***Unfortunately picnik has ceased to exist as of April 19th 2012. RIP picnik, we miss you***
Have you ever wondered how some bloggers get their pictures looking so pretty with lovely embellishments like washi tapes? Well most of them use clip art in photoshop.
I don’t know how to use photoshop so I’m going to show you how you can use clip art in Picnik photo editor.
Picnik is free to use, but for this particular technique I will show you you must have the premium package (around $25 per yr). I have gotten a lot of value from my premium upgrade and highly recommended it.*
First you will have to download your clip art file. I have chosen to use these lovely and free washi tape strips by Pugly Pixel.
The key to using clip art in picnik is making sure they have a transparent background and are in a .PNG file format.
There are several designs in 3 different sizes, so you will have to open your chosen pattern and crop out the size you want. I have used Microsoft office picture manager to do this.
Make sure you ‘SAVE AS’ with a new name and as a .PNG file (this will keep the transparent background)
edit: If you are on a Mac you can use Preview to crop and select out your chosen tape image.
Now you can use picnik to make your images pretty. Upload your cropped tape image, select and drag over you picture.
That’s all there is to it…Check out the Pugly Pixel blog for some more great downloads, tips and tutorials
edit: If you have a question I will try to answer it in the comments section, thanks.
Did you find that helpful?
Yell out if you want me to explain some other Picnik tips and tricks that you may be stuck on
*This post was not sponsored by Picnik, but if Picnik big wigs are reading, how about a free subscription next year *wink, wink*
Hi friend ! This is super helpful, and super cute too
How's everything and how's little Emma doing ? Hope all is well mwah xx
Thank you so much for this. I have just discovered picnik and this is super helpful.
Cinti – I love you so much
I like using picnic but can never figure out how to use it so revert to photoshop which takes me twice as long and I eventually give up – off to give this a wirl.
I have always wondered how people do that!
I love your Picnik tutorials! I'm so excited to see some of the things that I can do now. I must go play around some more.
Thanks!
LOVE this tutorial! I had no idea that you could use this in picnik! Thank you so much! (Yes, I know that's a lot of exclamation points, but I'm very excited.)
I've only just found your blog, and have just spent the last half an hour having a wonderful read, thank you
This tutorial is awesome, I didn't even realise you could “drag” images over another! I have one question though, how do we tilt the image so that the tape is on an angle if we want it to be?
Jess x
Good question Jessie. when you click on the shape there will be a little circle centre top. when your mouse hovers over it will have little rotation arrows. move left or right to rotate
cheers Cinti
Thank you for this tutorial … love your blog! I do have a question – how did you create the frames that your pictures in this tutorial are in? Was that in picnik or instagram? Thanks!
Hi Becca, good question. the frame on the right was instagram and the one on the left was an iphone app called 'shake it lite' which turns photos into polaroids
Hi. Love this post. Question, how do I get the full image of the tape to show up. When I add it to a photo you only see the tape that is on the photo, and the part that hangs off is transparent. any ideas? thanks!
Thank you so much for sharing this! I bought the premium version of Picnik and was wondering how to put tape on photos.
Thanks so much for this tutorial!! I have wanted for a long time to do things like that with my photos but I have no Photoshop. I do have Picnik premium though! This is so cool, gonna try it right away!
I'm having the same problem as Ashley Sawyer – how do I get the full image of the tape? I only see the tape that's on the photo!! Any tips about this would be much appreciated
To answer Sarah and Ashley's question. If you are using a single image and want to make the tape hang off the edge of the photo a bit, you will need to add a frame around the picture so the tape has extra area to be seen on. If you don't want to see the frame just choose a colour that will match the background of whatever you will be using it on. Hope that makes sense?
Cheers cinti
Awesome!! When I drag mine on to the picture, (even after I rename and save as a png) it is not transparent, the white background is showing…
oh my goodness.
you are amazing!
i have been using picnik for months and months now.
NEVER did i know you could layer pictures. you have now just opened my eyes to a whole new level of picnik.
and for that my darlin…
i thank you!
thank you so much for this…finally i have it figured out!! : ) i won't tell you how long it took me but without your help i'm afraid it never would have happened. love your spot here!!
Does this work with the free version of picnik?
Hi Sophia, unfortunately not as you can not over lay images in the basic mode. an alternative would be to use the sticker function (rectangle) and adjust the transparency so it looks like tape?
Tell me how you go.
x cinti