Post a Comment On: Larissa Another Day

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The grandmas in our life have been warned to stay away from today's posts. Today's Project Handmade Christmas Presents 2012 is for them.

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This is a little homemade gift that any grandparent will love. I mean, what grandparent wouldn't love something plastered with the sweet angelic faces of their grandchildren?

I wanted a personalized gift to give the grandmas and I decided I wanted to create a personalized notepad using a photo of my Little Men.

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I am dividing the how-to for creating this notepad into two tutorials. This is part 1. Part 2 is HERE.

Today I am going to share how to make the picture layout for the notepad in PicMonkey.

Update 12/18/12
Since writing this tutorial PicMonkey has started charging a Royale fee for  many of its upgraded features. Several of the features I used to make this notepad  are now only available if you upgrade to the Royale. The good news is  the fee is pretty minimal and the fun of the Royale options equal  never-ending creating. Also, a lot of their features are still free to use without the upgrade.
The first thing you will need is a blank canvas. It is a great idea to have a blank canvas on hand for any number of projects. Making a blank canvas is super easy.

First go to PicMonkey. Click on Edit a Photo. Open any photo.

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Next you will want to go to the sticker option on the side, which is the three shapes.

You will click on the Geometric option. Click on the rectangle. It will appear in the middle of your photo. You will have the option to change the color. Change the color to FFFFF, which is white.

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Stretch the white rectangle over the entire photo, so that you cannot see the original photo.

Merge the layers together by clicking on the merge button at the top of the screen. Once you merge the layers the new image will be the blank white canvas.

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Save as a blank canvas.

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Now that you have a blank canvas you can use it for just about anything. But today we are going to use it to make our notepad page.

With the blank page open, you will want to go back to the sticker option. Then click on the "Your Own". That allows you to import your own photo as a sticker.

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Once you have chosen your photo, you need to move it and stretch it to go across the bottom of the canvas.

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I wanted my photo to be smaller, so I cheated and opened another rectangle sticker.

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I changed the color to match the white of the background.

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Then I stretched it over the top of the photo to make the writing part of the pad larger and the photo smaller.

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The next part is how I make the border. There may be an easier way, but this is how I figured out how to make the border I wanted.

I started by again going to the geometric sticker option. I used the rectangle.

First I changed the color to 77777, which is a delightful gray. Then I stretched the rectangle out stopping just before the edge leaving a little bit of white on the top and sides. I left enough white on the bottom to write the name above the photo.

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Then I opened another rectangle and changed it to white.

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Next, stretch out the white rectangle leaving enough gray to make the border on the top and sides. Stretch it over the bottom so that there is no gray on the bottom.

It will look like this:

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Now for the fun details.

On the very bottom is a snowflake, click on that and theme options will come up. Choose Winterland.

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Under Winterland, go to Garniture.

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I chose the scrolly thing (yup that is what I am calling it) on the very right bottom. I changed it to the same gray as the border.

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I shrank down the scroll to fit just under the border on one side. Then to duplicate the scroll, I simply right clicked on the image and chose to duplicate it.

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Then I flipped the image horizontally and put it on the other side.

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Once the scrolls are in place it is time to personalize it. If you click on the P, all of the text options will come up. I chose the EcuyerDAX, but you could choose whatever font you want.

I chose the font, changed the size and then made it the same gray.

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Place the name centered between the scrolls.

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All done. Now just save.

With the notepad paper image completed we are one step closer to a homemade personalized notepad.

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Come back tomorrow for the tutorial on putting together this handmade notepad.

Sharing here: Craft-O-Maniac, C.R.A.F.T., Sugar Bee, Today's Creative Blog,
Funky Polka Dot Giraffe