A lot of what I do with cards and scrapbook pages results in the need for some kind of writing. Either stamped, peel off, stickers, printed etc etc. And I never ever seem to have the right thing. I feel like I am constantly buying alphabets but when it comes to crunch time I just don't have something to match the project. If I was better organised I would plan all my pages in advance, matching up kits before I even put glue to pretty paper. But that isn't fun if you do it all the time (I am just guessing, I have NEVER managed to do it for one page, let alone many.) Some of my favourite pages are ones that just come together without a lot of effort, but I have a 5% success rate in finding good letters and having enough of them to make the associated title.
Today I popped into Hobbycraft to spend a £10 voucher on some non-crafty bits and came away spending a bit more and with some crafty bits. One of which was a packet of Papermania alphabet stamps. The main thing that attracted me was that it was the duplicate of some stickers that they do, but now I can do my own alphas in my own colours and have exactly the words I need. Plus they are a decent size, which is not easy to come by and they are not often that cheap. Dimension Fourth do a lovely set of alpha's in a blobby version of Times New Roman, either in plain or in funky patterns. I have a set but unfortunately have chopped the top off my U. The queue was too big at Ally Pally to bother them with random queries but I shall be e-mailing soon to investigate the possibility of single letters. I also am the proud owner of Zoo Alphabet by Penny Black. Unfortunately they have only had 1 outing so far, but now I am perfecting the art of the pro-markers (and worked out how to stop them bleeding) I will have another go soon.
I have also delved into the world of printed alphas and these have also worked. I recently made a 360 degree card for my mum and didn't have enough of some chipboard letters that I had brought from Dunelm. So I poodled into Paint Shop Pro, downloaded some new swirly brushes and made a pattern. I then wrote some text over, first ensuring that the fill colour was sent to transparent. Printed off, cut out and glossy accented and I had some fairly good little letters, albeit in a fairly over the top shade of purple. I do have the robo if I can sort out using it, but sometimes you want something nice and quick and lets face it, the robo isn't really. I also like to make the absolute most out of any card that I cut so just 1 phrase isn't good enough.
So what is the point of this ramble. Well partly it is that, just a ramble. Partly it is a plea to any manufactures who might possibly maybe have stumbled upon this blog by accident, please put in loads and loads of vowels and useful letters in your packs. And partly it is to share some ideas that I have had to try and solve this perennial problem.
And 1 final tip for you all (in case you hadn't stumbled upon this yourself) With silver peel offs and permanent brush pens you can get a lot more coloured peel-off letters than you think. Don't bother with the pro-markers, its a waste of their capabillities and the ink doesn't spread well. But 3 or 4 goes with a good old fashioned brush pen and you unleash a whole new world.
Love Elliefantasy xxx
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