I discovered this personalised piece of art on the wall of my friends’ house when I visited them shortly after their wedding. Specially for you (as well as a few couples who are about to celebrate their anniversaries), I found the gift giver, learned where this heart-shaped word cloud originated from and mastered the 7 steps to create one.
How do you make a heart-shaped word cloud?
All you need to do is to draw a heart with a pencil, fill it with chosen phrases written in different colours and styles, and then erase the contour. That’s by far the easiest way.
In my opinion, however, this piece of art resembles a word cloud so much that it would be a shame not to do it on the computer. If you learn to do it online, the effect will probably also be more aesthetic.
7 steps towards a heart-shaped word cloud
- Go to http://www.picmonkey.com; click DESIGN in the top menu, and pick a square shape.
- In the FRAMES tab in the side menu; click on SHAPE CUTOUTS; choose a heart, and confirm it with APPLY.
- Also on the left, click on Tt to start writing, and add your phrases using the ADD TEXT box.
- Apart from words, you may also add pictures (I recommend 1-2 big ones and some small ones to fill the contour better). You will find them in the butterfly tab on the left.
- Change the size, the position and the fonts of your words, and relocate them to fill in the heart shape.
- In the end, change the colour of each phrase (I recommend choosing 3 colours and sticking to them).
- Your heart-shaped word cloud is ready! All you need to do now is to click on the BASIC EDITS tab (the top one on the left side), pick white from CANVAS COLOR and confirm your choice by clicking APPLY. This will make the background disappear and leave you with a gorgeous, colourful heart-shaped word cloud!
What phrases should you write in your heart-shaped word cloud?
It’s best to think about it before you begin your work. I recommend writing down something between 20 phrases (it’s difficult to achieve a clear shape with less) and 30 phrases (naturally, you may write more, but it will be more time-consuming and will not improve the overall effect since the words will have to be very small). See for yourself!
As is the rule with normal word clouds, the most important words should be written with the biggest fonts. If it is meant to be a wedding or an anniversary gift, the names of the married couple should be the most visible words. The wedding date is another important thing. In the case of an anniversary, you may also add e.g. “5 years of marriage”. Don’t forget to insert your names! A middle-size font will be the most appropriate for this purpose since it won’t draw attention but will make the givers easy to find.
What else? I thought I will present it to you on yet another heart-shaped word cloud. Red indicates mandatory items, brown – universal phrases, and black – ideas for personalised phrases.
Other uses of a heart-shaped word cloud
Weddings and anniversaries are just two examples of occasions where word art could be a perfect gift! A heart-shaped word cloud may also be given for a baptism, a hen night, a birthday, a name day or retirement. The only thing you need to remember is to write as many personal phrases as possible (instead of just the name and general wishes), so that the heart is truly personalised.
If you have any questions or need help, write me in the comments below!
My advice:
– Your phrases should contain no more than 3-5 words. Otherwise, they would need to be written in very small letters, and it would be difficult to fit them into the heart shape and fit other phrases. It is worth thinking of a few very short words to fill gaps.
– I learned how to do heart-shaped tag clouds on a Polish-language blog with detailed instructions and print-screens: http://mama-kreatywna.pl/2014/11/personalizowane-serduszko-krok-po-kroku-zrob-to-sam/ .
– You may also buy your heart-shaped tag cloud. The one I admired on my friends’ wall was ordered from http://pl.dawanda.com/product/61133431-pamitkowy-obrazek-prezent-lubny-wesele
– If you decide to create the heart-shaped word cloud on your own, you will be able to use the design also for a greetings card, invitations to your anniversary celebrations or even to your wedding!
– Caution! The free version of Picmonkey doesn’t allow you to save your design, so if you want to take a break and go back to your work later on, remember to leave the window open!
Special treat! I am going to design a heart-shaped word cloud for the first three people who will give someone a creative present inspired by one of the posts on this blog and will write about it (preferably supporting their post with photos) on our Fan Page and their Facebook wall.
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