Product Shuffle : Title Letters

Good morning!

It has happened to all of us.  You have your layout almost done, you just have to put your title in. You find the perfect font in the perfect color in your stash, but as you spell out the letters to your title, you notice that your are missing an "E".  You can go about this problem 3 ways as I see it.  Try to find a title that will work with the letters you have, try to find another sticker sheet that has the letter you need, or you could transform the letters in the sheet that you have to make the letters you need.  Let me show you a few layouts where I did just that.  I have tons in my stash, I just can't seem to get rid of my old Thickers
Using the brand new Fancy Pants's Office Suite collection (now available in the LCOM store), I created this layout using a picture I found on my phone that my girls took.

I was missing an "A" for my title, so I created one using two "I" and a dash.

Depending on the type of alphas and the font, you can basically craft any letter from the letters you have availble, especially if you have foam letters.
In this next layout using goodies from the Herb& Honey collection by Basic Grey, I crafted my missing "F" using a "Y" and a dash.

Sometimes, all you need a little alteration to get the letter you want.  Depending on the font, you can almost always interchange an "U" with an "N", a "W" with an "M", a "P" with a "D". You can sometimes get an  "A" by altering a "d" or a "g".  Or like in the next example, use an "A" to get an "E".

Do you see it?  The first "E" in the word selfie is an upside down "A" with a little piece cut out.
So next time you are stuck with a missing letter, take a look at your sticker sheet and try to find a solution.  Sometimes all you need is to look at it upside down to see the letter you need.
Have a great week and be sure to ckeck back in on Saturday for an awesome sketch reveal!

Inspiration Station: Carta Bella!

Hello everyone! I'm back with an inspiration post today featuring Carta Bella's So Noted patterned papers and sticker sheet. If you're unfamiliar with these papers, you can view them in the store HERE. The specific pattern papers I used are: Dear Jane, Script & Scribbles, Note Cards, and Always You.

Here were my inspiration pieces:

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I especially loved the Jimmy  Buffett quote (even though there is no doubt about Heaven for me). In the second inspiration piece, what I really liked was the splash of orange at the top and the bottom. So with those pieces, are you ready to see what I came up with?

If you're unfamiliar with these Carta Bella papers, they are thick and textured. You can view larger photos of the patterns on the Carta Bella website HERE. I also have a couple of close up shots so you can see the layers, patterns, and stickers.

I hope you can find some inspiration in my pieces this week. Hope to see you share your work in the LCOM gallery. For more details about my page, be sure to stop by my blog today.

Product Shuffle: mixing alphabet fonts in your title

Today we're going to talk about mixing alphabet fonts for your title. If you're like me, you probably have tons of alphabet sticker sheets. Mixing fonts on your page is a great way to use up your stash! You can combine different colors, different fonts, big letters, small letters... the possibilities are endless. Combining different alphabet stickers can add a lot of character to your page and help put emphasis on certain words.

Here's a new page I created for you:

I used three different alphabet sticker sets on this page: EK Success (small white), American Crafts (grey), and Amy Tangerine (Thickers). Maybe you don't feel comfortable mixing so many sizes and colors just quite yet. That's ok! Here's one I did a little while back using two colors and two different fonts.

Making a quick trip through the LCOM Gallery, I found some other examples of how members have mixed alphabets. Here's one by Gisele. She used three different fonts and three different colors.

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One from Probyte. I like the script font combined with the more bold font. Both colors in her title match her layout perfectly.

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And one more from Isabelle. She incorporated a sticker into her title + two other fonts in two colors.

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Browse through the gallery and find your own inspiration! Use these examples as a starting point. We hope we've given you a creative push to dig into your stash and use up some of those alpha stickers!

Product Shuffle: Alphas!

Good morning!
Jocelyne here in the very first installment of LCOM'S Product Shuffle.  How exciting!  Every week, we will give a new twist to a popular scrapbooking product by using it in an unconventional way.  The product we will be featuring in this week's shuffle is the very popular alpha sticker!

I simply love alpha stickers. I love how easy they are to use, just stick them on the page for a personalized title that gives color and dimension to a page.  But they are also very versatile too.  By simply thinking a little outside of the box, you can use alphas in more than just your titles. 

Here is what I came up with using the very yummy Cosmo Cricket Sweet Disposition collection

Can you scope out the alphas I used?  First, you can see the conventional way I used the word Chill.    One of the downfalls in using alpha stickers, is running out of a certain letter.  In my case, for this layout I had ran out of the letter L.  Time to change title?  No way!  There is always a way to alter existing letters to make it work.  For this layout, I was able to cut a P to make an L.  I also used O's in this American Crafts Thickers to make the scallop border on the bottom of the page.  I simply cut the O's in half and placed them one next to the other.  

Now take a look at the word Selfie.  I actually embossed the foam letter!  Very easy!  I simply placed the title letters on a piece of backing paper, placed them in the embossing folder and passed it through a Cuttlebug.  Be sure to use the backing paper (like the one you peeled the sticker off in the original packaging) because once you pass it through the embossing machine, they will be virtually impossible to peel off if you use regular paper.  I love the texture it gave my letter, almost mimicking the background paper.
 

Finally, I added some CTMH ribbon, some prima flowers, wood button and tag, layered some Cosmo Cricket Sweet Disposition stickers, some Simple Stories mini alphas and words, a few My mind's eye enamel dots and a few bows made with twine.  And just to show how versatile those alphas are, I underlined the word chill and added dashes on top of my banner in the upper left hand side of the page.  I even added an asterix in one the flowers and hid another under a paper flower to make a hint of a leaf.  Go check out all the alphas you can find in the store and I challenge you to be creative with them.

Join us again on Saturday for a new Sketch it out!  Have an awesome day!