Ever have one of those tools that just makes your heart skip a beat. You can’t imagine life without it! As a photographer, Picnik has been my little heart-throb for some time. We became friends a little over a year ago, when she took my photo-editing woes and transformed them into a spotlight feature, making life more beautiful, simplified and meaningful. I may have invested a whole $24.98 into her magical-ness, but to me it was worth every cent of photo-editing genious-ness. Imagine my despair when I received the email straight from Picnik that they were closing. Seriously?!?! (by the way- who breaks up with their crush in an email!!?!?!?)
Official Announcement: Picnik is closing
Since joining Google in 2010, we have been creating editing magic in Google products while continuing to keep Picnik awesome. But now we get to focus on even awesomer things. Picnik will be closing on April 19, 2012
I fell like my life as a blogger and photo-editing whiz has been crushed to the ground. Okay maybe not, but literally, I love picnik so much. Look at all the easy and beautiful things they’ve helped me create…
For homemade Christmas 2011 I created a 4×6 photo print book of all the things my son and his cousins were grateful to my parents for. Here’s a sneak peek at a few pages. Seriously this was 100% Picnik elements compiled into an amazingly easy and fabulous project!




And then there are all the super simple blog buttons that I’ve created through Picnik {Sigh…rather Gasp of panic}

Not to mention the special edition buttons that I’ve made to coordinate with blog projects…

And even a few headers…(Hmm, look familiar?)



I even designed my own Photo Christmas Card with Picnik this year!

Ah, the memories. All I have to say is “Google, you better have something truly amazing up your sleeve. You have sent me into a very sad and lonely place.”
On the bright side, Picnik is offering EVERYONE the benefits of a Premium membership until they close on April 19th, and have created some pretty fabulous tools to download all of your amazing works very easily. So go to Picnik NOW. Slurp up all the amazing features you can. So what are my top 10 favorite Premium features that you MUST try between now and April 19th. Here you go (in no particular order)!
1. Vibrance (under Edit-Effects) complete color amazing-ness. Almost always a first step!
2. Clone (under touch up) Have something really distracting in your background? Clone a different part of your picture and paint over the distraction. Can’t tell you how many times this has saved me!
3. Airbrush (under touch up) not that I want everyone to look like a model, but funky lighting can make your image look funny, even gritty somethings. Airbrush makes everything looks smoother. For a stronger version use the wrinkle remover. You’ll never need to iron again (or at least until April 19th).
4. Sunless Tan/ Blush (under touch up) does you subject need a little color. Add the perfect hues to your washed out subject without completely making them look fake!
5. Curves – Beyond all the other amazing pre-made effects for you, Curves lets you customize your effects by playing with the RGB format of your picture. No worries, it’s safe to play…there is always an undo and cancel button that is just one-click away.
6. Stickers – pretty much the whole tab offers about 760,000 opportunities for creativity. Most of my Thank You album was made using stickers. A few of my favorites are in the sketchy themes and occasionally a few of the holidays.
7. Text – okay it never was a premium feature, but you still need to check out just HOW easy it is to add text to your photos or works of art.
8. SEASONAL TAB! Yes, I’m yelling….there are so many features that are not found anywhere else. It’s like their little secret magical treasure that you just got the key to. Go play.
9 & 10. I just gave you a few assignment, in the unlikely event that you are still reading this message, a few others that I like (that are necessary Premium features) are Cross Process, and most of the collage features. Note: To create a collage you need to choose collage before you edit your picture, go to the home page/start to find it!
If you are experiencing a similar response to the Picnik announcement, OR if you know of other tools like Picnik that aren’t breaking up with us on April 19th that are cheap and easy to fall in love with…comment below. Perhaps we can start a support group. In the meantime, hold your head high. You still create beauty in all that you do 🙂