DIY Printable Chart Tutorial

Hey thanks for linking up the past couple days everybody!  Great stuff!  Ya'll are so clever ;)

As promised, I want to show you how to make some really great printables that you can use for any occassion.

First let me preface this by saying that I am extremely upset that Picnik is closing in April.  I really don't know how I'm going to do all the things I do...  But, until April 19th, this tutorial is still valid.

1.  Ok, login to Picnik and upload a plain 8.5x11 inch jpg file.  (If you don't have one, you can save a blank Word doc as a PDF, then go HERE to have it converted to JPG.)

2.  In the "Effects" tab, scroll down and select "Duo Tone".  It will automatically turn your image yellow.

3.  Simply select the color you want your edges to be, make it the same in both boxes, and click "Apply".

4.  Now scroll over to the "Stickers" tab and scroll down to Basic shapes -> Geometric.  Select the rectangle.

5.  Stretch this rectangle to fill almost the entire document, leaving just enough color around the edges to be decorative.

6.  Change this rectangle color to white using the color box on the screen.

7.  At the top right of your screen, you should see what looks like a little wheel.  If you click on this, it gives you two options - select "Combine Everything."  This will allow you to do further edits without moving or changing what you have already done.

8. Now here's where you get creative.  You can do one of three things here.

8A - At the bottom of your screen, you can pull up the Photo Basket and upload a picture from your computer to use on your new document.  For example, one of my lists is for my blog, so I saved my blog header as a PNG file (clear background) and added it to my new document as my list header.

8B.  In that same Photo Basket, you can choose your Picasa albums from the drop-down menu, and use an image you have saved in Picasa.

8C. Finally, you can just use one of the many images in the "Stickers" section on Picnik.  For this tutorial, that's what I'll be doing.

9.  Once you have your image selected, move it, change it, any way you like until it's where you want it.

10. Ok, now you want to add your title.  Scroll over to the "Text" section, type what you want in the box and apply it.  Change your text color to black so you can see it.

11.  Play around with different fonts and colors until you like what you see.  Then place it on your document in it's permanent home.

 12.  Next you'll tab over to "Save & Share".  Change the file type to PNG and save to your computer.

13.  Open a new blank document in Word.  Go to your page settings and customize a margin setting.  You need all of your margins to be "0".

14.  Insert the PNG file that you just created and it will automattically fill the entire page in Word.

15. Now you can add text boxes and make your list or printable however you like.  Go to "Insert Text Box" and select "Draw Text Box" to create a custom box.  You can change the outline to "None" and the fill to "None" if you want it to be transparent.

16.  Customize according to your needs.

17. SAVE AS PDF FILE.  Let me say it again --> SAVE IN PDF FORMAT.

18.  Did you save as a PDF?  Ok, now that your gorgeous PDF file is open and you're ready to print, you have to tweak your print settings first.  Under "Properties", make sure you change your settings to print Borderless Photo on 8.5 x 11.  This will ensure that the entire page prints.

19.  Also make sure that the "Auto Rotate & Center" is checked, and Page Scaling is set to "None".

20.  Enjoy your cool new printable!  Now you can create them for every possible need!!!

You're welcome!

Here's a little close-up of mine so you get an idea of what you can create:

I made one for Project Life, one for my blog, one for my Etsy store, and one for general projects.

I'd love to see what you create!  Send me a link in the comments.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

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