Do you doodle?

It can be pretty scary to think about using a pen to purposely mark up or write all over your carefully created layout, the one that you painstakingly measured and cut each piece that you put on it. While your first thought of doodling is about hearts and flowers and curly-cues drawn all over your page, think again. There are many more subtle ways to add some fun to your page or to emphasize the elements.

You can use premade templates like the ones made by Crafter's workshop. Jill has this one in the store but you can see lots more examples plus sample layouts using them at their website. You can also do some doodling freehand. I will often do simple things like outline my letters or draw a frame around my page or simply draw some guide lines freehand before I write my journaling. Here are just a few samples of layouts I've done with just a bit of doodling.

On this one, I drew the scalloped edge around the photo and then cut around it. I also drew a pen line around each line of journaling. The pop of black draws your attention to those elements.



On this page, I drew around the inside edge of the vinyl thickers. It helped them stand out against the monochromatic background and added just a little fun.

On this one, I simply drew in some corners. It framed in the photo, the journaling and the title so that it didn't "float" against the white background. Still not sure you want to try? Watch this video on how to use a template and then give it a try.