How to Create a Vision Board Using PicMonkey

It’s a New Year!  Everyone is out and about sporting their new workout gear, trying their hardest to work off all those Christmas cookies.  Have you seen the alternative to those often feeble attempts at keeping New Year’s Resolutions?  Vision Boards.

Since I managed to be so successful at achieving my goals in 2013, I thought I’d share some tips on how to create your own Vision Board for 2014 and how to achieve the goals you set out for yourself through your board.

Go to www.picmonkey.com.  There’s no need for a Pro account, so click on “Create a Collage”.  Upload the pictures that you wish to use in your board by clicking on “Open photos”.

Depending upon the number of images that you want to include in your board and their dimensions, you may need to create multiple collages (to be pieced together later).  I ended up creating three separate collages for the vision board used in the title image above.Drag and drop your images into place on the collage.  Images can be dropped on the border of other images to split the space and allow for additional images to fill the space.  The borders of each image can also be dragged to resize the dimensions of the box.  You can also drag your mouse over each image on your collage and an “Edit” box will appear that will also allow you to alter the image.

Once you have your images situated to your satisfaction, then click “Save” on the top tool bar.  Rename your image and select the quality of your choosing for your file and click “Save to my computer” and select where you wish for it to be saved.

Repeat the steps above if you have additional images that you wish to include in your board.Once you have completed the number of boards required to include all of your images, click “Create a Collage”. Open the collage images you have just created and drag them to the available slots in the new collage.  Once you have added all of your collage images, select the palate icon (bottom one on the left toolbar) to make any alterations needed to the background of your collage.  Here you can change the spacing between your images.

By clicking on the swatches icon (3rd icon down on the left toolbar), you can select any of the available background images or select your own by clicking “Use your own” to fill any empty space in your collage.

Want to add text or additional embellishments to your collage? Click “Edit” in the top toolbar and click the button “Open in editor”. The page will refresh with your collage in editor mode.  Here you can add text by clicking on the icon “Tt” (fourth icon down on the left toolbar).  Select your desired font and click “Add text”.  You can alter the color, justification, size and blend modes from the toolbar that appears.You can also add additional effects from the various menus, accessed by the icons on the left toolbar.

When you’re done with any alterations, be sure to click “Save” on the top toolbar.  Change the name of your image and select the quality of your choosing for your file and click “Save to my computer” and select where you wish for it to be saved.And there you have it – a completely customized and inspiring Vision Board for 2014!

First select images that portray attainable goals and ones that are meaningful to you.  I gathered many of my images from Pinterest.  Select images with text that provide direction for you for the coming year.  For example, I selected quotes and scriptures that focus on things that I feel that I need to work on in order to better myself.  Of course I could improve a variety of areas of my life, I’m human, but I tend to focus on an overall theme or select a few key goals that I want to work towards (because once again, I’m human).Once you have established your Vision Board collage, write up (on a blog, Facebook, in a journal or on the back of the most recent electric bill – one you’ve paid) your overall thoughts on what your hopes, dreams and aspirations are for the coming year.  If you have a plan of attack, write it down in detail.  If you have ideas of how to achieve these goals, list them.  Write down names of others who you know will encourage you in these areas and who might be able to assist you in achieving success.

Now, go out and live.  Don’t worry about these dreams, goals or aspirations or even think about them as a “checklist”, but rather use them as guidelines in which you should mold your next 365 days.  Make a note to check in on your progress after a period of a couple of months.

If no progress is made, then refer to your written notes and see what steps you might be able to take to move you further in that direction, or at least who you need to contact to give you a boost in encouragement and motivation to achieve your goals.

No matter what you include in your Vision Board, I pray that you might find success in at least one area of your vision, that provides you fulfillment, joy and a sense of betterment of your life.  May your new year be filled with many blessings!