[Tutorial] How to make a basic graphic on PicMonkey

Hi all! As part of DS (Direct Sales) life, one of the most powerful tools you can use is anything in social media. And that means nice, clean-cut graphics to get your point across. Nowadays just typing in a status post may seem boring, and just having a graphic makes it "pop" out even if you're literally saying the same thing in a status post.

There are many free websites and phone apps out there to help people make graphics. Wordswag on the iPhone is very popular but there is a limit to its customization options. Most of these include templates and just has more user-friendly interfaces than trying to navigate through Photoshop. I will always choose Photoshop for my more advanced needs but for most graphics, you do not need it.

Here I will help you create a really plain graphic and explain the basics of how PicMonkey works. I've tried many different ones and PicMonkey remains a favorite. You don't even need to have premium to make something that will work for your business or just for personal use.

Here is the video version:

If you want to just skim the pictures/read the written version, continue on:

HOW TO MAKE A BASIC GRAPHIC using a SAVED BACKGROUND/WALLPAPER IMAGE

1) First, save a high-quality picture on Google. Here's a crash course on weeding out the crappy low-res photos if all you're doing is using Google image search. Once you've entered your Search term, click on "Search Tools". Then click on "Size". Pick either "medium" or "large". Blurry images will go bye-bye. Save it. Don't pick one that looks too busy. Remember, we are putting text on it. Make sure the majority of the center of the wallpaper is empty enough for text. That's why my search term is "Christmas background". "Christmas Wallpaper" works too. It'll return acceptable graphics with the potential for text in the middle. **Please be responsible in using images that are OK to print if you are printing these. Once you click on the image, it'll usually tell you if it's licensed or if you are free to reproduce/modify.**

2) Now we can go to www.picmonkey.com. The images on their main page may slightly differ depending on the season, but this is basically what you'll see.

3) On the top there are 4 choices (Edit, Touch Up, Design, & Collage). Hover your mouse over "Design" so you can learn to make your own plain graphic. You'll see that there are size templates for you to choose from depending on your needs. I personally like "Square" because it's different from the standard rectangle we're used to seeing so I'll pick that one.

4) You are taken to a blank workspace with a default white background. On the left you will be able to see "Canvas Color" to help get you started. Pick a color if you want a solid-colored background. Moving forward, I will show you how to make a graphic with a picture background (overlay feature) as that seems to be the most popular request.

5) Let's add your wallpaper background/picture to the blank canvas. We can add it as an 'overlay'. See the butterfly icon on the left side? Click on it.

6) Click on "Your Own". 

7) Find where you saved your desired background/wallpaper picture and click "Open". I'll be opening up a blue winter background I found on Google.

8) Your picture pops up on your canvas as well as a box with options on manipulating your overlay. Put your mouse over the corner handle of your picture in the middle until it looks like a double pointed arrow. Click on the corner handle and resize the overlay so it covers your canvas.

You will "run out of dragging space" once you reach the bottom:

Simply move the overlay to the upper corner and resize as needed:

I have my overlay where I want it but you can move it around until you are satisfied. I should point out that on the top you can "Undo" or "Redo" and these are pretty helpful if you accidentally do stuff that you didn't mean to:

9) Once you are done manipulating/oversizing your overlay, we need to flatten the layers. Basically we are combining the blank white canvas and your overlay so it becomes one. On the top menu, click on the circled icon to merge your layers into one. After you do this your background overlay will stay put. Thankfully, if you mess up you can always hit "Undo" (on the same menu, it's the arrow right next to where it says "Share" ).

10) Now we can add text! On the left side of the screen, find the "Text" icon, find the "Text" icon. It is right above the Butterfly "Overlay" icon that we clicked before. Click on it.

11) Pick a font from the list of fonts. If it's a premium (paid) font, you won't be able to use it & PicMonkey will let you know. There shouldn't be an issue because you have a good selection of free fonts. You can also use your own fonts as seen above. I'll pick "Lobster Two" as my font. Don't pick a font that is too fancy. You want to be able to get your points across and not have an illegible graphic. For example, don't pick a cursive font and use all caps. Your customers will be unable to read that quickly.

12) The font you pick will move up to the top of the list of fonts. Click on "Add Text".

13) A text box will appear as well as an options box to customize your font.

14) You can pick a color for your font now, or do it later. I prefer to do it in the beginning. I'm going to match the white of the snowflakes and pick white. To pick the color, click on anywhere in this color palette or type in your color code if you know exactly what it is.

15) Click inside the text box where it says "Type your text here". The box will have a whitish-grayish background. Start typing. I type in a "Booking Parties" blurb.

16) After typing, click ONCE anywhere outside the text box until the whitish-grayish background of text box disappears. The text box should still be outlined. If the outline disappears, click in it once.

17) Hover your mouse on the right (or left) edge of the text box. Your mouse will change to another double-pointed arrow and the edge changes to indicate that you can resize. Drag to the right and resize your text box. Then center it.

18) Finishing touches of customizing your text. First I want to center my text instead of having it left-aligned. Go to your options box and click on the "Center" icon.

Then I will change the font size using the slider or I can just type in a number or choose from the drop down menu. I choose to click in the box and type in "200" for my font.

I click on the space right after "!" and add a space to separate the large text from the smaller text.

I'm going to move the text box so it is further down. I click outside the text box and then place my cursor on top of it, click, and move it to where I want it.

19) Save. I'm done. You can experiment more if you want but once you're done, click on "Save" on the top.

Click on "Sean" to make sure you get the best resolution. You can surely click on the others if you are running out of disk space but it won't look as clear. Then click on "Save to my computer".

Pick a filename & click "Save":

20) You return to your workspace. One of the features that I like is that you return back to your workspace in case you need to change anything in your graphic. Then you can re-save when you're done.

Congratulations! You just made your first graphic with a wallpaper background in PicMonkey! You're on your way to making great graphics :). Do you have any questions? Suggestions for the future? I'd love to hear from you guys :)!

[Jamberry Tutorial] New NAS tutorial: Step-by-Step Instructions (Beginner)

**UPDATE 4/12/2015** Note that this does not cover the recent update. The basics are the same but getting a solid-colored block is not the same as outlined below. You find it under "objects", pick an ellipse/square, extend over the area, and choose the color.

Hello all! Your resident Jamberry independent consultant is here for an NAS tutorial! Yeah! I hope this helps you out...if not I am very open as to how I can improve upon this so that it will help you and others out in the future!

For those who are not familiar with NAS, it is Jamberry's Nail Art Studio. This is where you can create custom wraps for yourself for an added cost. Just like any other design interface, it takes a little bit to get used to, and I've made a picture tutorial for you so you can get started playing with it if you're dying to but don't really know where to start. I've also created a video if you want to see me do it instead of look at pictures:

Video:

If you don't want to watch it but want to see pictures instead, read on! This is for true beginners, so there are a TON of pictures.

**Note that there will be arrows in the photos below indicating where to click. The arrows do not actually appear on the site :) **

If you are looking for something specific, click on any of the seven topics below:

Where we start
Main Menu
Creating a solid-colored background
Rotating an image
Adding patterns
Applying design to nails
Previewing design & submission process

1) Where we start.  Go to the "Shop" Jamberry screen. It's basically your consultant's website with "/shop" at the end of the web address. My site is "myrop2nd2.jamberrynails.net/shop" as shown on the screen:

2) Go ahead and go to the left side of the menu and click on "Nail Art Studio":

3) You get to this screen. Go ahead and click on "Get Started"...

... where you will be prompted to enter your login information. If you are a new user, you will have to create a free account. 

4) Main Menu.

Call it your "Main Menu", if you will. Mine is filled with all the designs I've worked with, but yours will look blank if you haven't worked on anything. On the right side, click on "Create New Design" to start playing with it! Yay!:

5) Here is your design workspace. On the top menu you have "Objects" with royalty-free shapes you can add to your design, "Patterns" with common patterns that Jamberry has provided for you, "Text" to add text & "Uploads" for other images that you have on your computer. I won't be going into any of them in detail (save for a future post!) but let's get to designing something simple! Let's go and click on "Patterns":

6) Creating a solid-colored background. This is easy! After you've clicked on "Patterns" up top, you see all the available patterns that Jamberry provides. Click on the first one, which is that grayish solid block. This is how we will create a solid background of any color:

7) A default black rectangle will show up on your nail template. To change its color, simply click anywhere inside the black rectangle and a submenu will pop up:

8) Click on the solid color circle next to "Color".

Choose a basic color here:

9) If you would like more options or have a more specific color in mind, click "More" to get more options or you can also enter a hex color code in the white box indicated:

I will go ahead and just pick a random shade of red and click "Choose". My rectangle is now red.

10) The rectangle is small, so go ahead and grab one of the corner square handles to drag and resize. I want to make sure the rectangle is big enough to fit the nail to avoid a misprint so I purposely make it a lot larger. I then grab the rectangle and move it to the center.

11) Rotating an image. 

If you notice the extension up on the top, this is how you rotate the image. You can let your mouse hover over on top of the square handle slowly, and then the pointer arrow turns into a circling arrow that lets you know that you can rotate the image. You can then click and drag either clockwise or counterclockwise and rotate as desired. Although it doesn't really change anything with this example because it's a solid block of color, rotating can come in really handy with patterns and anything else that isn't uniform. If you don't see any square handles for resizing, you must click on the red rectangle to activate that layer. Anytime you click outside of it on the gray area, the square handles disappear.

You can practice rotating but in moving on, I just put it back to where it was so we can learn something new :). After you bring it back to its original "upright" position, click anywhere outside the red block so we can add things to it:

12) Adding patterns. Let's add another pattern on top of this colored block. Find the chevron pattern up top and click on it. You should see a default black/white chevron appear on the workspace:

13) Go ahead and find the square sizing handle in the corner like before. Click, drag, and resize the chevron so that it is big enough to cover the nail.

Move it to the center.

14) Save your work. 

15) Name your design, then click on the check mark next to it to confirm it.

16) Applying design to nails. 

Go to left side of your workspace where you see "Apply". Apply your design to one nail. Doesn't matter which one. The reason we want to go ahead and do this is to make sure the design is applied somewhere. If you do not have your current design on any nails and accidentally click on another nail size to work on something else, you will lose whatever you just did. Doesn't matter if you "saved" it, because if it is not currently applied on any of the nails, then it might be lost once you log out. At least this way, you have the design already on a nail and can always click back on it to change it later. 

17) Let's click on another blank nail and work on it. I click on "1B" which is basically the other biggest wrap. As you can see, the design disappears. But that's OK, because we had already "saved" our red chevron design by applying it to one of the nails :). If we wanted to go back to our red chevron pattern we don't have to redo it.

18) Let's practice applying a design to multiple nails. Click back on "1A" and you can see our red/black chevron come back up on our workspace.

19) Click on "Apply to Multiple": 

20) Let's apply the design to all the nails. Click on "Apply Design to All":

You should see the design go on all the nails as shown below:

21) Let's add a second design to some of the other nails. First let's get rid of the chevron and try something else. Click anywhere on the chevron to activate that layer and make the layer submenu appear. We will talk about layers at a later date so don't worry about this just yet.

22) Find the trash icon on the submenu and click it to delete the chevron layer. You should now be left with the red block we had before.

23) Now let's change the color of the block. Click anywhere on the block again to activate that layer's submenu. 

Then let's click on the colored circle and choose a different color. I'll randomly choose a dark yellow.

24) Let's add a pattern. I will choose to add some stripes. Go up top and click on the stripes. It should now appear on your workspace in a default white/black color.

25) You can change the color but I'll keep it the same. Go ahead and resize the stripes and center it on the nail after you've made sure the size is big enough.

26) We will then apply this design to some of the nails so we have a mixture of red chevron and yellow stripes. Go ahead and click on "Apply to Multiple" like we did before.

27) I click on the boxes where I want the stripes design to go on. Click on any boxes that you want.

28) When you are ready to see the stripes design on the nails you chose, click "Apply Design to Selected"...

...and you should see the yellow stripes go on the nails you chose:

29) If you haven't saved your work yet, even though it's saving it for you, I like to click on "Save" frequently to make sure it saved my work.

30) Previewing design & submission process. 

Once you are satisfied, preview your work.

Here is our design and what it will look like on the sheet. Remember to read the Terms & Conditions on the bottom.

Close-up of the abbreviated Terms & Conditions:

31) Right-click anywhere on the preview image and save your preview as a .png file for future use if the design is approved. You can also take a screenshot of this if that's easier for you. Don't be scared that it's a .png file. A .png file is actually a higher quality file than a .jpg, and you should be able to open it with most image editors.

32) After you save your file, check the box if you agree to the terms & then click "Submit for Approval".

33) Before submission is complete, Jamberry has a disclaimer that they are not responsible for the color being slightly off from what you see because depending on the screen that you have, your settings, etc., it's impossible for it to be exact. As long as you are OK with that, click "Submit My Design".

34) After you read your confirmation, click on "My Designs". You will be taken back to the main menu.

35) We see our design is "Pending" as it hasn't completed the review process. If your design is approved, it will be under "Approved" designs and if not, it'll be under "Declined".

36) If you want to purchase your approved design, you can hover your mouse over the design above and you get choices to view, preview, purchase or delete. If you choose to purchase, you'll be taken to the familiar Jamberry checkout process that you normally see when you place a regular catalog order. I won't screencap the ordering process here.

37) If you made a mistake or want to delete a design, hover over the design you want to delete, click on "Delete", and then it'll ask you to confirm it. Your design will then disappear from your "Pending Designs" list.

That's it for the basics! You made it! I hope this helps you in some way! Thanks for reading all the way through :). I may come up with a tutorial on how to use layers soon.

**Note that the opinions in this blog are solely my own and are not the responsibility of Jamberry Nails, LLC**