The Online Community and Scrapbook Club from Creating Keepsakes

Block style fonts (like the CK Single Serif font available for free download this week) offer many options for titles that perfectly fit your layout. You can color them with ink, markers, watercolor crayons, and more. You can also use photo-editing programs to create great looks. Check out two looks you can use with one such program: Adobe Photoshop Elements.

Technique 1: Fill the Letters with Color

Step 1: Create a new document. Select the Horizontal Type Tool in the toolbar near the left edge of your screen, click inside the document, and then type your title.

Step 2: Select the Magic Wand Tool in the toolbar. Click inside one of your title letters (this example showcases the "F"). Dotted lines will appear directly inside the letter.

(You'll find the Magic Wand Tool to the left of the red arrow in this image.)

(Here is a close-up image of the dotted lines that will appear.)

Step 3: Click on the Layer menu, select New, and then select Layer. A new layer will appear in the Layers palette near the bottom-right corner of your screen.

Step 4: Select the Paint Bucket Tool in the toolbar. Click inside the dotted lines of your letter, and the letter will fill with color.

(You'll find the Paint Bucket Tool to the left of the red arrow in this image.)

If you want to change the color to perfectly match your photos, you'll be able to change the color with the Set Foreground Color option shown to the left of the red arrow below. If you click inside the top square, an Eyedropper Tool will appear. Click the Eyedropper on your photo (you'll need to open it in the photo-editing program), and select the color directly from your photo; the software will remember the color when you return to your title project.

Repeat these steps to color in each letter of your title.

For each letter, you can select a different color in the Set Foreground Color option to create a multicolor title.

Technique 2: Fill the Letters with Photos

You can also fill your block-style letters with photos for a completely custom look. For each letter, simply follow the steps above so you have a new layer that is filled with color to match this image, and then follow the steps below.

Step 5: Open a photo in the photo-editing software. Select the Move Tool at the top of the toolbar. Click-and-hold on the image, and then drag it over the thumbnail of your title block that appears near the bottom of the screen. The photo will appear on your title project.

Step 6: Use the Move Tool to position the photo over your desired letter. Check the Layers Palette near the right of the screen to make sure the layer of the photo appears above the layer of the letter (in this example, the blue "F"), as shown to the right of the red arrow in the image above.

Step 7: Hold down the Alt key, and move your cursor over the line between the photo layer and the letter layer. When you are directly over the line between them, the cursor will change to an icon with overlapping circles, like this: . Left-click your mouse, and the photo will fit into the shape of the letter. If you select the Move Tool and click on the photo, you will be able to reposition it within the letter as desired.