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Friday, June 24, 2011

4th of July Word Cloud {How to make}

I love the varieties of subway art that all the crafters in the world make; however, lately I've had very little time to make anything. I recently started using a very cool and free word cloud generator; Wordle

I decided to give this free program a try in hopes I could make some cool word art for the Fourth of July. A lot of teachers use this program to make classroom decor or even assign projects to students. You can either type in words to create your word cloud or type in a URL. I choose to copy and paste the first paragraph about Independence Day in Wikipedia. Then I multiplied words to make them stand out more. Once I hit the generate button. Once you've generated your word cloud you can delete words by selecting a "right click". Wordle provides the user with a variety of fonts along with color schemes to choose from. You can also decide whether or not you want it vertical or horizontal or a mixture of both! I choose to make mine fully horizontal, I added in custom patriotic colors and used the "Loved By The King" font. 

I also looked on the forum board to see what other tips and tricks I could learn. 

If you want one word to stand out more than others you want to repeat it more times than the rest of the words. 

Here is an example of what I copied and pasted and manipulated in the generator box:
fireworks IndependenceDay fireworks IndependenceDay fireworks IndependenceDay fireworks IndependenceDay fireworks IndependenceDay fireworks IndependenceDay,  JulyFourth JulyFourth JulyFourth JulyFourth  JulyFourth JulyFourth July federal holiday federal holiday in the UnitedStates commemorating of the DeclarationOfIndependence DeclarationOfIndependence on July 4, 1776  July 4, 1776  July 4, 1776  July 4, 1776  July 4, 1776, declaring independence  IndependenceDay is commonly associated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, fairs, picnics, concerts, baseball games parades, barbecues, carnivals, fairs, picnics, concerts, baseball games, family reunions, political speeches  ceremonies, and various other public and private events celebrating history, government, celebrating history, government, and traditions of the UnitedStates. IndependenceDay is the national day of the United States UnitedStates UnitedStates UnitedStates UnitedStates UnitedStates United States

I had some difficulties trying to post my wordle into my blog post. You will want to select "print" at the bottom of the screen, and then click on "PDF". Save the wordle as a PDF, and then re-open the PDF and do a "save as" to make it a JPG. This will allow you to post it on your blog or on a public site.  

Just think of the creative possibilities you can do with this awesome free program! Baby shower gifts, birthday/anniversary gifts, home decor, and holiday inspired themes just to name a few.  


Now, that I've introduced you to Wordle, I'd love to see you come up with your own! You can link your Wordle examples below, and share with others! I'll keep this link open for the next month!

Wordle link up ONLY! :) 



7 comments:

  1. Great find Katie! I love Subway art and this seems to be the EASIEST way to create some! woo hoo! I'll toy around with it if I have free time today--thanks for the recommendation!!! :)

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  2. Neat tip! Thanks! My sis is a teacher. I'm gonna ask her if she uses this!

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  3. Oh, this is fantastic! I'm going to go play around with it...;)

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  4. Wordle is so fun!

    I'm really sorry, I didn't read everything as carefully as I should so I started linking other projects. Is there anyway to delete them? Again, I apologize!

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  5. Genius! I was just sitting here thinking that I should attempt to create some subway art for our bathroom redo, but I was dreading how long I knew it would take me. This is perfect! I'll be sure to link up when I'm finished.

    Thanks!
    Anna
    www.mylifeandkids.com

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  6. I re-create mine with Photoshop to use multiple fonts, but the basic layout comes from wordle.

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  7. Sorry! Posted a non-Wordle link! Can't figure out how to delete it!

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