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ByeBye Picnik… Hello PicMonkey!

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hey there! I'm monica 

I pride myself on making amazing style and design accessible for everyone, regardless of location, budget, or ability! My design philosophy is rooted in authenticity + attainability - If I can do it, you can too! My work has been featured in countless publications, but I take the most pride in homeowners that have been personally inspired by my DIY ideas and have tried something in their own homes!

learn more about ME + MY BIZ

You’ve probably heard by now that Picnik has been taken over by the ants! On April 19th it will be gone and that was going to cause a major issue for this blogger.  We relied on Picnik for all of our editing and for creating collages for our posts.   Boo!

picmonkey 3

We’d heard that many of Picnik’s tools would be moving over to Google+, and while that at least kept me from hyperventilating, it still didn’t leave me too happy.  (Tip Junkie has a good post on using Google + to edit pics)
Then I heard a rumor about some new program that was in the works that was going to be completely awesome and nicely fill the void in my heart that Picnik had left.  I waited anxiously, and finally got the email that it was ready!

email

Let me tell you, it took me all of about 5 seconds to start my little “PicMonkey is awesome and saved the day dance!” The creators are actually some of the original Picnik crew that knew that there were lost souls wondering how they would ever photo edit again.

19

PicMonkey replaces Picnik

picmonkey 1

The functionality is really similar and so far I haven’t seen anything I didn’t love. Let me give you a little tour.
A few things right off the bat…  “Collage and more” are coming soon, so that’s one thing I’m still waiting on, but I’m already sure it’s going to meet my needs just fine.  Another cool thing to know is that for a limited time the premium features are being offered for free- sweet!
Okay, so I loaded up a picture of our Nate Show dresser turned buffet and got to work comparing the two sites.
Basic Edits-
You have the exact same basic edits, even in the same order, just with some funky-fun images on the sidebar.  They were super simple to use and that made me happy!

basic edits

Effects-
One of my favorite things about Picnik was the fun, easy to use effects.  Have no fear…PicMonkey is here! All my favorites and a few more were there for the takin’! Applying effects is done exactly the same way, but no Mr. Frog staring you down anymore.

effects

My favorite effect is Cross-Process, so of course I gave it a try on both sites and was over the moon to see it worked perfectly!

cross process

PicMonkey also had an effect that caught my eye… Cinerama.  I love it! Look how cool our buffet looks now!

9

Text-
The text feature works perfectly, and although there isn’t as large of a font selection on PicMonkey yet, I’d bet money that there are more fab fonts coming soon!

text

Stickers-
Not like little kid reward stickers, but I do think those are fun too… We use stickers for all kinds of graphic design work.  Layer them up and it’s amazing what you can create.  Similarly to the text options, the stickers are limited at this point, but I imagine we have big things in store for us!

stickers

One thing I’m hoping for is a huge selection of tags and fun shapes.  In Picnik I used to use the Christmas tags whenever I wanted a fun header.  So far I didn’t see anything comparable in PicMonkey, but perhaps I’ll leave a request on their Facebook page.

18

Frames-
Last but not least, I wanted to make sure all my frames were intact! And by now, you’re probably seeing a trend… they had them all (okay, almost all, they didn’t have camo, flowers, or Christmas lights etc., but honestly I’m pretty happy about that.)  They did have Polaroid, which I don’t use much, but I do love!

Frames

You might be wondering about some other features, but I’m not going to give you the play-by-play for every single tool, so head on over and give PicMonkey a whirl.  I have a feeling you’ll be pretty happy.  My hubs was slightly weirded out by the fact that I was dancing around our kitchen, making up songs about how PicMonkey saved the day!

bye hello

Let us know what you think of the new site…
did it produce any kitchen dances for ya?

The comments +

  1. Jennifer says:

    Thank you!!!! Woohoo. I am saved from having to deal with my un-edited, unsightly pictures. Love your buffet, by the way.

  2. Holy Craft says:

    Yeah! I was just getting good at Picnik and was going to miss it!

  3. Becca says:

    Thanks for tracking down the new site for us! Looks perfect and saves me the time from having to learn all that “G+ create” business.
    xo Becca

  4. This is such a great post. I can’t wait to check out PicMonkey. I shared you link on fb and google+.
    Karah @ thespacebetweenblog

  5. Spittin-Toad says:

    Right on…thanks for letting us know about PicMonkey…I wasn’t sure what I was going to do without Picnik!!
    Denise

  6. Anonymous says:

    Thank you, thank you! I tried our PicMonkey and love it! It’s very similar to Picnik. I have Photoshop, but it’s so much harder to use – glad that now I don’t have to.

  7. Hi Monica, I was giggling at your description of your kitchen PicMonkey dance. Can you teach us the steps?? LOL. Thanks so much for spreading the news about PicMonkey. What a great overview! And thanks for the suggestions of effects to add. I hope as time goes on, you’ll be dancing even more! Cheers, Brenda (PicMonkey team)

  8. super excited about PicMonkey. off to check it our now.
    thanks for such a great run-down of the new site.
    cheryl xox.

  9. KatieD says:

    Oh awesome! After you introduced me to Picnik I was in love… then CRUSHED at the closing announcement. Thanks for saving me from therapy!

  10. Dharma says:

    Crisis averted! Thanks for the link, ladies 🙂

  11. Thanks so much for the info! I will definitely be checking it out.

  12. Claire says:

    I did a very brief post on my blog about PicMonkey (after doing a happy cheer and sigh of relief!) on Friday but I really like how in-depth yours is to confirm that they will be very similar. Also, I appreciate the tip about using the Christmas stickers to create fancy frames – I had no idea! I’ll be using that one until April 19th 🙂

    Thanks for the comparison!

    Claire @ alittlesomethinginthemeantime.blogspot.com

  13. Mrs. H says:

    Thanks for sharing. I had no idea about PicMonkey. I have been taking advantage of all Picnic’s Premium edits the past few weeks.

  14. Thank you very, very, very much! There just had to be something similar…kudos to the staff that got this out there LONG before picnik closes up shop…tried the Google + Creative something or other…way too complicated to get the meat of the matter…Will check this out today!! I edit photos mainly for my Etsy handmade jewelry shop and others are absolutely right…nothing compares and we don’t need photoshop!
    Hugs,
    Cathy

  15. Samantha says:

    Yay! I was seriously sweating the closing of Picnik. Thank the Lord for PicMonkey!!!!!!!!!!

  16. Anonymous says:

    LOve picknic. have the photoshop elements 9. i use it but picnic was so user friendly and EASY!!! i only just learned of picmonkey a few mins ago so haven’t messed with it much… can u set up an account and have it stop your photo in the history like picnic does. i rely on that alot??

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