Ideas for Using Subway Art on Your Scrapbook Pages

Blocked arrangements of related words or quotations rendered in multiple fonts are a trendy look.

Called “subway art” for its relationship to typographic art created on subway walls, this trend is fueled by the ready availability of fonts and printing capabilities.

DIY-ers are decorating their homes with subway art. Bloggers are providing free printable subway art in the hopes of racking up Pinterest links. Brides and grooms are decorating their “indie-styled” weddings with it. Scrapbookers are using it on their pages.

Let subway art inspire your title

Inspired by subway art, Amy Kingsford‘s “Give Thanks” makes use of typography to convey her message. She says, “The thing I  love about subway art is that it often displays a powerful message in a way that jumps out at you. That’s what I tried to accomplish on this page.  I used a variety of fonts, digital alphas and word art to give my over-sized title a subway art feel and then bracketed my much smaller framed silhouette stamps with it so that they weren’t lost on the page.”

“This message is special  to me because though we may “celebrate” our blessings in the month of November, I give thanks for my two wonderful boys every single day.”

Embellish your scrapbook page with printable subway art.

Tara McKernin scrapbooked her family’s rituals for getting ready for the Christmas season with bold holiday subway art shared on the Landee See Landee Do blog.  The subway art fits into one part of her blocked design, with photos, title, and journaling each getting a blocked out area.

Add hand-lettered subway art to your scrapbook page.

Michelle Houghton made a retirement gift for her father, a scrapbook page celebrating his relationship with her. She says, “I used art journaling techniques to create the base, created a “subway art” band that holds words that are significant to the two of us and then added three older photos of us together.  The heart was made with oil pastels on watercolor paper. The subway art was made with Sharpie and Faber Castell markers-click here for a detailed how-to on getting hand-lettering on your scrapbook page.

Use fonts to add subway art to your scrapbook page.

Meghann Andrew says, “I love the subway-art look in which a mixture of fonts is used to create a bold graphic statement. Here, the words along the left side are the focus: all the nicknames we have for my dog, Toby. The photo is a secondary part of the page. Because so much is happening visually with the subway art, I kept my embellishments simple.”

Chris Asbury says, “I designed this page with typography inspired by subway art and the goal of it looking like a poster or a wine label for a new wine release from one of our local wineries.  I took this photo at a local winery and edited it with Photoshop.”

Make your own subway art with fonts and a favorite quote.

Vicki Walters made a scrapbook page that is subway art, using a favorite quote by Peace Pilgrim. The fonts she used are listed in the supply list below and you can make a dotted frame in Photoshop with the Brush tool (how-to here).

Use mist and alpha stickers for negative-space subway art.

Jennifer Matott made a negative-type subway-art poster for her page. She says, “I laid out the text with sticker and plastic alphas (American Craft Thickers and Heidi Swapp plastic letters). I also masked off the framed edges for the wordart, and then sprayed ink over it all.  Once dry, I removed the stickers and letters to reveal the paper underneath.   It’s time consuming to arrange but I love the look and it’s worth the extra effort to me.”

Die-cut subway art with your personal cutter.

Adriana Puckett says, “This is simple layout that showcases my feelings for my husband. I love experimenting with negative space and my Silhouette die cutter.”

“For this layout, I cut out a subway art design that I purchased from the Silhouette store, and then backed the “I Love You” in mint green to make it stand out from the rest of the languages, which are simply laid over the white cardstock background. I also enlarged and cut the decorative mat and turned it into a journaling spot by layering part of it behind the photo, and then writing my journaling on it. The photo’s colors clashed with this springy palette, so I converted it to black and white and printed it out 5″ x 7″.”

Amanda Jones cut an oversized quote, in the style of subway art, with her die-cutting machine. She says, “I made it large enough to fill most of my page and left a gap in the bottom right corner to be able to add my photo and a few embellishments.”

[getinspired]