If you’ve gotten this far in this post and you’re still wondering what I am referring to, these are mine:

Why should we use them? Well, Instagram can serve as a quick “visual resume” if you are a content creator or creative in general. You want to make a nice first impression when folks/brands land on your page. They help to organize your page content and highlights them in a cohesive and balanced manner.

Finally, if I land on your page for the first time and you have a highlight that says “Hairstyles” and I am interested in all things hair, I can go straight there and look around at your other content later. Also, the highlights make it look like you have your $#&^ together (even when you don’t).

lets’s get to it! Canva allows you to create them for free!

I’ve had Canva downloaded onto my phone forever (2015) but I never used it until now.

You can download the app on your phone (much easier to work on the go or at work) or you can also use the web based version on your computer or laptop. FOR THIS TUTORIAL I used my imac/desktop computer.

step #2 – Find Template

On the left hand side, click on find templates.

These are good to use for regular Instagram stories by the way.

but to make these highlight icons, I’m just using a template to make sure I get the sizing (insta story size) correct.

Choose any of these templates, really doesn’t matter which one and click on it. After you’ve selected the template, hit that green button on the top right that says “Use This Template.”

Select each of the elements from the template and delete them. Delete the cupcake background. Delete the text. Even delete this background with the sky and the grass.

Now you’ll be left with a clean template to work with like this:

On the lefthand side, click on “Background” and choose what you want your background to look like. You can pick a solid color or use one of the textured ones in the lower section.

Now the fun part! Again, on the lefthand side, click on “Elements.”

Then start searching for the kind of icons you’d like to use. This is where you get to be creative. Think about the sorts of icons you’d use to represent the different topics you want to cover in your stories. Post a lot about food? so look for a spoon and/or  fork icon. Type the word “food or fork” in the search bar and you’ll see what your options are. I like to look at the “cartoon looking” ones that are usually simple because photos aren’t really good to use for icons.

*SIDE NOTE*: A lot of these icons are free, but some icons you’ll need to either pay for (usually $1) or you’ll have access to if you upgrade to Canva Pro. I haven’t yet run into one that i liked that wasn’t free.

step #6 – edit your icons

SEARCH for “Camera” So let’s say I picked the first camera icon. I clicked on it and it gave me this pink color camera. NOT the color I want. You can change the color of your icon by clicking on the little square on the top left where it says “Pick A Color.” I changed this one to white which looks like the clean theme i’m going for.

You can then resize your icon. I chose to make this one a little smaller, but that’s the size I used for my icons, more or less (make sure it’s centered on the background).

WOOHOO! You officially have one icon completed!

Now that you’ve made one, you can make as many as you please! Click those two rectangles on the right that say “Copy This Page” and start over!

step #8 – download the files

Yay! Once you have all your icons ready, click “DOWNLOAD” at the top and and save them. I prefer saving them in JPEG format. Select which pages you want to download and hit that green button.

And that’s it! That’s how you make them! Once you’ve downloaded them, send them to your e-mail or save them to your phone if you have the mobile app too (which i highly recommend)

Once they’re on your phone just upload them to your Instagram Stories and save them as the covers to your Instagram Highlights!

Now you are that much closer to a more “branded feel” to your page.

if you’d like to connect on Insta, follow me and let me know that you read this post!

just remember #EverythingNaArt

go and be creative!