Shutterfly is always doing some kind of free promo or discounts for its products. You can get 101 free photos, free photo books, free calendars, free magnets, etc. You normally will get something for free just for joining Shutterfly.
I have used them for 7 years now all for FREE. I have used them for my wedding, Mother’s day, Chase’s 1st birthday, Father’s Day, and other various occasions. Only pay for the shipping cost. You can too!
Here are some ways you can use these free photos and books to decorate every party theme you have in mind. Shutterfly’s promotions happen sporadically throughout the year so sign up for updates.
Photo Banner. All you need is a ribbon or twine, clothespins, and photo prints. You can add lace, fabric, or tassel to make the photos pop out!
Photo Centerpieces. Put a photo inside a mason jar or in my case, a spaghetti jar (Yes, I collect all kinds of jars). I soak the jar in hot water, then scrub to remove the labels. Add little accessories (flowers, baby pins, pacifier, etc). You can also add a number to use as a table number.
Table Numbers. Frame your prints. Use craft paper or fabric to make numbers.
Guest book. Use it as a guest book for your wedding with your engagement pictures or a birthday party with baby pictures. I’ve made alphabet and family books for my son’s 1st birthday. He still loves them two years later.
Recipe Swap Book. Have guests send you pictures of their delicious dishes with recipes. At the party have guests sign the book.
Photo State map. Cut the photos into states or countries that you’ve traveled to as a couple for a cool travel-themed wedding or couple shower. I would do a little tutorial, but Kelsie Ann at Cut, Craft, Create does a much better job.
Shutterfly sometimes also offer free photo mug, calendar, and magnets. These all make wonderful gifts.
Even without these free promotions, you can always find discounts! Be sure to search around the Internet for discount codes. Shutterfly will also list its promotions on its website.
How would you decorate your party with free Shutterfly photos and books? I would love to see them!
{*This post contains affiliate links. This means if you purchase something through my Shutterfly link, I will get a small commission at no extra charge to you. All opinions are 100% my own. See my disclosure policy for further information}.
Have you ever bought a printable from my shop that has tons of white space? Like this giraffe or bunny wall art printable and wish you can personalize it with a name or a quote?
Today, I will show you how to turn my 8×10 giraffe printable into a party welcome sign using a free online design program called, Canva.
WHAT IS CANVA?
Canva is an online design program that lets you create tons of beautiful posters, invitations, pinterest graphics, etc. for free.
There is also a paid version of Canva, called Canva for Work. There is one feature of Canva for Work that I LOVE!!! That one feature is Canva’s ability to resize my 8×10 designs any other size I want, like a poster, an invitation, a bookmark, etc. I will show you how easy it is in my next tutorial.
Also, with Canva for Work you get more free graphic options.
However, the free version is just awesome for doing all your home and party printables.
Please note: You can only use and personalize my printables for your own personal use. Please do not modify it, claim it as your own and then sell it. That would not be so nice of you.
Materials for this project:
My party giraffe printable if you want to follow along. When you get the giraffe PNG file, just right click on the image and choose save image as to save onto your computer.
Watch the video below for quick tutorial on how to turn this giraffe printable into a party welcome sign. There is no sound, but it’s fairly easy to follow along.
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Go to Canva website. Simply fill in the requested information and sign up.
2. Click on custom dimension and enter 8×10 in. That is the size of my nursery wall art. Click on Create new design.
3. It will open up your blank canvas. Go to Upload and Click on Upload an image.
4. Find the giraffe image that was saved on your computer and upload it to Canva. It will show up under the upload an image like in the screenshot below.
5. Now click and drag the giraffe image onto your blank canvas. Once you see the outline of the canvas turn blue unclick your mouse. The image will now fit exactly into the 8×10 canvas. Otherwise, it will just place your giraffe image down a lot smaller and your have to adjust the image yourself.
ADDING ELEMENTS TO YOUR WELCOME SIGN
Lets say you love the giraffe with the party hat, but you want to change the pom pom on top of it.. Here is what you do.
Click on Elements.
You will see tons of elements that are free and some that are paid. If you want, you can filter it for just free elements by typing free and whatever you are looking for in search. If you have the paid version, Canva for Work, you can just click on free crown icon. Canva for Work offers you more freebies that you otherwise would have to pay if you have the free version.
Using the search box type in firework. Click or drag it onto the canvas.
If you don’t like the firework colors, you can change it to fit your party theme by clicking on the current color and changing it to the one you want.
If you want the firework topper as full as mine, copy it 3 times and then layered them on top of each other, rotating them to how you like them and then group them together. The group function is right next to COPY. Doing this will allow you to move all three layers as one!
You can now download or print this out just like this OR you can:
ADD TEXT
You can add text two different ways. One by clicking on Add a heading, Add a subheading, or Add a little bit of body text. The other way is by using the Canva’s font combination. Canva groups two different fonts together that they feel would make your design pop. I love the Happy Birthday combination, which has the Selima and the League Spartan font. if you don’t like it after putting onto your designs you can always change the font.
By the way, the font combination are grouped together. Whatever you type using this font pairing will move together. If you want to move Happy further up and Birthday separately, you need to UNGROUP. This will let you move the two fonts separately.
I added the number 3 to the party hat for a little more personality. Since, I’m only doing a number, I picked Add a heading. Then type the number 3. I can change its size, color, text using the options on the top left corner. Play with all the options available to you.
BONUS
Lets say you find the above still a little bit too simple and what to add more colors and patterns in the background, like the sign below.
Search for confetti in Elements. Change the color of the confetti if you want it to match your party theme.
Now make copies of the confetti and drag it where you want it to go. You might have to play around with placement of the polkdots so it doesn’t cover the party hat or the words. For the words you can always change the position (upper right corner) to be in front of the polkadots.
Do the same for the balloons. Find it in Elements. Copy it to make it across the top of your welcome sign.
Wasn’t that super fun to do?
You made your first cool party printable!
YAY!
If you love this giraffe polkadot welcome sign the way it is, you can download it here and just modify the name. I will omit the name and the number on the hat for you to personalize yourself.
Your work is automatically save onto your Canva account.
If you want to share your design with others, you can click on Share. You get the options of either inviting people to edit or view your designs. The other sharing option is through a link.
If you want to download your finished work onto your computer, you can click the down arrow next to the Share button.
I normally save my design in PDF Print.
If you choose Publish, you get more options including having Canva print and ship the finished design to your door.
I have not tried it, but the pricing is fairly reasonable. And it’s free shipping. Love THAT!
I hope you found this tutorial helpful. I plan to do more in the following weeks. Next, we will turn the giraffe printable into a party invitation.
Pin this tutorial for future reference.
Let me know if you would to create more fun designs with me in Canva by commenting below!
I don’t know about you, but lately I’ve been obsessed with donuts. No, not the kind you eat. Donut cliparts and quotes. I don’t have a sweet tooth for donuts, but donut prints are SWEET!
Here are some of the irresistible donut prints and decorations that I’ve found around the internet.
I love donut art so much that I’ve decided to put the above print onto a throw pillow. You know what else? I’ve decided to give it away to one of my readers. Enter the giveaway below to win this soft velveteen throw pillow. The quote “Donut Worry. Be Happy!” is on both sides of the pillow. If you love donuts and the song “Don’t worry. Be Happy!” you’ll want this pillow!
Today, I’m going to show you how to personalize my printable (either the free one or the one purchased from my Etsy store) for your specific needs, like a birthday party.
Why am I showing you how to do this instead of just making you pay me extra to personalize it for you?! Because I want you to see the benefits of buying printables over physical print. I feel that you can get more bang for your buck with printables because there are so many things you can do with them.
Normally, designers have a disclaimer saying you can’t modify their printables. However, I feel that if you can modify it for personal use and save money in return, it’s fine and dandy with me. Just don’t modify my printable, claim it as your own, and then resell it. That is not cool in my book!
Let’s get started, shall we? I’m going to show you how to make the print below using Picmonkey (affiliate link. See disclosure policy), an online photo editing program. I truly love it and would highly recommend it if you are looking for something EASY and FREE!
Update 2/29/2018:Picmonkey is no longer free! However, they do offer a 7-day trial.
You can download the Panda printable below for free if you would like to use it to follow along the tutorial.
Instructions:
1. Go to the Picmonkeywebsite. It will look something similar to below.
2. Click on Edit option at the top of the page.
3. Upload the printable from your computer onto Picmonkey. This program only accepts JPEG or PNG files. No PDFs, AI, PSD, etc. Your screen should look something like this with the options on the left sidebar. Click on Tt to get to the TEXT menu.
4. Now lets add some text. You can either use your own font by clicking on Yours or use Picmonkey’s font by clicking on Ours. Choose the font you would like your text to be. Then click on Add Text. Then type in what you want to say.
5. If you look below, I’ve decided to use the Sacramento font. There is a Text box with tons of options. You can change the color, the size of the font, blend the text. Play around with it. If you want to go back to the previous action, there is a undo button at the top.
6. I used the Emily’s Candy for the word ONE to make it stand out. Voila!!! Done!
7. But wait! Lets say you want to add a cute little banner behind ONE. Just click on the butterfly (highlighted in blue below). Click on Banners. Change the color and fading! Now, you got an even cuter printable!
8. Lastly, save it to your computer! The Save option is at top of the page. Remember to save it a different name then your original file. Once you save it, you can’t re-open it in Picmonkey and then undo your mistakes! You have to start from scratch. What you can do is save several versions of your work along the way so that you can just upload from that point instead of starting over!
After you save the file, you can play around a little more by adding hearts, fireworks, etc. The options with the crown in the corner means you have to be a Royale member to enjoy those benefits.
I created the other printables you see in the first picture the same way. The bunting in the Happy Halloween printable is under Banner in the Overly option (Butterfly Icon). When you click on the banner it gives you an option of changing the flag color.
Was that not fun or what?!
Now that you’ve learned how to personalize your printable, what will you be putting on yours? Would you like more tutorials like this? Comment below.
If you enjoy this tutorial, please subscribe below for future ones. You will also gain access to my Free Printable Resource Library. Maybe there is a printable in there for you to personalize using Picmonkey!
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