Thursday, November 4, 2010

When a missing letter becomes an opportunity!

It has happened to all of us. We buy tons and tons of letter stickers. Yet, we still run out of certain letters. What to do when that happens? One idea is to modify some letters to turn them into others. Here are a few examples:

In the follow title, I used the fabulous Corrugated Alphas from Jillibean Soup. However, I was missing a "Y". To make up for that, I used a "V" and then trimmed the leg off an "X". I patched them together and then added tiny butterflies to hide the seam.

Same idea for the following title made with Scrap Within Reach and BasicGrey alphas. I had no more "H", so I used a "N" and the top part of the letter "K". I then added the "adventure" sticker to hide the seam.

I love foam alphas!  Luckily, they can easily be modified (as opposed to the puffy alphas, let's say.)  In this case, I ran out of "N" and "L".  No problem!  A "Z" easily becomes a "N" and a strategically tilted "1" is now a "L".

In some cases, it not possible to modify a letter to turn it into something else.  In this case, I needed another letter "C".  I used the negative of Jillibean Soup Corrugated Alphas to trace one on coordinating patterned paper.  I then inked the edges and pop-dotted it on a journaling Sprout, also from Jillibean Soup.  I love this one!

An easy way to make an "E" is by turning a "3" upside-down. Granted, everyone can tell what you've done, but who cares?! You spent a lot of money on your alphas, you deserve to use it up! In the second title, I also turned two "J's" into "R's".

Finally, why not use a heart to make the letter "O"?  In this case, it's really appropriate, isn't it?

Finally, I'd like to share with you a great tool to use up the letter left on your letter sticker sheet. This anagram solver is the best I have ever seen! Have you ever tried a similar site, only to be given words that made no sense whatsoever? Not in this case. This site lets you enter up to 12 letters and will give you all the words you can make using those letter, from 2 letter words to all 12. All you have to do after that is figure out a title that could work with one of those words and you are set!

Make sure to link us up if you use any of these tips, we love to check out your work!

Claude

12 comments:

Johanna said...

Thanks for these tips!! The "Z" becoming a "N" is my fave ;)

Shirl said...

all these are so clever! thanks for the inspiration, Claude!

Christine said...

I often use Creative Memories stickers. The colour extends beyond the sticker. I cut out the coloured part and it creates the outline of the letter that can be used.

Maureen Reiss said...

Awesome tips!!! I could have used this site 100 times. TFS

Unknown said...

I've had some great fun the past, trying to use up matching alpha stickers in place of the real deal. On a layout, last Winter, I wanted to use the word "forever" in my title, but ran out of O's. Instead, I turned a number 8 on it's side to create the infinity symbol and placed where I needed an o. I also rigged and clipped a few more alphas up to create E's for the second word of the title, "fleeting."

Erin Morehouse said...

sounds like we should make a cheat sheet of ideas for letter substitution...my fave is turning a's like the one in this typeface upside down and trimming off the serif to make e's. Claude you amaze me everytime you alter letters!

scrappin_mom3 said...

Fabulous ideas Claude!! I definitely want a cheat sheet Erin!

BrendaB said...

Great ideas! Thanks for the link to the anagram solver, too!

Shawn Mosch said...

great ideas!

Scrappi Sandi said...

Thanks for the link to the anagram site...I just know that it will be useful!!

ileana said...

These are such great ideas! thanks you for sharing them :-)

Leinad said...

This was a terrific post!!! I loved all the tips and photos and the anagram solver is great. Thanks!!!