Many years ago I picked up a deal on AppSumo for “Share As Image Pro”.  Back then it was cute little online program that I paid a one-time fee to use.  It was slightly helpful.  I forgot about it more often than not.  However, shortly after I got the deal the company did a major overhauling and became Stencil.  Now, lemme tell you, this was well worth the money I paid!  All my lovely banners on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube?  Yeah I made them on the fly in Stencil the other night when I was working on my re-branding.  Stencil also sends me helpful blog posts about creating images for media and information on trends.  If I had more time to follow through, I bet that information would really help me out LOL.

Yes, I have mad Photoshop skills and fonts galore.  Heck, I know I have always been one of the lucky people to even have had access to PS to make my art/ads.   However, there is one thing Stencil has Photoshop beat by and that is making things for your online life on the fly.

Stencil has free quotes, free fonts, free stock photos, AND you can upload your own images.  These images are safe for commercial use as well as editorial use.  No matter how hard I shake my PS, it doesn’t give me anything for free!

Stencil works online.  I have a little button I added through the Chrome store to access it.  So, even when I am on my teeny HP Stream, which is really good for just the internet/Word documents, I *can* still make graphics if I need to.  I do not have drop what I am doing and go sit at my main computer.  I know graphics make posts and tweets look better and it stinks when I am not on my main computer and need a graphic…but with Stencil I do not really HAVE to be tied to my desktop chair.

I am only now really using Stencil, but I should have used it all along.  They have some really cool features.  I love that they have pre-sized templates and you can change things with the click of a button.  I also love that I can upload my own images or items to save in my account to use over and over.  Making a Pinterest sized ad has never been easier.  Problems with sizing Facebook ads?  Yeah they have that too.  Blog posts?  Yup.  E-mail headers?  Yup.

I’ve included a handy link.  Go check them out.  If you want to help support me and use something cool you could BUY your own subscription and help me get some affiliate money.    But, I get it, money is tight.   They have a free trial and a free subscription, which should be plenty for the average user.   🙂

PS I made the image in the blog post online with one of their templates that you can customize.  It took me about 1 minute for making, downloading, and uploading!

Stencil