Make it Monday // DIY Back to School Classroom Art

So no, I'm not going back to school but it is around this time that I start getting all nostalgic about school.  Around this time all the school supplies come out & I just want to pick up pretty notebooks & pens & loads of other school supplies I don't need at this point in my life.  I recently upgraded my PicMonkey account after putting it off for ages because I saw all of the cute new clipart, fonts, and textures they added in a Back to School theme.  These cute additions inspired me to create a digital wall art DIY to share with you!  This one is geared toward teachers & such (or those who just like to learn). 

If you aren't too keen on making one yourself, you can download the original print here.

First you'll need to go to PicMonkey.  If you haven't signed up for the Royale feature, you'll have to use other clipart & fonts.  The Royale feature gives you access to more options but the free features of PicMonkey are pretty nice.  I do think that the $33 a year is great to create your own bits of art, collages, & edit photos.  In fact if you use the Royale features to create at least 3 prints like this, you'll totally have paid for it!  You can also sign up to be billed monthly at around $4.99 or so a month.  So if you only sign up for one month to make a few prints...you're still good!  Like I said though there are tons of free options to play with, this DIY however features most of the paid options in their School themed set.  Anyway, on to the tutorial.

From the home screen you'll select create a collage.  Then you'll need to close out all of the extra boxes until you have one left.  Adjust your canvas by dragging the edges (sides & bottom) to make it bigger.  For this one I made a more horizontally oriented canvas.  This size (along with the download size) fits best as a 5x7 print.  Perfect for a school desk!

From the little tag icon to the left you can choose provided backgrounds - I used the lined paper background - or you can upload your own.  Drag the image over so it fills up your entire canvas.  Now go to the palette icon & move the spacing all the way to the left so that there's no white left.

A new feature in PicMonkey is the ability to move your collage straight into the editing program in PicMonkey.  Before you had to save your collage then re-upload it to edit and add overlays.  Click the edit button to move your collage into the editor.

It is now that you can play around with the cool fonts, overlays, textures, & clip art that PicMonkey has to offer.  I used the fonts Sketchbook & Learning Curve because I liked the school house vibe of it all!  Then I added some clip art, arranged the sizes, & picked different colors.  Check it all out below:

Once you've finished your work, be sure to save your work to your computer.  You can't go back & edit it so make sure you're happy with what you have!  You can always keep the PicMonkey website open to do any changes but once it's closed, the flattened image is only saved.

Now print it out & frame it!  Play around with all the overlays to create some fun pieces of art for your classroom! 

xoxo, Moe

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