Printing on a journaling tag tutorial!

I came across this fabulous tutorial on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog and with their permission I thought it would be great to also share here. 

Credit goes to Paula Gilarde for this.

I usually use the computer to add my journaling - often strips, or journaling blocks but I also like to use journaling spots or tags. It can be a little trickier to add journaling using a computer to them but it's not impossible! Here's a few tips that I use:

First I measure the size of my journaling space -- in my example on this Jillibean Soup tag, the journal block is about 2 inches wide x 3 inches high.

I create a standard document in Photoshop (or Elements) - 8.5x11in, 300 dpi, and turn Grid on (View, Grid). Then I draw a text box of 2x3 inches using the Horizontal Type Tool (T) - this is where having the grid turned on is useful.

Next I see how many lines my journaling will have -- this is determined by the journaling tag. In this case there are 11 lines. I type 11 lines of text into my text box. Initially the text probably isn't going to fill your text box but we can fix that, just make sure you are setting you text size to the one you want (usually around 10/11). Play around with the leading to get the text to fill the box - that's the option that looks like an A on top of another A. Remember, you can type a number into the box, you are not limited to the numbers in the drop down list.

I like to do a test run on a regular sheet of printer paper then to make sure that I've got my size and spacing correct. Hold the journaling tag over the printed journaling to check -- I do this at window so the light shines though, you can also use a light box.

Next adhere your journaling tag on top of your test journaling using re-positionable adhesive and send it through your printer again.

Viola! Perfectly aligned journaling on a pre-printed tag!