PicMonkey | Finding delight.

If you need to edit photos, make graphics for your blog or social media accounts, or just want an awesome template for an Instagram post, you need to check out PicMonkey!

I’ve been using PicMonkey for years. I rave about it to friends and clients. But I’ve never written a dedicated post about this sneaky lil blogger hack.

So, in case you’ve never heard of PicMonkey before, it is an online image editing tool that is super user friendly and perfect for all my influencers, bloggers, entrepeneurs, and marketing mavens out there! What can you create with PicMonkey? SO. MANY. THINGS!

Here are 6 ways I use PicMonkey for my blog, clients, and personal life…

1. Photo Editing

I love snapping photos on my adventures! Before I pop ’em into a blog post, many of them get a quick edit in PicMonkey. Because my posts aren’t super photo-driven, Photo Shop just doesn’t seem like a worthwhile investment at this time (and I don’t really have time or the desire to learn how to use it — just being real). So this is a great alternative! I usually crop or straighten my photos as needed. Then, adjust the exposure and color. Sometimes I’ll sharpen them, too. Here are a couple images I edited with PicMonkey…

2. Invitations

There are a ton of templates available to make custom invitations for everything from birthdays and graduations, to surprise baby showers and special promotional events. Chet and I actually used PicMonkey to create the “Save the Date” cards for our wedding!

3. Graphics

I manage website and social media content for several of my clients. PicMonkey is a great way for me to quickly create a graphic for their blog posts or online newsletters. All I do is keep a spreadsheet with each of my clients, which PicMonkey fonts are suitable for their brands, and any HEX color codes. All I need is an image and bada-bing, bada-boom–I’ve got a custom graphic!

4. Cover Photos

Social media cover photos are a fun way to show off a bit of personality, as well as cross-promote across different platforms. I usually opt for a simple look, but I recently created this Twitter cover photo in PicMonkey and thought it was pretty cute! There are a ton of templates available and there’s no going back and forth to get the right size for the right platform.

5. Collages

I also use PicMonkey to create collages. This is how I first discovered PicMonkey — googling an easy way to include multiple photos in a single image. Below, you’ll see a collage I created for my About page as well as the format I used when I was making monthly favorites posts.

6. Brand Boards

Finally, who doesn’t love a good inspiration board??? If you want to put together a cohesive vision for your brand, then I highly recommend checking out the brand board templates on PicMonkey. As an example, I put together a board for Finding Delight. This is to help guide my aesthetic and posts for Fall 2018 and the sort of vibe I’m hoping to convey with my content in the upcoming season. This one is for my personal use, but this is also a great tool for sharing the feel of your brand with others or creating media kits for companies who want to partner with you.

Have you ever used PicMonkey? What are your favorite features?

With the turning of the calendar page from February to March, it’s time to bundle together the best products, places, media and everything in between from the last month. Here are 9 things I found myself loving in February…

1. Tom Bihn backpack

I was floored when I opened this early Valentine’s Day present from Chet. I just couldn’t get over the adorable pattern and perfect pocket placement. I’ve been wearing it around the whole month and it does NOT disappoint. You can read my full review of the bag and see some pictures of me sporting it in the wild HERE. I can not thank my thoughtful dude enough for this spectacular present. We have many day-trips and ultra-light adventures ahead of us. And we shall be so wonderfully well-equipped!

2. Downton Abbey

While I had previously seen most of the first three seasons of this show, I convinced Chet to watch it from the beginning with me. We just started the 5th season and I never want it to end! In case you’ve been living under a rock, the British drama follows the lives of the Crawley family and all its servants as they go about their business, upstairs and down, in the large country manor estate known as Downton Abbey. The show begins with the 1912 sinking of the Titanic but now in season 5 we’re all the way up to 1923. It’s quite fun to track the actual historic events that play out alongside the fictional lives of the Crawleys. Bonus to our nightly viewing? Chet does a bang-up impersonation of Mr. Carson, the Crawleys’ beloved butler, and will often chime in with his own commentary.

3. WKU forensics alums

In February, I traveled to Bowling Green, KY to spend some time with the current WKU Forensics Team and a small group of alums. We had a great weekend coaching speech and catching up. This team was such a big part of my life for 7 years that I love any excuse to step back into that world for a few hours. I saw some amazingly passionate, intelligent, and inspiring speeches and even played a few rounds of flip cup. (When with your college pals in a college town…..amirite?)

4. He Named Me Malala

I was selected this month by 21st Century Fox to receive an advanced screening copy of the documentary, He Named Me Malala. I pretty much cried through the whole film and really hope lots of people tuned in to watch the TV premiere. It was a profoundly impactful film made by filmmaker Davis Guggenheim exploring the life of Malala Yousafzai before and after her attack at the hands of Taliban. You can read more about the film HERE.

5. Save-the-Date cards

Initially, I wasn’t too on board with the whole idea of sending Save-the-Date cards. Wouldn’t it just be easier to hop on the internet to spread the word about our selected date and send out invitations later? But then again…I LOVE sending and receiving mail and I just couldn’t let the opportunity to send some mailbox cheer pass me by. I ended up designing them myself with the free photo editing site PicMonkey. I’m REALLY happy with how they turned out and think using PicMonkey and printing them on cardstock was a wonderful budget-friendly option. I’d be happy to post a tutorial about how I whipped them up if you’re interested!

6. My notebook

I snagged this notebook from Target when Chet and I were in Lafayette for Christmas. While I’m a huge fan of Moleskines and the Baron Fig Confidante, I’d sort of come to the conclusion that I wanted a hard-back spiral-bound for my day-to-day, planner-ish notebook. I like to have my To-Do list out all day and while other notebooks claim to “lay flat” they don’t always do so, or they do but they take up too much desk space. I also like to dedicate a whole page per day which can seem a bit wasteful when using a higher end notebook. I started this notebook, along with a new notebook system, on January 1st and it’s been really helpful and easy to stick to. I use a modified version of the Bullet Journal system. I prioritize daily spreads over anything else and I don’t index but I implement a lot of the other strategies. When this one is all used up I think I’ll continue to stick to this type of notebook!

7. Shakespeare’s First Folio

The book that made the bard made it’s way to Florida International University this month! Chet and I got dressed up and attended the opening of the first folio exhibit at The Frost Art Museum. It was amazing to see so much Shakespeare programming and hype occur at the university and in Miami while the book was on display. We loved taking a peek inside but only wished we could hold it in our hands and flip through the pages. Think of all that history!

8. New living room couch

Arriving into our humble abode just in the nick of time to make this favorite’s list is our new couch! We headed out early last Saturday morning to beat the crowds at Ikea and came home with all sorts of goodies. I’ve had my eye on a grey couch for some time now and I think we chose a great one! We poked around online to find a few contenders before heading into the thick of things but then ended up going with this one instead! It is super comfy and a great place to lounge with the sliding glass doors pushed open for a cool breeze. (Don’t mind the wrinkles in the photo above. It was only just born when I snapped that pic!)

9. Rooibos Chai Tea

My mom is always hooking me up with fair trade goodies and in February I was loving this chai tea she sent. I love brewing up a mug when the weather is a bit dreary or for an evening treat when there’s no dessert in the house. It’s just the right level of spicy and sweet with delicious notes of vanilla. YUM!