Matching Pinterest Board Covers

My need to have things organized and matching has gotten the best of me. I felt like my pin boards had gotten very cluttered. I look at the pictures rather than the small text above my boards to know whats in there, that's just how my brain works. I frequently refer to my boards for tips, tricks, and how-to's. So being able to find what I need quickly is a must, especially when you only have 30 minutes to get it done before your baby starts crying for you!

To start I Googled a large pattern that I liked (for me it was chevron). I saved it to my desktop and opened it in Adobe Photoshop (here comes the hardest part). If you don't have Adobe Photoshop stay tuned below, you can download the chevron board cover and use Paint to add text.

Then in the top tool bar select "Image." In the drop down menu that appears selects "Canvas Size." Re-size the canvas to be 202 pixels in width by 134 pixels in height. Make sure that you have selected "pixels" and not "inches" or any other form of measurement. Hit OK.

Then a window will pop up telling you that clipping will occur. This is okay, select "Proceed."

Your image should now be this size. Hardest part over. Phew!

Select the Horizontal Type Tool (T) or the text tool and select the are you want your text in. You can also select the font and font size you'd like. I used Times New Roman in font size 36 pt.

Select the Move Tool (V) and move your text until it is centered on your image.

Now save your image. To do this select "File" in the top tool bar. In the drop down menu select "Save As." In the window that pops up type in your "File Name" and make sure to change the "Format" to JPEG. Now Save.

If you don't have Adobe Photoshop you can download the re-sized image below. Then open the image in Paint, like so. Select the text button and select the area you want to place your text. If you have Adobe Photoshop, skip ahead.

{here} gray chevron print background
{here} green paisley print background

Here you can select your font style and size. I used Times New Roman in font size 20.

Move your mouse over the left hand corner of your selected area. An arrow should appear, click and hold your mouse button while moving the box diagonally down. This will move your text into the center. Once this is done, save your image.

Now go to your Pinterest Boards page. If you want to rearrange your boards alphabetically like I did follow these steps. Otherwise, skip ahead.
Next to "Edit Profile" select the button that looks like a board.

Rearrange your boards alphabetically, or as you'd like. When you're done with that make sure you click the red check mark to save your new arrangement!

To add your board cover, click the "Add+" button in the upper right hand corner of your page.

This window will appear. Select "Upload a Pin."

Click the "Browse.." button and select your image. In the drop down menu select the board you want the image to go to. Then click "Pin It." Its the same a when you pin anything to Pinterest, but you're uploading a picture from your computer instead of pinning a page.

Now go back to your Boards page. Move your cursor over the board you just pinned to. A button that says "Edit Board Cover" should appear. Click it. This window will pop up. Click "Set Cover." Although this last step is tedious, you need to do it otherwise the next time you pin something to this board the picture will change.

There you have it! Just change the text for each board. To keep it looking nice when you make a new board, just repeat this process. Its a long tutorial, but its quite simple and quick in reality! It took me maybe 30 minutes total to do all my boards. Now I can see what I'm looking for with ease and it doesn't look cluttered.

I wish there were a way to hide all of these new "pins" on my Pinterest feed for my poor followers sakes! But, there's not, so sorry!

Happy, organized pinning!

Organizing: A Better Way to File

A few nights ago, my husband and I were searching through our file bin for some papers. It was a disaster! We found what we needed, but had to pull every file and look at every paper because everything was so unorganized. This got me in an organizing mood.
So, the next day I decide to tackle something easy (I tend to avoid bigger projects until I have time and all the supplies needed), the "junk" cabinet. This is where we stash office supplies (since we don't have an office), school stuff, cables, random papers, etc. My husband made a binder for all his police stuff and I thought it should be labeled. Thus began the online search for a free printable binder label! I came across this lovely gem, and I'm so glad I did! I read Jenna's story, that was featured on iHeart Organizing, which inspired me to tackle the ugly file bin that sits on the floor in the dining room/living room/office (haha).

Last year this bin from Target was a much cuter, cheaper version of a file cabinet that solved the issue of our papers being in piles all over the house. Looking back, I should've bought the black one. Now, this bin has become a mess! The papers are just tossed in their folders and everytime I need to find a paper, I have to sift through the whole folder.

Our ugly file bin. Notice the peeling edges.

The disasterous inside!

 I had some spare white binders sitting around, so I put them to use! I also had to go buy more to empty out the green monster, but this was a start! I e-mailed the label PDF to myself and downloaded it. I had to do it this way because I was unable to download it any other way. Then, I added text to it on Photoshop, saved it, and printed it out! You could also just write on it, but I prefer to print. I would advise you print on cardstock, if possible, because I had such a difficult time getting the labels into the spines of the binders on printer paper haha.
I also printed on some Post-It notes using this template. Although I had to *alter it. I wanted to use 2x3 notes instead of 1x1 or 3x3.
*If you want to alter it, when you open the document for editing, in the upper right hand corner there should be something regarding the dimensions of the boxes, change the height to 2" and width too 3"
I used the Post-It notes as labels for my dividers. I like to be able to re-use my dividers for other things so I try not to write on them. Of course, you're more than welcome to write on your dividers :)



I took each of my folders from my file bin and sorted through the papers. For instance, I combined our previous "Banking" and "Credit Cards & Loans" folders into one binder. I took the papers out of the folders and made piles: bank A, bank B, bank A loans, credit A, credit B, etc. I then sorted each pile by year and then by date (newest first-oldest last). I hole-punched the papers, put them in the binder, and voila! What papers were too small or important to be hole-punched I slipped into a protective sheet. I did this to the whole file bin until everything was in binders.

Don't make fun of the pink binder featuring my sexy hubby! Haha

 Although the binders may take up more space than that green monster, I can find and file any paper I need with ease! And it looks much cuter!
Please feel free to share if you do this on your own! :)
Best of luck to you!