Welcome back to PicMonkey Radio, listeners. Once again, we’re here to soothe your ears with smooth jazz and delight your eyes with excellent PicMonkey creations. So don’t touch that dial, cuz we’re about to turn up the volume on this blog post and go full, like … dubstep, we guess. What do the kids like these days? Can we make “dubjazz” a thing?
An apple (or peach, or pear) a day
Who says spending your time on the computer won’t get you out in nature? Dawn Cain illustrates the marriage of technology and the great outdoors by using PicMonkey to make a map of her orchard. We’re so happy to be able to help Dawn keep track of her trees, and wish her many tasty returns on her work.
Dude! We’re always thrilled when PicMonkeyers turn their digital dreams into tangible, hold-it-in-your-hand realities, but we gotta give extra points for printing with gold foil. Sassy but classy? We’re in.
In case you missed it, we’ve recently welcomed some new graphics into our guild of graphics (not what we actually call it): Wedding and Stars & Stripes. PicMonkeyer Laura Prater showcases the latter in this exuberant illustration, so if you’ve been looking for a fun way to say ‘MURICA, consider taking a page from her book.
Sometimes we see a photo, and all we can say is: Fieeeeerce! Props to Theresa Oliver for harnessing the power of black and white, and reminding us all that there’s a reason it’s a little black dress and not a little tangerine dress.
Bucket lists can make the difference between plodding through chores and striking out on an adventure, and Polly Davies of The Enchanted Pixie has created our favorite kind: one with a summer theme.
First off, admire Polly’s graphic game, because it’s strong. Second, if you head over to her post, you can print off your very own copy of this summer to-do list. Going to the beach, picnicking, and making your own ice pops all sound like ingredients for a good summer to us: we’ll see you there!
Do you wanna take a road trip?
This is a special day in user appreciation for us, because we absolutely had to spotlight two images from the same PicMonkeyer: Renea Huffman of Instagram. Hopefully, you can see why—though they share a theme of abandoned or discarded artifacts, they’re two very different images packed with personality.
We’re stepping in the wayback machine for this one, gang—or, more accurately, blogger Lisa Lisson is. In her 2014 post, Lisa lets us in on a surprising use for a photo editor: enhancing old genealogical documents to make it easier to learn about your past.
This is perhaps the coolest thing ever. If PicMonkey-enabled ancestral digging reveals you’re secretly a monarch, all we ask is that you remember us little people while you’re eating gold and riding around in a caviar-plated limousine.
Stop the presses. Hold your horses. And for the love of Pete, stop your horses from printing on those presses!
You’re looking at a mermaid selfie.
Yes, intrepid Instagrammer @lady.ginger has given the world a gift we didn’t know we needed in the form of this aquatic, ethereal self-portrait. We would like to encourage all of you to create your very own mermaid selfies and make this concept as famous as it deserves to be.
Pro tip: Though we’re not sure exactly how @lady.ginger created her look, we liked the results we got with Lip Tint (selecting blue and sea-green from the color picker to brush onto skin, lips, and hair). We also got a lot of mileage out of the Themes tab, where we used vampire veins and witchy blotches to give a fishy appearance. Plus, Bokeh. Lots of magical Bokeh.
Of course, there’s more than one kind of magic. We think this photo is absolutely stunning: great lighting, unique angle, and a cute-like-a-button subject. Sometimes the real thing is more adorable than fiction!
Wait, no, we lied. Fiction is pretty great too. There’s either a great story or a whole other world contained in this double-exposed image that places a mountain range underwater.
Nancy Ray, the image’s creator, writes on Instagram: “We found Dory in the North Cascades.” Tell her we say hi.
We’ve got to admit it: sometimes we put out a tutorial, and after the adrenaline rush dissipates, we’re left wondering, “Will this tutorial fade from people’s minds? Will they still be able to learn from it in three, six, twenty-seven months? Are we making a legacy here?”
Luckily, Stephanie Williams of Boss Lady Dreams is keeping the flame alive with a wonderful tutorial on what we like to call text masking—but it goes by many names: placing an image inside of text, clipping mask with text, making an image come through text, and putting see-through text over your image, among others. Stephanie calls it “textured text” in her tutorial, and she’s got some stylin’ ideas for styling your own words, plus links to design resources that can take your projects further.
Because we wish to avoid the appearance of any impropriety, we must confess to our bias upfront. The above image comes from the Instagram account of Sadie the Husky, whose human is PicMonkey’s very own Celeste Sipherd.
We have received no financial compensation from Sadie for her inclusion in this blog post. Our final comment on the matter is LOOKIT THE DOGS, AWW WHO’S A GOOD DOG YOU ARE.
And that’s our show! Tune in next time for more PicMonkeyer-made creations, and remember to call into #picmonkey any time of day or night with your own pictorial achievements.
