in the "elements" bar to decorate the cover with shapes, photos, text, etc. (Note: Some features are only usable in the premium version of Canva, so you will have limited design options.) 
• Customize board covers with titles (make sure to use SEO keywords to improve your pin search rankings on Pinterest!) 
• Download the file as a PNG image (click "share" and then make sure that you have the correct download settings before clicking "download") 

Finally, export the Pinterest board covers and upload them to your account

Here are the steps for uploading board cover images to your account: 

• Pick a board to add a cover to (in the "saved" section of your account) 
• Click the plus sign icon to upload the board cover image as a pin (you will need to upload it as a pin before adding it as a cover image) 
• Click on the three dots icon in the upper righthand corner of the board and then click "edit board" 
• Click on gray square with the plus icon to select a cover image
• Pick the pin cover image that you previously uploaded 
• Click "done" to confirm the edit 

... and your board cover design is finished! Woo hoo! 

Although creating Pinterest board cover templates can feel time-consuming at first, your work will pay off in the long run when you have a cohesive, eye-catching Pinterest account. 

Do you have any questions about improving your Pinterest account for your TPT store? Leave a comment below to share things you're wondering about!