| Words Around Image Gift Idea
Posted: 12 Apr 2013 06:00 AM PDT
The latest rage in home décor is creating unique, custom printed artwork for your walls. Page Prints (US|CAN) in a Page Frame (US|CAN) or Magnetic Display (US|CAN) and Photo Panels (US|CAN) work perfectly for this. Here’s an awesome idea for a unique gift any recipient would be proud to display in the home: a photograph with meaningful words in the background.
Create one yourself following these steps:
1. Find a photo worth featuring on a wall.
When selecting the photo, choose one with a moderately sized focal point around which the words will wrap, something that takes up no more than about half the total image space. Pay attention to how busy the background is, especially the variety of background colors. It’s easiest – and I think it looks best – to use a single font color for all the text. Having a background with a wide array of tones and colors makes this more difficult: a light font color shows up on the dark parts of the background, but is hard to read on the light areas of the background.
After playing around with several photos I ended up using a black and white image.
2. Make the photo the background of the page.
Start your project in StoryBook Creator 4.0 (US|CAN), add the photo to the project, right-click on the photo and choose Make background. Go the View menu and select Trimmed. Easy enough.
3. Create a shape of the focal point.
The next step is to create a shape (or several shapes) over the focal point of the image. From the Insert ribbon select Shape > Custom Shape Using Curved Lines.
Then bust out your best kindergarten tracing skills: make a series of close-together mouse clicks along the edge of the focal point of the image. It doesn’t matter what Fill or Line style you use, since we’ll eventually make the shape(s) invisible.
Click, click, click, and when the shape is completely outlined select Create. I ended up creating 2 separate shapes because I wanted my words to flow in between the two silhouettes, so mine looked like this:
Look how cute those shapes are in the Elements panel! I feel so crafty!
4. Add your text box.
From the Insert ribbon choose Text. Resize and position the text box so it takes up the majority of the page, overlapping your shapes, and click Create.
In the Elements panel, drag the text box so it appears below the shape(s). Then, right-click on the shape(s) you created and select Text wrapping > Element shape. Now you can click twice on your text box and start typing or text (or copy/paste the text if you’re using something like song lyrics or a bunch of quotations you’ve copied from somewhere).
5. Make the shape invisible.
Select the shape and go to Format > Opacity. Set the opacity at 0 and click OK. Voila!
6. Place your order!
Click File > Order to upload your project to Creative Memories Digital Center (US|CAN). After all, your creation will look much better on your wall – or in a gift box! – than on your desktop.
Post your projects on the Creative Memories Go Digital Facebook Page! |
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