xoxo K

Happy Friday everyone! It’s Krista Wells here, part of The Paperie’s monthly kit design team, popping in for a guest blogging spot today.

I hope some of you were lucky enough to get your hands on our January kit but even if you weren’t, you can certainly benefit from my tips today using any chipboard letters you have in your stash.

For the January kit I made this layout of my adorable godson Liam. I wanted a simple title but I wanted something that stood out against the white and gold-misted background without being too much. So, I grabbed my American Crafts pen and a set of letters that I had punched out using some cardstock and the Accucut machine at The Paperie and set to work.

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I lined up my letters, starting on the right to make sure I had enough room for the words that I wanted. Then I traced them with the blue American Crafts pen. Any pen will do really! Now, if you are a perfectionist like me you might hate when you trace a line and it’s a little ‘off’ or a little wobbly. Well, I’ve mastered the “perfectionist way” of fixing this. When I’m done all my letters I simply take away the chipboard letters and retrace my lines, letting them be a little ‘imperfect’. I’m not usually a doodler but I like this technique a lot. It’s an ‘imperfect’ perfect for me.

Click to enlarge

Of course this is a great technique for the doodler too. If you like doodling you’ll love this technique, which can be used with any die-cut shapes you’ve purchased or cut out yourself.

This is a great way to make titles when you runn out of certain letters. I am always short an ‘e’ when I create layouts. For the same reason, this technique is great for long titles because you don’t need the physical letters.

It’s also a good way to keep a layout from being too bulky. In fact, this would be perfect for titles for a project life album or Smash Book to prevent your album from getting too chunky.

I hope I’ve given you some motivation to try this technique. You just might find that you like it! If you try this technique and want to share, upload your layout to The Paperie Community page on Facebook!

Have a wonderful weekend!

For more of Krista’s work please visit her blog ‘Confessions of a Twenty Something Artist’.