PicMonkey.com has been a total game-changer for me when it comes to creating eye-catching workout images. It’s incredibly user friendly and FREE, unless you want to pay $5 a month for a upgraded version, which I personally think is more than worth it. (The upgraded version gives you access to a lot more fonts, editing effects, images, etc.)
Playing around with PicMonkey is the best way to familiarize yourself with the site and get comfortable creating and editing images. Though I usually use Picasa to edit my photos (<—another free resource), I use PicMonkey to create ALL of my workout images.
Sample Workout Images
You may find even more examples of the workout images I’ve created on the PBF Workouts Pinterest page.
As you can see, you can create tons of different workout images in PicMonkey and play around with many different pictures, fonts, colors, backgrounds and more. The possibilities are truly endless.
How To Create Workout Images Using PicMonkey
Here is a quick tutorial for those of you who have requested more information about how I create my workout images. You can also use this tutorial to create other images – I’ve used PicMonkey to create bridal shower invitations, bachelorette party itineraries, prints for my home office gallery wall, etc.
- Visit PicMonkey.com, select the Design tab and choose the image size you wish to use for your workout image
I typically prefer to use 8×10 because I find the quality is better since I like to share large, sharp images on the blog.
Note: If you wish to create a workout graphic on top of an existing image you have on your computer (like the Incline Walking Workout image above), click the Edit tab and upload your image.
- Choose a background color for your image (if desired) by selecting Canvas Color under the Basic Edits tab
I will frequently opt not to use a background color for my images because I find white image rather eye-catching! You can also choose unique textured backgrounds underneath the Textures tab (located right above the heart image on the left hand navigation). You may see an example of a workout image with a textured background here: 30 Minute Treadmill Interval Workout + Total Body Circuit Workout.
- Click on the Frames tab and select a frame for your image (if desired)
This is another optional step, but I still wanted to highlight it for the purpose of a thorough tutorial.
The next step is the fun part… It’s time to select your overlay images!
- Select unique images to include in your graphic underneath the Overlays tab
I will often use the images under the Geometric tab to help section off long blocks of a different color within the workout image, as shown below in white.
To make sure you can type on top of an image or layer a new image on top of a different image, right click on top of the existing image and select “send to back.” This will make the image part of the background so you can begin layering additional images on top of it, if desired.
Layering a star image on top of the white rectangle image:
- Add text by selecting the Text tab
- Save image to your computer
- Share your image
That’s it!! Not too difficult, right? If it looks a little overwhelming at first, I totally understand and I cannot encourage you to play around on PicMonkey on your own enough. You’ll pick things up much faster through trial and error and be able to create images with relative ease once you start getting the hang of things.
Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any specific questions in the comments section of this post. I am more than happy to address anything I may have left out!
More Blogging Posts
More blogging-related tips and tutorials may be found on my Blogging page. Below you will find a few highlights:
- How to Start a Blog, Blog Focus, Self Hosting and More
- Blogger Safety
- Company Outreach: Receiving Free Products, Hosting Giveaways, Posting Product Reviews and More
- Connecting with Other Bloggers
- Rising Above Negativity
- Balancing Blogging and Real Life
- How to Increase Blog Readership
- Freelance Writing 101
- Blog Pictures, Organization and Photo Editing
- Blogging Tips for Beginners
- My Number One Tip for Bloggers
- Brainstorming Blog Topics
- Tips for Non-Blog Savvy Folks
- Everyday Blogging Tools
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Great tutorial! I have PicMonkey and never use it, thanks for the reminder and encouragement to use it more–it’s to my advantage to do so! 🙂
it really is a great resource! hope the tutorial helps!! 🙂
Thanks, Julie! I am a newbie to PicMonkey so this will really help me use it better. Question – I often find that it is a little slow and crashes out on me a lot. Do you ever have that issue? I am wondering if the upgrade alleviates any of those problems (I just use the free version right now). Just curious. Thanks again for all these great tips!
i actually have never had that problem, even before the upgrade… i’m so sorry you have! that would definitely annoy me!
Thanks for the feedback! Lol…yes, it is very frustrating sometimes. I’ll have to look a little deeper into it – perhaps there’s another issue. Have a good afternoon. 🙂
I was so excited to see the title of this post pop up this morning! I have always wondered how you made your graphics. I once spent quite a while searching your blog and google looking for the answer when I needed to make a similar graphic for work, so glad to know the answer 🙂
awesome!!! i hope it’s helpful for you, emily!
Great tips! I love PicMonkey for making things like this and also for editing photos. It’s so user friendly and makes a big difference!
I think I first heard of Picmonkey when you shared it awhile ago. So thank you for that! It really is super easy to use especially if you are creatively challenged when it comes to graphics and photos as I sometimes am. 🙂
you and me both!!
Great tips! I always love your workout images :)!
I LOVE PicMonkey! It’s the best website.. I’ve been using it since you first mentioned it years ago!
PicMonkey is THE BEST! I totally agree on the upgraded membership being completely worth the money. Great tutorial!
I love this tutorial!! I think Pic Monkey is awesome, but I just use the free version 🙂 You seriously have the cutest workout graphics though! I love them!!
thank you!! <3
I love pic monkey! I use it all the time, even for things not blogging related.
Great tutorial! I use PicMonkey but didn’t even know some of that! Thanks!
Thank you SO much for sharing this! I recently started blogging again and have been looking for an easier way to do cute visuals. I’m in marketing and rely on photoshop daily, but it’s a lot to do for blog posts and too pricey for my home computer! Can’t wait to try out PicMonkey!
I don’t have Photoshop either and feel like PicMonkey does a decent job filling that job for free (or really cheap) 🙂
I love PicMonkey! Great tips and tricks! I will definitely start using the 8×10 size to help with image quality.
I have so much fun with PicMonkey. I’ve been creating images much like you suggest above using the free version, but maybe it’s time to upgrade? Thanks for sharing your tips. Your workouts look awesome!
I love PicMonkey! I pay the $5 so I can airbrush my photos haha. I’ve also been known to give my tan a boost as well…..
This tutorial is so perfect, thank you!
Great tutorial! I love the images you create, they make everything super clear and really grab my attention! I look forward to playing around on PicMonkey; I’m thinking I could make some pretty adorable recipe cards… 🙂
Great tutorial! I love you posts on behind the scenes of blogging.
Your* not you whoops!
Funny I’ve been wanting something exactly like this for about a month now and today I run across your post. You can find anything on the internet! 😉
I love pic monkey. It’s my favorite blogging tool.
I just created my first pic-monkey workout – perfect timing!
This helps to break it down. Thanks 🙂
I am OBSESSED with pic monkey! I did a presentation kind of like this at HLS a couple years ago! It’s just the best 🙂
Thank you for posting Julie! I just made my first photo edit with PicMonkey last night and love how easy it is!
Great resource Julie! Thanks for putting it together.
This is really inspirational because I need the motivation to work out and I need to make this for myself. I better stick this in front of my door because it will probably remind me better unlike my phone would tell me haha 🙂
Lee
http://Www.lastnightwithlee.blogspot.com
NO LIE, I had big plans on emailing you this week about how to do this! You reading my mind?! Thanks for the awesome tutorial, can’t wait to try it out. Have a great week Julie!
Thanks for this!! I use picmonkey for collages a lot and have only played around in the design tab a bit. I think I was missing that “send to back” step before, so this is really helpful!!
I LOVE picmonkey and use it almost daily for educational technology projects. It is well worth the low $$.
I discovered a new tool today that is similiar but different that also looks promising called canva.com
i’ve heard great things about canva but haven’t explored it at all yet — hope to check it out soon!
This is a great tutorial, thanks, Julie! I’ve used PicMonkey a bit before, but my images don’t turn out the way yours do! I’m hoping all it takes is some practice 🙂
How crazy! I just made my first Pic Monkey Workout Graphic today. I was making Power Point slides and saving them as .jpg files. AHHH! I was searching everywhere to try to find out how everyone made theirs look so great and discovered Pic Monkey on my own then tonight found this post! Thanks for the explanations! My question is, when I save the image to my computer then upload it to my blog, you cannot click on it like you can on your blog post. I am so new to blogging and am teaching myself as I go so if this is a stupid question, I apologize. It uploads fine, but I want it to be pin-able and also give my readers the ability to click on it to make it larger. Any idea what I am doing incorrectly? Thanks so much!
you probably just need to create a larger image and save it as a large image so it expands when readers click it! it’s kind of confusing, but i just create an 8×10 image and upload it and use windows live writer to make it larger on my blog!
Thanks for the tip- I will definitely be checking out Picmonkey. Does this mean you’re bringing Blog Talk Tuesdays back? 🙂
i had so much fun with that series! if you have any post requests, let me know! i just ran out of ideas! 🙂
I vote to bring back blog talk Tuesdays! When I started my blog last fall, I went back and read all of our tips. Keep ’em coming 😉
any specific topic requests?? i’m more than happy to share more blogging-related posts but just run out of ideas and i’m not sure what would interest you guys!
I would love to hear about how you manage your time in terms of writing and scheduling your posts. Particularly when you were working full-time and blogging twice a day, how the heck did you do it? Any new resources for bloggers? I type my posts in WordPress.com, which doesn’t accurately spell check. I always find a few typos once I’ve hit “publish,” and it annoys me beyond belief.
Also, I would love to see the return of PBF Book Club!
i also ALWAYS find typos after publishing even though i try to always take the time to proof read. i feel your pain! i love this idea for a post though!!
I use picmonkey but I never thought to use the geometric shapes to section off the text.
Thanks so much for this post. Sometimes these sites can be intimidating to use but you broke it down perfectly 🙂
Love this! Your workout images are always so stinkin cute!
I love PicMonkey! I still need to spend some more time on it, but it’s my go to for cropping and making images for some of my workouts that I post online. Thanks for the tip about right clicking to send things to the background; I didn’t know about that! I always like your graphics and I think this is a great post!
I know Picmonkey is great for adding text to photos. Thanks for the tutorial!
I use Pic Monkey to make graphics for my blog too. It didn’t take me too long to get the hang of it. I wish I had started using it sooner!
Oh my goodness. Seriously, this couldn’t have come at a better time. THANK YOU for the easy to follow tutorial. I just walked through it and created a fun design to showcase my clients weight loss totals for January. It looks incredible!! Especially now that I know how the heck to use the website. Thank you so very much! You are awesome.
PicMonkey was a game changer for bloggers. But then I found PhotoshopCC for only $10 a month and I haven’t looked back 🙂
Absolutely LOVE LOVE Pic Monkey. I also use Canva, although now Canva is starting to charge for some of their templates.
Wooo – thanks SO much! After totally creping on your suggestion for self-hosting, I finally made the migration yesterday! Can’t wait to keep up the creativity with picmonkey (much better than the lame, plain Jane typing I’ve been doing, ha!) Thanks for the tips. 🙂
This. Is. Awesome.
Thank you for the wicked and super thorough tutorial !!!