Pic Monkey Tutorial and Personalized Family Halloween Portrait

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I shared a shot of this cute personalized Halloween art on my instagram and Facebook, and everyone was asking for a tutorial. I thought it was a great representation of my little family!

So... here we go.

First, I must tell you where I found the adorable clipart I used for this project. I found it on etsy. 

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to buy the clipart for yourself.

I find most of my clipart on etsy. You can expect to pay between $2 and $8. I usually only pay around $3 to $5 for a set.

A rule of thumb, when using clipart, is always use a .png file, never use a .jpg. Files that end in the .png, will have a transparent background. Files that end in .jpg will have a white or grey background, and not layer nicely, because they will cover up whatever is underneath them.

Let's get on to the tutorial, shall we? I use PICMONKEY.

You will need one tool only, and that is picmonkey. They have a free version, and a Royal version for $33 per year. The Royal version gives you access to everything you could possibly need. I highly recommend it! It's the best $33 I ever spent. Much more affordable than buying a program like illustrator or photoshop.

I am not fancy, so these are camera pics of my computer screen. High tech... right?

First thing to do is go to picmonkey and pull pic monkey up. Hover over, "design," and if will allow you to choose the canvas size you want to work with. I use this for EVERY card I design.

I chose 8x10.

I wanted it to be in landscape, rather than portrait. If you go to the left hand side, and hover over all the shapes in the column, it will tell you what they do. The first shape (looks kind of like a square) is basic edits, and will allow you to rotate your picture.

The next thing I did was to hover over the side again. This time, I chose the butterfly, which is, "overlays." Think of the project you are creating as if it is composed of layers that you lay on top of each other.

You can use what pic monkey has, or you can upload your own. I knew I wanted to use the DARLING clip art I bought from Etsy, so I went to the very top of the column, and clicked on, "your own."

I was then able to go into my files, and pull out the clipart. I keep all my clipart in a file, labeled, clipart. I clicked on my image, and hit, "choose."

This popped the image right into the project I am working on.

From there, you can size the image, by placing your mouse on the corner, and dragging the image to make it larger. You can also click on the image to drag it, and place it wherever you want on your screen.

Do the same thing for each of your images.

Next, you will add your text. To pull up, "text," options, again... hover over the menu column on the left, and click on, "text." This will bring up all the fonts that pic monkey has available. (I understand you can also use your own, but I have never needed to do that.)

If you see a font you like, and there is a crown next to it, that means it is only available for royal service. Like I said... I highly recommend paying for this. It is only $33/year, and for me, has paid for itself time and time again. It's totally worth it. I have done it for two years now.

So, click on the text you want.

Click, "add text."

A text box will appear. If you don't select the text you want, before clicking, "add text," nothing will happen.

One thing I always do, is hit the center button that can be found in the little box that is always on the screen with whatever you are doing. This will help whatever you type, to stay centered.

I also drag my side bars out, so I can click on it again, even if I have other, "layers," in my project that are on top of my text. You will understand the need to do this more, as you become more familiar with the tools and creative process. You increase the text size in the same way you increased the size of the clipart you brought in. It should look like this:

You can change the size of the text, by using the menu box, or your mouse.

Pull it out until you get it to a size that makes sense for your project. See why you want to have it centered? If I had the text on the left or the right, I would not be able to see it when I increase the size. That is just a little trick to make it easier.

I have now added all my characters, and the text. Uh-oh... the cute little devil is behind mom. No worries. You can being him to the front!

I have a track pad, so I two-finger-click. You can do that, or right-click, to get this menu to pull up.

I brought him to the front, and now, he is the top layer.

The sister witch on the side has her broom a little bit hidden. I don't really like the way her hat is facing either. Never fear... the menu bar that is always there will help us solve that. Just click the landscape arrows, and she will flip. If you click the vertical arrows, she will end up upside down. You tried it, didn't you? 

Ahhh, that looks MUCH better! The grouping seems to make more sense.

Pretty darling, right!?!

Now, you just need to save your work. Click the save button on the top of the screen.

Always save this kind of work in the highest possibly quality. If it is just text, and I have no plans to blow it up, I don't worry about it, but for images, I always save it highest quality.

Name it whatever you want, and save it wherever you want.

Hit the save button, and you are finished!

It will take you back to the edit screen after you save it, and you can tweak it more, and save additional copies if you like.

I not only like to display these in my home, but also give them to friends and family as gifts.

I created the image in pic monkey as an 8x10, but was happy with the look and quality of printing it on my home printer on card stock. I bought some 8 1/2 x 11 frames from the dollar store, and put the image inside. I wrapped them with tulle, and even put this CUTE card on the outside. I told my computer to print 9 per page, and it made them the perfect size!

I gave copies to a few friends and family members, and packaged them up with tulle,  and a card, like this:

Isn't it SO DARLING!?!

I hope you will love pic monkey as much as I do.

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a Happy and Creative Day!

Risa