How to Decorate Instagram Stories

September 11, 2020
By
Hugh Stephens

Discover how to decorate Instagram stories and learn 9 hacks that will make your stories stand out and engage the audience.

FACT: Instagram Stories let you take creativity to a whole new level.The problem? It can be hard to decide how to decorate your Stories and what hacks to use to make them look better than what everyone else posts. Should you add an Instagram sticker? Or perhaps use a GIF? Add a poll? There are so many different features to help you decorate Instagram Stories, after all. In this post, you’ll discover the best of them and learn how to decorate your Instagram stories. Ready? Let’s begin.

The Benefits of Sharing Creative Instagram Stories

Let’s get something out of the way - Why should you even consider sharing more creative Stories on Instagram?Well, the main reason is that they don’t look like everything else on the platform. Creative Stories can help you engage with your audience’s attention and help your brand stand out.But that’s not all. Here are more reasons though to learn how to decorate your Instagram Stories:

#1. Decorated Stories Improve Engagement

Creative Stories increase your chances of having more people seeing your content. Many Instagram users click on Stories to see what everyone is posting.However, if the first Story is not appealing, your visitors will simply skip to someone else’s content.On the contrary, if you are sharing creative Stories that are also interactive, people will start engaging more with your content. And needless to say, the more they engage with your Instagram Stories, the easier it will be for the algorithm to prioritize your content.

#2. Attract More Partnerships

Creativity can make you stand out. The more unique you are, the easier it becomes to define your brand and attract partnerships with people seeking brands like yours to collaborate.Use your creative content to attract potential partners and influencers who like your content.

How to Make Instagram Stories Creative in Simple Ways

Let’s start with a few simple ideas for decorating your Stories.

#1 Use the Eraser tool to create effects.

The eraser tool helps you delete any coloring mistakes you might have made. But if used creatively, it can also help you hide parts of your photo, and highlight only its specific area. With this simple hack, you can turn any ordinary photo into an intriguing visual, like this one:

An example of a way to decorate an Instagram story.

#2. Decorate your story with creative type

Did you know that you could also mix type with a photo to make your Story more creative?Yup, it’s true. Here’s one example:

An Instagram story decorated with creative type.

Adding type is an easy way to transform your photo, and add a new dimension to it.

#3. Add personality to the story with your handwriting

You can use so many fonts in your Instagram Stories. But you can also include your handwriting, like in this example:

Handwriting used in an Instagram story.

Adding handwritten text is a quick hack that can truly make your Stories more authentic.But don’t worry; you don’t need to aim for perfection when typing on your screen. Instagram Stories are more about creativity and engagement than high quality that looks too polished to be genuine.

#4. Create a collage of photos

Instagram collages are so trendy, aren’t they? And for a reason, of course. You can use them to share photos in one Instagram Story.Now, there are many ways to create an Instagram collage and we’ve outlined them in our guide to Instagram collages. Keep in mind; it’s not enough to add various photos in your Story. Think of ideas on how you can play with the photos and the colors to make your Story stand out.

5 Instagram Stories Hacks to Try Out

Now, let’s also explore some additional hacks that could help you decorate Instagram stories. Here are some ideas I think you might want to try out.

#1. Paste photos to Stories

If you want to share multiple photos with your Story, you can use Instagram’s Layout option to do so.However, you might want to rearrange them in different ways than the ones offered in Layout.Here’s how to do it:

  1. Open Instagram Stories
  2. Choose a photo in your Photo Library
  3. Copy it
  4. Go back to the Story. You will see a pop-up to paste the photo
  5. Repeat the process to add more photos

TIP: You can find out more details about this hack here.

#2. Share Live Photos as Boomerangs

Boomerangs are so popular on Instagram. They are fun and they are easier to shoot than a video.

An Instagram story decorated with a boomerang.

That’s why we love this hack.If you enjoy taking Live Photos on your phone, you can start turning them into Boomerangs on Instagram.TIP: Remember that this hack only works for the photos you’ve taken in the last 24 hours.

  1. Go to Stories
  2. Pick a Live Photo from your camera roll
  3. Tap at the screen for a few seconds
  4. The word ‘Boomerang’ will show up, and you’ll see the photo in action

#3. Change the background color for your posts.

A good way to boost your reach is to share your Instagram feed posts to your Stories. How can you make them more creative then?You can use your background colors to match your branding.When you’re usually sharing a post to your Instagram Stories, the background color is automatically selected.Here’s how to change it.

  1. Pick the photo that you want to share from your existing posts.
  2. Share it on your Instagram Stories.
  3. Select the drawing tool
  4. Pick the color selection tool and drag it to your preferred color from the photo.
  5. Tap the screen for a few seconds to change your background

PRO TIP: You can also create a highlight cover for your Stories.

#4. Create a shadow on your text

Another way to be creative is to add a second layer to your Story’s text.This creates a shadow effect that makes your text stand out.

Shadow text on an Instagram story.

Are you interested in trying it out? Here’s what you need to do.

  1. Type the words you want to include
  2. Customize the colors and the font
  3. Type the words again as new text
  4. Pick a different color this time and place the text right behind the initial text
  5. Your shadow effect is ready!

#5. Create a rainbow of colors for your text

Do you want to create an ombre effect on your text? How about a rainbow of colors?

Colors decorating Instagram story.

You can now pick multiple colors on your text to create more appealing captions.Here’s what you need to do.

  1. Type the words
  2. Select all the letters
  3. Move the cursor to the letters that you want to change the color
  4. Pick the color of your choice from the color selection
  5. Move the cursor again to the letters that you want to change now
  6. Pick a different color if you want an ombre effect

You can use as many colors as you wish. The creative direction is yours!

Takeaway

Instagram stories can let your creativity truly shine. But with so many different ways to decorate Instagram Stories, it’s hard to decide which option would work best. In this post, I’ve shared some of our favorite Instagram stories hacks. Hopefully, they’ll inspire you to take your stories to a whole new level. Good luck.

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