I recently made some easy printable wall art for our bedroom, and today I’m going to show you exactly how you can create your own printable artwork for free! For my art, I chose to print out the latitude and longitude of two cities that mean a lot to my husband and I, the city where we met (Washington, DC) and the city where we got married (Atlanta, GA). I also opted to make a printable of our children’s initials and birthdates. I printed them on cardstock, and used navy houndstooth fabric as a mat for my cheapo IKEA picture frames. Instant art on a budget!
There are several ways to make printable art, but I am going to walk you through the process that I always use. It’s easy and free, and you can create any type of printable you choose – maybe your favorite quote, Bible verse, song lyrics, dates or places that mean a lot to you, etc. The possibilities are endless. You can design it in any color or fonts you’d like.
The program that I love to use is PicMonkey. Although they offer a pay-per-month upgraded version, their basic version is free. (They are not paying me to promote them! I just love using their site.)
First, go to PicMonkey.
Choose the “Create a Collage” option. You will see the screen below.
When you hover over the boxes, little “X”s will appear in the corners. Click the little “X” in the corners of two of those boxes so you are left with only one big box.
Save this and then close it. (Unfortunately I don’t know of a way to use text on a collage so you’ll have to go back in to the “edit a photo” mode.) Go back to the PicMonkey main screen and this time choose “Edit a Photo.” Choose the photo collage that you just saved.
Crop your “photo” – I normally choose 8×10 since this is a standard photo size.
Now you’re ready to add your text! This is the fun part. Play around with fonts, colors and sizes. You can even add a border or graphics.
Print it on photo paper or cardstock and frame it! You can use fabric, scrapbook paper, wrapping paper, etc, as a decorative photo mat. Gotta love saving money! Wall art can cost a pretty penny, so this is a fun, easy way to create your own personalized art without spending much (or any) money at all.
What message would you choose for your printable art?
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Kelly @ View Along the Way says
So pretty! I love the idea to use latitude & longitude of places that are important to you. Now I’m inspired to do something similar! Great tutorial.
Erin Spain says
Thanks Kelly!
reFresh reStyle says
Love it! I’ve been wanting an easy to follow tutorial, perfect!
Debbie
Erin Spain says
Thanks Debbie!
kelly @stayingonbudget says
This is great! I love it…thanks for this tutorial!
diyonthecheapblog says
Thanks Kelly!
Alicia Browder says
This is just what I needed to know. I have been using Picmonkey in editing my photos since Picnik is already not available but, I never knew I can make a printable wall art with it. I will definitely give this a try! 🙂 Thanks for sharing this.
Erin @ DIY on the Cheap says
Thanks Alicia! I was so sad when Picnik went away. I’ve fallen in love with PicMonkey though!