PicMonkey. A Free Photo Editor I use to create collages and more . . .

I keep thinking I need to learn how to use Photoshop. There are so many cool things I could do with it.

But my oh my is there ever a steep learning curve!

A fellow blogger gave a class on making 'pinnable' pictures at this year's Blog West conference.

Pinnable pictures often include text or graphics of some kind and that's something that can be done in Photoshop. Assuming you can figure out how to do it. I always seem to need to add text to a picture right this instant, leaving me no time for any figuring out.

Enter PicMonkey.

I admit, to my shame, that I poo pooed this free and oh so simple online photo editor. After all, serious bloggers surely used only the most sophisticated of programs. Didn't they?

Our blogging instructor was a very serious blogger. And used PicMonkey. Perhaps she had good reason?

She sure did. While making my first tutorial a while back I realized I was going to need a 'pinnable' picture to go with it. Something that explained what the tutorial was all about. I still didn't know how to use Photoshop so I googled PicMonkey and just plunged in.

I can't believe I waited so long! It's simple, flexible and free. You can do more than I ever imagined.

I made a collage for Travel Tuesdays.

I made a Facebook banner for our Travel Tuesdays' Facebook page.

I played with effects and banners.

Themes . . .

And collages . . .

And for $33 a year I can add extra fonts and fancy features!

PicMonkey where have you been all my (blogging) life???

Will I ever learn Photoshop???

 Absolutely! I bought an online Photoshop course called Fine Art Grunge and I'm just waiting for the garden to go to sleep so I'll have time to work on it.

One more thing to add to my bloggy bag of tricks.

How did I learn to use PicMonkey? Check out these blogs for their tutorials:

The Coupon Project

The Blog Guide Book

The Blog Guide Book (2)

Something Swanky

Something Swanky (2)

The best part? You don't have to be a blogger to use this. Make a vacation collage or a 5x7 photo collage card of your new baby or the family. Create a cute Christmas card or make an inspirational poster with your favorite picture and quote to put on Facebook. The sky's the limit!

Have Fun!

  * I am in no way affiliated with PicMonkey. I just really, really love what I can do with their program.