{"id":9939,"date":"2025-04-22T00:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T04:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/?p=9939"},"modified":"2025-04-22T09:00:12","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T13:00:12","slug":"journal-frames","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/journal-frames\/","title":{"rendered":"Journal Frames"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Journaling in our digital layouts is often a hit or miss issue for a lot of us. If you\u2019ve read my \u201cTell Your Story<\/a><\/strong>\u201d post from back in March of 2023, you already know how I feel about journaling. I readily admit that I truly was not a good story teller in my early days of scrapping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These days I occasionally find myself looking at a layout and having trouble finding just the right spot to easily add text and still have it show up nicely. This next technique I\u2019m about to share is a great way to work little bits of journaling into your layout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Framing Words<\/h3>\n\n\n
\n
\"Framed<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Okay, so that image above might seem a bit extreme for \u201clittle\u201d journaling. But if made at an appropriate size this actually could work on a layout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I really had in mind to cover with you today is on a much smaller scale and meant more for what I call \u201ctidbit\u201d journaling. This is actually a great way to work your short journaling into a cluster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the things that inspired this post was a set of \u201cVintage Journal Frames<\/a><\/strong>\u201d by Wetfish Designs:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Premade<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It was funny when I saw these because I don\u2019t recall anyone ever creating a standalone set of such frames. They were on sale so I thought I\u2019d pick them up and play around with them a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note:<\/strong> Reminder, I use Photoshop Elements (PSE) 2024. If you use an older (or newer) version, some of my screen shots may look different than what you see on your screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are quite nice but perhaps not as versatile as some might like. Some of the frames have backgrounds that may not be conducive to journaling. For example, I really like one frame in particular and I pulled it into a 12×12 PSE file with a nice soft blue (#c7edfb) background:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Journal<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

You can see that this frame is fairly large and could take up more space in a layout than some might like. But, it\u2019s a great size in which to type some journaling. And certainly, it can be resized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me the first drawback was the background. I personally think it\u2019s a bit dark\u2026but that\u2019s just me. I kept reminding myself that I\u2019m used to creating my own journal frames so having one like this is different for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The background could be adjusted any number of ways. Such as creating an oval the exact size required and just changing the color, or clipping a piece of paper to it that suits my current project better. Creating the perfect oval is actually the hardest part about making these adjustments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note<\/strong>: Keep in mind, when I pulled this journal frame into my file, by default PSE placed it in the center of the file. This is important for the next step. If you\u2019re following along and your frame isn\u2019t in the center, please center it now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m going to use the Ellipse Tool to create an oval. But in an attempt to make this as easy as possible I\u2019m first going to create some \u201cguide lines\u201d in my file so I can identify the exact center. I do this by going to the top tool bar and selecting View->New Guide:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"New<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

PSE opens the New Guide dialog box:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Guide<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

For me the default Orientation selection is vertical. This means that the first line I draw will be from top to bottom. The default Position (again for me) is zero. If I left it at that PSE will place the Guide at the left edge of my file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That certainly won\u2019t do me much good. Since this is a 12×12 file I want this vertical guide to be in the center (half the distance between the left to right edges) which would be 6 inches. So, I set the Position to 6 and click OK to confirm:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Vertical<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

PSE drew this line using whatever the color is set to in the General Preferences for Guides and Grids within PSE:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Guides<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I have my Grid color currently set to a deep aqua color (#1c7676). If you\u2019re following along your Guide color may be different which is fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now repeat the process for the Horizontal Orientation, again using a Position of 6:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Both<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

With both guides in place I ensure that the journal frame layer is active and I select the Ellipse tool:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Ellipse<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

For me the settings are exactly what is shown in the image above. Just in case you can\u2019t see the image the settings are: Color chip set to black (uses the Foreground color chip value), the \u201cshape\u201d set to Unconstained, the From Center box is checked and the \u201cCreate new shape layer\u201d box is selected (this cannot be changed).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note<\/strong>: If you\u2019re using a version of PSE that does not include the \u201cFrom Center\u201d option then drawing your oval will be a little trickier. But it is still possible<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m going to keep the color black, it\u2019s easy enough to change it later. I zoomed in really close so I can position my cursor (should be the cross hairs cursor) at the exact point where the guides intersect:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Cursor<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Note<\/strong>: I changed the color of my cursor to red so you could more easily see it in the image above!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then I just click and draw (drag out) my oval shape:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Black<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

That doesn\u2019t look too bad, if I must say so myself. And even if it\u2019s not 100% perfect, I can tweak the size if necessary!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can now remove those guides so they\u2019re not a distraction as I move forward. I do this by going to the top tool bar and selecting View->Clear Guides. And now I can get on with altering that background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modify The Background<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As I said earlier, I can now make this oval any color that suits my current project or clip a different paper to it. Another option is to pull in (or create) a piece of vellum and use that shape to create a vellum oval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note<\/strong>: if you read my \u201cSee-Thru Titles<\/a><\/strong>\u201d post, you already know how to do this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s exactly what I did:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Vellum<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Putting a piece of vellum over that original background makes this pre-made journal frame a little easier to use for journaling. At least in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s another thing I can do with that black oval I created earlier. I can actually use this oval to delete that original background altogether. First, I\u2019m going hide the vellum oval. Then I duplicate the journal frame layer and hide the original just as a precaution. Next, I hide that black oval, move it beneath the duplicate journal frame layer and make the duplicate journal frame layer active. Then I press Ctrl-Click on the black oval\u2019s thumbnail in the Layers Panel:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Inside<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

You should be able to see the marching ants in the image above. Now, ensuring that the duplicate journal frame is still active I just press the delete key. And here is the result:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Empty<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

One last option. Instead of deleting that background the way I did above, I could have created a New Layer Via Cut (Shift+Ctrl+J) using that selection. With that background on its own layer, I now have a world of other possibilities to alter that background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, I could add a Hue\/Saturation Adjustment Layer. If you read my \u201cMore Glowing<\/a><\/strong>\u201d post you already know about using that adjustment. But I will walk you through it very quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the background cut-out layer active I go to the top tool bar and select Layer->New Adjustment Layer->Hue\/Saturation. PSE opens the New Layer dialog box. I accept the default name, check the \u201cUse Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask\u201d box and click OK to confirm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PSE then opens the Hue\/Saturation options box. The first thing I do here is check the \u201cColorize\u201d box. Then I can just play with the sliders for Hue, Saturation and Lightness until I get the look I want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I ultimately landed on a Hue setting of 82, a Saturation setting of 25 and a Lightness setting of +48. This resulted in a background that now looks like this:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Background<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

So, as I said at the beginning of this section, there are lots of alteration options if you have a pre-made journal frame!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can use this technique to alter just about any pre-made frame that already has a background. Once you have your frame with a good background all you have to do is add your journaling text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adding The Journaling<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Now I can concentrate on adding my journaling. First things first, I want to ensure that my text conforms to the shape of the inner part of the frame. I know it\u2019s not that difficult to just type multiple lines of text that fit within the space. But I much prefer typing my text \u201cinside\u201d a predefined space. So I\u2019m going to show you how to do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my \u201cStitches Con\u2019t<\/a><\/strong>\u201d post back in July of 2024 I talked about making custom shapes for use with the Type tool. In that post I was typing outside the custom shape. But the basic process is still the same when typing text inside a shape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The easiest thing for me to do is to duplicate the black oval I created above, change the color (so as not to confuse it with the black oval), move it above the Hue\/Saturation adjustment layer and resize it so that it isn\u2019t filling the entire space inside the frame. I want to leave enough space between the inside edge of the frame and the new oval so that my journaling doesn\u2019t look cramped:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Grey<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I do want to make you aware of one thing to always watch when doing this. Sometimes, in PSE when altering either a drawn ellipse or rectangle, PSE doesn\u2019t always maintain the \u201cflag\u201d indicating the image is a shape. Most often this can happen if you\u2019ve created an oval\/rectangle and re-colored it after the fact or for whatever reason simplified the layer. You can always recognize a true \u201cshape\u201d in the layers panel by a little icon in the lower right corner of the thumbnail:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Shape<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

You should be able see the odd looking square on the lower right corner of the grey oval\u2019s thumbnail (highlighted by the red box) in the layers panel. This is the \u201cshape icon\u201d. Always remember to look for this icon anytime you are going to type text \u201cinside\u201d a shape! If you don\u2019t see that icon, you\u2019ll need to start over by recreating the shape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note:<\/strong> You can also combine multiple shapes of varying sizes to create a unique shape when filling an irregular shaped space anytime you want to confine your text to that shape. For more tips on creating a unique shape please refer back to my \u201cStitches Cont\u2019d<\/a><\/strong>\u201d post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I double-click on the grey oval layer\u2019s thumbnail to ensure it is \u201cactive\u201d \u2013 like I would when trying to ensure a layer mask is \u201cactive\u201d. For some reason, if I don\u2019t do this PSE doesn\u2019t always recognize that I\u2019m going to use this shape to guide my text. When I double-click on the grey oval layer\u2019s thumbnail, PSE thinks I want to change the color of the shape and will open the color picker. I just click Cancel to close that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, I select the Horizontal type tool, choose my font – Baramond Bold Italic<\/a><\/strong> from FFonts<\/a><\/strong>, set the Color to a very deep burgundy (#6d3b49), the Size to 24, the Leading to 29 and the Tracking to zero:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Font<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Then I position my cursor inside the grey oval near the top until I see the cursor change to what many refer to as a \u201ctool cursor\u201d (an I-Beam inside a circle). I have to be very careful to ensure that I don\u2019t see the text on a shape cursor (an I-Beam with a curvy line underneath). That would actually place my text around the outside of the oval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once I\u2019m certain I have the correct cursor, I can insert my text. I used this quote as my journaling: \u201cMay is the month where the earth wears a crown of flowers, adorning every corner with vibrant hues.\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Text<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Once I\u2019m certain that the text looks exactly the way I\u2019d hoped I can hide (or even delete) the grey oval layer and change the font color if necessary. And here\u2019s my final framed journaling (zoomed in a bit):<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Final<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This turned out rather nice after tweaking the \u201cstore bought\u201d journal frame. I could add a shadow to the frame but that is better left for when I incorporate this into a layout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, I could go on to remove any hidden\/unnecessary layers (including the blue background), crop this to size and save it as a PNG file. But since I don\u2019t have a layout in progress, I\u2019d rather just save it as a PSD file in case I need to make any changes later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I won\u2019t remove any layers (except maybe the blue background), but I will crop this to an appropriate size before saving it as a PSD file. And I\u2019ll give it a meaningful name so I remember what this file is. Something like \u201cFramingWords-MayFlowers\u201d might be fairly descriptive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also wanted to show you how to create your own unique journal frame from scratch. But I didn\u2019t want to cram that into this week\u2019s tip & risk overwhelming you. There are a couple little twists that I think make it look so much nicer. Again, that\u2019s just my opinion \ud83d\ude09 So hang in there until next week to learn about creating your own custom journal frames.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime\u2026happy \u201cframed\u201d journaling!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extra Tips<\/h3>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Using frames to showcase your journaling is a great way to bring attention to those small journal notes that might otherwise be lost on a page!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes when there\u2019s just a tiny bit of journaling, a frame makes a nice place holder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When using smaller frames be sure to use a small, simple, very readable font. Sometimes a plain sans serif font like Arial, Helvetica, Falling Sky, Futura, Open Sans, Roboto, Raleway or Verdana will work the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would highly discourage the use of any \u201cmessy\u201d typewriter fonts. These could become very difficult to read when made smaller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember to think outside the box! We don\u2019t always need to be confined to using just text boxes \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experiment with using custom shapes to confine your journaling to a unique shape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other than that\u2026just have fun working on different ways to work your journaling into your layout!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for reading this week\u2019s Tuesday Tip. Remember, if you have any suggestions or questions please don\u2019t hesitate to “Message Me<\/a><\/strong>“. Check back next week for tips on creating custom journal frames! Click \u201cFollow Me<\/a><\/strong>\u201d to stay in touch. I hope you have a wonderful week!<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Stay<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Journaling in our digital layouts is often a hit or miss issue for a lot of us. If you\u2019ve read my \u201cTell Your Story\u201d post from back in March of 2023, you already know how I feel about journaling. I readily admit that I truly was not a good story teller in my early days of scrapping. These days I occasionally find myself looking at a layout and having trouble finding just the right spot to easily add text and…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"0","landing_page":"","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tuesday-tip-day"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}