A lot of people don’t always understand how important the titles of our scrapbook layouts are. They can literally make or break a page. Titles set the tone of our layouts and bring everything on the page together to create a strong theme. That doesn’t mean every layout has to have a title. There are no hard and fast rules for adding titles to a layout.

One basic principle I try to apply on most of my layouts is this: the title should not be the focus or dominate the page. There are always exceptions but mostly, titles should complement the layout, not distract from it.

And as with a lot of scrapbook “things”, there’s always the element of personal preference. There’s really no one-size fits all approach to hardly anything in scrapbooking!

Today I’m going to tell you a story about a recent “DUH” moment I had with a title. I was working on the layout featured at the top of this post and was really struggling to get my title to fit in nicely with the page. I usually don’t have trouble with that but for some reason this layout really challenged me.

Read on to learn how I finally came up with a look that I loved…

Texture It!

A quick reminder before I begin…I use the current version of Photoshop Elements (PSE – 2024). So, my screen shots may look different than what you see on your screen.

If you’ve looked through any of my galleries, you have probably noticed that in layouts with big titles, I tend to use bevels a lot. Some people abhor beveled titles. Personally speaking, I think they tend to help the title stand out more than a drop shadow. It’s just my personal preference. Perhaps that may harken back to my traditional scrapbooking days when I used chipboard a lot. Regardless, a bevel tends to be my “go to” for a lot of titles.

But even for me, sometimes a bevel isn’t the right way to go. That’s what happened with that layout above.

For this given layout, the biggest part of my problem was, this was kind of an “artsy” layout. Not new for me by any stretch so I couldn’t understand why I was having so much trouble. While I wanted the title to stand out…I didn’t want it to draw attention away from the layout. I really wanted it to be a bit more subtle…almost gently blending into the background. But not so much that it didn’t still look like a title. Again, not a new scenario!

I literally tried every trick I usually use: different colors, clipping a paper to the title, using shadows, blend modes, styles, bevels…I just couldn’t come up with something I liked. That layout was actually for some creative team work and I really couldn’t just walk away from it like I might usually do. So, I eventually picked an effect I could “tolerate” (not sure which one) and sent it on to the designer.

That’s when things started to fall into place, the designer is a very dear friend of mine, Cindy at Cindy Ritter Designs. After some back & forth discussion about different options she landed on one I don’t think I would ever have thought of on my own: using a texture overlay!

Looking back on that now, I don’t know why I’ve never done that before. If you’ve read some of my posts this year…you know I know all about textures 😉 How had I not thought to do this before?

The Struggle

This is the layout with the title at a solid color (#ad7f5a) and a very subtle shadow. I know to a lot of people that probably doesn’t look bad. But for me, even with the shadow, it just looked flat.

And I wasn’t totally thrilled with how “blah” a plain solid color looked. I think that could be largely due to the fact that I tend not to like flat colors in “real life”. But now I’m just making excuses for myself.

Note: For this layout I used a template from “Work On Yourself Templates” by Cindy Ritter Designs, and products from “Work On Yourself” by Lara’s Digi World. You can see more details about the layout in my CT Gallery for Cindy.

I tried to tie the title into one of the contrasting colors in the layout. I picked a shade from one of the blue flowers (#b9c2dc):

I liked the contrast but it still looked too subtle and flat even with the light shadow. I tried darkening the color but it just put me back to how I felt with the original color. So, I just went back to the original color and tried a bevel instead:

Definitely not the subtle look I wanted. And here’s the title blended with the background:

Okay…even with a tiny bevel that was entirely too subtle.

You already know how it ultimately turned out but I did want to explain what I did.

I kept the title with the original color (#ad7f5a) and a very subtle shadow. The kit I was using actually had some overlays so I pulled in one of those and clipped it to the title:

Better…it doesn’t look so flat anymore but I wanted a bit more texture. At first, I just tried “inverting” (CTRL+I) the overlay but that made it too dark. So, I duplicated the overlay, rotated it horizontally, changed the Blend Mode to Linear Burn and set the opacity to 70%. And here’s a refresher look at how that turned out:

I love how the texture let me keep the original color I chose. This ended up being better than when I try clipping a kit paper to my title. I had more control over the outcome this way. I still can’t believe I hadn’t ever tried doing this.

I can promise you…I will do this more often! I hope you’ll have a go at using a texture overlay to add a unique boost to your title.

A Few Other Title Tips

Keep title distraction to a minimum. Avoid over “bolding” titles. Sometimes “stroking” a title can also make it distracting.

Creating a striking title for a layout takes a combination of creativity and thoughtful design. Remember that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, so feel free to experiment and let your unique style shine through.

Your title serves as the gateway to your memories, so invest the time and effort to make it as captivating as the story it introduces. But don’t let it outshine your layout.

When everything you usually do doesn’t seem to be working on a particular part of your layout, remember to try thinking outside the box. Sometimes that means thinking waaaaaaaay outside the box as was my case.

Textures are an amazing and oft times overlooked resource. They’re good for so many things other than just texturizing a paper.

And sometimes, it’s as simple as changing the opacity of your title. You’d be surprised at what a difference that alone can make!

And if you’ve never used a style on a title…don’t be afraid to try that. There are a lot of great styles out there that can do amazing things to add texture to a title. Like a wood texture, or a plastic effect. Rubber and cork are other great styles to boost a title.

Here are a few fonts that will work really well with any of those styles I listed above: Oswald, Blackout, Milkshake & Chunk Five.

Sometimes adding just a small stroke around your title can do the trick. When I do this, I generally go the extra step to make a copy of the title without the stroke and layer it over the “stroked” title but with a tiny shadow or bevel to make it pop up just a bit.

And oh by the way…a lot of these tips will work on some of those “flat black” pieces of word art you likely have in your stash.

As always, if you have any questions or want to make a suggestion about a topic you’d like me to cover, please don’t ever hesitate to “Message Me”.

Thanks for reading this week’s Tuesday Tip. If you want to stay informed about new posts, just click “Follow Me” to stay in touch. I hope you have a wonderful week!