Tag: instagram

How to Have Fun Creating Editable Instagram Post Templates With Canva Free

Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet

Did you know that Instagram has nearly three billion people visiting its website monthly? Many people who spend time on Instagram are focused on creating an aesthetically pleasing feed that captures followers.

For me, Instagram has always been a form of entertainment, and as an artist, I love finding beautiful art from around the world to save and share with friends. But lately, I’ve begun having fun in a whole new way by creating editable Instagram post templates. Continue reading to find out how I have fun and see the designs I’ve made!

What’s Awesome About Canva Free

Canva Free is easy to use, fun, and, best of all, free! I discovered Canva earlier this year. As someone who’s struggled to get the hang of Adobe apps, I was immediately hooked. I had the Canva Pro for a few months because I wanted to try all of the elements I liked, but I quickly realized the free content was just as great. The ability to create website banners, social media posts and digital planners are fantastic. I felt like I could get creative and bring some of my digital design concepts alive.

Crafting Digital Designs and Editable Instagram Post Templates

Once I felt like I got Canva down, I fell down a rabbit hole, finding Instagram post template designs created entirely in Canva! I’m not an influencer or IG famous in any way, with a small following of around 200-ish. I love to post pictures of where I live (San Francisco) and share my poetry.

When I started creating captivating Instagram post templates for my poetry, I wanted to make more. After some research, I discovered that hundreds of people design templates and sell them on Etsy. Well, now, this sounds like fun.

Read my poem “City Dreaming“

holding a smartphone that says "Canva" on the screen in front of an imac
Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

How to Have Fun and Create Instagram Post Templates

I’m a writer and spend most of my free time writing, reading, or researching writing techniques and methods, you name it. But after a while, it’s nice to take a break and do something creative with no strings attached.

For the past few months, I’ve sliced out about four to five hours a week of free time to play around and have fun in Canva. To give myself something specific to focus on, I created Instagram post templates with specific themes using elements that I like.

What happened? I’m having a blast! So far, I’ve created three themed Instagram post template packs, and making each one allowed me to relax and have fun in a way I haven’t been able to in a long time.

Read my “Reflection: Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling“

Check Out My Editable Instagram Post Templates

If you like creating digital designs or want to start with Canva, try it out! I’m an artist, musician, writer, and so much more and I love how I can tap into my creativity and craft digital design templates in Canva Free. Want to take a look at the templates I’ve already created? Visit my Etsy shop, The Happy Poet Studio, today!

Prepping for National Novel Writing Month: Recommended Writing Books

Life during COVID-19 Update: March 20th, 2020

Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet

Today it is cloudy and rainy in Salt Lake City, kind of beautiful and kind of doomy. But there have been very few and very small aftershocks from the earthquake on Wednesday. As of this morning, I don’t think I’ve felt any aftershocks or noticed any so I am relieved.

I found out through the Department of Workforce Services that I am eligible for unemployment, it will not be a lot but it is something. It does not give me any information on my Unemployment page about when to expect my first check or anything related to that but I did apply for one Technical Writer position (remote of course) already this morning using the DWS Job Search.

Starting yesterday I am compiling a list of venmo links of my fellow employees at Squatters. On Sunday I will be posting a list of individual venmo links. My restaurant family is large and so many of us are full-time restaurant employees. For most of us our primary income source is working at Squatters. I believe that giving $ directly via venmo to those in need right now helps faster than unemployment/grants/aid funds. For a lot of us our rent is due April 1st with no exceptions to the current events.

(As for me, I luckily paid an extra month of rent only a week before all of this went down just because I could at the time. I am more worried about my friends.)

What else do I have planned today?

Completing required reading/assignments for my (now online) Westminster Poetry Workshop

Setting up my mic/camera so I can start recording videos of myself reading/talking about poetry (I plan on posting those regularly)

Making Art/Making Music

and HAVING FUN!

This has been a crazy week and I feel like I’m still trying to catch up with everything. Keeping tabs on the spread of COVID-19, looking for jobs, and checking the Utah earthquake maps. It is a lot but I don’t feel doomed or sad during this time. I am focused on working hard and staying in touch with everyone in my life.

If you’re interested in helping me out, I am offering POETRY for $ at this time.

Thank you to everyone who is reading, following, taking time out of your day to read about mine. Stay safe and stay well out there and good luck!

–Alina

For continuous updates on what I’m doing follow me on instagram.com/@ahappyhansen

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Liked this blog post? Check out these:

Life During COVID-19 (5/30/2020): Reflection on George Floyd, Protests Turned Riots and Growing Tensions in the U.S.(Opens in a new browser tab)

Life during COVID-19 Personal Update: March 25th, 2020(Opens in a new browser tab)

Life During COVID-19 (5/5/2020): Tutoring, Freelancing on Fiverr and Job Searching(Opens in a new browser tab)

A Wild Year: My Top Songs on Spotify, Currently Reading List and Reflecting on 2018

Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet

This year has gone by too fast and I feel like I am still trying to catch up. I have gotten a lot done this year from my graduation at the University of Utah with my BA (finally) to a PAID poetry reading at the Utah Arts Festival in June, to finishing the first rough draft of my book Ghost in the Woods for NaNoWriMo.

Since it’s the end of the year, I thought I would give a quick update on what I’m listening to and reading.

Spotify “Alina’s Top Songs of 2018”

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Goodreads “Currently Reading” List

Currently reading 1

currently reading 2

There are A LOT of books on my “Currently Reading” list and I am trying to widdle it down a bit before the New Year but I guess I’ll see how successful I am with that. One book that isn’t on this list that I’ve been reading every day now is Collected Sonnets by Edna St. Vincent Millay, my copy is really old and falling apart. I had to spend a good hour last week taping pages back together into the seam of the book. I’m about halfway through it and I love it, Millay is amazing with Sonnets and she makes it look so easy.

Highlight of my 2018:

Going to “An Evening with Neil Gaiman” last month was amazing. Gaiman had some great advice to give and thankfully many questions from the audience were geared towards writing and publishing. It was also so much fun to hear Gaiman read a little from some of his books.

Last Adventures: Discovering “Found Poetry”

Last week I sort of stumbled on “Found” poetry. It’s a form that I am sure I’ve come across before but up until now haven’t given a second thought too. Found Poetry is a form where people can find poetry in everyday life, like text, billboards, magazines etc. For instance, I was inspired to mess around and try “finding” some poetry in a local newspaper at work this week.

FOUND POETRY on my Instagram story highlights

I was pretty surprised at what I found and now I am hooked. My hands are stained from newspaper ink, markers, pens, and I have already begun putting my found poems together in one notebook making a sort of hand-made chapbook. (I will make an official post about my Found Poetry soon)

Conclusion:

I am stoked for the New Year and I am working hard to set up my work and myself for an even more successful year. What am I working on right now? Submitting my best-polished work to literary journals and magazines, putting together a small chapbook of my poems to self-publish (maybe) on Kindle, and finishing my book Ghost in the Woods so that I can start submitting it to literary agents/publishers.

What do I want to accomplish in 2019?

Honing this blog into a more coherent and substantial literary blog, maybe even monetizing it, providing more content to my followers/readers that can actually help them.

Sidenote:

A couple months ago I finally set up a Patreon Creator Page. My Patreon is different from this blog in that it provides “behind-the-scenes” access to my creative process, work (including rough drafts), and special updates. This is a more personal online venue where my followers can show their appreciation for my work by becoming Patrons and giving a little bit of $ to contribute to my writing.

Right now I am offering Help/Tutoring to those that donate $20/month to my Patreon.

Be a PATRON! Subscribe to my Patreon for one month ($20) and receive one on one help with your writing for an entire month!

It’s been a great year and I can’t wait for 2019!

I want to say Thank you to all of my Followers, subscribers, and to any readers that stumble on this post. Thank you for reading!

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Alina Happy Hansen October 2018

-Alina