How To Create Free Word Art Online

Free Online Tools for Creating Stylized Text Graphics

Graphic text, or word art, can make websites, videos, posters and other media more attractive and engaging. Free Web-based tools enable you to create 3D or other stylized text images you can download and insert wherever you need them. Other online tools allow you to create word clouds from multiple words relating to your topic. Word clouds can be in random arrangements or with your words filling in a specified shape.

3D and Stylized Text

1. Choose a free online tool that will stylize your word art as you desire. FreeTeacherFiles.com offers the free Xara 3D Maker (link in Resources). You can also try the free Graffiti Creator, Cool Text Graphics Generator, or other online tools available by searching the Internet. For this tutorial, we'll use the Cool Text Graphics Generator.
2. Select your style.
3. Enter the text you want to stylize in the available box, and then choose your formatting options, as desired. Depending upon the tool, you may be able to change the font face, size and color along with shadow, bevel, rotation or alignment.
4. Click the creation button (in Cool Text Graphics Generator, this is the "Create Logo" button) to create your word art. If you're not happy with your graphic, change settings and options as desired and regenerate.
5. Download your image, if applicable, by clicking the appropriate download button or by right-clicking the image and choosing to save it to your computer.

 
Word Clouds

1. Write down a list of words about your topic that you would like to include in your word cloud. You may also use a sentence or paragraph of text related to your topic. Some tools will browse your blog or website to develop your list of words.
2. Choose a free online tool. This tutorial uses Wordificator, whose link you can find along with other free word cloud tools in the Resources section. You can find other free online tools by searching the Internet. Wordificator creates word clouds in a specified shape.
3. Choose the shape of your text, if applicable. On Wordificator, click the "select" tab to view additional shape options or "upload" to add a custom shape image. For example, if you have a headshot of a person, you can upload that image and fill the person's silhouette with words that describe them. You can also fill in logo shapes.
4. Choose the text color and other formatting options, as desired.
5. Enter your words, sentence or paragraph in the box. Some online tools will give larger-text treatment to words entered in the box multiple times or at the top of the list. Other tools, use all words at random.
6. Click the creation button (in Wordification, this is the "Wordificate now" button) to create your word cloud. If you don't like the arrangement of the generated image, you may be able to click the button again for a new layout. You can also try adding additional instances of a word in your list box to change the layout.
7. Download your image, if applicable, by clicking the appropriate download button or by right-clicking the image and choosing to save it to your computer.

References:
Sugar Sugar House: Creating Free Personalized Word Art

Resources:

• TeacherFiles.com: Free Online Word Art Generator
  
• Cool Text Graphic Generator
  
• Graffiti Creator
  
• Wordificator
  
• Wordle
  
• Tagxedo
  
• WordItOut
  

 

16+ Places to Find Free Online Courses

Classes From Major Universities and Learning Organizations

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are becoming increasingly popular. High school seniors can sample college-level classes in their field of interest before committing to a major. Students can also supplement their learning with these online courses. Professional workers may use MOOCs to enhance their current skill sets in preparation for promotions or career changes. Some online programs even qualify for continuing education credits.

Quality programs cover the topic completely with an engaging and interactive presentation. You shouldn't feel tortured while you sit through videos, participate in message forums, and complete homework assignments. They are also backed by credible sources and organizations such as universities so that you can be confident you're learning what you need to know.

Academic Earth
Academic Earth offers a directory of courses by universities around the world, including Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, MIT, Standford University, University of California, University of Cambridge, University of Notre Dame and Yale University. It links out to more than 750 courses in categories like design, business, computer science, engineering, humanities, health care, science and social science. Some classes require online and live classroom participation for completion. Follow the class links to visit the provider's website for more information. Academic Earth also provides single-video lessons in its Video Electives directory that cover topics like "Psychology of an Internet Troll" and "The Economic Cost of Obesity." You can watch these short 2- to 5-minute videos right on the Academic Earth site.

Alison
While Alison offers more than 600 free courses, they are text-based. That means that people who learn through reading can benefit from its business, finance, health, personal development, information technology and language courses. Those who need those audio-visual cues to reinforce learning will probably want to try a different learning site. You can, however, view short video introductions of classes on Alison's YouTube Channel . Classes are standards-based and certified, according to its website. Many of the courses offered on the Alison site provide a diploma or certificate for a nominal fee. You may also want to look into its paid subscription to remove the timed advertising that displays throughout courses with the free access option.

Connexions
Connexions , another text-based course site, offers collaborative course development. Anyone can author and contribute, but all content is reviewed and verified by trusted and knowledgeable contributors. Additionally, universities, museums and other institutions develop courses on the Connexions site. You can take advantage of more than 17,000 modules in just about any topic. You will even find learning geared to school-age children. Modules provide information about related textbooks, similar courses and a reference list for further study. Study via the Internet or download materials for offline learning in PDF or EPUB formats.

Coursera
Coursera offers multi-week asynchronous programs that appeal to auditory/visual learners as well as readers. Its multimedia content includes links to additional resources, quizzes, and other tools to assist in learning reinforcement and retention. Each course offers a week-by-week schedule of video and reading; sometimes quizzes and discussion forum participation. If you hope to gain a certificate from the program, you'll have to meet all deadlines, however you can view the content at your own pace to learn without credit. Materials are also available for some time after the course completes.

Providers include major universities such as Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Amsterdam, Princeton University, and The University of British Columbia. Contributors also include American Museum of Natural History, Commonwealth Education Trust, and New Teacher Center among other organizations. Courses are offered in about 12 languages and cover many different topic areas. Interact with the instructor and other students through the course wiki and forums and, sometimes, local meetups.

edX
edX also offers courses from big university names such as MIT, Harvard University, University of California, IIT Bombay, The University of Queensland and Caltech. Like Coursera, you can obtain certificates by completing courses by deadlines. Some certificates are free, but there is a fee for certificates issued with identification verification, which may be required for credit by some schools or employers. Some schools also offer XSeries certificates for successful completion of a series of courses. Courses include multimedia presentations, homework assignments, interactive exercises and quizzes, and discussion forums. Subjects range from communications to mathematics, computer science, history and literature.

GCF Learn Free
Learn all about blogging or developing your personal financial budget at GCF Learn Free . Goodwill Community Foundation runs this free learning site where you can use more than 1,000 learning tools covering more than 90 topics. If you prefer to learn on the go, GCF Learn Free offers free mobile apps for Apple and Android devices including Microsoft Publisher, Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint. As you may guess by the free app offering, GCF Learn Free offers classes for the Microsoft Office Suite in addition to computer basics, career planning and development, everyday life, social media and personal money management. Some classes are text-based and others are video or interactive content. You can often take advantage of linked tools and resources to supplement your learning.

iversity
Although a company based in Berlin, Germany, runs iversity , this site offers quality courses in both German and English. Multimedia courses are organized into week-by-week sets of videos and resources created by qualified professors and universities. Subjects include science, design, philosophy, social studies and engineering. Each video engages learners with with real people, fun graphics and music in just the right places. Discussion boards, quizzes, assignments, linked references and attachments, supplemental videos and other components help reinforce learning and enhance understanding.

Khan Academy
Khan Academy caters to students in grades kindergarten through 12, but can be a valuable resource for anyone interested in learning mathematics, science, history, economics, computer programming and other topics. This resource provides guided learning through "missions" for testing mathematics and other skills right from its engaging Dashboard. Students can also browse lessons by topic and grade level.

Lesson gamification makes learning fun and provides badges for completing sections and challenges. Learning can also be interactive through the online community, coaching and programs. Teachers, tutors and mentors can become coaches for their students to assist and monitor progress. Graphic reporting can provide valuable information about where you need to focus your learning.

My Course Room
My Course Room offers professional and personal learning topics including relationship management, project management, leadership development, childcare training, stress management, work-life balance, aging gracefully and coping with loss. Course lengths vary from 5 to 25 hours, and some offer accreditations and certifications. Train at your pace on your own time. There are no scheduled start or end dates. My Course Room also provides a subscription-based transcript that outlines your completed courses with links to any certifications you earn. This site presents courses in text and multimedia formats with some quizzes and other interactions.

NovoEd
NovoEd offers both free and paid courses in professional topics for developing business and leadership skills. Providers include Standford University, +Acumen, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Kauffman Fellows Academy, and Strategic Decisions Group. These courses are scheduled, however, and, in some cases, you must begin the course within two weeks of its start date or wait until its next offering. Content is provided in multimedia presentations with captioning and a viewable transcript. Audit the course at your own pace or complete all course requirements for a certificate of accomplishment.

Open2Study
Open2Study offers free courses in education, science and technology, marketing, business, finance, health and humanities. You won't be able to start most courses until the scheduled start date, but some courses are always open for self-paced learning. Content is video based, with links to additional reading and study materials. They even provide video responses to quiz questions, which makes Open2Study classes a great resource for visual learners. For others, the transcript enables you to read along or skip to specific content in the video. Courses include a searchable classroom forum and you earn badges for completing tasks. Open2Study also provides free certificates of achievement for completing courses.

Udacity
Udacity offers classes in categories such as business, computer science, design, mathematics and science. Browse courses by beginner, intermediate and advanced skill level. You can begin courses at any time for self-paced learning. Classes are always available. Udacity presents content in short videos that automatically roll from one to the next with a timeline that allows you to skip to specific topics. There may be interactive quizzes and exercises throughout program that require participation before you can move forward. Course wikis and forums offer community and social learning opportunities.

Open Education Database
The Open Education Database allows you to browse courses by subject, including Arts, Business, Education, Liberal Arts and Science. The database includes more than 10,000 free online classes from providers that include Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, Kaplan University, and Johns Hopkins University. It also catalogs courses from some of these other sites, as well, such as Alison and Khan Academy. You can find free courses related to degrees and certificates, along with information about accredited online degrees. Courses are links to provider websites, therefore content formats vary by provider.

Some Additional Databases and Lists

• MOOC List provides one-stop shopping for courses available on most of our referenced MOOC sites above, including edX, Open2Study, Coursera, NovoEd and iversity. Additional providers include Canvas.net, uneOpen, and individual universities and organizations from around the globe. Search its database or browse by category, provider, country, instructor, language or certificate type.
  

• Open Culture offers a listings of certificate courses by availability date, free online classes from top universities by category and topic, free textbooks available for download, and other lists such as movies, ebooks, language lessons, business courses, kids education, science videos and intelligent video sites.
  
• Class Central is similar to MOOC List as it provides links to courses offered by many providers mentioned in this article including Coursera, edX, etc. These lists display in table format, allowing you to sort columns by Course Name, Instructor(s), Subject, Start Date, Length or Initiative (provider). You can also search the database.
  
• CourseTalk can filter courses by subject, tags, university, start date, workload, start type (starting soon, just started, in session, future); top rated, popular and upcoming tabs. It also provides learner reviews of courses.
  

 

Best Facial Cleanser and Lotion ... And It's Homemade

The Need
I, a 36-year-old woman, have never grown out of the acne-prone skin I developed in high school. It's not as bad as it was back then, but I still have monthly breakouts that sometimes include very painful pimples across all layers of my skin. During the past two decades, I have experimented with every acne product in the drugstore: the cleansers, the scrubs, the lotions, the creams, the vitamins, the sponges, the soaps and the masks. I have tried multiple brands of each of these products, as well. In college, I even tried that expensive monthly club that charged $40 a month for a little bottle of cleanser and astringent that I could barely stretch over the 30 days. It didn't help, anyway.

So, here I am, with acne that isn't quite that bad, but skin that still breaks out and, worse, has pitted scars to remind me of the skin that plagued me in my teens and early 20s. My adequate drug-store skin regimen included a Buff Puff sponge with Noxema to exfoliate, wash with antibacterial Dial soap, and then moisturize with Cetaphil lotion. But I still wasn't happy with my skin.

The Recipes
I use two 2-ounce baby food jars: one for my face cleanser and the other for my homemade moisturizer. The cleanser lasts me about two weeks washing morning and night, and the lotion lasts for weeks. There is at least one night per week, however, that skip my cleanser and go straight for a pure baking soda scrub for a microdermabrasion effect. A regimen of one microdermabrasion a week is helping reduce the appearance of my pitted acne scars. After two months, people have started to notice that my skin is smoother and more even without any prodding from me whatsoever.

Face Cleanser
3 Tbsp ground oatmeal (not instant)
3 Tbsp baking soda
3 Tbsp of honey
3 Tbsp of water

1. Ground up your oatmeal in a blender. I have another container I use to store the unused portion so that, when it's time to make a new batch, my oatmeal is ready to go.
   
2. Add the oatmeal and the baking soda to the baby food jar.
   
3. Next, add the water. Put the lid on the jar and shake it vigorously. This helps shrink the mixture down and thin it out enough to mix it with the honey.
   
4. Add the honey to the jar and shake again. Really shake it so that all of the ingredients mix together well. The solution will likely be thin at first, but will thicken overnight as the oatmeal absorbs the water and honey.
   
5. When it's time to use the cleanser, you may need to reshake the jar or stir it with your finger first. The thinner the mixture is, the more the ingredients will separate with the heavier baking soda settling on the bottom.
   

Understanding that this recipe is the one that has been working wonders on my skin, you may require a slight adjustment. For example, one of the recipes I tried included a tablespoon of unrefined coconut oil. This reduced the abrasion of the baking soda and thickened the solution into a paste-like texture. If you find that my recipe is too harsh for your skin, consider reducing the baking soda to 2 tablespoons and add a tablespoon of unrefined coconut oil.

Moisturizing Lotion
2 Tbsp unrefined coconut oil
.5 Tbsp of honey
.5 Tbsp of water

Put everything in a jar and, if your coconut oil is soft enough, just shake the jar until everything is mixed; if not, use your finger to mix it together. It should be creamy when you're done, with a slight brown tint. For your morning moisturizing, use a small amount on the tip of your finger. A little bit of this lotion goes a long way. If you do a pure baking soda scrub at night, use a bit more and really coat your skin to protect it.

Since this lotion is oil-based, be aware that its texture is dependent upon the temperature in the room. If it gets too warm, it will liquify; if it gets too cold, it will be harder. Additionally, keep the lotion in an air-tight jar. The honey in it will crystallize if you leave the lid off. If this happens, simply put some on your finger, run it under water and rub your hands together to smooth it back out.

Pure Baking Soda Scrub
If you have scars that you want to treat, one or two nights per week, wet your face, add about half a tablespoon of baking soda to a damp washcloth, and massage it over your face for about a minute. Thoroughly rinse and put a generous amount of coconut oil over your skin to protect it overnight.

The Research
How did I come to these recipes? Well, first I spent some time researching homemade facial scrubs. I came across a lot of recipes online. Some mixed different combinations of these ingredients with oils, vinegar toners, citrus juices, and other household and food products. As I researched those products, I found that the four ingredients in this recipe had all the properties I needed in a skin-care regimen.

After selecting my ingredients, I experimented with different combinations until I found a texture that gave me that clean-skin feeling without being too abrasive, and there were a few days where I scrubbed off a bit too much skin. It's hard not to get a little zealous about a new scrub, but do start slow or you can do more harm than good, even with these all-natural, homemade recipes.

Let me share a summary of this research with you, including some cautions about using baking soda recipes on your skin as it can affect the pH of your skin.

• Oatmeal is not only a gentle exfoliant, it helps reduce swelling, dryness and itching in skin. Its starches, beta-glucan, saponins and phenols have been shown to not only help problem skin heal, but actually buffer and clean skin.
  
• Honey is both antiseptic and provides a layer of protection for wounds. It is also a natural preservative for your homemade recipes. It's also a great way to lighten scars, moisturize skin and treat eczema.
  
• Baking soda is an abrasive that exfoliates the skin. In addition to whitening teeth, baking soda can provide various levels of skin cleansing from light exfoliation to a microdermabrasion-like treatment.
  
• Unrefined coconut oil is a great natural moisturizer for hair and skin. Various studies suggest that coconut oil is effective at treating some skin conditions and conditioning hair. Remember, a little bit goes a long way.
  

Balancing the pH
In my research, I encountered some who caution against using baking soda on your skin. After all, some use this chemical to scrub their sinks and toilets. The main objection is that our skin has a natural acidic top layer, or an acid mantel, that protects us from bacteria. Scrubbing this layer away can cause worse breakouts, and do that is especially easy with baking soda, which is a base. The above recipes and skin care regimen works to keep your skin's pH at the right level and maintain a protective layer at all times.

If you find that you're breaking out too much, reduce how vigorously you scrub. I noticed, in the first couple weeks, that I was breaking out after doing my microdermabrasion treatments with baking soda. Of course, I was doing it two consecutive nights. When I cut that down to one night a week, I stopped breaking out. Your skin is unique so you'll need to use a little trial and error to find the right regimen for you, but err on the side of caution.

• Oatmeal pH is about 5.5 (weak acid) - about the same as black coffee or urine
  
• Honey has an average pH of about 3.9 (moderate acid) - about the same as tomato juice and acid rain
  
• Baking soda has a pH of about 9 (weak alkaline)
  
• Water is neutral
  

Using only the oatmeal and baking soda with water would create a slightly acidic, but close to neutral solution. Adding a bit of honey tips the scale toward the acidic side, which helps fend off bacteria and match the natural pH of your skin, which is about 4.5 to 5.

Practical Gifts for Grownups

No need to go overboard during the holidays or when birthdays, new apartments and babies come along. Your family and friends will appreciate practical gifts that fill a need and lift a financial load from their shoulders. Get creative with otherwise simple items to create unique and easy gifts anyone can appreciate.




Housewarming Bucket
Forget houseplants. Give the gift of cleanliness by purchasing a bucket and filling it with household cleaners, rubber gloves, sponges, paintbrushes, magnets, nails and duct tape among other new home must-haves. They will love your personalized coupons for help painting a room, planting a garden, or rearranging the furniture.

Best Baby Blanket Bindle
Diapers are great gifts, but, if you're not talented enough to string together your own diaper cake, you can still be creatively practical. Use a baby blanket or cloth diaper to create a bindle on the end of a long-reach gripper (because you know a new mom can't climb on counters to reach those top shelves while holding a newborn). Stuff the bindle with baby-safe cotton swabs, Aquaphor cream, socks, a breastfeeding reminder bracelet, a good book, and some customized babysitting coupons. You can sweeten the bundle with a certificate to a local photographer for newborn photos.

Up and Away Bouquets
For a birthday, create a balloon bouquet with a balloon for every year. Inside each balloon, stuff coupons, memories from the last year, or inspirations for the new year. You could even stuff some balloons with cash or certificates to local restaurants or stores. Stuff some with subway tokens, quarters for the laundromat, or condoms.

Gifting Service
Birthdays, anniversaries, and retirements are a great time to gift services like landscaping, snow plowing, gutter cleaning, and housekeeping. You can pay someone else to detail the car, or your can pitch in one of your Saturdays to do it. Maybe you are a particularly talented organizer and could donate some time to help clean out the attic, basement or garage. Or, perhaps you can volunteer to digitize their photo albums and create a DVD photo slideshow.

Send Them Packing
Send your recent graduate off to college with a backpack or milk crate of gifts including bed sheets, towels, sanitizing wipes, cotton swabs, soap, potato chips, granola bars, and instant coffee. Some extra pocket cash stashed in a new pair of warm socks will fill two voids in one, pleasant surprise. If your recent grad is kicking off a brand new career, put your gifts in a briefcase or laptop bag. Get pens: one quality set for client engagements and many spare ballpoints. Consider adding a certificate for a resume service and a personalized job-hunting guide full of advice from family and friends.

Survival Kits
Fill up a 5- to 10-gallon bucket with a bag of rice, beans, bottled water, blankets, canned goods, a compass, a pocket knife, can opener, candles and waterproof matches. These emergency preparedness kits will come in handy during severe weather conditions or other disasters. Additional add-ins might be area maps, crank radio, a pup tent, rope and tarp.

5 Ways to Personalize Online Learning

One reluctance to self-paced online learning, or elearning, is the perception that its not personal; it lacks that face-to-face human interaction that keep students motivated to complete the training. To overcome this challenge, try applying one of the following personal touches to your presentations:

• Create engaging multimedia presentations. Don't just have the learner sit down and look at still images next to text. Add in some music, animation, video and interactive elements to pull them into the experience.
  
• Add some faces. People connect to people. Even if you need to train on technical topics, such as software, capture some video of the presenter conquering the workflow. On-screen talent should be personable and professional with a conversational tone.
  
• Add some interactivity. Your training should include some type of interactivity every 3-4 minutes. Even a simple quiz question or button that links to an external website will involve your learner in what they are learning. Add segment breaks with a "Next" button that allows them to process information in their own time before manually proceeding through the program. Interacting with the training may satisfy their need to interact with a trainer.
  
• Allow the learner to choose his or her own path. You can take the previous interactivity tip a little further by presenting a number of subtopics related to your main topic, and then allowing the learner to choose when and how they learn it. This forces them to take ownership of and personalize their learning experience. You can define some topics as "critical to know," "a good idea to know," and "good to know" to help guide them to appropriate content.
  
• Consider social learning tools. Equip your content with features that allow learners to share with friends and colleagues via email or social network sites. You can also take advantage of discussion forums that allow learners to interact with each other and subject matter experts.
  

Manage All of Your Social Accounts from One Website

When you post to multiple social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, you can save time by managing all of your accounts from one application. Many of these applications are Web-based. They allow you to view your feeds and post to your followers and friends from a single interface. Some also allow you to schedule your posts for future distribution.

Alternion Manages Networks and Email Alternion not only provides a single interface for managing your social networks, but it allows you to manage multiple email accounts, too. You can link Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, YouTube, Picasa, Blogger, Instagram, and more than 200 other social networks. Adding accounts is as simple as clicking the social network option, logging in to your network, and then granting Alternion permission to post on your behalf. You can then selecting privacy settings for each network. Alternion also provides a single inbox to manage Yahoo!, Gmail, Windows Live and your POP3 email accounts.

Schedule Distribution With Buffer Buffer allows you to schedule your posts to each social network site. It also includes a Firefox add-on that allows you to share content from webpages you visit. The free version allows you to connect a single personal profile on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, App.net and Google+. For Facebook and LinkedIn, you can opt to link a business page rather than your personal profile in the free account. You can increase the number of linked profiles to 12 with a monthly subscription upgrade, which also entitles you to buffer an unlimited number of posts while collaborating with a colleague.

HootSuite Offers Custom Views HootSuite lets you design custom tabs that display content from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Mixi, Foursquare, Wordpress and others. The free account includes up to five profiles, with additional monthly subscription plans for enhanced accounts. HootSuite also offers analytics and reports to track your post clicks, likes and fans. Collaborative teams can use the built-in Conversations tools to share and discuss posts internally. Schedule posts for distribution, and watch your feeds through one of the HootSuite mobile apps.

OneAll Integrates With Your Website
If you need a solution that integrates with your existing website, OneAll may be it. In addition to allowing you to distribute your message to your social networking sites, this service provides tools to gather demographic information about your visitors. It also streamlines your website registration by allowing visitors to log in with their social media accounts. Manage and view analytics related your Facebook, PayPal, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media sites from this single Web-based application. A "freemium" plan is available, but various monthly subscription plans allow you to reach out to more visitors and further customize your OneAll account.

Design Your Own Tattoo with Online Tools

Whether you're decorated with tattoos or planning your first one, online tools and resources can help you design something you'll love. Even if you're not an artist, Web applications and image libraries can help you craft the perfect graphic. When you can't design one yourself, some sites pair you with an artist who can help. If you still can't visualize -- or commit -- to permanent body art, consider a custom temporary tattoo of your design to try before you buy.

Lettering Resources Names, religious verses, song lyrics and poetry help people create some meaningful tattoos. If you hope to incorporate lettering into your design, you'll need to find the right font. You can search font directories like FontSpace and Fonts.com for "tattoo" to download and install fonts on your computer. You can then use the fonts in your favorite word-processing application to create your tattoos. However, not all fonts that display in search results will be suitable for tattoos, and you may want to consult a tattoo artist before making your final selection.

Other Web applications allow you to enter your tattoo text and then sample it in various fonts, colors and sizes. Tattoo Lettering offers about 35 fonts and several colors from which to choose. Once you find a lettering that you like, you can either print or download it to take to your tattoo artist, or download the font to work within your favorite word-processing application. The Tatuaze Tattoo Lettering Designer offers a few additional sizing options, multiple lines and different fonts. However, this site only allows for right-click image saving to your computer

Do-It-Yourself Design
When you want a graphical tattoo, but aren't quite sure of the exact graphics, other online resources can help. Tattoo Planner , for example, not only offers design tips and fonts, but includes a library of images. The site also provides access to custom design services. If you choose this service, you can submit a picture of yourself and the artists who run the site will show you how your one-of-a-kind design looks on your body. You can also browse online galleries, such as Free Tattoo Designs , Tattoodles , Tattoos By Design and Flash and Furious . Find elements you like, and then use free image editing tools, such as Pixlr , to piece them together.

Partner With Artists
Not everyone will be able to make the picture in their head materialize on the screen regardless of available pictures and tools. Those people can search for an artist on websites such as Create My Tattoo and TattooDesign.com . Create My Tattoo has a database of thousands of artist profiles and portfolios you can browse. You can also describe your tattoo to create a contest wherein artists submit their designs in hopes of securing your business. Either way, you'll get at least 10 designs from which to choose. You select one and take it to your favorite tattoo shop. You can also submit a description of the picture in your head to TattooDesigns.com to receive a custom sketch from a professional artist. If you like the sketch, the artist works with you to perfect your one-of-kind tattoo.

Think Before You Ink
Still having trouble committing to your design or placement? Try a temporary tattoo. You can submit your image to websites like StickerYou and Tattoo Fun and order custom temporary tattoos. They go on with water and can give you a few days to decide whether you really want the tattoo. Try it out in different placements, sizes and colors. StickerYou allows for orders by the sheet, but Tattoo Fun requires purchase of a multi-sheet package of the same design, which works if you want to try the tattoo in different placements. Try before you buy to ensure you are totally satisfied with your tattoo.