Technique Tuesday with Staci Taylor

I don't know about you guys, but I love using patterned papers as my background. The biggest difficulty I have with doing so, however, is that I am often left with nowhere to journal or put my title, as the background paper is sometimes too busy to layer words on top of. Today, i'm going to show you a super easy way to create a title (or journal) block on top of your patterned paper. You only need two things - masking tape and paint.

In my example, I couldn't place my title directly onto the polka dot patterned paper, as the polka dots made it too difficult to read. This is the area where I wanted to put my title:So, the first thing I did to create my new title block area was place layers of masking tape over the area. The masking tape serves as a neutral area to place the paint. I didn't want to paint directly onto the paper as I would have risked still being able to see the pattern through the paint.

I also like that the bits of masking tape peeking out add character to the layout.

Next, I painted right over the masking tape. You can be as messy or as neat as you'd like. I didn't worry about covering all the masking tape up because, again, I like to leave some of it showing.
Once the paint dried, I added my title.


I now had a solid title block that did not detract from my title, and I was still able to keep my patterned paper background.