Friday Felicities

Were you sad when you discovered a few weeks ago that Picnik, the photo editing website, and Flickr were parting ways? ME TOO!

I'm not at the point where I wish to spend time and money on Photoshop. So I kept my eye and ears open and lazily waited for other people do the research on to see what alternatives there were.

Then, thanks to both Jennifer and the comments on Gwen's post (includes link to a follow-up summary of options!) on this very topic, I found PicMonkey. It's developed by former Picnikers I believe, and it's perfect for my photo editing needs, which are:

• cropping;
• colour, brightness, sharpness adjustments;
• adding text (e.g. my blog name);
• occasionally resizing.

Plus, it's much faster to upload and save photos. There's a bunch of other stuff you can do, including adding shapes and frames and all that jazz - even making a blog button (tutorial here - thank you, Jennifer Ellison Lane Quilts!). Apparently a collage function is on its way.

Here's a before and some afters of a photo of me, using all kinds of fun effects available on PicMonkey (all free during their free trial, then some functions will be "royal" and available only to paying users):

Before, no editing whatsoever:

After (cropped, darkened, sharpened, photo corners added and just for fun: removed crow's feet, whitened teeth and softened some lines and wrinkles):

Olde Timey Polaroid version:

For the book jacket if I ever become a romance writer:

This is fun! My husband says this looks like it's supposed to go on a commemorative plate:

Jaunty chapeau?

Okay, I'll stop.

Best part about it, it's FREE! Free, I say! Woot!


Have a lovely weekend, all!

***I'm not affiliated with PicMonkey in any way - I just like it.***