Regular readers of the blog will be familiar with the free online image editing program Picnik. You can check out our introduction to Picnik if you are curious. For the curious, the four tutorials in that series will give you an indepth introduction to Picnik.

In today’s tutorial we are going to show you how to use some of the basic Picnik tools to create a very special canvas print, printed card or picture for Valentines day. We have deliberately tried to keep it as simple as possible.

Choose your image

Pick an image that represents a powerful personal moment between you and your partner. An image that features both of you is always ideal 🙂 You can see our test image below.

Intensify  the colour

Increase the saturation of the image slightly to help create more vivid colours.

Simply click on Edit – Colour from the main menu:

When you boost the saturation make sure that the colours still look realistic.

Add a border

Add a border to your image by going to Create – Frames

You can choose both an inner and outer colour and alter the size of each. Remember to click "Apply" when you have finalised your choices to save your changes.

We applied two separate frames – one square and one circular

Add a shape

Picnik have added a whole range of Valentine’s Day themed shapes and we are going to use them to add a splash of colour to our personalised message. Click on "Create" and then "Shapes"

Choose an image from the available selection. It will then appear in the centre of your image. You can alter the size of the image by clicking on any of the four round shapes on each corner. You can rotate the image by clicking on the round shape on the centre top of the image.

Place it in an area where there will also be space to add some text.

Add some text

Without changing the screen – click on the text tag next to the shape button on the menu.

You can see the available options below:

Make sure you scroll down the font choices until you reach those with a Valentines Day theme.

You can choose:

• The type of font
• The font size
• The font colour

Enter your text to the box in the top of the left-hand menu and then click "Add Text"

You can change the size and rotation of the text in the same way as we worked with our custom shape.

You can see our choices below:

Save your image

Make sure you save your image by going to Save and Share.

If you are particularly happy with the final effect Brilliant Prints can help you turn your final image into a very special Valentine’s day canvas print. Alternatively, submit your image to us for our inaugaral Valentines Day Competition and you could win an 11 x 14 inch print with your image delivered before Valentine’s Day.