No tech background. No designer. Just a few simple steps. I’ll walk you through them, slow and easy.
I knew carousels worked. People save them. They swipe through them. They share them. They’re some of the best posts you can make on Instagram.
So why didn’t I make them? Because they’re a lot of work. Even with Canva templates, every one took forever. And time is something I don’t have much of.
But I still wanted them. The results were worth it. So I went looking for a better way.
I found a YouTube video that explained one. It was clear and simple. Then I took what it taught and used Claude to break it down even more. Plain, step-by-step instructions I could follow.
I wanted to learn the process myself. To save time. To finally make the content I needed.
Here’s what I learned, in the simplest words I can give you.
The little “aha”
Here’s the secret, in plain English.
When you ask a computer to “make me a nice carousel,” it doesn’t know what you like. So it makes the most average thing it can. The same thing it makes for everyone else.
But if you show it a picture you love first, it does better. Give it a few rules to follow, and it makes something that looks like yours.
Think of a kid. “Draw a house” gets you anything. Show them a drawing first and say “make yours like this,” and now you’re getting somewhere. The picture does the work.
So that’s what I did. I showed it a look I loved. I taught it my rules. Here’s how — step by step.
Step 1: I found a look I liked
I went on Pinterest and scrolled. I looked at carousel and poster designs until one made me go “ooh, that one.” Then I took a screenshot.
That’s it. One picture. You don’t need to know a thing about design. You just need to know what you like when you see it.
Step 2: I asked Claude to turn that look into “rules”
I opened Claude. That’s the AI helper I use. I dropped in my screenshot and typed one sentence:
“Turn this into a design system in an HTML file and a design.md file.”
Don’t worry about those technical terms. A design system is a document that outlines the rules for how design elements should be used. Your colors. Your fonts. The way your slides are laid out.
Claude looked at my picture and wrote all of that down for me. Now it knew how I like things to look.
Step 3: I turned those rules into a “skill”
This is the part that saved me the most time. A “skill” is just saved instructions. Think of a recipe card.
Once you write a recipe down, anyone can make the dish the same way. Every time. Without you standing there explaining it.
So I had Claude save my carousel instructions as a recipe. My own little “carousel skill.” From then on, it remembered how to make my carousels.
Step 4: Now I just tell it what to talk about
This is the fun part. I type something like, “Make a carousel about 5 reasons every wedding needs a photo booth.”
It builds the slides. In my look. It even writes the caption. I look it over, post it, and I’m done. Minutes, not a whole evening.
What changed for me
I can create an Instagram carousel fast now.
I don’t have to mess around aligning elements in Canva or Photoshop.
I can create more content than before.
And I can experiment with different design styles. I just upload a screenshot or an image and update my design system files.
The honest bit
The first setup took me over an hour. I was dialing in the look of my design and correcting issues.
If you’re not specific about an element in your design, Claude will make that decision for you. And sometimes it looks like generic AI.
So spend the time on your look up front. You only do it once. After that, it saves you time every week.
This is just one way I use AI
Making carousels faster is only the start. I use AI to write proposals, build better offers, and get more done in less time.
I teach all of it at barrywong.me. It’s built for photo booth owners in their first few years. Simple, practical, no fluff.
Want the AI tactics I use to save time and book more events? Start with my free Branded Photo Booth Mock-up Prompt. I’ll send you the rest, one step at a time.