First Dance + Song Lyrics Wedding Picture Tutorial Part 1: How to create a photo graphic

November 28, 2009. 

A day that changed my life forever. 

In one of the best ways possible. 

The day I became Mrs. Kyle Leahy.

I will never forget our first dance as husband & wife. We were both so nervous, in a smiley, embarrassed kind of way. We aren't great dancers + we don't like to be the center of attention. But when I walked up there to the dance floor- with the most handsome man alive- my husband{!} all of that nervousness I felt melted away. It was just me and him. Forever. Always. My Endless Love.

We chose Endless Love as our song because it's a song that we both love. We chose the Mariah Carey and Luther Vandross version. We feel the lyrics of the song fit our relationship perfectly. I just love everything about the song, and it is even more special now that it is our song. 

I found this picture of a couples first dance  with the words from the song printed it on pinterest, and knew I wanted to make one. For most of my graphics, I use PicMonkey.com to create them. It is fun, and easy to use, and can turn most pictures into something amazing with just a little creativity. My only complaint is that sometimes the editing and saving is a little slow. But as long as I don't have many pictures to edit, I can handle it.

So for this project, I found our cds with our wedding photos, and took a little trip down memory lane, getting distracted a few times before deciding on this picture to use.

I uploaded it into picmonkey, using the edit a photo button, cropped it to the size I wanted {in this case, 8x10}, and began editing. 

First, I took all the color out of it using their colors tab on the left side. Then, I adjusted the exposure so it was a little darker. I wanted the shadows to be darker than normal so the white words would stick out on it a little better.

{On the left side of the screen there are basic edit buttons. For most of my photos I use exposure, color, and crop.}

Next I started the process of adding the text. To get text options, click on the "P" on the left side of the screen. There you will find an add text button, and a vast variety of font options. Play around with the fonts to see which one you like.

Click the "add text" button at the top left, and a box will pop up on the screen. From there you can adjust the size, placement, orientation font, and color of the text. While making mt picture, I used a different text box for every phrase, or size of the text. This made it easy to adjust and move the text around to be how I wanted it. I also used the circle above the text to rotate some of the words for variety. There were some words I left out too. This project is completely flexible, and easy to personalize.

When everything looks how you want it to look, click save at the top of your screen. This will allow you to download your file back to your computer. I usually just click "download it" under "Having trouble saving your photo?" because the other saving option doesn't always work for me. 

I have made so many graphics and great pictures using PicMonkey. There are so many ways to use the website to create amazing things. There is even a Royal, or paid version {like a membership}, but so far, I haven't needed it. I use all of their free options. 

Here are some of the other graphics I have made using PicMonkey.

Now, I will upload the wedding lyrics picture file to my favorite photo printing website, and order an 8x10 picture. When I receive it, I will show you how I plan to make a photo canvas out of it for our wall.

I'd love to see your photo creations, if you make any using PicMonkey. Please share them with me on Facebook, or email them to me at HootandBumble@gmail.com

**Updated to add the link for Part 2 pf this project: how to create a photo canvas**