Boost Your Blog // Create Photo Collages

Well hello Boost Your Blog post...where have you been?  I've been thinking about all the bloggers out there who are getting ready to start showing their Summer Wishlists, are looking to showcase their summer photos, & just plain looking to create those awesome photo collage posts.  I have to admit, for the most part I use these techniques to create quick photo collages when I want to bust out a good post in a reasonable amount of time.  I've only created about 10 total collages in Photoshop, to me there's just no need with these options!

PicMonkey - This free online photo editor (much like the now extinct Picnik) is an awesome place to create collages.  You can sign up for the premium version if you want access to more options but the free version, I think, is just fine.  You will find that the free version doesn't give you access to some of the collage options. But I've got you covered: Choose a collage option then drag your photo to where you want it.  You can insert new boxes to hold your photos by just hovering between photos.  A little box will pop up & just put your photo there, look below:

If you see the crown, that means it's a royal feature & you have to pay for the feature.

Picmonkey also has an option to overlay text & shapes so you can point to things, explain things, create picture tuorials, etc.

Polyvore - This site is great to create wishlist collages & much like Pinterest where you can add a Pin It button to your browser you can add a Clip to Polyvore button to your browser to add things to your collection.  You have to sign up for an account to clip and to create & save your collages but it's worth it because you can save the collages to edit later.  Clipping from your browser means you can add exactly what you want - maybe it's something you already have you need to link, etc.  You can also blog your collage when you publish it right through Polyvore (you can tweet & share it on Facebook too) or copy the code to post into your blog.  I have a full tutorial on using Polyvore for collages and adding text & other elements here.

Picasa - Picasa is a program by Google that you download & install on your computer...I'm sure you've heard of it!  It's great for organizing your photos too & a really simple way to have all your blog photos in front of you.  Seriously guys you don't have to have fancy stuff to be a good blogger, it's true.  You also have access to Creative Kit which is a part of Google+ (this has a lot of the features that Picnic had but now it's on your desktop.)  They have collage options like Picmonkey - just straight up square photo collages - but Picasa also has an option to create a collage in the style of Polyvore, it's called a picture pile:

This is the beginning of the collage for this post!

You can also overlay text to your collages & you're not limited to the fonts they provide like with Polyvore & Picmonkey.  You can install fonts on your computer & use those too!  So you can really get a custom look for your blog collages.  I use Picasa mainly for the Picture Pile option because you have very little control over the Mosaic & Grid options.  Unlike Picmonkey you can't drag the photos to create a custom grid & you can't expand the boxes to fit your photos.  It's annoying!

So there you go! Three awesome options to create really simple, really professional looking collages for your blog.  No fancy pants stuff required!

How do you create collages for your blog? Any other free programs you have to suggest? I'd love to know!

xoxo, Moe

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