Do you ever wish you had better handwriting? If you’ve ever been frustrated with trying to write in your art journals to add text and words to your pages, hopefully this post with creative lettering ideas for art journaling will help you!
We’ve included 8 lettering ideas that will help you find some great alternatives and new ideas to try –
Plus some tips for how you can learn new lettering techniques if you want to try and improve your handwriting in your journals!
Don’t Feel Bad if You Don’t Like Your Handwriting!
Most of the time, I don’t really like my handwriting. It’s messy. It’s inconsistent. Yes, I acknowledge its a part of what makes me unique…but even then I still don’t like how it turns out!
Since my own handwriting is so terrible, and I know I envy so many of those art journal pages with gorgeous hand lettering and writing.
I thought I would share some alternatives to handwriting in your art journal that can help you get beautiful words and letters without having excellent penmanship.
Here are 8 Hand Writing Alternatives and Lettering Ideas for You to Try in Your Art Journal Pages
1. Magazine & Newspaper Ransom Style Letters
This one takes some patience. How do those kidnappers do it, I don’t know! Cutting out all of those letters individually to create words – might seem a little overwhelming – but the effects can be a lot of fun and very unique!
If you have a lot of magazines (what art journalist doesn’t? LOL…I know I clean out the magazine rack at our local library where they sell them for 10 cents a piece all the time!) – then you have everything you need to cut out letters and use them to create words in your art journal.
It takes some time to cut out each letter and find them, but it can be a fun way to take some time for yourself and find letters for words.
2. Find Fonts You Like & Print Them Out on Your Computer
This is a little easier than say rummaging through 10 magazines for letters you want/need. With this, simply just type out the alphabet or the words you like to use in your favorite software program.
Copy and paste these words and letters a few times, choose a few fonts you like and print. Plus, you can choose any font and words you like!
You can print quotes, make lists and more! Want 365 words ready-to-print and cut? Grab our free printable over on our page of 365 one word prompts!
3. Practice Drawing Letters in Pencil First
It’s hard to cover up mistakes in marker or pen. But with pencil you can draw your letters any way you want and then outline/trace and go over with marker or pen once you’re done drawing them.
This has helped me have much neater letters in my art journals! By thinking of each letter of the alphabet as something to draw it has helped me get much better results.
There are also a number of great books that can help you learn lettering styles with alphabets and pages to trace as practice exercise!
4. Try Hidden Journaling: Journal First, Then Paint/Collage Over It:
Hidden journaling is a technique where you write whatever you’d like to write – and then cover it up with layers of paint or collage elements. No one will ever see what you wrote, which is great for privacy. It also builds up on layers to create unique and interesting backgrounds in your artwork! 
The beauty of an art journal is the handwriting doesn’t have to be legible and it’s all about expressing oneself anyways.
So allow yourself to write in a stream of consciousness without worrying about it being messy – you’ll be painting, collaging, and gesso-ing over it anyways 🙂
5. Alphabet/Word Stickers
You can also often find word and alphabet stickers in the scrapbook section of most craft stores. These stickers come in a variety of sizes and themes, and certainly can help you express yourself without having to have perfect handwriting!
Here’s another fun idea – make your own stickers! It’s easy and fun to do.
All you need to do is get some of Avery Sticker Project Paper and then print out letters and words in different fonts that you like onto it from computer.
6. Write on Separate Piece of Paper & Collage
For some reason I get the jitters when writing on my art. I’m afraid I’ll mess it all up! So, another solution I’ve found getting around my messy and inconsistent handwriting is to write on a separate sheet of paper.
If I like it, I can simply just glue it onto the page that way! And, if I don’t like it, no worries – I can always use it for something else and try again!
7. Use Hand Lettering Stencils
I picked up a pack of alphabet stencils at my local craft store for just a few dollars and it is one of the best investments I have made.
It makes creating letters for your pages so much easier! No more worrying about messy handwriting or trying to paint letters by hand!
8. Alphabet Stamps
There are hundreds of different sets of alphabet stamps, many priced extremely affordably considering you get at least 26 stamps in each set!
I wasn’t able to find any in my local craft store, but you can find a wide assortment at Amazon.com as well as other online shops.
If you have horrible handwriting, don’t let it hold you back from creating your art journals! These 8 solutions will hopefully get you creating in no time!
Do you have any ideas for how to improve your handwriting and lettering in your art journals? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
Join our facebook group!
Share what you’re creating and working on, ask questions + connect with over 4000 creative artjournalists for inspiration + ideas!
