Creating a Background Effect with Handwriting

handwriting background techniqueWelcome to the Make It Monday blog hop. If you’ve come from Gina Zee’s site, you’re in the right place! She always has clever up-cycling/recycling ideas for crafting! I’ll give you info on all the sites in this week’s blog hop at the end of this post so you don’t miss anything you may be interested in!

Have you ever thought about creating your own background paper with your own handwriting? Now before you tune me out, I don’t want to hear any, “My handwriting is awful!” because it doesn’t even matter for the technique I’m going to show you. This can actually be a way to do some disguised journaling. Or you can just use words that relate to a certain theme. You don’t even have to use full sentences. The choice is yours, and there is no right or wrong way to do this.

First you’ll need to decide what you’ll use for your background. This technique could easily be used for scrapbooking, art journaling, mixed media, card making, or whatever else you can think of to use it for. Then you’ll need something to write with that is a water soluble medium. Today I’m just going to use water color pencils. They are readily available and not too expensive, and hopefully you already have some on hand.

I took a couple of water color pencils in colors I wanted to coordinate with the fall theme I had in mind and I just randomly wrote about the fall season. See, I don’t have great handwriting, and I didn’t even try to be neat.
handwriting-background-1

Even though I had already written on card stock, instead of just jumping in, I decided to first try this on water color paper. I did more “journaling” about fall with watercolor pencils and on the top of the page I brushed on water to activate the water color pencils. On the bottom, I simply used a baby wipe, with no additional water. The bottom created the look I was after!

Testing in watercolor paper journal

Testing the method in a water color paper journal. The top was brushed with water, the bottom buffed with a baby wipe.

Since the look I liked didn’t use water, I knew it would work on card stock without treating the card stock in any special way.  I decided to create a scrapbook layout with a photo I had taken, so I grabbed out a sheet of off-white card stock to make the background. This time I added a bit of a third color to the writing, a bit of yellow over some of the brown and the orange. Then I used a baby wipe and buffed in a circular motion. You can blend as much as desired. You don’t need to be able to read any of the words to realize that it is handwriting. If the wipe becomes too dry, grab another one, or dampen it ever so slightly.

Filled page with journaling about the fall season

Filled page with journaling about the fall season.

Now I created my layout. The leaves and tiny “title” were stamped with pigment ink, heat embossed, and the leaves cut out. The stamp set is “Fall Harvest, #C1504” from Close to My Heart. Bronze Shimmer Trim was added for a bit more pizazz. The outer edges were inked and buffed, as well.

The finished layout

The finished layout.

The yellow leaf was raised up a bit with foam squares to add just a bit more dimension.

Foam squares were used to raise the yellow leaf

Foam squares were used to raise the yellow leaf.

Overall, I was pleased with the outcome. I would use the handwriting effect again. I think it would be perfect for art journaling, and I can’t wait to try in on a mixed media piece with a different water soluble medium to write with!

Visit the other Make it Monday sites below and please feel free to shop my Close to My Heart online store if you live in the US.


Make It Monday blog hop participants this week.

Cheers to YOUR Artful Adventures!

KS