Did you know that coloring has been shown to reduce anxiety and foster more mindfulness?  Creativity in general can increase focus and awareness…and it often leaves us feeling relaxed and de-stressed.  (Tell that to your spouse when you buy art supplies next time!)

Wouldn’t it be nice to sit in the doctor’s office, wait for your child’s practice to end, or even ride the train while you work on something creative and calming?  Of course, these are not practical places to show up with your markers, pencils, and folders full of paper.  But what if I told you creating, at almost NO COST, is possible…right there on your iPhone?

I used five of my favorite apps to create this framed piece of word art.  Except for Procreate pocket ($4.99), the apps are all FREE; however, there are small up-charges for extras to unlock.  For instance, I’ve unlocked quite a few “Effects” in the ColorStory app, costing between .99-$1.99 to keep forever.  And, since I use these apps so often, I do not mind the occasional dollar to add fun things to them.

I used nothing else besides my phone and my finger, but if you have a stylus for your phone, that might be extra useful.  I found the coloring very easy with just my finger, though!  Here are the apps I used to create this piece.

I will add the steps below as well as the total price to turn the phone art into a physical memento to put on a desk, hang on a wall, or give as a gift.  This might be especially useful if you have children who like to make gifts for their friends and family but do not have any money to really spend…It really makes a lovely, one-of-a-kind piece of art!

STEPS:

1.  Open WORDSWAG and choose a white background from the FREE Library images.  Formate and size to your liking.  You have to put words on it to save it…so just make sure they are in WHITE…and it will save as a blank photo to your phone!

2.  Open ADESIGNKIT and select your saved image from your phone’s photos.  If you go to DESIGN on the bottom navigation bar, this is where you will find black and white line art to use.  I believe there was a small cost to open them all up for me, but I’ve had them for so long, I do not remember the price.  I added a big flower piece and then copied it to put in both corners.  Save.

3.  Open PROCREATE pocket edition.  Import your black and white line art photo.  You can now easily add colors to the image by dragging from the circle of color in the top right corner and dropping it into a specified white area.  *Please note, if the black line is not fully closed, the color will spread to other areas…so close the line with black “ink” if it is not already closed (you can choose different brushes; I like ink brushes to draw with).  Tapping the screen with TWO fingers is your “UNDO” edit.  You will need to zoom in by pulling the screen with two fingers to drop the color into small spaces.  Save your art to your phone when done.

4.  Pull it back up in WORDSWAG and add a favorite quote.  Save.

5.  Import into your VSCO if you’d like to filter the art or edit the contrast, brightness, etc.  I used T1 filter at 8 here.  Save.

6.  Import into ACOLORSTORY and add effects.  I used TEXTURE, “Spell”, for this photo.  Save it to your phone.  

7.  Now that your piece is colored in, filtered, quote is added, and effects make it magical…you can send it to your computer for printing.  You will want to size it appropriately.  I used Photoshop and sized mine to 5”x5”.  The photo printed clear at my local print shop.  It is really lovely!

Total price:  $5.67 for the frame + .52 cents for professional printing = $6.19…

By the way, those of my readers who like to work with my black and white character art images— you can totally load these into Procreate pocket app and do all this with a character!  It will require a little extra patience and time, as the spaces are often detailed and smaller…but that just means you put extra love into it!

What creative apps do you absolutely LOVE??  Share with me…I’m always looking for new ones to enjoy!…