With spring speeding by and summer swiftly on the way, Picmonkey (a free online photo editing tool) is doing it’s best to roll out summer themed overlays and clip art on it’s intuitive online software.
Picmonkey has added four “new” overlays to it’s already jam packed list of overlay options. The free online photo editor currently has over 43 overlay options under different categories!
The following chart will give you an idea of all the options under their named categories:
As you can see from the above Overlay chart, it seems that Picmonkey is trending to adding more and more digital scrapbooking elements to its overlay options. These are all great add-ons that you can have access to in order to jazz up your scrapbooking or other family photos.
The “new” and free ones that will be used for this blog tutorial are Sparkle Star effects( a multiple star pattern overlay), Buggles (cute little clip art insects) and graphic blossoms (clip art images of summer flowers).
I have used the current photo of daisies in a field that Picmonkey makes available to experiment with these effects. They are a fun way to add a summer touch to your outdoor photos.
The following is an example of the daisy flower default photo using an overlay with the Sparkle Star Effect. Please note as with other Picmonkey tutorials, I have exaggerated the effects a bit in order to illustrate how the picture has changed. You will be able to adjust the options to suit your taste.
Now, in the following photo I have proceeded to add a few graphic blossoms added into the mix.
In this third overlay option , I have added a few of the illustrated clip art insects available on the “Buggles” option. I just included a little bee, a dragon fly and hiding in the corner a grasshopper. Remember, you can add just one overlay or combine them to your taste.
In order to give you an idea of how all these effects might look on a different photo or image. Here, I have added all three effects to a photo of flowers in a field that I obtained from Microsoft’s free online photos. The only difference is that I added photo editing effects from Picmonkey’s “Effects” menu before adding the overlays. I used the “Orton” and “Tranquil” effect.
When I finished adding the effects, and saved the photo. I proceeded to add a frame. I experimented with the paid Royale subscription “Craft Scissors” option so you can see the scrapbook type of edges that you can add to your frames.
You have quite of bit of control over the border size, the border color, the background color or if you want you can simply choose a transparent background.
Since I am just using the free options for this tutorial, I selected a frame from there.
There are five “free “ options for frames: rounded corners, simple edge, drop shadow, museum matte and Polaroid frame.
Under the Royale “paid” frame options they are…Photo corners, Film edge, Daguerreotype, Craft Scissors and Sketchedy.
The following is the photo with a simple frame and some added caption space.
I added the following similar overlays to another photo of flowers in a field. The difference with these photos is that I added an “Orton” and “Tranquil” photo effect to both photos. In the picture with the yellow daffodils, I included a “Frost” white edge effect. Then I proceeded to add the overlays. I had a lot of fun creating these dreamy, ethereal quality photos and with a free tool like Picmonkey, I just couldn’t resist!
As you can see, with the chart of overlay options that was posted above there are a lot of free options that can jumpstart your photo editing and digital scrapbooking hobby and of course, create photos to share with family and friends!
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How fun!! Thank you for sharing this editor, I did not know it and now I definitely see myself using it for party invites and birthday cards!
That’s great…I am glad it was helpful. Picmonkey seems to be adding new tools all the time! Unfortunately, they do seem to put their “vintage” goodies in their paid subscription. Even so their free tools are really good.
Oh yes, it is lovely! Another one I quite like, which gives ‘vintage’ or ‘instagram-like’ filters is http://www.instantretro.com/ but you might know about it already!