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Step-by-step guide · 6 steps · about 3 minutes

How to make Pinterest pins from your own photos

Have photos but no page to paste? Add them to Made to Spark and get finished Pinterest pins in your own photos, with headlines written for you, each linking to your shop or blog. Here's the whole thing, click by click, with two real food photos.

A plain photo of Peruvian ceviche in a blue bowl
Your photo
Finished Pinterest pin 1 made from the food photos Finished Pinterest pin 2 made from the food photos Finished Pinterest pin 3 made from the food photos
3 pins, about a minute later

Before you start

  1. 1

    Click New Pin, then “My photos”

    Use photos you took yourself: your products, dishes, outfits or rooms. Here we use two food photos from the Peru food post on the Adventure Whisper travel blog. Once you are signed in to Made to Spark:

    1. 1 Click New Pin on the left. On a phone or tablet, tap the menu button at the top left first.
    2. 2 Click the My photos tab at the top.
    3. 3 Drop up to 7 photos into the box, or click it to choose them from your computer. On a phone, tap it to pick photos, or tap take a photo.
    The New Pin page with the My photos tab open and a box to drop up to 7 photos 1 2 3
    Tip: Already made pins from a page? Click from pages you’ve pinned under the box to use one of its photos again.
  2. 2

    Check your photos, the link and the topic

    Your photos show in a row, and Made to Spark takes a quick look at each one:

    1. 1 The first photo, marked Lead, goes first on your pins. Drag the photos to change the order. The × takes a photo out.
    2. 2 Under “Where should the pin link to?”, paste the page people should land on: your product page or blog post. It is optional, but pins with a link get clicks.
    3. 3 “What’s it about?” is filled in from your first photo. Change it to what your pins should be about: the headlines are written from it. We typed “Peruvian food to try in Peru”.
    4. 4 Click Show me pins.
    Two food photos added, the first marked Lead, with the link to the blog post and the topic Peruvian food to try in Peru 1 2 3 4
    Tip: A note under a photo tells you something to check. Low resolution: the photo is small and may look soft on a pin, so use a bigger one if you have it. Landscape: it gets cropped to a tall pin. Already has text: see “My photo already has a title on it” in the questions below.
  3. 3

    Tap the designs you like

    Under Templates you see ready-made pin designs, already filled with your photos and a headline. Nothing is chosen yet. Each design you tap becomes one pin. Tap + on each one you like, up to 5. A chosen design gets a number. Tap it again to take it out.

    1. 1 With Mix photos on, each pin uses a different photo. With One photo for all, every pin uses the same one. You find both above the designs, next to your photos.
    2. 2 Some designs need 3 or more photos. Added only one or two? The page tells you how many more designs a third photo opens up.
    Pin designs made from the two food photos, three of them chosen and numbered 1 to 3, with Make 3 pins at the bottom Tap + to choose
    Tip: Selling a product? Click A product? Try AI scenes at the top: AI puts your product into new photo settings, like a studio or a cosy room. Each of those pins uses 1 credit. The dark AI image card makes a brand-new picture of your topic instead of using your photos, also for 1 credit.
  4. 4

    Check the words, then click Make

    Each design you chose shows its headline underneath:

    1. 1 Click a headline to change the words, or tap the round arrows next to it for a new one.
    2. 2 Click the Make button at the bottom. It counts the designs you chose: we chose 3, so ours reads Make 3 pins. Next to it you see what they use, like “Included in your plan”.
    The headline under each chosen design and the Make 3 pins button 1 2
  5. 5

    Wait about a minute: your pins are ready

    You land on My Pins and watch them being made. You can leave the page; they keep going. Give each one a quick look. To change something, click Edit under that pin, then Edit text and photos (no credit).

    Three finished Pinterest pins made from the two food photos in the Just made box ✎
  6. 6

    Send them to Pinterest

    On the right of your new pins:

    1. 1 First time? Click Connect Pinterest and allow access on Pinterest. You only do this once, and it brings you straight back to your pins.
    2. 2 Pick a board. Made to Spark picks the one that fits best and marks it (suggested). You can choose another.
    3. 3 Leave When on Spread out (recommended), so your pins go out over the coming days. Want to choose the days? Pick Pick dates myself.
    4. 4 Click Schedule all 3.
    5. 5 Rather not connect Pinterest? Skip 1 to 4 and click Download all to save the pictures, then upload them to Pinterest yourself.
    The Send them to Pinterest box with a Connect Pinterest button and a Download all button 1
    Before you connect Pinterest
    After connecting: the Peru Travel board suggested, When set to Spread out (recommended), and a Schedule all 3 button 2 3 4 5
    After you connect: pick a board, then Schedule all 3
    Tip: Scheduling comes with every subscription plan. If you only bought credits, you see See plans with the scheduler instead of Connect Pinterest. Use Download all, or pick a plan there.

Done! Here are the 3 pins from this guide

Two photos, three designs, three pins ready for Pinterest. Each one links to the blog post.

Pinterest pin about Peruvian food, magazine cover design
Magazine cover
Pinterest pin about Peruvian food, tilted band design
Tilted band
Pinterest pin about Peruvian food, dark band design
Dark band
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Next guide

Schedule your pins, and post them to more than one board

From My Pins, or fill your whole Pinterest calendar in one click.

Questions

Which photos work best?

Clear photos of one thing: a product, a dish, an outfit or a room. JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 7 at a time. Tall photos fit pins best; a wide photo gets cropped. A photo smaller than 1,000 pixels on its short side is marked Low resolution, because it can look soft on a pin. Photos straight from a phone are big enough.

Do I need a link?

No, it is optional. But a pin with a link sends people to your shop or post, so it is worth adding. You can also add it later, when you schedule the pin.

My photo already has a title on it. What happens?

Made to Spark spots it and asks what you want to do. Make new pins from it crops around the old text, so the titles don’t clash. On a subscription plan you can also pick Use it as a finished pin: it goes to My Pins as it is, ready to schedule, with no new design.

Do these pins use credits?

Template pins made from your photos are included in every subscription plan, up to your plan’s monthly amount. After that, or with credits only, each uses 1 credit. AI scene pins and AI image pins always use 1 credit each. The bar at the bottom shows what your pins use before you click Make.

What if something goes wrong?

If a pin does not work, its spot says what happened, and nothing is charged for it. Often you see a Try again button: click it once. If you pick more pins than you have credits for, the Make button changes into a button to get more credits, so nothing starts half done.

Stuck on a step? Just reply to any email from us, or use the chat button at the bottom right.