Cardstock and patterned paper are absolute scrapbooking essentials, and are wonderful basics when it comes to using them for titles. I constantly use them with my lettering templates, to produce eye-catching titles. You can dress them up as much as you like with pens, markers, chalks, or watercolors the possibilities are endless. And all these mediums really do bring your titles to life!! Examples of this are the belly time layout, and inspired layout. Because I used twist art to back the letters they would have been quite lost without the chalk highlight, but with it, they become a feature in themselves.



I find that by using my patterned paper and cardstock for titles it is a wonderful way of using up all of those scraps that we all have! And don't just be limited to the cardstock and/or patterned paper that you have used on your layout, you can use any co-coordinating paper/cardstock for wonderful effect. I find that this idea is very good when the coordinating colors for the background and mats are not colors that you would normally use, or are more masculine, or feminine than you had hoped. This is when I would get out the patterned paper that works well with the cardstock, and adds just the right touch. It's a wonderful way of making the layout to look or feel, as you had wanted. One of my favorite things to do when using patterned paper and cardstock is to individually matt each lettering, double matting each second letter, sound like a lot of work? Well it is, but it is a wonderful idea for pages where the photos really do speak for themselves like in the First Hair Cut layout.

Here some other great examples of how you can use patterned paper on your layouts!