Tutorial: Using journaling tags to enhance your page titles with Gail Lindner!

Hi everyone! Today I want to share my favorite thing to do with journaling spots . . . that is apart from journal on them! I love creating mix & match titles for my layouts and I also love adding interest and dimension to my titles with journaling spots! You’ll also get some insight as to how I go about creating a layout.

The first thing I do is gather patterned paper, cardstock, letters etc to match my photos. I then go through my stash of journaling tags and pull some out that match also. I’m lucky I have a large range to choose from and quite often I grab tags from different ranges that have a similar color scheme.

I then complete my basic layout. I tend to do lots of layering and then each layer is inked, distressed or stitched or sometimes all three!

Now it’s time to give the same treatment to the journaling spots I’ll be using. I cut coordinating mats out of cardstock – some straight and some with small scallop scissors. I just eyeball it when cutting the mats. I always lightly distress the edges and/or ink them and it hides any imperfections!

I then arrange the journaling tags on my layout where I want my title to go. I mount one or two on pop dots to add dimension. You do need to know what your title will be – I ended up trimming the longer purple tag to fit the space better. I always try to use different fonts and textures of letters when doing a title. I also added a chipboard swirl under the ‘3’ to draw attention to it!

To really make a feature of my title, I then go ahead and embellish! Some of my favorite ways are to use swirls (either stamped or rhinestone/pearl), ribbon, flowers, butterflies or buttons to make it a real feature on your page!

Here’s a look at the whole layout after I added all the finishing touches:

I love how my eye is immediately drawn to the title, then up to the photos!

I went through my layouts and found a few more examples of using journaling tags as part of my title – here’s a little collage of ideas:

Thanks for joining me on the Elle’s Studio blog today! I hope that I’ve inspired you to start using those gorgeous journaling tags to enhance your titles!