Ideas for Scrapbook Title Lettering... Part 1

Three products I can't be without at the moment for scrapbooking are the On Board Loads of Letters (three 12x12" sheets of bare chipboard letters - £10.25), Sponge Daubers (12 for £7.75) and Crystal Effects (£4.95). I've used them on my last few scrapbook pages and can see them featuring again and again!

On some pages, naked chipboard letters will look just right - clean, natural, understated.. but on other occasions you might want to match your alphas to your colour scheme. The easiest way I have found to colour my chipboard is to simply press the letter (or shape) into an ink pad. Press all over with your finger, then lift it up to check the coverage. Repeat until the letter is covered to the intensity you want. In the example below, I pressed really firmly into the ink pad for an intense effect. If you want to cover the edges, you could use a Blender Pen or a cotton bud to take up some ink and dab it round the edges and into all the little crevices.

You can get a lovely two-tone look by pressing just half of your chipboard shape down onto your first inkpad, then repeating with the other half on a second colour. Make sure you start with the lighter colour of ink to avoid contaminating pale inkpads with dark ink.

In the example above, when the ink was dry I added Champagne Shimmer Paint using a Sponge Dauber to add a delicate touch of sparkle to my title.

Sponge Daubers are a brilliantly versatile tool! They are great for picking up colour from an ink pad and creating distressed inky effects on the edges of cardstock, patterned paper.. and your chipboard letters! In the following example, I started by colouring the letters with Pretty in Pink ink. Once dry, I dabbed them with a Sponge Dauber coated in Soft Suede ink for a dirty, muddy effect.

See those little 'raindrops' on these letters..? These are tiny drops of Crystal Effects applied to look like splashes of water.

You can also completely coat your chipboard with Crystal Effects for a dimensional, glossy look. In the following example - a chipboard heart - I coloured with Ruby Red ink, allowed to dry, then carefully applied Crystal Effects all over. be warned - you need to let it dry thoroughly before attempting to stick it to your layout!

I've also applied Crystal Effects to the letter F (from Vintage Vogue set) to produce a shiny, raised effect. {Incidentally, I achieved the two-tone effect by inking the stamp first with So Saffron ink, then adding Ruby Red ink with a Sponge Dauber!}

I hope you've found this useful.. and if you'd like to purchase any of the products featured above, don't hesitate to get in touch.

Look out for Part 2 - Using Alphabet Stamps in your Titles - coming soon.

Meanwhile - there'll be another Stampin' Scrapping Blog Hop tomorrow - Sunday 15th August - starting HERE at 10:00am.. I hope you'll check it out - it's sure to be fabulous!