Posts Tagged ‘PicMonkey’

Basics of Blogging- Want to make a grab badge?

Written by katie on May 28, 2012. Posted in Blogging, Tutorials

Have you ever seen those buttons on the side of some blogs and wondered what they are? Well those are grab badges. A grab badge is basically a way of publicising your blog- if people like what they read they may put your button on the side of their blog with your link- it is a way of increasing your readers and opening you up to new people you might not necessarily find.

The first thing to do is make a grab badge- over the coming months we will be design ideas. If you have an elaborate design in mind then it may be worth asking a designer to do it for you, (cheeky plug, my hubby and I do blog design at Pink Egg!) however it is really easy to whip up a simple photo grab badge yourself using any number of editing packages we have been showcasing over the last few weeks. I am going to use PicMonkey. Here is a step by step guide to making a super simple badge.

1. Open up PicMonkey and upload the photo you want to use.

2. The first thing you need to do is crop your image so it resembles something of a square. Don’t worry about resizing properly as we will do this later. Just click on crop and then drag the free box around until it resembles a square- it doesn’t have to be exact but get as near to a square as you can.

3. You may want to add some effects to make the photo look a bit more interesting. On PicMonkey just go to the second icon down which looks like a test tube type thing and you will find loads of great effects. Pick one that will make your badge stand out- after all you want people to be drawn to it enough to click to have a look.

4. Now it’s time to add the text. Just click the fourth icon down on the left hand menu which resembles a ‘P’ Here you are greeted with a load of fonts, have a play around with it and add your text on. Remember you can also change the colour and size of the font- it is worth having a few attempts to see which you like best.

5. Finally the last thing to do is resize your photo- if you go on to the first icon- basic edits and right down at the bottom there is resize. It is totally up to you to decide what size you want your badge to be, but around 200 x 200 is a good size- if your photo isn’t exactly a square just make sure you untick ‘keep proportions.’

6. Finally save and voila your new grab badge is ready! This is just a really simple way of getting a badge- but do have a play around because you will be able to make some really nice ones that really sum up what your blog is about- especially put some thought into your photo- you want one that reflects your blog.

Once you have made your badge you now need to create an html code for your image so you can place it on your blog. The best place to do this is using an online photo saving site like photobucket. Below are some step by step instructions- it is really simple.

1. Upload your image to Photobucket.

2. Go to the album which you have placed the photo in, hover your cursor over the photo and you will find a box comes up that has a number of links. Copy the html link which will look something like this.

5. You need to add your blog url into the html code so it knows to link back to you. All you need to do is substitute your blog name after the first a ref section.

Like this.

6. You then need to add it into an widget/gadget or html box on your sidebar. This obviously fully depends what package you are using. For example on blogger you would ‘Add a Gadget’ and then choose html

7. Add the following code into your site. Make sure you change the bits in other colours to your own details.

The image location html code is the code from Photobucket.

Therefore say for example for my old blogger blog it would be something like this-

8. Once you have done that you should have made your very own grab badge.

9. That’s it! It is that simple. Now be sure to spread the word and get adding other badges- networking is what will make your blog get more hits.

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Our First Thoughts On PicMonkey.

Written by katie on April 16, 2012. Posted in Blogging, Design, Photo Editing, Photography, Tutorials

Here at I heart snapping, we love taking photos. And we love editing our photos even more. Over the next few months we will be showing you how to edit your photo’s and make them look awesome using some of the most popular packages including Picasa, Pixlr, Photoshop, as well as iPhone apps too. After all, it is important to have knowledge of different editing software, as they can all bring different dimensions to your photos. We decided to start with PicMonkey as it is the one that most bloggers seem to find the most accessible at the moment and which a lot of bloggers seem to be turning to. One blogger who is particularly passionate about photography is The Boy and Me and she has written another informative review on her take on PicMonkey.

PicMonkey first came to our attention after it was announced that another firm favourite of ours Picnik was being stopped on the 19th April 2012. Picnik was fab for it’s easiness and convenience, so we were interested to hear about PicMonkey while mopping up our tears over Google’s decision. The main question is does it compare?

First of all it is worth noting that PicMonkey has been created by some of the original folk behind Picnik so that means we have high hopes for it.

The first screen we are greeted with is the home screen…

It may be shallow to say…but it looks prettier than Picnik. Surely that means it will do good things to your photos?

When you upload your photo ready for taking, you are greeted with a really easy to use and sleek looking menu sidebar. From here you can do lots of editing to your chosen photo- from the basic touch up’s such as resizing, cropping and rotating, to more advance options such as adding text or using some of their chosen filters.

Here are some examples of some of the filters which we really like- there are 37 in total which are free for the time being, and they can make even the most boring photo look a bit more interesting. Love them or loathe them, these filter effects are everywhere at the moment, and you can literally change the effect of your photo with the click of a button.

At the moment there is no way of doing a collage, like the one above on PicMonkey but it says on their home page that is coming soon. This one was done on Photoshop, but for bloggers who don’t have the technical know how (or money!) to buy an expensive package like Adobe Creative Suite, the collage option will be a welcome addition to make your photos look great as I always think collages look fab on blogs.

Another excellent feature of PicMonkey is the touch up menu. Want to look a little thiner around the face? Have less wrinkles? Whiter teeth? Just come on this menu and you can instantly change the way you look at the click of a button. As with all of PicMonkeys menu’s, it is very easy to use and very straightforward. While I think that is the little imperfections that make a photo and a memory, this screen is handy if you did want too change slight aspects of a photo. It has a red eye reduction option which is handy too. Here is an example of me slightly tweaking a photo of myself and my sister- you don’t want to go to OTT and end up not looking like yourself.

The touch up tool is great, I personally wouldn’t use it, but I can see how it may appeal to some people.

Finally there are a fun and wide range of overlays, such as hearts, speech bubbles, symbols and labels which you can add to your photo, as well as lots of different fonts and textures.

Overall we were really impressed with PicMonkey. It is really sleek to look at, enjoyable and fun, and above all it delivers great results. It is easy enough and straightforward enough to encourage even the most technophobe person to give photo editing a go. While more experienced photo editors may want more, it is a perfect go between when you want a quick fix.

Here at I heart snapping we love the new PicMonkey and think it will be around for a long time yet. We will be using it for some of our tutorials over the next few months so stick around if you want to learn more about it. Why not give it a go and you will soon find your photos and blog posts will be looking fabulous!

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