How to Get an Awesome Facebook Timeline Cover Image

Recently my personal Facebook page was updated to the new "timeline". I kind of like it, but it requires a lot of scrolling down to see anything. 

At the top of the page is room for a giant "cover photo". I decided I didn't want a huge picture of little me in that spot. That's not very appealing to me. When I tried to put an artwork photo there it blew it up really big. I couldn't see all of it. So I thought, "What if I could make a photo mosaic of images that I *do* want on my page?" 

Look no further! I have the solution. And it's dead easy. 

Big Huge Labs creates a lot of fun things to do with your images. You can make jigsaw puzzles, trading cards, badges, calendars, and many other fun and funny choices. 

One of the most handy to me is the Mosaic Maker. There are many ways to customize photos, sizes (columns and rows), and where it can pull your images from. 

This is the main page of Mosaic Maker. These are the default settings. 

  

To make my mosaic for Facebook I needed to decide where to get my photos from. If I choose to pull my photos from Facebook I need to login. 

 

I want to fill my mosaic with my flickr set. I created a new set on flickr specifically for the photos I wanted to fill my mosaic. I could have also uploaded them individually from my computer, from a Facebook album, flickr photosets, flickr faves, flickr tags, or an individual flickr user. Here is my flickr photoset: 

These are my mosaic settings.

To fit in the Facebook cover image spot I chose a layout of "square tiles" with 8 columns and 3 rows. It shows a little preview of the shape the mosaic will be. You get 32 images for this size. (The maximum the Mosaic Maker allows is 36 images, but that's going to be too big for the Facebook cover spot.) 

I also have the option to choose the background color and the border color. I chose black for both. I chose 5 pixels as the space between images (the default). 

When "flickr photoset" is chosen the Mosaic Maker brings up the next box to enter the URL for the photoset. To find the photoset URL I opened the set on flickr and highlighted and copied the URL in the address bar. Then I pasted it in the box back at the Mosaic Maker page. It also lets me choose the page number of the set I want it to use if my set is more than one page. 

I clicked "Create". The next page opens my beautiful new mosaic. I can go back and edit it as much as I want if it didn't turn out like I planned. 

Then I clicked "Save" to download the image to my computer (pay attention to where it saved so you can find it). 

There are options to share it directly to flickr, Facebook, or an email address. Under the mosaic I made it has the HTML for the mosaic so it can be embedded in something like a blog post. I like that if you choose to use the HTML it makes links back to the photos so the creators get credit. (Play nice if you post a mosaic made with other peoples' photos and give the credits.) 

All the hard work is done. Now all I had to do was click "Change Cover" back on my Facebook timeline and upload my mosaic. Alternately, you could post the mosaic in your Facebook photo albums and choose from there. 

Ta! Da! 

[I'm no expert on pixel dimensions on web sites, but I think the image is roughly 850 pixels x 315 pixels. Someone please correct me if I am wrong.] 

Now you have the most awesome cover image! Wait - yours would be the second most awesome because mine rocks. :) 

- Vickie

Textured Dominos – New Work

Much of my day is spent staring down a pile of dominos trying to figure out what to make them into. About a week ago I came up with one of my best ideas ever. Yes. Ever. And I would love to share the details of what I came up with, but I don’t want anyone to copy my idea. So I’ll share the pictures of my new work instead, and you can try to guess at how I did it. :)

These domino pendants still need the final glossy coat, a bail, and to be strung on a cord and beaded. I’d love to know what you think about them.

Art Journal: Qualities

I finally finished these pages with the writing. I’ll just let it speak for itself.

click image to see it bigger over at flickr!

Domino Charm Swap

For the December swap in the flickr group Altered Dominos & Other Altered Game Pieces.

This is a vintage wood domino altered with paint, paper, pen, vintage text pieces, beads, and wire. It’s sealed with Mod Podge and spray acrylic gloss sealer. So now it is off to the Post Office to ship to prpldy15. I’m a bit late for this swap due to my wrist injury.

I know I have been a bit lax on the blogging. Not much has been going on so you have not missed anything. My wrist is slowly healing and is almost pain free. I feel like an athlete on the bench with an injury… cannot work the way I want to and for as long.

My holidays proceeded with much fun and joy. Our New Year’s was a bit low-key and made me feel, well, old. Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve was filled with rock bands I have not heard of before. Is that how you know you are out of the pop culture loop? Is this how my parents used to feel when I was a teenager? I mostly listen to my CD collection of mostly independent musicians. I rarely hear pop radio because I cannot stand listening to ten minutes of commercials between songs. Maybe I’m just too cool to listen to pop radio. Yeah, that’s it. If you need me I’ll be rockin’ out in the studio to something obscure.

Featured at Bloomacious!

My altered domino ornaments are featured on bloomacious.com today!

Carrie Leber, Editorial Director of bloomacious, contacted me last week after seeing my dominos on flickr. She wanted to know what my inspiration was! Go check out the post to read more about it!

I’m so excited! Can you tell? So many wonderful things and connections with my online community have been happening this week. I feel so blessed to have my work validated in this way. After a couple lousy craft shows this year I have been asking myself “what am I doing wrong?” That’s when I decided to let go of my expectations for this business and just do what I love doing. What happened? Sales online increased, several great opportunities have come my way, and I’ve made many new friends online. Who knows what will happen next?

Vintage Tag ATC Swap

photo by nayski - used with permission

I received my vintage tag artist trading card (ATC) swap from nayski on Saturday. Isn’t it lovely? So sweet, so vintage, so pink! The butterfly is such a nice touch. I’m a sucker for paper lace, and this one has some at the bottom. Now I really need to string my line up to display my cards! This one is too wonderful to just leave sitting on my desk.

I should note for all you ATC traders out there: please put your cards in a plastic bag or sleeve when you mail them. My mail got soaked from a bad rainstorm, and this card would have been ruined were it not for the plastic bag in which it was shipped. I just ordered some ATC sleeves that seal up for this reason.

Nayski included some extra goodies for me as well. She sent printed paper, little playing cards, a ticket, ribbon, and some words that are little brads. Joy! Thank you, nayski!!

The rest of nayski’s flickr photostream has some amazing artwork. Her paining style is unique, and I love it.

Dreamer by nayski

Time Flies ATC

The MAMMA theme this week is “black and white”. When I read it I thought, “There’s just no way I can nix color!!” But I did my best, and here is the result.



The clock face with wings was stamped on white cardstock with clear Versamark ink and then embossed clear over it. I colored in the image with a black marker to create the inverse effect. The rest of the card is lace, more stamping, eyelets, a bow, and words printed on my printer. Not too complicated, but on the whole I am happy with the overall effect.

Off to the MAMMA photo pool it goes and gets assigned a swap partner on Saturday!

First Swap Arrival!

My first Artist Trading Card (ATC) swap arrived today from the United Kingdom. shadfan66 created this card. I really like it! The theme was “home sweet home”. This swap was part of the Maggie’s Monday Musings (MAMMA) flickr group.

I was really honored today to discover that Maggie had given my vintage tag ATC an award! All of the entries this week were out of this world. The members of this group really shined.

I’m sending my vintage tag ATC to nayski. I already peeked at her photos to see the card I am going to get from her, but she entered two. I don’t know which one I’ll be getting. Looking up my swap partner’s card is killing the surprise for me, and I’m going to stop doing it!

Queen of Hats ATC

This is my MAMMA artist trading card (ATC) entry for this week’s theme of vintage tags.

I created the background with book pages torn and collaged with gel medium. Some rusty brown paints added “age” to it. The woman is from some flickr collage image group, if my memory serves me. Her hat is festooned with a lock of fancy yarn. Vintage lace and buttons adorn the bottom. A brass grommet holds the opening for all the frilly lace and ribbons at the top. The words were stamped using brown dye ink and steel letter punches.

I have not made a tag ATC before this one. The fluffy bits at the top make me happy. It makes the card seem more full.

I’m almost tempted to not trade this one, as I would really like to hang it in my studio. Maybe I’ll make myself one, too. I should just start making these in batches of two, one for me and one for the swap!

The Joy of Toys and Photographs Thereof

A few weeks ago I received a flickr-mail from someone who was interested in using one of my photos for inclusion on a website about a store in Austin, Texas, called Toy Joy. And today I got another flickr-mail from the same person telling me they are using my photo. Yay! I’ll be famous!

The website is called Schmap and the link to my photo is here. Hover your cursor over “Toy Joy” until you see my name, Victoria Porter, come up under one of the photos in the upper right corner. If you click it you will be sent hurtling to my flickr photostream under the guise of monkey123, my non-business flickr account.

I’m really excited about this. I guess it does not take much right now.

You may be asking yourself, “Hey, this chick lives in Rochester, NY. What was she doing taking pictures of toy stores in Austin, Texas?!” And to that I answer that I was visiting my best friend, Joolie, in Austin and she took me to the best toy store I’ve ever set foot in, Toy Joy. It truly is a place of joy. Toys are all over from floor to ceiling. No space in the place is wasted. They have some really cool things and very obscure items. They have so much to choose from that I cannot make up my mind what to buy and end up leaving empty handed or with just a few small trinkets. Then later I rue that I could not decide and I curse myself. It’s nice to know that Joolie is amenable to taking me there every time I visit!

Thanks, Schmap, for making my day!!

Home Sweet Home ATC

On flickr I happened upon a group called Maggie’s Monday Musings (MAMMA). Maggie posts a theme for the week and the group members answer the call in Artist Trading Card (ATC) format. Here’s my entry for the “home sweet home” challenge.



Maggie posted a house template on her blog and I really liked the proportions of it so I used it for my ATC. I collaged scrapbook paper for the house background. Then I added some paper lace, a print of a bird and a nest, and some words from a vintage book. On my sewing machine I stitched the red thread border around the house. The blue sky background was collaged from book paper and gel medium. Then I painted the sky blue.

I’m looking forward to participating in my first ATC swap through this group. When I get my swap I’ll let you see it!

Road Trip, Anyone?

I was invited to join a group on flickr called Altered Dominos & Other Altered Game Pieces. This group has some very talented people involved, and group forum discussions are lively and helpful. To be totally honest I had not altered a domino yet when I joined. The invitation to join was based on my bingo collage pendant, as it is an altered bingo card.

One of the group discussions was that of a swap for an altered domino keychain. The theme for the swap was “travel”. I signed up because I had yet to participate in a swap of any kind and have really wanted to connect with other artists like this for a while. I guess I jumped into this group with both feet being new to both domino altering and swaps. But I needed a challenge so I went for it.

My grandmother gave me about 700 very old black wood dominos to work with as well as some plastic white dominos. But they have collected dust in my studio for years. Now I had a reason to bust them out and get to work!

When I think of travel I think “road trip”. My parents had this huge old station wagon when I was growing up and we would take road trips all over the place in it. I practically grew up in the back of “Old Blue”. So my travel domino needed a car image.



I found a clip art piece I really liked and colored it in using Photoshop. The words came from an old book. The back of the domino has a map collage. The Route 66 charm is actually a button I’ve been hoping to use in my art for some time. It was just waiting for this project! I ordered the little license plate charm from theginghamgirl on Etsy as well as the keychain part from SimplyCrafting, whose shop has since closed. The domino is sealed with Mod Podge first then a generous coating of clear acrylic spray sealer. The blue on the domino is made with alcohol inks.

Off into the mail it went yesterday to takeabreak, the organizer of the group on flickr. I hope she likes it as much as I had fun creating it! I have signed up for more swaps in the future so I’ll have more dominos to share!