whileshenaps.com

Sewing, blogging, and creative business.

PicMonkey Tutorial: Putting an Image Inside Letters

I don’t own a graphics program, not even Photoshop, and investing in
one isn’t in the budget this year. Instead I’m really enjoying learning
to use free online programs to their utmost.

PicMonkey_Logo

PicMonkey
is one of my very favorites. You may know of PicMonkey as a photo
editing program, which it is, but it’s also an incredibly powerful tool
for creativity. This post is part of a series of PicMonkey
tutorials I’ve created. See the first one here and the second here. Enjoy!

In PicMonkey you can easily take one of your photos and use it to fill in some text like this:

Grass graphic
Use this technique to make an eye-catching blog or Etsy shop banner, a nice graphic for a blog post, or use it on your business cards. Ready? Let’s get started!

First, import your “white” background photo into PicMonkey (Creating a white background to use with PicMonkey is really easy and useful. Get the quick how-to here.) Now add some black text. Choose a wide font and make it nice and big so there’ll be plenty of space for the photo to show through. Merge your layers.

Step 1
Go to Textures (that’s the icon along the left side that looks like a mesh diamond) and click Your Own, then Open My Texture. This allows you to import your own photo.

Step 2
Now you’ll see your photo, but it’ll be behind the black text.

Step 3
To blend them, set the Blend option to “Screen” and play with the Fade, bringing it close to 0.

Step 4
Lookin’ snazzy! Resize and add some more text, then save it to your desktop.Sew a rainbow graphic
Or take it a step further if you’d like by adding an additional texture. I chose this one from Weave.

Step 5
It’s looking all fabric-like now! I’ll let you take it from here. The creative options are pretty endless.Softies Text and Photo
After playing around a bit I think it’s best to use an image that is easy to read even in small bits. Your button stash would be great, or grass, or clouds. Give it a try and link back in the comments so that we can see what you come up with!

Comments

  4. Tracy says

    me again…Tracy here…love it! I just had a play with my blog header and I’m definitely going to keep working on it! I also just watched your sidebar video…terrific to see and hear you working! brave you for doing it! we all should really, it makes the whole thing so much more alive!

  5. abbyjane says

    Hi Tracy,
    That's awesome that you're trying some different blog header ideas in PicMonkey! It makes it so fun and so easy to change things up. I love it!
    And thank you, too, for the nice words about my video. It's the trailer for my new book, Stuffed Animals. I'm so glad you liked it!
    -Abby

  8. Gail91 says

    You should send this tutorial to picmonkey for placement in their favorite user tutorials. I think a lot of people would welcome this knowledge as it is definitely great for a lot of things including making logos.

  11. Nicole Bertram says

    Hi Abby,
    I’ve been going through your awesome and informative blog for the last couple of days and love it! I just tried this tutorial, and even for a computer-neophyte, it was totally do-able! I didn’t take it much farther, but proudly posted my experiment as my new header
    http://www.nicolebertram.ca
    I look forward to trying more of your tutorials, as I learn more about design and blogging.

  15. Jeremy says

    Thanks for the great tutorial! unfortunately i am running into a snag. when i set the blend mode to screen, my texture disappears completely and i am left with only text. do you have any idea what is going wrong?

  16. Abby Glassenberg says

    Hi Jeremy,
    I think you forgot to merge the layers first before adding texture. Be sure to head up to the top of the screen and hit the merge icon first, then bring in your texture. I hope that helps!
    Abby

    • Abby says

      Hi Bobby,

      I’m not sure. If you’d like, email me and we can figure it out: abbyglassenberg @ comcast dot net

  18. Yaa says

    Thank you so much for sharing this tutorial. I happened on it whilst looking for something else and its great.

  20. Heather says

    Really fantastic tutorial! I am loving the capabilities of Pic Monkey! I just used this tutorial to create a great new logo for my business. My question is, is it possible to create a transparent background using this technique? Also, what is a good size when resizing for logo purposes? Thanks so much for these great tutorials!

  21. Erin @ Paperbackstash says

    I’ve tried several times and unfortunately it also is not working for me. The text just stays black and on top of the image with the large image behind it. Will keep messing with it, but I’m wondering if Picmonkey changed something?

    • Erin @ Paperbackstash says

      Wait I figured it out – there are extra steps. When I first open a new texture, when it’s loaded it changes from normal to multiply. Before doing anything else I then have to select normal. Then after that if I press screen it will work. If it’s loaded with default at first (multiply), then it won’t work when pressing screen option.

  25. Dee says

    Thank you not only for the clear, step-by-step tutorial (with pictures, too–incredibly helpful) but also the introduction to PicMonkey.

  26. Aimey says

    How do you then add it to a colored background? I created a “burlap” word using this tutorial and it was a success. But then I try to use that word on a colored canvas and the word shows up as burlap, but the background of the word is white. I try to use all the different blend modes but it changes everything. I just want this new burlap text on my orange background – help!

    • Abby says

      Hi Aimey, I’m not a PicMonkey expert. If you have specific questions I would recommend contacting PicMonkey via Twitter or Facebook to ask for help.

        • Abby says

          I think if you started by choosing “Design” and selected “Transparent Canvas” you could then proceed with the tutorial and get an image with transparent letters, but I haven’t tried it.

  28. Kelsie Ann says

    This tutorial is one of the greatest things I have found in a long time! I was so excited to find this I have shared it in my most recent blog post. I linked up to your blog and this tutorial and gave you credit for the information. I think my followers will love this little trick- I know I did. Below is the link to the post:

    http://cutcraftcreate.blogspot.com/2016/05/photo-editing-hack-that-you-need-to-know.html

    THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
    Kelsie Ann
    Cut, Craft, Create

  29. Debra says

    Do you know if it is possible to do different pictures for each letter? I wanted to make a DADDY picture with a picture in each letter.

    • Abby says

      I’m not sure that’s possible, Debra. The only way I can think to do that would be to first create a collage of your pictures. Then use that as the image that fills the letters.

    • KELSIE SAUSAMAN says

      Maybe if you can make a collage photo first with 5 photos next to each other (than save it as 1 photo) and get the letters to overlap juuuuuust right it could work. It would take some work but maybe? Or make 5 seperate photos using this technique and only do one letter “D” “A” etc. For each one. Then after you’ve made the finished peekaboo letters put all of those together in a collage to make it spell out “daddy”?

      Good luck!

  31. rushtri says

    hi when I click the ‘screen’ option under blend, the image just disappears? know how to fix it?

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