Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Tips For Getting Words on Your Art Journal Pages


Adding words to art is really at the heart of what art journaling is all about. Whether you're spilling your feelings out on your page, using one simple word or using a quote, art journaling is all about adding the words.

I art journaled for a few years before I used my own hand lettering on my pages. What got me over my fear of lettering was taking a class taught by Hope Wallace Karney at besottment.com. You’ll see her influence in my lettering, but after a while of practicing, my lettering took on it’s own style. The key to my lettering style is very simple: You go over the first lines a second time, letting the spaces and imperfections actually become part of the lettering style. 



 Besides hand lettering, there are a number of easy ways to get words on your art journal pages. You can type them on your computer, print them out, cut them and adhere them to your page. I gravitate to old typewriter fonts and this summer I finally found an old working typewriter that was inexpensive at a flea market. I love typing words and sentences on old book end paper and then cutting them in strips to put on my page.



Another great way to get words is to cut up old magazines and use the words to form sentences. You can also cut up book pages and use the words you find there to express yourself on your pages. Stickers and letter stamps are also good tools for getting your words on your pages. 






And then there is always using letter stamps.


Even though I now do my own hand lettering, I still use all of these other options as well to keep my pages fresh and unique. I will also use combinations of lettering options on my pages.  One of my most enjoyable ways of getting words onto a page is to use hand cut letters from painted and pattern papers. (I mentioned this is my post the other day about tips for using old book pages) Simply write a block letter in reverse on the back of the paper and cut it out. Here are a few examples from various journal pages.



I love words and I love getting them on my art pages in whatever way possible!

30 Day Blogging Challenge day 10.

10 comments:

  1. These are wonderful ideas, thank you! Congrats on meeting your goal of almost daily postings!

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  2. thank you for this post. i have wondered for a while about the lettering class from hope. love your style.

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  3. Such excellent advice and gorgeous implementation!

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  4. I've used Hope's lettering as well and it's so interesting how it still doesn't look like hers or yours. We are all unique!

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    1. Yes we are! And we each need to shine in our own uniqueness. :) Thanks Karen!

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  5. Ditto! I took Hope's tutorial and my lettering doesn't look like yours! I know our writing is all unique to us, but I want to be like you when I grow up, Mary Brack! This post and related pics .....altogether LOVELY! Thanks again for sharing your gifts with us! Off to practice my writing...
    Love you,
    Pamm

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