Boost Your Blog // 6 Places to Find Photo Props

If you've ever been super envious of those perfectly styled blog photos you see all over Pinterest, I've got the solution for you!  You don't have to spend a butt ton of money to build your library of styling props you just need a keen & creative eye.  

this post contains affiliate links, please read my full disclosure here.

First off, make sure you have a rough idea of your blog's style.  You can start by understanding and creating a style guide and creating a brand board of inspiring images over on Pinterest.  When you do this you're less likely to say 'hey that looks nice!' to something that may not fit in with your blog's (or other social media outlet) vibe.  Understanding the vision of the posts your write and the presence you want to create will help you say yes to better photo props.

I have six places I like to find my photo props, so here's my list:

Thrift Store

Right now thrift store chic is super huge as it has been for quite a while now!  You can find pieces like wooden cutting boards, baskets, & fabric for bigger background pieces but you can also find smaller accent pieces for your photos.  I like to look for colorful glassware & dishes to use in photos as well.  This is also a great place to find classic seasonal pieces that will stay relevant year after year.

Clearance Shelves

The Target clearance shelves are my jam!  Not only can you find discount seasonal items that may be relevant the next time that season comes around but you can also find really cool textiles to use as backgrounds.  Be sure to snatch up small rugs, table runners, scarves, etc that will be great to add color & texture into your photos.  You can also check the clearance shelves of Micheal's' for knick knacks, desk accents, and more.  I found quite a few variations of succulents at my local Mike's recently! 

Target Dollar Spot/Bullseye's Playground

This is another great place to get affordable seasonal decor.  While I like to pick up fall or summer or spring decor in this area to save money I also like to find smaller specific holiday things there too.  I'm not one to decorate that much for any holiday but Christmas so having an affordable Halloween prop stash is great.  Find things that can translate into multiple holidays - like silver can be for Christmas or Halloween, red can be used around Valentine's Day or Christmas, etc.  I found some fake apples in the Target Dollar Spot for the fall back in September!  So shop often & shop early!  You can also shop seasonally here to find specific color schemes to fit in with your aesthetic.  If your blog has a lot of pastel vibes shop during the spring.  If your blog has a lot of jewel tones or has a boho vibe, shop during the early fall.

Dollar Store

Another place to find affordable seasonal decor is the Dollar Store!  I've done a nice spring decor DIY featuring some of their seasonal products and this guy will last me many spring seasons to come.  You can often find some nice little accent pieces that imitate pieces found in higher end stores.  Their floral sprig collection is awesome too!  I also look back in the automotive section to find soft, fluffy polishing cloths that you can use as a faux fur background.  I use a piece of Dollar Tree foam core board with a plank style removable wallpaper vinyl as a backdrop for nearly all of my photos and YouTube videos.

Your Own Closet

In one of my first IGTV videos, I talk about using the fabrics from your own closet as backgrounds. You can style any cardigans, dresses, or fuzzy sweaters as fun accents in your background.  Beach towels would work nicely too.  Drape different fabrics different ways to create layers and textures.  Use your own bedspread for amazing flat lays, add jewelry as an accent.  You can see that I used jewelry to create some fun stock photos for you all in this post.  

Scene Creators 

Don't want to have a closet full of props to make your flat lays?  Well there is something cool out there I've recently found that can help you create amazing flat lay scenes...they are called Scene Creators!  You can find them on a ton of digital design websites - The Hungry Jpeg, Creative Market, Etsy, Design Bundles, etc - and some of them will even work with online design platforms like Canva & PicMonkey.  These guys allow you to mix & match digital elements on a background to create your flat lays.  This is perfect for a consistent theme and really great if you're more of a digital blogger.  If you don't really need to take or style you blog photos and you just need a nice, clean, on brand photo to overlay the post title, this is a great way to create consistent flat lays!  I'm playing around with this idea for that reason - I don't always need to take a photo but I don't always like the stock images I find.

Once you have your props on hand you'll be more likely to create a cohesive vibe to your blog's look.  Its also great to be able to have a pile of your own stock photography to choose from when you may not have time to shoot.  If you've got only a few shots get creative with your cropping to use the same photo more than once.  Get your design on by using this PicMonkey tutorial to create a blog image template to use over and over again.  You can also check out this Canva tutorial over on the YouTube channel on creating blog graphics.

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Ready to do more with your blog? Check out all the Boost Your Blog posts right here.

What is your favorite thing to photograph? Do you have a prop library?

xoxo, Moe

Make it Monday // DIY Digital Mantra Vision Board

I have been working on my vision planner (check out how I work in my Vision Planner here!) which also coincides with my first official year doing the One Little Word class by Ali Edwards.  The March prompt was all about vision boards.  But it was about vision boards in a different way.

I often think about a vision board as a (sometimes) cluttered mess of things you like all pasted onto poster board and then shoved into a spot in your room/office/home where you look at it...but it may not speak to you.  This idea has always frustrated me because I don't find order in that approach.  It wasn't until I watched a few vision board and goal setting style videos that I realized creating a vision board is a unique experience and should reflect the creator.  There isn't a one size fits all vision board.

And that is where my vision planner came in.

I have this guy divided up into some areas of my life I'd like to focus on all while keeping my word of the year Mindful in mind.  I also have sections for each of the One Little Word prompts and when I happen upon something that fits with in these prompts I roll with it an put that in there too!  I am not going to get too much into my vision planner sections right now...but the section I'm working on right now, today, with you is my spirituality section.  I hesitated to name it that all they way up until this blog post because I am not religious.  I see the word spirituality as a slippery slope into religion.  But I recently happened upon a free webinar by Alexis AKA Miss Trenchcoat called How to Manifest a Successful Astrological New Year and I realized that all signs are pointing to the things I'm becoming interested in - essential oils, meditation, working with crystals, etc - is culminating in a desire to explore my spiritual relationship with myself.  I can't deny it, I have to embrace it.  I've always been a believer in signs.  So I knew that this little section I'd originally called Wellness needed a better suited name if I was also going to start working with astrological signs and tarot.  Long story short - signs are pointing me to look inward, reflect, and work on discovering myself.

this post contains affiliate links, please read my full disclosure here.

So....February's prompt was to practice something everyday.  I didn't do it.  I didn't.  But March's prompt was to create vision boards regarding your word.  Ali suggested pulling a full page from a magazine and finding words that inspired you.  I thought I'd combine the two and create some vision boards with images I found that reminded me of my word and my intent and added some quotes that I could meditate on during the month.  Here's how you can make some mantra vision boards for yourself - make them as phone wall papers, computer backgrounds, or print them out like I did.

supplies // inspiring digital images, PicMonkey.com, card stock, printer

I highly suggest the images you use for this project be royalty free images and not images from Pinterest.  My favorite place for royalty free images is Unsplash.com.  It literally is like flipping through a digital magazine.  The best part is that you can search images by keyword.  I searched my word mindful but I also searched meditate, mindfulness, etc.  I looked into the collections as there were few results of images labeled with those words.  So just flip through and find images you like.  Save them to your computer or your device to work with later.

Find quotes or mantras you identify with.  In the original prompt, Ali suggested just trimming words form the magazines that inspired you.  They didn't have to directly reflect the word you've chosen for the year...just words that spoke to you.  I searched Pinterest for Mindfulness Quotes and created a board of the quotes I loved.

For this tutorial we're going to work with PicMonkey.com and their new(ish) Template Feature.  This is something rather new to me but it is super cool if you're not design inclined all the time.  The designs are premade for you - you just fill in the info!  Choose a template you like - keeping the size of the end result in mind -iPhone wallpaper, printed image, etc.  Once you've selected the template, right click on the main image to replace it with the image you've saved from Unsplash.

It is now that you can manipulate the text.  Try to choose a template that will fit your text/quote with out too much change.  That way you'll still get the feel of the template you chose.  This one with bold text supports a smaller quote.  If you find the color of the text doesn't really match the feel of the photo change it to better reflect your feelings.  I always choose either black or white to keep it simple.

Here is another example of a template I used - I liked the layout of the text but the end result doesn't resemble the original template.  You can see this one started off as an invitation but I changed it to be more poster like.  It is ok to start off with something interesting but change it up to fit your design aesthetic.

One of the new things I love about PicMonkey is the layers pane.  Not only are these templates pretty cool but the layer pane really helps you be precise with your designing.  You get more control with out the process becoming to complicated for the average user.  There are some special options & special templates that are available only if you're a Premium or the new Supremium customer.  While you can do a lot with this editor for free, these two subscriptions allow you to do more, more, more!  And work with the Hub feature that allows you to save your work!  How cool is that?  Learn more about the subscriptions here.

Now you're ready to print the mantra vision boards out or add them as backgrounds on your mobile device.  The way these guys work for me is something that I can reflect upon while meditating, something I can fall back on and repeat when I need the support, and words that I can work towards emulating in my everyday life.

You can also create these digital designs with various other tutorials I've shared on my blog - digitize your hand writing and use that as an overlay, use transparent clip art to add to your design, create these digital designs on your iPad with the Phonto app, or choose a few of these overlay apps to add to your mantras.

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What words do you use to help you meditate?  Have you created a vision board for yourself this year?

xoxo, Moe

Make it Monday // DIY Planner Dashboard with Rhonna Designs App

I can't stop the planner DIY's guys and I won't stop.  #cantstopwontstop if you will.  At a planner meet up on Thursday we did a dashboard swap and I had the clever idea to use the Rhonna Designs App to design some fun dashboards to trade.  Rhonna Designs is one of my favorite apps for overlays and I've talked about the app before here, here, & here.  I thought it was high time to give this app it's own little post.  This DIY is so easy I made a butt ton of these designs on my lunch break and printed them when I got home!

this post contains affiliate links, please read my full disclosure here.

supplies // Rhonna Designs App, Print to Size App, printer, laminator, laminating sheets, paper, paper trimmer or scissors, hole punch

First, download the Rhonna Designs app.  You may also want to download the Rhonna Designs Suite as well since you'll save a few pennies and have two more awesome apps to work with.  Open the app and select the picture pile in the lower left hand corner of the bottom row of options.  From the next screen, choose a background - this is where having the other apps helps, you can get more backgrounds.  The background can be one from the app or a photo you may already have on your camera roll.

Once the background is chosen, there are options for sizing.  Use your finger to swipe all the way to the left to find the planner sizes.  For this project, I chose the A5 size.  For my dashboard in the photo at the top of the post I also used A5, just sized it bigger in the Print to Size app (mentioned below) and trimmed it down.

After selecting the size dashboard to create, select the starburst icon in the upper left hand corner to add the overlays.  This app offers a ton of free overlays, but I find the cutest ones are a part of the exclusive packs designed by bloggers and digital artists.  You can preview different packs before you purchase them as well.  For the most part 3 overlay pack are .99 cents, a pretty affordable price for the amount of overlays you'll get.  My favorite pack currently are Shine Quotes, Weekday Warrior Icons, and Bright Quotes.

Choose the overlay pack you'd like to work with, then pick the overlay from the slider on the bottom of the screen.  Use the red knob at the lower right edge of the design to change the size.  Use your finger to move the overlay across the page.  There are a ton of color options as well - including foiled and glitter textures.  To add another overlay, tap the plus icon at the upper left hand corner and select the next (or the same) overlay pack.  To add text, select done, tap the T icon at the upper left, and add the text.  Once the design is completed - add as many overlays or as much text as you like - tap done, and then tap the three lines at the upper right hand corner.  Tap share from the bottom of the column, select hi-res when prompted, and save to your camera roll.  Create as many dashboards as you'd like!

To print these guys directly from your phone, download the Print to Size app (be sure to read up on how to connect your wireless printer, my phone picked it up automatically).  Open the app and from the screen tap the + icon at the center of the bottom menu.  Select the image from your camera roll to add it to the canvas.  Use the lower right hand blue knob to size the image the proper size (or bigger if you need to) for your planner dashboard.  Since this is true A5 size, the image should be sized to 5.8 x 8.3 inches.  Tap the printer icon on the bottom menu bar, find your printer, then print on your desired paper.

Once the image is printed, laminate the image according to the settings on your laminator (I use this one by Purple Cow) and use the paper trimmer to trim it to size.  Punch holes where needed and insert into your planner!

DOWNLOAD PRINTABLE A5 DASHBOARDS HERE

If you'd like to get the images I made to print for your planner find them at the link above.  Remember, these images are for personal use only.  Do not sell the design or the finished product.  Do not make and disseminate these in mass quantities.  Do not give this file away - please link to this blog post.  Thanks for playing nice!

xoxo, Moe

App Review // Paternator

I am not one for changing out my iPhone cases - I buy a case when I upgrade my phone every two years and then I stick with it.  I'm committed like that.  And you can bet I will pick a phone case that is purple.  My current case is glittery purple (reminds me of Barbie + mermaids, and that is pretty much perfect) and the case before that was a purple Mophie case.

I am all about that iPhone wallpaper life.  Even better if I can make it myself because I will make about 3 thousand of them and clog up my camera roll.  This app, Patternator, is a super fun app you can use to create patterned images to use various ways - most importantly as a wallpaper on your phone.

First off, I want to rehash some of my favorite overlay apps that you can totally use to make amazing backgrounds - here are 8 overlay apps that I love, here are 4 ways to add text to your iPhone photos, and here is a post on creating journaling cards on your iPhone (can totally be translated into wall papers!).  

What it is

Create the world’s cutest patterns, backgrounds, wallpapers and lockscreens. Pick from millions of cool stickers, hundreds of beautiful background colors, and endless pattern options.

taken from the Apple app store here.

What it does

Patternator allows you to create, quite litterally the cutest backgrounds ever.  Choose a sticker to add to the background - you can scroll through the seemingly endless categories or type in a key word to search.  The hardest part about this is picking a sticker to actively convey your emotion, as there are a ton to choose from.

Fine tune your pattern by selecting the layout and then adjusting the scale, spacing, angle and more.   Select the background color and export your image. The control you have over creating your pattern is great - though this app isn't a full on pattern maker.  You can not export your creation as a tile-able image but the quality of the image created is good enough to use on Instagram or small projects where a tiled image won't matter.

Why it helps you
If your a blogger or instagramer or shop owner, or anyone who uses social media this is a great app to create a background for an announcement.  Using this background in conjunction with another app like Phonto to overlay text is a great way to create unique advertising on your platform of choice.  Advertise shop sales, meet ups, announcements, etc.

If you just like being creative, this app is fun to have in your design arsenal on your phone.  Create backgrounds for wallpapers or to use in smaller projects the quality the image is saved isn't as high as I'd like it (you can get really hi res images from an app like Rhonna Designs).  You could use this to create pocket scrapbooking cards (in conjunction with this app tutorial and then use them in the Project Life app) or small stickers.  This is a fun app to play around with!

**I think you also used to be able to order phone cases right from the app, but that feature is no longer available.  I'm not sure on the resolution quality on a printed item like that though.

Do you have any pattern making app recommendations?  I can't seem to find too many in the app store!

Make it Monday // 3 Ways to Use Clip Art in PicMonkey

I was at a total loss for what to do for this week's Make it Monday post - I wanted to make a physical thing, but I wasn't sure what to make. I wanted to move away from planner stuff because I've got other ideas brewing.  But I just didn't know what to do.  So I thought I'd just turn to my old trusty PicMonkey for a little how-to inspiration for today.

this post contains affiliate links, please read my full disclosure here.

There are a bunch of PicMonkey tutorials on the blog (find them here) and I want to share with you today three ways to use clip art in PicMonkey to create something unique.  I also want show you some more inspiration and new takes on some old DIY's.

First - where do you find clip art to use?

The PicMonkey blog shared this post on 4 places to find free for personal and commercial use clip art - and it is super helpful in understanding licensing and file types that PicMonkey can open.  While we're on that topic, PicMonkey can only open JPG and PNG files so you'll need to search for file types that end in .jpg or .png.  A lot of creative bloggers offer free clip art on their blogs for various projects.  I like to search Pinterest for free clip art to find some really creative and pretty images to use.

Now on to the important part:

Use Clip Art Over a Photo

In this DIY post, I showed you how to create your own watermark in PicMonkey to then use in PicMonkey over your photos.  Adding clip art to an existing photo is as simple as this previous tutorial - just skip the step of creating the over lay.  Here's how.

Open the photo you'd like to add the clip art to in PicMonkey.  You can click one of the links on the top (choose edit in this case) or drag and drop the image on to the PicMonkey screen.  Three squares should show up, drop your image into the edit square.

Under the Overlays tab (the butterfly in the left hand column) select the arrow next to Your Own and select my computer.  Locate the clip art image on your hard drive and select open.

You can the repeat the process adding the clip art around your image.  Be sure to create a visual balance across your image.  Add text and save.

This is a great way to add interest to a scrapbook photo or photo to use in your pocket scrapbooking albums.  It is also a creative way to create images for your blog or even your Instagram profile.

The feathers for this example were created by Angie Makes, and you can find them here.

Create a Layered Design

In this tutorial I showed you how to fake a repeating pattern in PicMonkey.  In another tutorial, I went over how to use PicMonkey's own graphics to create a patterned notes page for your personal sized planner.  You can also use clip art to create a patterned background for various projects.

From the main PicMonkey page, hover over the Design tab and choose a canvas to design from. The 4x6 canvas works great for pocket scrapbooking cards.  Once you have the canvas open, set the background, and rotate if need be.  Navigate to the Overlays tab and begin to open the clip art in the same manner as the previous tip - selecting Your Own and then My Computer.  Once the clip art is on the screen, size it to your liking and begin to duplicate it by right clicking on a PC or two finger click on a Mac and selecting Duplicate Overlay.  Continue to place your duplicated clip art around the canvas.  Like in this tutorial, you'll want to try to fake a repeating pattern.

Open a second clip art image you have saved that compliments the first.  Duplicate it across the canvas as well to create a layered look.  This adds depth to the pattern you're creating and creates a more interesting design.  I suggest only working with 3 clip art images at max to avoid a cluttered design.

Once the second image has filled the canvas the way you like, you can right click and send it to the back if that image seems well suited to the bottom layer of the design.  Save the design you've created.

This is a great way to create digital papers for personal use (if the clip art you chose is for personal use only) to use in any digital scrapbooking or other paper crafts you are looking to make.  This is also a great way to make backgrounds for your various devices.

The floral clip art is from We Lived Happily Ever After, and you can find them here.

Change the Color of an Existing Design

If you've found a clip art image that you love but it happens to be a color your don't quite care for, there is an easy way to change the color within PicMonkey.

Begin by either opening the image you will overlay the clip art on to or open a blank canvas.   If opening a blank canvas, and plan to use the clip art as an overlay in the future - set the canvas color to transparent.  Navigate to the Overlays tab, select Your Own and then My Computer.  Open the clip art image you'd like to change the color of.

You should see a little dialog box pop up any time the clip art image is selected.  Use the color scale on the dialog box to change the color by dragging the little circle around the color scale.

Duplicate the clip art and create the design on the canvas you've selected, or use the altered image as an overlay on another photo.  Save your design.

This is great if you want a few of one image but they were only created on one color scheme.  This can add some fun to a design project - like a pocket scrapbook card or print.  How cute would the design above be as an art print?

The mushroom is from Lisa Glanz and you can find the set here.

PicMonkey is a simple yet amazing tool if you're into being digitally creative but not down for spending a ton on higher end software.  PicMonkey can do a lot for you even though it is such a simple, online resource.  All of these tips can be done in the free version of PicMonkey but the Royale version offers a lot more - like the drop shadow on the text in the first tip!  You can sign up here for either the $33/year plan or $4.99/month plan.  Either one is totally worth it if you're down for some creativity and awesome fonts!

*as a side note, please be sure to read the terms of use for any and all clip art you download from any artist.  Please play nice, karma is a thing ya know.  I am also in no way affiliated with any of these artists - I found their work beautiful and wanted to share them with you.  I am in now way an expert on licensing terms, please read and understand any and all TOU that come with any downloads you find.

How do you get creative in PicMonkey?  Any tips to share?

xoxo, Moe