Ramona here, with another tutorial and I’m super excited about this one! You’ve already learned my passion of journaling, so the next best thing are titles! A title can make or break a layout! When I first started scrapping, I had no idea how important a title could be. I would slap a few photos on a paper, throw on a few elements-maybe add some journaling, but that was it. I even have a few examples to show. But first, you have to promise not to laugh, because these layouts were pretty bad! I didn’t know the concept of shadows and my journaling was way too big, but it was a starting point! Notice how lifeless these layouts seem without a title:
And here is another one:
Without a title, the layout is just some pictures and papers. There is nothing to really sum up the story I’m telling. I think that ever layout should have a theme-something that really brings the message home. A title will catch the attention of those looking at your layout and make them want to keep reading. It is the title that sort of says it all! Don’t get me wrong, a really good picture can do a lot of the work, but in my every day storytelling of our life, I don’t have lots of dynamic photos that hold their own! I use journaling and a good title to pull it altogether and make the photo what it is!
So, where do you start? Do you add your Title at the beginning or the end? I find that my layouts that flow the best are the ones where I plan the title out first. The title starts the layout and everything builds from there. I also like to use several different mediums for a title. I love alpha’s and love using them. But just using one alpha for the whole title can sometimes be boring.
First, plan what the title will be and if it is more than one word, pick the most important word of the Title. Plan to do that word different, in a way that will stand out. It might be the only word that uses the main alpha of the kit or it might be the only word that doesn’t. For my example, I chose to do two words with the alpha and one word using a paper from the kit. To start, I pulled up a blank 12×12 screen and started doing the word, one letter at a time. I chose a font that was wide and simple.
I create each letter on its only layer. This will give me the ability to move the letters around and do some creative things with the word. In the beginning of my scrapping days, I didn’t do this and I never liked the extra space between each letter that I would have leftover. Also, a trick to do each layer quick and simple is to type one letter and then right click on the layer (layer palette to the right) and then click back on your main working screen and type another letter and repeat!
Once I had all my letters there and the sizes I wanted, I rasterized each letter and then clipped a paper to it, layer by layer.
Then I organized the letters together and added it to my layout with the words I had already created with the alpha. One trick I like to do with my words is to link them together once I have them how I like them, so that I can move them around my page and not lose their form. To do this, highlight all the layers of your word (on your layer palette) and right click on one of the letters and choose the option “link layers”. This will put a little lock on each layer. To undo this, just repeat and choose the option “unlink layers”.
Once I had it to this point, then I created the layout around the title. This layout is a photoless layout and here is the end product:
Here are a few more examples of layouts with Titles:
With that layout, I was doing a play on the movie title, “Night at the Museum” and by using alpha’s, wordart and even just a word typed out.
This layout is by Lisa and I love her simple title. Here is a great example of when a typed font can work great as a Title. I think that because it is turned sideways and on a plain paper with amazing clustering next to it, it really shows up! And the cute poem for the journaling matches up perfectly.
Love this one! The title goes so well with the photo and really sums up the journaling. I wanted to read her story because of the title!
I hope these examples help to bring a few new ideas to your titles! I would love to see your work, so please link your layouts here and I’ll stop by and leave some love!
awesome tut and LO examples!