Surprise Tuesday + Crate Style :: Long Titles w/Jeanette Lee

Every now and then, while perusing the world wide web or visiting our inbox, a special talent catches our attention when we least expect it. A month ago, Jeanette Lee, an artisan scrapbooker within the design community, sent to us a Creative Weekly challenge project. Right away, we fell head over heals in love with her style!! Today, she's a brand new member of the CP Design Team and we're looking to wish her a warm welcome! Please say "hello" to Jeanette, Crate's newest CP Girl!!

Hello, My name is Jeanette Lee. I'm 27 years old and I reside in Singapore. I'm a teacher by profession and in my spare time, I enjoy watching television, shopping and spending quality time with my loved ones.

I started scrapbooking November 2008 with the initial intention of only creating Christmas presents for friends. Since then, my love for scrapbooking has slowly developed and right now, it's more than just a regular hobby. It's an outlet for me when life gets crazy and when I'm wanting to put family and loved ones first.

I'm deeply honored to be a part of the Crate Paper Design Team. I have loved their products and papers for as long as I can remember. It's truly a dream come true - I hope you look forward to my future projects and layouts!

Hey readers, welcome to another edition of Crate Style. I'm Jeanette Lee and I'm super excited to contribute my very first blog post on Crate Paper!! Let's get started...

Titles are an essential part of every layout. They represent what the photo'(s) symbolize and how you feel about the story you're documenting. As Mark Rothko, an American painter rightly puts it...

"If our titles recall the known myths of antiquity, we have used them again because they're the eternal symbols upon which we must fall back to express basic psychological ideas."

One of my favorite ways to showcase long titles is to use alphabet stickers.

For this layout, and today's post, I chose to use alphabet stickers from the Pretty Party collection and from them, I constructed sentences about how much my niece means to me. When it comes to title work, feel free to play around with adjectives to find what best represents your photo'(s). I went with an alphabet color that closely matches the patterned paper background of my layout, pale pink. Why, you might ask? It gave me the chance to outline my stickers with a marker and thus, lending more texture to my title work. A simple technique like this definitely makes the title stand-out more while increasing visibility and playfulness.

Following the placement of my title, I added embellishments along the right side of the page. I used the photos as a guideline for selecting matching colored embellishments and papers; a mix of orange, pink, green and blue.

Besides color, I brought even more texture via my embellishment choices. Ultimately, I recommend choosing a variety of both chipboard and cardstock stickers and mixing them together for increased layering potential. The beauty of chipboard stickers is they're already "bulky", making it extremely easy to generate dimension. They save on the need for "pop dots", too!

In terms of composition, I grouped embellishments throughout the right half of the layout, top, bottom and center. This set-up balances the composition of the layout while drawing the eye back to the photos and title.

To end the page, I created white splatters both at the top and bottom. I also attached a section of hidden journaling inside a not-so-noticeable pocket/kraft bag. Pockets are a quick save on space when working with a lot of embellishment clusters.

Here are a couple of close-ups of the layout...

And Voila, this is how you emphasize a long title on a scrapbook page! What are you waiting for? Be adventurous in using your alpha stickers the next time around and go for a long title, too!