TUTORIAL | TEXT IN A SHAPE

Hi Everyone! It's Jenn, aka jk703, here for a fun tutorial using Mirjam's Emphasizers No.2 for journal spots! Here are a few that I chose that could work with journal entries. There are even clouds or arrows to use also!

First, I'm going to use the Magic Wand Tool.

Then I will make sure I have one of my shapes chosen in the Layers Palette. I'm starting with the Talk Bubble. :)

Using the Magic Wand, and the shape, I click inside the bubble. I then get marching ants around the inside. Like this:

Now, I have my Paths available next to my Layers Palette. If you don't then just click on Windows > Paths. A menu will appear. In the top right, click on the small lines, and then choose Make Work Path.

A pop up will appear for Tolerance. Tolerance determines how close to the edges you want to get. The range is .5 to 10 pixels. I've always used 2. The higher you go the smoother the edge will appear. Once you hit enter, click on the Type Tool, and then within the shape where you want to journal.

Type away.... :) Play with the font size and spacing to make sure your font can fit the shape you are typing in. This can make a huge difference in the appearance.

I did the same steps and type a little happy message in this doodle!

OK. The next shape is tricky. Why? That itty bitty corner that is open. If you use the Magic Wand, your marching ants will be marching all over! So, let's fix it!

First, make a duplicate layer of the frame.

Now, on the duplicate copy layer, using the Rectangular Marquee Tool, just make a small square and fill it in on the original doodle layer. (To fill in marching ants, press Command + Delete and you will fill in the shape with the background color).

After you have your rectangle fully shaped and enclosed completely, choose the Magic Wand. On the duplicate layer, click on the inner box to get marching ants.

Now, choose your Type Tool, click within the shape and start typing your story. I started mine, and the "I'm" was stuck at the top. Don't worry you can fix that. Just click in front of that word and hit enter.

As you can see, after hitting enter, it looks much better. Now, you might notice that it is TOO close to the edges. We can fix that too!

Choose the Move Tool, and then make the text scaled smaller between 96-98%. Make sure you click the lock button to keep the ratio for the font sizing. Lastly, either delete or turn off the visibility of the original frame so that you don't have that silly box in the corner!

There you go... journaling within the Emphasizers!

And here's the layout I made using this technique

Thanks for visiting and I can't wait to see what you create! By all means put a link of your page in the comment section of this post. ;)

Jenn Marione | jk703