According to Huey Lewis and the News, in 1986 it was “Hip to be Square”. In fact, it was so hip that our beloved Sesame Street saw fit to write a parody to the song. Theirs was entitled “It’s Hip to be a Square”.
So I submit to you, if Mr. Lewis and Big Bird can write about squares, then why not Scrapper’s Guide? After all the same is true today…especially when it comes to digital scrapbooking. Squares are hip!
Come along with me as we explore what a simple square text box can do to hip up your scrapbook page.
Step 1: Prepare your workspace
Create a new document that is 8×8 inches, 300 pixels/inch, and has a white background.
Reset your color chips to the default of black and white by pressing the letter D.
Step 2: Create a Text Box and Enter Text
Get the Horizontal Type tool. In the Options Bar, choose a font and size. I chose size 18 Courier New.
Create a text box by clicking on the top left corner of your document and dragging a box to the bottom right corner.
Start typing a word or phrase of your choice. I just repeated the word “handsome”.
TIP: When you get to the right edge of the text box, type only the letters that will fit. Press Enter on your keyboard to go to the next line, and then continue typing. The idea is to have it look as random as possible.
When you are satisfied with the look of your text, turn your text layer into editable pixels. To do this, right click (Mac: Cmd click) on the text layer and choose Simplify Layer from the drop down menu.
Lastly, drag the white background layer to the trash bin in the Layers panel and save your text box as a .png file.
Step 3: Hip Up Your Scrapbook Page
You are now ready to drag your text box onto a scrapbook page.
With your scrapbook page and your text box visible, click on the text box layer in the Layers panel, and drag it onto your scrapbook page.
On my scrapbook page below, I added journaling around the outside area of the text box to hip it up even more.
To do this: I used the same font and size, but changed the color to something that matched the elements on my page and contrasted with my text box. I typed four separate lines of journaling, rotating each one so they connected at the corners of my text box.
I would love to see your totally hip scrapbook pages too! Scrapper’s Guide has a gallery set up just for Tip of the Week creations, so get scrapping and show me what you’ve got!
Credits: Scrapbook page by Jen White. Made with In His World by Veronica Spriggs. This kit is available in the store at Scrappers Guide.
Download a PDF version of this “Hip 2B Square” tutorial.
Windows: Right click on the link and choose “Save Target As” or a similar command.
Mac: Click on the link to download the file.
Leap Frog To The Next Level!
Rather than learning a bit here and a bit there, why not leap frog to the next level? Our CD, Learn Digital Scrapbooking, takes you step-by-step from rank beginner to confident digital scrapbooker in a fraction of the time!
Find out more and get a free sample video lesson
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for sharing this interesting technique!
This is so cool! I’m going to find a way to incorporate into my very next layout.
AWESOME Tutorial!!!
I will have to try this soon!!! THANK YOU for sharing this!
Hi! I can’t seem to write the word randomly like you do in PSE following your instructions. It seems to work for 3 or 4 lines then it changes line automatically before reaching the end of the line. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks for your help.
Hi Gilles.
Jen White
It is possible that you are just typing too far. When I was doing mine, I occasionally had the same problem.
This is what I did. As soon as the line automatically returned, I would press the Backspace button to return to the previous line. Then I’d press the Enter button to go the next line manually and then continue typing.
Depending on your word or phrase, there may be very little repetition of lines. I hope this helps.
How handy. Thanks for the tip.
This is such a great idea, and I can think of loads of ways to use it. Thanks so much!!
This is such a great tip, so simple yet a very powerful impact on the page. I love the way you arranged the elements on the page as well.
another useful and simple idea… thank you!
Very nicely presented Jen!!! GORGEOUS layout and I really like the extra SQUARE of journaling around the perimeter of the text box!
Thank you SO much and have a LOVELY weekend!
thank you, linda! you’re a sweetie.
wow, you certainly have a lovely blog!
keep up the good work. xoxo, JenWhite
How do you get the lines to rotate around the perimeter. The whole page rotates when I try to do it. Thanks
Hi Julie!
Try this… In the Layers panel, make sure you have the text layer active, get the Move tool, then rotate.
From what you said, I’m guessing that you had the paper layer activated.
If this does not help, email me directly at jwhite@scrappersguide.com and I’ll try and help you further.