In my post about “Thick Titles” a couple weeks ago, I mentioned that I was going to continue an apparent “title kick”. Well, here’s new title tip #3 in the continuing “kick” saga (just in case you’re counting) 😉

Late last year in my “Another Title Tip” post, I showed you how you could incorporate word “elements” within your journaling to create your layout’s title.

Today I’m excited to share with you a super fun way to do sort of the opposite. I’m going to help you create a whimsical page title that can almost become a central element on your page.

Now, in the spirit of full transparency…this will get to be a bit long. But mostly due to the number of images I included trying to give good visual representations of the methods being used. You can see by the featured image at the top that this can be a fun technique. Please be patient. I really think it will be worth the time 😉

And you don’t have to read the whole post in one sitting. If you can’t read this all at once, just bookmark the page and come back to it as often as you like.

I really hope this cute technique will get your creative juices flowing! I can’t wait to show you how to create punched out letters using the Type and Shape tools and then arrange them in a playful title “element”.

Punching Letters

If you’ve read some of my most recent posts you already know that I started out as a traditional scrapbooker. And boy am I familiar with having to use a paper punch to cut out letters before I had a die cut machine.

In essence, that’s what I’m going to be doing today. But thankfully, I can now do this digitally. All I need is a paper strip and some letters. Wait until you see how easy this is going to be!

Quick reminder, I use Photoshop Elements (PSE) 2024. If you use a different version, some of my screen shots may not look the same as what you see on your screen.

Setup Note: Before I get started, I want to explain something. I’m going be showing you how I create my title cut out using a “temporary” layout that has a version of the photo spots that will be under my title. I highly recommend that you not create your title directly on your layout. Whether this is your first time doing a title cut out or you’re already familiar…I just think it’s a good idea to start with a separate 12×12 file. That’s why I do it. It gives me plenty of room and I can make my title fairly large and I can move things around if I need more space. I can always re-size the title if it’s too large when I move it to my layout.

Now on to cutting…

I’ve created a 12×12 file with a blank base layer (Layer 1). And I’m going to ensure that my Foreground and Background color chips are set to the default of Black and White (press D).

For my base, I’m going to use that same white watercolor textured paper I used in last week’s post about “Subtle Chipboard”.

Just a reminder, this paper is from “Watercolor Paper Textures Craft White” by Julia Dreams at Creative Fabrica.

Next, I’m going to add 2 basic “photo spots” where I’ll place my photos later:

Note: If you’re trying to follow along, you can use any base paper you like. It’s really not necessary for you to add photo spots. But if you’d like to do so, they’re each roughly 4.25” x 4.25” and the mats are 4.5” x 4.5” with a dark grey drop shadow (optional).

Create The Strip

Now it’s time to create the paper strip from which I’ll punch out the letters for the first part of my title. I want that paper strip to be above my leftmost photo spot so I’m going to ensure that the grey square (for the photo) is the active layer in the Layers Panel.

Note: If you’re following along and not using photo spots, you can place your paper strip anywhere you like.

Then I select the Rectangular Shape tool:

The section where it currently says Unconstrained is what is called the Geometry Options area. I’m going to set that to Fixed Size because I know roughly how big this paper needs to be for the letters I’ll be using. I then set the width (W) value to 4.75” and the height (H) value to 1.8”. I also ensure that From Center and Snap are both unchecked:

Note: If in your system it indicates pixels (px) instead of inches, simple change the “px” to “in” and you should be fine.

Now all I have to do is position my cursor somewhere above the upper left corner of that leftmost photo mat and then click and hold:

You should be able to see an “empty” rectangle attached to the cross-hairs cursor. As long as I continue to hold, I can move this empty rectangle into the desired position. I’m going to position it so that it’s roughly centered above the photo spot and overlaps the mat slightly. Then I just release the hold and here’s my paper strip:

Since I know I’m going to be editing this rectangle later, I immediately simplify the layer and rename it to Paper Strip.

Note: I have no idea how long the “Fixed Size” option has been around. I know it’s been available in PSE for as long as I can remember. If you’re using an older version that does not have the “Fixed Size” option, you can just use the “Proportional” option. Then just click and drag the shape and position it accordingly.

If you’re following along, you can make your paper strip as big or small as you may need based on the size of your word. In all actuality, the size of the paper strip doesn’t have to be a precise measurement. It’s going to be cut “down to size” later anyway. If you’ve been following me for any length of time…you know how finicky I can get 😊

Create First Word

Now it’s time to add the letters that I’m going to punch out of this paper strip. I want the letters to be white so I need to flip my Foreground/Background color chips (press X). Then I select the Horizontal Type tool:

In the Tool Options, I’ve selected the Bebas Neue Regular font, set the Size to 140, the Leading to Auto and the Tracking to 100. I set the Tracking so high to ensure that I have plenty of space between each letter. Then I set the alignment to Left Align Text and ensure that the Anti-aliasing box is checked.

Note: If you’re following along and you’re using a different font, please feel free to adjust the Size and Tracking values to accommodate the needs of your project.

Now, with the Paper Strip layer active in the Layers Panel, all I have to do is click once near (but not too near) the bottom left corner of that paper strip:

PSE activates the Type tool and I type my word…CUTIE. Then I just click the check mark to confirm:

Note: If you’re following along and the size of your word is either much smaller or larger than your paper strip, feel free to re-size that paper strip now. Just be sure to leave a nice distance all around the edges of the word. You can refer back to the example above for how much space I’ve left around mine.

The CUTIE layer should now be active in the Layers Panel. I hold down the Shift key and click on the Paper Strip layer to activate both layers. I then select the Move tool in the tool bar along the left side of the file.

In the Move Tool options I click on the Align Center icon, and then click on the Align Middle icon:

PSE then perfectly centers the word on the paper strip:

Now I can start “punching”…

Cut Out Letter Shapes

In this step I’m going to be punching (cutting) those letters out of that paper strip. If you’ve been following me for a while, you likely know what I’m going to do next.

As a precaution I am going to duplicate the Paper Strip layer, hide the original and name the duplicate layer Paper Strip 2. You don’t have to do this…I’m just always extra careful in case I make a mistake.

Now, I activate the CUTIE layer in the Layers Panel. Then I select the Magic Wand tool:

Note: If you don’t immediately see that icon in the Select area of the tool bar, simply click whichever selection tool you see and then you’ll be able to switch to the Magic Wand tool in the Tool Options area.

In the Tool Options, I click on the New Selection icon, set the Tolerance to 32, uncheck Sample All Layers, and Contiguous then check Anti-aliasing:

Then I click anywhere inside one of the letters to make my selection:

You should be able to see that the marching ants are around the word CUTIE. Now, I can again activate the Paper Strip layer 2 in the Layers Panel.

With the Paper Strip 2 layer active, I press the Delete key to cut out the selection from Paper Strip 2 and cancel the selection (Ctrl+D or Esc).

At first glance it may not be noticeable that the letters have been cut out of the paper strip. Don’t panic. This is because the word CUTIE is still visible. All I have to do is hide the Cutie layer and here’s my cut-out paper strip:

Well, that was a whole lot easier than punching them out the old-fashioned way…Right?!? 😉

Before I move forward to complete my title, I do need to share with you an alternate selection method for creating the paper strip cut outs…

Alternate Letter Selection

If your title has letters with “open spaces”, you’ll want to consider this alternate section method. Let me show you why.

If I use a word like HOPPY for an Easter Bunny layout, I would absolutely consider using this alternate method. It’s not a major change it just adds an extra step or two. And the end result will give a different look when using letters with those open spaces.

This doesn’t change how I create the paper strip or the word itself. It’s all about the selection method.

Once I have the paper strip and title created and centered, I’m still going to activate the word layer (now HOPPY) in the Layers Panel. Then I select the Magic Wand tool, click on the New Selection icon, set the Tolerance to 32, uncheck Sample All Layers, then check Contiguous and Anti-aliasing.

But now, instead of clicking somewhere inside one of the white letters, I’m going to click anywhere OUTSIDE the letters:

You should be able to see how dramatically different this selection is from the one I made above.

This time, it appears that the entire area is selected including the word HOPPY. Actually, the word Hoppy is excluded from the selection. And there’s one other major difference. I’m going to zoom in close so you can see:

Can you now see that only the “outline” of the word has the marching ants around it…not the “open spaces” of the Letters P and O? What this selection really means is that now everything except the word outline is selected.

So, to get the “word” cut out of that paper strip, I need to invert the selection. I simply go to the top tool bar and click Select->Inverse:

And this is how the selection looks now:

This time only the word is selected but not the open spaces within the letters. Let’s see what happens next.

Now, I can again activate the paper strip layer, press the Delete key to cut out the selection from that paper strip, hide the HOPPY layer and cancel the selection (Ctrl+D or Esc):

That’s a lot different from what would have happened using the original selection method:

Now, just wait until you see how this changes things in the next step!

Cut Out Individual Letters

Okay, back with my word…CUTIE. I’m going to rename the Paper Strip 2 layer (created using the original selection method) to Original Word Strip and hide this layer. Then I duplicate that layer in the Layers Panel, unhide the new layer and rename it Strip Cut Apart.

I’m going to zoom in on the paper strip so that it fills mostly the width of my file:

With the Strip Cut Apart layer active, I select the Rectangular Marquee tool and click on the New Selection icon, set the Feather to 0, and the Aspect to Normal.

Then I click and drag out a tall rectangular selection around the letter C:

Then I press Shift+Ctrl+J to create a new layer via cut from that selection. I rename this new layer Letter C and hide that layer:

I click on the Strip Cut Apart layer to make it the active layer. The Rectangular Marquee tool should also still be active. And I just repeat those same steps for the remaining letters until I’m left with just this:

I didn’t want the individual letter cut outs to be exactly the same width so I varied the selection for each letter being certain that there were always gaps between the letters.

For now, I am going to hide that Strip Cut Apart layer. But I could just as easily delete it at this point. And here’s how my letter cut outs look:

And here’s how my letter cut outs would look for the alternate selection method’s word HOPPY:

Now let’s add some letter shapes…

Create Letter Shapes

Again, going back to my word…CUTIE (zoomed in).

I’ll bet you’re thinking I’m going to use the text letters for this. Actually, for this step, I’ll be using these letter cut outs as a stencil to create simplified letter shapes.

In general, I only create solid letter shapes for every other letter in a word. Most often, I start with the second letter. Given that, I’m going to activate the Letter U layer in the Layers Panel.

I want my letter cut outs to be a color other than black or white so I’m going to set my Foreground color chip to a nice shade of blue (#5c7287). If you’re following along, you can use any color you like.

Then I grab the Magic Wand tool again and I use the settings as follows: New Selection icon, Tolerance set to 32, Sample All Layers unchecked, Contiguous and Anti-aliasing checked. Next, I click inside of the letter U to make a selection:

Pay very close attention to what I’m about to do now. In the Layers Panel, I click on the Create a New Layer icon. I do this because at this point, there is nothing within that selection from which I can make a copy. And I want my solid letter to end up on a separate layer from the Letter U layer. I hope that makes sense!

PSE creates a blank layer (Layer 2 for me). Right now, that new layer is blank and should be the active layer. And the marching ants should still be around the letter U. I now press Alt+Backspace to fill the selection with the foreground color:

That blue U is now on that new layer which I rename Solid U. Next, I’ll repeat that process for the letter I:

And here’s how my HOPPY word looks:

See what a difference the alternate selection method makes! These solid letters are just that…SOLID! No open spaces. And the differences will look even more striking in the next step.

Now I’m going to mix things up a bit…

Again, going back to my word…CUTIE (zoomed in). I’m going to rearrange all the letter cut outs and solid letters so they look a little more whimsical….or perhaps haphazard.

I’m going to hide all of the letters except the C:

I want you to really be able to notice the location changes to all the pieces of this word art. So, I’m going to apply some colors and shadows to each letter/shape as I go.

For this C cut out I’m going to leave it exactly where it is. But I am going to change the color to a light green (#b4cd71) and apply a drop shadow with the following settings: Lighting Angle = 120, Color = a medium grey (#5d5c59), Size = 10, Distance = 12 & Opacity = 50. And here is the new version:

Note: I use a Lighting Angle of 120 degrees. You can use whatever Lighting Angle is appropriate for your project.

The letter U cut out is next. I’ve raised it up higher than the C and rotated it slightly to the left, changed the color to a dark blue (#5c7287) and applied the same drop shadow:

The Solid U shape is next. First, I moved this layer above the letter C cut out layer in the Layers Panel. Then I lowered it so it was barely touching the grey photo spot and rotated it slightly to the right, changed the color to a pale peach (#e3ccaa) and applied the same drop shadow:

Up next, the T cut out. I moved it slightly upward so it was above the C cut out and to the right just a bit so it wasn’t touching the U cut out. Then I changed the color to a medium rose (#cc9189) and applied the same drop shadow:

Now the letter I cut out. I’ve lowered it so it was about even with the solid U and rotated it slightly to the right (nearly the same angle as the solid U). I changed the color to that dark blue (#5c7287) and applied the same drop shadow:

And we have the Solid I next. I moved it up and rotated it to the left so that it sits between the T & I cut outs. Then I changed the color to that light green (#b4cd71) and applied the same drop shadow:

Last but not least, the E cut out. I simply raised this up until it was slightly higher than both the C & T cut outs, changed the color to that pale peach (#e3ccaa) and applied the same drop shadow:

I’m pleased with how this turned out. There’s no rhyme or reason really for how/why I re-aligned things the way I did. But that’s what made it so fun. And here’s a look at my completed title/element:

The font I used to complete my title is Cursive Standard Regular. And here’s a look at the alternate word HOPPY after coloring & rearranging:

The selection method used when creating the paper strip cut outs is a personal choice. I like both methods for different reasons. As a matter of fact, I almost prefer a hybrid approach which gets you something like this:

If you wanted to try a hybrid approach it’s not hard. It just means you have to create two different paper strip cut outs. One using the first selection method I outlined and one using the alternate selection method. With both types of paper strip cut outs you can pick and choose which cut out letters and which solid letters you want to combine.

Once you’ve worked with this technique a bit you can try experimenting with different shapes to make up your “paper strip”. Things like circles, stars, diamonds and hearts, etc. You can see an example using circles in the featured image at the top of this post. And here’s a really different take using stars:

Wrapping Up

I mentioned at the very beginning that I usually don’t create my title cut out on my actual layout. While working on the “temporary” layout as I did above, I always save it as a PSD file usually with a name based on the title I’m creating. When I’m finished, I can just copy the final layers to my real layout.

And there are a few things that will make this so easy. One of the first things I do before copying the layers is to gather all the final cut out letter layers and the solid letter layers into one spot in the Layers Panel. I surely don’t want to copy any of the working layers to my layout.

Once I have the final layers all in one location in the layers panel, I hide any other visible layers. This is a great way to ensure I didn’t forget a layer. I activate all the final layers in the Layers Panel and click on the Create a new group icon at the top of the Layers Panel (looks like a stack of papers). I name the group based on my title.

I once more save the PSD file. This is how I create a backup of my title in case I mess something up later.

With my actual layout file open, I can now just “drag” that group (which should look like a single layer at this point) into my layout file. So much easier this way.

And having the layers in a group also makes it easier to re-size the title if necessary once I have it in the actual layout.

Once I’m certain I’m happy with the title cut out on my actual layout, I can go about adding any other embellishments that might give a finishing touch to that title!

With everything now in the actual layout, I can go back and delete that “temporary” PSD file. And the job is done!

And here’s my little cutie patootie…

If you want to see more details about this layout you can find it in my 2025 Gallery.

I hope you’ll use this technique to create a standout title that’s so much more than just words!

More Tips

This technique works best with heavier (wider) serif or sans serif fonts. Fonts that may fall into the “block type” category. You certainly could try it with script fonts but I’d highly recommend that it not be a fancy script font.

Another note about script fonts…remember, typically when using a script font, we want the letters to touch so they look like they’ve been handwritten. This is just another reason why script fonts might not be a good idea for this technique.

You do not have to limit yourself to all uppercase letters. Sometimes it’s fun to use a mix of both upper and lowercase letters.

I highly recommend that you create your title cut out in a new 12×12 file…not on your layout. It’s just a good idea to give yourself plenty of room and make your title fairly large. This gives you a lot of working space. You can always re-size your title if it’s too large when you move it to your layout.

The font you use will drive not only the Size and Tracking for the text…it will also drive how large your rectangular paper strip will need to be. You need to allow plenty of space between each letter.

And don’t feel obligated to create your paper strip prior to typing your word. Sometimes it’s easier to reverse those steps. Just do it whichever way is more comfortable for you!

Remember, when you create the original word, the more space you leave between your letters the better. This will give you more latitude in creating various sized cut outs!

Don’t be afraid to add other elements to your title cut out. Just make sure the elements compliment/fit the title theme and don’t make things look too crowded.

Experiment with using glitter (or other effects) on some of your solid letters. This just adds another nice, whimsical touch.

Don’t be afraid to add texture to your paper strip using overlays or texture templates. If you want to add texture, it’s best to do that before you start your letter cut outs.

You can experiment with using different textured (or even patterned) papers for your letter cut outs. Though if you try this, it’s best to clip the paper to your letter cut outs after you’ve created them but before you start re-aligning/rotating them.

The hybrid blend of cut outs and solid letters will only work when using words with letters that have “open spaces”; such as A, B, F, O, and so on.

As I regularly say…just let your imagination soar!

Thanks for reading this week’s Tuesday Tip. Remember, if you have any suggestions or questions please don’t hesitate to “Message Me“. Check back next week for some fun tips about Split Color Text. Click “Follow Me” to stay in touch. I hope you have a wonderful week!