ScrapNgal

Creepcakes and Chocolate DoodleBats

2011-10-24T14:08:00.006-06:00

Sure, plastic toys on top of cupcakes are fun, albeit a potential choking hazard, but how much more fun is a cupcake when everything is edible? Way more fun.

These Creepcakes are surprisingly easy with the help of some DoodleBats from ScrapNfonts and some chocolate. Yumm.

Here's what you need to get started: Wax paper, chocolate chips (or better yet, chocolate almond bark if you have it), a ziplock baggie, and a printout of DoodleBats.

In selecting DoodleBats for your printout, make sure you pick images that are solid black with no separate parts. Scale them big enough so they're about two inches tall when printed out. DoodleBats with a lot of good images are DB Boo Ya and DB Haunted House. I also used DB Vintage Halloween.

You can also use any of the Jack-o-Pattern DoodleBats if you remember to use the negative of the image as your template. It helps me to draw a circle around the outside of the image, then I use the white shape as my guide.

I used chocolate chips, but on a hot day the chocolate may not set firmly. Chocolate almond bark would probably work better.

Melt the chocolate. I just did mine in the microwave for 20-30 second intervals, stirring in between just until it was smooth. You don't need very much chocolate, I used about half a cup and had extra. A little goes a long way.

Spoon the melted chocolate into the corner of the ziplock baggie. Try to gently deflate some of the air out of the back before you zip it shut.

Take a sheet of wax paper and lay it over your DoodleBat printout. You should be able to see the DoodleBats underneath it. Now carefully snip a tiny piece of the corner off of the ziplock baggie. If it seems too small a hole, you can always cut more. Hold the baggie like a frosting piping bag, and carefully trace the DoodleBat images in chocolate.

I always like to outline the edges first, then fill them in with chocolate.

Make sure the images you are making in chocolate are thick enough to stand on their own. I went over some of my more fragile looking chocolate lines twice just to make sure they were thick enough.

I really liked the skulls, the spider web, and that funky spooky tree, so I made multiple copies of them by shifting my DoodleBat printout underneath the wax paper.

Make more copies than you think you will need and plan for a couple casualties.

After you've finished piping all the shapes, carefully move the wax paper to a cookie sheet and chill the chocolate until it is solid. Carefully remove the chocolate shapes one at a time by peeling the wax paper out from underneath. Finally, prop them on your cupcakes!

I love the final look!

These creepcakes will be a scream at Halloween gatherings!

If you want an idea that's even more quick, printed DoodleBats can make great cupcake toppers with some markers, a toothpick and a little tape or glue.

These were made with DB Circles - Halloween and the tombstone on the right was made with SNF Dagger.

I love these little pirate flags. All three of them are in DB Pirate (the sneak peek product for this month).

The creepy printed decor can work as a cupcake wrapper, too. You can make your own with fonts and DoodleBats (the one below features LD Jambalaya) or LetteringDelights.com has a lot of pre-made cupcake wrappers to choose from.

Whatever you do, make it fun, make it crafty, and make yourself a Happy Halloween!

Shop ScrapNfonts.com for the widest variety of craft and scrapbooking fonts, DoodleBats, WordArt and Brushes.

Photo tip: Tell your story better with photos

2011-06-13T13:30:00.005-06:00

We've all seen it, maybe even been guilty of it. We've looked through a scrapbook or a collection of photos and every photo is the same: a series of smiling faces looking at the camera. Each page looks like the next.

font: LD Fresh Air, lavender in background: DB Herb Garden

Although it's nice to see familiar faces, what stories do these photos tell? Do they remind us of the experiences we had? Is this the best way for us to capture our memories?

I don't think it is.

I remember visiting my sister one holiday and leafing through her photo album on the coffee table. I started as a casual observer, but quickly became engrossed as I feasted through a year of her life in pictures. Why was it so exciting to look through this book of mostly strangers and places I didn't know? I complimented her and her exciting life, and then she told me something that's stuck with me ever since. She said, the key to making photo albums interesting is to have a three-way balance of subject matter, typically 1/3 people, 1/3 locations and 1/3 things.

This seemed so simple! That's it? That's all you did to make your stories more exciting through photos? Yup. So let's dissect this a little.

1/3 People

Let's face it, photos of people are fun to look at. Especially children! However, taking photos of smiling faces over and over again doesn't tell a very good story. Yes, a few smiling faces here and there are good, but also take some candid shots, some action shots, and some goofy shots. It's also totally fine to mix categories. Want a view of Mt. Rushmore with your kids in front of it? Ta da! You've covered two categories of subject matter with one photo.

1/3 Locations

This is definitely the category I forget about most, but gosh it makes a big difference in setting the story. Such little things like a shot of the back-yard, an overview of the farmers market, the gorgeous nature view on your hike, or that historic building you visited set the stage and help you tell (and remember) the whole story.

I especially like the impact of different weather and time of day. A photo of a hill with fresh snow before the kids sled down it, what an exciting prospect it was! The sun setting on the lake shore where you had a campout, remember the relaxing peace. You get the picture... or at least I hope you will.

1/3 Things

This category can be really fun and tell so much about your interests. In my personal life narrative, food is oh, so important. Close up shots of what I make or eat are a fun part of my memory books. Some other ideas include cars, toys, animals, flowers... the list can go on and on. Just think of what you're doing, what interests you, what tells your story and even the most mundane objects can become exciting chapters in your photo album. In my father's photo album, he has pictures of furniture when my parents were first married. Now, 40 years later, it's so fun to see the colors and decor they had so early in their life together!

Taking this balance into mind, I made a two-page spread of an outing with my daughter. There are six photos total, but I tried to balance the above categories in them.

font: LD Fresh Air, lavender in background: DB Herb Garden

font: SNF Lavender

It's really exciting to see the story told almost exclusively in pictures! Of course, a little journaling always is nice.

What do you think? Do you have favorite ways to tell your stories?

Frame used in subtitle images is from Film Frame Brushes.

Shop ScrapNfonts.com for the widest variety of craft and scrapbooking fonts, DoodleBats, WordArt and Brushes.

Lucky Day! T-shirts made easy

2011-03-15T22:08:00.005-06:00

I have a new obsession. I can't stop myself from making t-shirts with iron-on transfers.

What sparked this obsession you may wonder? It was the discovery of iron-on transfer paper that I can print out from my own printer!

If you haven't used this, you may be as skeptical as I was when I first saw it. Psh, that won't last through one wash! It will peel and crack and look TACKY. That's what I used to think. I'm here to tell you if you do it right, it will last and can look awesome.

My first shirt was for my husband who wanted a shirt to honor his favorite basketball player. He wears it all. the. time. We've washed it over and over and it still looks great (and feels softer with each wash).

Making a shirt

I decided I wanted St. Patrick's Day shirts that we could wear past St. Patrick's Day, too. That is where this tutorial begins. Enter SNF Jolly Curls, SNF Sophia and DB Lucky Trinket in fun, lucky designs.

First rule: before you print your design onto the transfer paper, make it a mirror image because you will be ironing it face down. Most design programs will let you do this or your printer may have a reverse or mirror image setting.

Next, cut out your image with a narrow margin around it. Try to keep corners rounded.

Here is when the nit-picky details make a difference. First, drain all the water from your iron and let it heat up for 5 minutes to evaporate any moisture. Don't take out your ironing boards. These transfers need a hard flat surface that can trap the heat between the iron and the surface. The instructions recommend veneer or laminate countertops covered by a pillowcase. I can do that.

Iron the pillowcase and your shirt (or fabric if your not doing a shirt) to make sure they are flat and free from moisture.

Then place your image face down how you want it on your fabric.

Push hard on your iron, with two hands, and slowly move the iron back and forth, up and down over your paper. Pay close attention to the edges. Make sure they get lots of heat and pressure. It should take 1-2 full minutes of slow pressured ironing to make sure you've got it.

Let your shirt cool for about two minutes and then carefully peel back the paper and reveal your creation! This is the exciting part.

Woo Hoo! It worked! (I haven't had it fail on me yet, but it's still exciting every time it works.)

I'm pretty pleased with my two St. Patty's shirts. If you like these designs, you can find slightly scaled down versions in this collection of Lucky Word Art at SNF.

Just so you know I'm not just making this obsession up, here is a sampling of some of the shirts I've made in the past few months.

I've burned through at least two packages of transfer paper. Good luck, and beware. It's funner to make these than you may think, and oh so easy.

Shop ScrapNfonts.com for the widest variety of craft and scrapbooking fonts, DoodleBats, WordArt and Brushes.

Use your fonts Awesomely

2011-01-25T12:57:00.011-07:00

Valentine's Day is less than three weeks away. More than any other holiday, Valentine's day is the holiday of words. It's time to express your affection in notes, cards, or spoken word. This year let ScrapNfonts fonts do some of the talking! Here are three creative ways to spread those words of love in stunning cards:

1. For the Love of Fonts: use a lot of fonts in short words or phrases.

For this card I found how to spell "love" in a bunch of languages. You could also use adjectives to describe your loved one in a card like this.

I picked a different font for each language (SNF has a lot of fonts with international characters, all the Premium Fonts and many Standard Fonts), and puzzled them together on a card. I liked how it looked with boxes around each word, but it can be done collage style, too, without the boxes. If you have certain words that are more important than others, make them larger (like I did with "LOVE"). Tip: to fill in holes, add DoodleBats.

To see all the fonts I used in this card, go here.

2. Take fonts to the heart: Type your fonts within a shape or larger letters with the help of Photoshop.

Last Spring, Brian Tippetts gave us another example of this fun way to use fonts, and he included two free Photoshop template downloads to help you.

If you're using Photoshop, it's not hard to create this look on your own! I use Photoshop CS3, but the method is the same for a lot of versions of Photoshop.

First, Type the letters or DoodleBat you want. Pick a thick, simple font (like LD Mon Cherie or LD Modern Slab), or a solid simple DoodleBat image, and scale it BIG. I used the number 0 in DB Sweet Spring for the butterfly below.

Notice the layers window shows my butterfly as a text layer. For the next step, while your text layer is selected, go to the top menu bar for Layer > Type > Convert to Shape. When you click that, your layers window will look like this:

And your DoodleBat/letter will have a line around it, meaning it's selected and it's changed into a shape.

If your shape does not have a line around it, look at your layers window. The layer with the shape should have two parts, the first is a colored square and the second is a square with your shape in it. There is a little chain link between the two.

The shape square should have a double line around it. If it does, you're good for the next step. If it doesn't, click the shape square once and that should select the shape. It is important for the shape to be selected for the next step.

Next we select our type tool. Hover the cursor over your selected shape and the cursor should look different. It should have a dotted circle around it.

Make sure not to hover the cursor on the edge of the shape or you'll get a different cursor with a diagonal line through it. This cursor will allow you to type on the outside edge of your shape, which is a good tool, but not what we're trying to do here. Here are the two different cursors.

We want the cursor pictured on the left. Click the mouse when you see this cursor, and you can start typing in your shape. Make sure to make your font size smaller and use a font that looks good inside your shape. You may have to play with font size and paragraph alignment to get a look you like. For this card, I used LD Jambalaya.

Notice you now have a shape layer and a text layer. If you want to make your shape layer invisible, just click on the little eye next to the layer in the Layers window. The text layer will still type in your shape.

Finally, fit it into your layout, and you're done! Easier than you thought, eh? And totally cool.

3. Build a foundation of Love: Use blocks of text as a background element.

My husband and I have always loved the song "I Will" by the Beatles. By layering the words to that song subtly in the background of this card using LD Abe Lincoln, it introduces another layer of sentiment. The bird is from DB Sweet Spring and the brown font is LD Remington Portable.

This example uses a block of text as the ground layer for the eskimos. It's not the primary focus, but another fun way to add text and sentiment. The text is LD Advertise This and the eskimos are from DB Eskimo Kisses.

I hope you can use these ideas to make awesome Valentine's Day cards and future projects! Happy Fonting!

Shop ScrapNfonts.com for the widest variety of craft and scrapbooking fonts, DoodleBats, WordArt and Brushes.

Photoshop DIY: Christmas cards easy as pie

2010-11-30T13:27:00.003-07:00

Photo cards have become a sweet and lovely tradition in the seasonal card exchange, and they are really easy to make in Photoshop or Photoshop elements. Really easy.

Start by selecting a size that is common for cards, so you won't have any problems printing at a print shop or mailing. The two dimensions I'm using in this post are 5" x 7" and 8" x 4". Here is a 7" x 5":

I dropped my photo onto the canvas, added a blue rectangle to the right and made some word art magic with some fonts from SNF. That's it! It was so easy!

ScrapNfonts has new holiday card font bundles called Trios. I used the Joyful Trio and SNF Daphne for the above card.

I'll walk you through this next one, which is only slightly more involved than the last--you'll see.

1. First I started with my canvas, 8" x 4" this time. I made the background green and added a long rectangle in a lighter green.

2. I made another rectangle, a gray one, where I wanted my photo to be. I gave it a matching light green stroke (an outline around the edge) for a frame using layer styles.

3. Next - probably one of the most important things to learn in Photoshop if you do a lot of cards or scrapbooks - I used a clipping mask to add my photo. I dropped my photo in the canvas, then made sure the photo was just above the layer with the gray box. In the layers window I right click on the photo layer (specifically the text of the layer, not the image), then in the menu that appears, click "Create Clipping Mask."

Voila! Nicely framed and everything.

4. Now it's time to make it fun. I decided to use the Merry and Bright Trio for this card, so I'll start with DB O Tannenbaum. Shuffling through the dozens of beautiful trees, I picked just three. Three is always a good number to make things look artistic.

5. Now we could keep it like this, nice and simple, but I want a little more drama, so I'm going to add some swirls from DB Dainty Swirl. I use this font a lot for subtle details. For this I enlarged some of the images really big, layered them below the photo, and set the swirly layer's opacity to 20%.

6. Since everything so far is green, I want to add a little color, just a little. it's easy to use the paint bucket tool on DoodleBats, you just have to rasterize the text first (right click on layer > Rasterize Type). That's how I made the bow at the top of the middle tree red. Then I added some circles and lines, a little offset so it looks kind of funky, for ornaments.

7. Finally, pick your words and plop them into the layout! Ta Da! A finished Christmas card.

Be careful about the alignment of multiple rows of text. To make the design look more professional, try to keep them all aligned the same, either center or to one side. You can select multiple layers of text in the layers window, then in the top menu bar click Layer > Align > then pick your alignment.

Using this same simple layout I also made this card

using the Nativity Trio, and this card

using DB Christmas Ornaments, LD Gregarious and LD Woodland.

If you are comfortable with clipping masks, layers and spacing, try making a geometric photo collage. They are totally hot right now. I made this one with the Holiday Birds Trio.

If you need more inspiration, I always get loads of ideas when I search google images with phrases like "Holiday Photo Cards".

Good luck! If you make your own Holiday cards this year using SNF product, I'd love to see them! Post them in the SNF Idea Gallery or your blog and let me know the link.

Happy Holiday Greetings!

Halloween Party Time!

2010-10-19T22:46:00.007-06:00

We're having a party! Last year we covered the food, this year as the host of the party, I have to make sure my house is decorated for the occassion! Since I have little babes in the house I wasn't too eager for gory decorations, and I'm on a budget, so no expensive store-bought decorations. My challenge is set: make homemade decorations worthy of a smokin' Halloween party.

This first decoration was a no brainer. A Halloween banner was top on my list.

These banners are so easy to make. I used Amber Autumn Fall Paper to make the flags, lined them up with some ribbon and sewed across. You don't even need to sew, you can glue the paper on the ribbon. I glued the letters on the flags. I originally was going to put all the letters in circles so I'd only have to cut circles, but I was feeling ambitious. We'll call it a Halloween labor of love (cutting by hand). All the fonts I used are in the Hairy Scary Super Bundle. For specific fonts, look here.

I decided I needed another big decoration.

So I stole the biggest Christmas decoration and made it Halloween--on a budget. This was a branch in the yard waste pile in my backyard. Seriously. It works perfectly. I spray-painted it black, stuck it in a terra cotta pot I already had, and stabilized it with small rocks (again from my backyard). Then I made the ornaments.

I started by printing off a bunch of DoodleBat images I liked in 2" circles on yellow paper. If you want the specific DoodleBats I used, look here. I glued that onto black cardstock and cut out each circle. On the backside, I brushed glue and sprinkled glitter. *Smile* Sparkles make me happy.

If I have more time before my party, I'm absolutely making more ornaments. I think this project will look better and better with more ornaments.

Even though I'm not cooking awesome treats this year, I still want to decorate the food. Hello candy bowl gravestones.

Again, these are totally easy. I printed spooky names on spooky paper, folded the paper above the names and cut out gravestones on the fold. (Paper is from Basic Grey Green at Heart, fonts are LD Rococo, LD Potter and LD Blackbeard.) To stand them up, I folded little tabs at the bottom.

Easy. But it really spices up a candy bowl and sets the mood. I love it.

Lastly, we need some mood lighting inside (the jack-o-lanterns will be outside). Solution: spooky vellum paper lanterns.

You like? Here's how I made them. I started out by outlining a lantern pattern I made onto black paper. Unfortunately I couldn't quite fit all four sides on one 12"x12" paper, so I needed two papers. I don't worry about too many scraps--I'll just make more ornaments for my tree. Come on, it's Halloween. There's always something to make with black paper :)

Cut.

Fold.

I went back to the computer and made some "window" silhouettes to fit in the lantern windows. I used DB Fright Night. I love that DoodleBat. I printed my windows on vellum paper so the light would shine through.

Cut.

Tape. (I was in do-it-quick mode. Glue would work just as well. Maybe better.)

Finally I taped (but glue would be better) the lantern together and put a light inside. It turned out so nice! I wish you could see it in person, it's even better than the picture. And it's just paper! Talk about Halloween coolness on a budget.

If you would like to make a lantern like this, I will share my pattern with you! Click here for a zipped PDF file.

Let me know if you make any of these crafts. I'd love to hear how they turn out! If you use any scrapNfonts products, post your project in the idea gallery so everyone can see!

Happy Halloween Crafting!

Shop ScrapNfonts.com for the widest variety of craft and scrapbooking fonts, DoodleBats, WordArt and Brushes.

Thrifty Gifting: Jars of Fun

2010-09-27T10:12:00.003-06:00

Question: What do you see when you look at this picture?

Answer: Potential! Imagine the possibilities! This jar is just itching to be filled with treats, whether they are for you or to give away. You know what else it's itching for? To be beautifully presented, and that's where I come in.

I have recently discovered the versatility of mason jars and am so excited! They are a fabulous, cost-effective way to create beautiful gifts for the holidays, favors, or just because. Of course, if you can your own jams, sauces or soups, those also can be beautified with a homemade label by you.

After filling my jar, I started with this:

Full sheet sticker paper. They are camouflaged as "shipping labels" but don't let that fool you. They travel through my printer perfectly and I can squeeze at least four jars worth of labels per page if I puzzle them together.

My treat of choice is homemade tomato sauce. Mmmmm. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water and fills me with a happy warm feeling of home comfort. I carefully cut out the printed labels.

Then I peel the paper off the back of the sticker and carefully place them on my jars. Most of my stickers had a handy diagonal cut through the paper on the back of the stickers so it was pretty easy to get the stickers off. Some stickers needed a little coercion, but they came with a little help.

Here is my final shiny happy jar of tomato sauce. Isn't it lovely?

I created the label using LD Petticoat Black for the title, LD Antique for the script at the top and bottom of the label, and DB Cookout and DB Fleuries for the little tomato decoration. For the gold frame shape I actually used the letter L from DB Chill Out and erased the words in the middle.

Here is my final army of tomato sauce jars. They look pretty impressive all together like that!

But don't think you have to make your own tomato sauce to make cute labels! Here is a jar of "medicine" to make someone feel better on a blue day. Just add candy! Easy, huh? But totally cute.

This label uses DB Floral Infusion for the white flower, LD Remington Portable for the main text on the label (I thought it gave it a nice old prescription bottle look) and SNF Uptown for some little details (i.e. itta britta apothecary).

Have you ever seen those cookie recipes in a jar? They are so much fun to give and receive.

I got the recipe for these cookies here. I made this label using mostly DB Karma Borders - I L.O.V.E. this DoodleBat - and for the words I used SNF Duluth Block, SNF Party Script and Party Script Bold. I used the same fonts on the back where I included the directions to finish off the recipe.

Are you totally psyched to make a mason jar project now?

Yes?

Want some help starting out?

Good. I can offer help... it's a free download! Hurray! There are four labels on this pdf, including round labels for the lid. Pick your own fonts from scrapNfonts to complete the details. (You can click on the image to download the pdf.)
Happy canning! and labeling! and gift giving!

****UPDATE****
Since many of you requested some direction on how to add fonts to the labels I will add a few pointers here. First of all, if you are familiar with a graphic program that uses layers, such as Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Fireworks, etc, that would be best. You can type on a different layer from the labels and move the type around, change the font, etc, until you get what you want.

If you do not have Photoshop, fear not! This is still a project you can do, you just have to be more patient. If you have Windows chances are you have "Paint." Open up the pdf in Paint and select the type tool (It looks like the letter A in a box). Once you start typing you must do all the editing you will want (font color, size, location, etc) on that particular type box before you do anything else. You can move the type box around while it's selected if you hover the cursor over the edges/corners. When you get an arrow with four heads, click and drag to move the box. The arrow with two heads will resize the type box. Once that type box isn't selected anymore, you can't change it. If you happen to de-select the type box and you don't like how it looks, just hit Ctrl+Z and it will undo whatever you most recently did. You can save and print from Paint, too. Good Luck!

Shop ScrapNfonts.com for the widest variety of craft and scrapbooking fonts, DoodleBats, WordArt and Brushes.

Photoshop DIY: 7 Steps to Sweet Digital Stickers

2010-08-18T11:01:00.010-06:00

Stickers have always been an essential part of any scrapbooking arsenal. Sometimes an old-fashioned looking sticker with the white borders is just what I need to complete a layout. I have created a quick way that I like to make DoodleBats look like stickers with the help of Photoshop.

1. First, pick out a DoodleBat for your subject and pick out a color for the DoodleBat. I always start by duplicating the DoodleBat layer, so I have two of the same images exactly on top of each other. For my image I used letter Z from DB Food Fun. You may think it's corny (hee hee) but I love this DB.

2. Next, select the bottom layer, go to the layer styles and add a “Stroke.”

This will automatically add a 3 pixel red line around every edge of your layer. A pop-up window will also appear so you can customize your stroke. I don’t want red so I changed the color to beige by clicking the color box and picking a new color. I also wanted my line to be thicker than 3 pixels so with the scale marked “size” I dragged the size up to 30 pixels. That’s just about right for a sticker border look. Click “OK.”

3. If you still have holes in the middle of the DoodleBat image, don’t fret, will color those in. First we have to right-click on the layer in the layer window* and click “Convert to Smart Object.” This will make the layer style (the stroke) part of the image.

*Note, when right-clicking on a layer make sure you click in the grey area next to the name of the layer. If you click on the little image icon of the layer you will get a different drop-down menu.

4. Then we have to right-click on the layer again and hit “Rasterize Layer.” This will allow us to be able to color on the layer.

5. Next, go on and pick your brush tool, pick your color(s) and let out your inner child as you color. As long as you keep all your work on the bottom copy layer, the DoodleBat image will be uninterrupted on top.

6. Once you’re done coloring, select both layers of the DoodleBat that you copied in the beginning. Right-click on the bottom layer* and select “Merge Layers.”

*Note, if you right-click on the top layer you will get a different drop-down menu related to fonts, since that layer is still a font layer.

7. Now it’s time for the final touches. Select the layer again and go to layer styles. I always add a drop shadow. Sometimes I also add an inner glow (in the form of a linear burn) to make it look aged. You could also add texture or a bevel to make it bubble out.

The sky is the limit. There is always more than one way to skin a cat, and that is especially true when your toolbox is Photoshop. If you’re new to Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, play around, get yourself comfortable with one menu option at a time. Most of all, don’t get discouraged. There’s a lot of amazing stuff you can do.

Here is the final layout I used my corny stickers for.

For the leaf and corn bundle stickers I used DB Fall Doodles. For the title font I used LD Maze, on clearance now for 50¢ (it was perfect for this layout). For the journaling font I used Scrap Happy, also on clearance now. The paper is from Lettering Delights 365 Days Paper Pack.

Weekend color inspiration

2010-08-06T11:02:00.003-06:00

I got these flowers this past week and have been inspired! I probably wouldn't have put these colors together on my own, but now I can't wait to in a project of my own. The photo isn't a perfect representation, there is a deep red, bright yellow, gold and accents of warm purple.

This is my weekend project. I'll show you when it's done! If you have been inspired too, please share!

Crafting MacGyver: Circular Logic

2010-07-30T08:01:00.003-06:00

I have a present for you...

Tempting, huh? Wanna see what's in it? Wanna learn how to make it? Read on!

First of all, I have a confession. I don't have a cutting machine, but I would love one. I drool over projects in the idea gallery by Regina Easter, who is amazing with personal cutting machines. As a result of this absence in my crafting life, I make due with things I have hanging around. My husband has called me the MacGyver of crafting because I resort to some weird, weird stuff.

Lately I've been really in to circles. A nice crisp clean circle is charming on a card, perfect for kids crafts and necessary for some fabric crafts. Where do I go for my circle tools galore? Why, the kitchen, of course!

Look at all those circles, just waiting to be used and outlined. I think one of my primary go-to circles is the lid of my peanut butter jar. That size circle works for dozens of projects! Of course, I first double check to make sure there's no peanut butter on the lid.

For today's occasion, I have printed out an image for a birthday card. The image is the letter "a" from DB Party Animals scaled up to around 200 point font size. After examining my toolbox, I discovered that the lid to my peanuts is perfect.

Next I need a slightly larger lid for a paper mat. A little more kitchen wandering, and there it is! It's the lid of my sugar canister. Perfect.

Gently outline with a pencil (keeping the pencil at a 45 degree angle all the way around the edge)....

carefully cut exactly on my drawn circle...

and voila! Two perfect circles.

And a little while later... a finished card! Yay! I found a nice font to compliment my image in Scrap Round.

But I'm not done with my circles yet. I need to make that cute little envelope wrapped up like a present to hide this darling little elephant. That means, back to my circle toolbox! I need to find a circle that is just slightly taller than the entire card.

There it is. Thank you, Mr. Quaker.

Trace and cut out four circles of the same size.

Fold each paper circle exactly in half. Fold crisply.

Arrange the folds together in a square, carefully overlapping each circle under and over the circles next to it.
Without too much moving around, squeeze a little glue under each overlap. Before the glue is dry, make sure to bring the circles tightly together in the middle, so there's no hole in the middle.

Here is your envelope. Gosh darn, this is so cute you could make this into the card itself! Just slap a pretty square piece of paper right in the middle with your message.

But not today, not for me. I have a charming, playful little elephant who wants a home. In he goes!
Carefully fold each flap down, tucking the last one in so each flap overlaps the one next to it.

Here is my completed envelope:

Now for the final fun touch! A ribbon wrapped around the whole kit-n-caboodle.

And there it is! There is your circular gift, just waiting to be given away. I promise it will bring a smile to the lucky recipient. Happy crafting!

If you like the hand-drawn image I used of the elephant with the party hat, you should hop and skip over to scrapNfonts and check out other hand drawn doodlebats. There are tons to choose from! I used paper from Cosmo Cricket's Lil Man collection.

Shop ScrapNfonts.com for the widest variety of craft and scrapbooking fonts, DoodleBats, WordArt and Brushes.

Brian's Fun Ideas for Creative Lettering plus a Patriotic Download

2010-06-29T16:19:00.020-06:00

If you've got a family reunion, neighborhood party, or kids' camp on the horizon, then you'll love this fun idea for t-shirts from Brian. Get creative with die cut letters, letter stickers or even printed fonts with this month's tip.

_______________________________________________________________

Font Tip: Get more “bang” out of your fonts and lettering products By Brian Tippetts

Last year, over the 4th of July weekend, my family enjoyed a wonderful family reunion in Idaho. We all gathered together at a cabin that fit over 30 people and did a variety of activities, including tennis, fly-fishing, golf, riding bikes and just relaxing.

One of the fun activities during the reunion turned out to be an exercise in creativity. Before the trip, I had been assigned to design the t-shirts for the family reunion. Typically, I would come up with a design and go through the production of ordering t-shirts and getting them printed, but this time I wanted to try something different. I knew that we had a number of very creative teenagers and adults, so instead of giving one design for everyone to wear, I wanted to see what creative look each person could come up with.

I showed up at the reunion with a box of white t-shirts, one for each person and a few extra, 8 cans of fabric spray paint, a cricut machine with letters already precut, extra 12 x 12 paper, and some masking tape.

My only instruction that I gave everyone at the reunion was that you only get one t-shirt and that you can use any color of paint and come up with a design that matches you.

Many of the teenagers spent hours sketching and printing out just the right letters and dingbats, then laying it out on the t-shirt to get the desired results. They were not only using the letters cut from the cricut, but also the negative space from the leftover paper. Next came the spraying of paint. Some did tie-dye, others masked off areas and did layering. Even the younger ones got involved and had a blast.

WOW! The results were astounding.

Here are a few samples that we came up with.

Just like these creative t-shirts, you too can add “bang” to your scrapbook layout, card or any project that you are working on. If you have some plain lettering stickers that you’re not using or printing fun fonts on your laser-cutting machines, you can add that extra “wow” to your project and save money in the process. You can also incorporate these ideas using fonts that you've printed onto cardstock and cut by hand with scissors or a utility blade.

LETTERING STICKERS

I have found that by using the inexpensive plain white stickers for my projects can be a great solution. It is easy to create a title with the same color markers that are used throughout the project.

For this first sample, I wanted to add a patriotic color scheme to my plain white lettering stickers. I picked out red, blue and gray markers to use that would compliment the overall color scheme. Decide what pattern you like and go for it. For my title, I wanted to create an easy patriotic candy stripe pattern with these colors.

After deciding the pattern, just take your pen and add the lines. Don’t worry about staying within the lines on this project because you want the pattern to look consistent all the way across.

Once you have completed your design on the sticker, carefully remove the sticker from the sheet.

You will see that it leaves an empty spot where the letter was. That’s okay, because we can use that negative (or inside) space later.

After removing the letter from the sticker sheet, it is now time to add it to your layout or card. Carefully place the sticker where you want the title or letter to be. It may help to draw a thin guideline in pencil to keep all the letters in your title aligned and that you can erase easily later.

Another cost effective tip is to use the negative space of the removed letter sticker. By overlaying the “leftover” or negative space from the sticker sheet onto your paper, you can easily add a custom title. This will save you money not having to buy new stickers.

I used the same colors and pattern to demonstrate how this is done. After overlaying the sticker sheet on my paper, I created the pattern and also outlined the letter in black to make it stand out better.

Once you have completed adding your fun design, pull off the sticker sheet and unveil your new custom lettering design. Continue with all the letters in your title.

LASER-CUTTING MACHINES

With your laser-cutting machine (Cricut, Silhouette, Wishblade, Slice) and either a cartridge or use of your own fonts, you can cut-out letters for a title to use. It is easy to add a fun design on the cut-out letters. By using a scratch piece of paper, place your cut-out letters down and draw your pattern over the letter.

Again, it is okay to draw outside the lines to keep a nice smooth pattern. Once your have completed your pattern, lift the letter up and place it on your project.

Use can also use the negative space to add your custom title. Set up your title so that it is centered on one sheet of paper and when it has cut out all the letters remove them and use the negative space to add color or a design. This is perfect for multiple “Thank You” or “Birthday” cards because you can reuse it. This is how we added the phrase “Macks Inn 2009” onto multiple t-shirts for the reunion. By using the negative space from the paper overlaying the t-shirt, we spray painted onto the t-shirts and the results were wonderful.

Try out these easy tips that will give your layout, card or project a new level of excitement and pizzazz, especially for this upcoming 4th of July holiday.

Take care,
Brian

BONUS:
For more 4th of July designs to help you with your projects, take a look at the FREE download from Britta this month. You will definitely get a “bang” out of using these fun patriotic word art. Enjoy and be safe this holiday.

Add New Meaning with Text as Design and Two Free Templates from Brian

2010-05-21T08:06:00.008-06:00

This month, Brian helps you get art-savvy with two free photoshop downloads that will help you use text as a design element.
__________________________________________________________________

Font Tip: Add New Meaning
by Brian Tippetts

By now you should know that I love playing with type and letterforms and adding meaning into my designs. In fact, my favorite thing to do while shopping at IKEA is to go to the frames section to see what new posters have been added that only use letterforms for the design. I always seem to come home with a new addition to my collection.

So where did my love for creating designs out of type come from? Well, in my junior year of college, I had an upper level English class that involved a lot of writing. I found myself behind on a number of papers and had to figure out a way to “spruce” up my papers to get the highest possible score. I knew that the teacher’s assistant would be the one grading the papers, so I needed to impress her.

I decided that for my paper written about my favorite subject at that time—surfing, that I needed to add some design flair. I input the text and made it flow in the shape of a wave.

When I got my paper back corrected, the TA had written, “How did you do this?” and “Wow, that’s amazing!” She loved what I had done to the design of the text and I ended up receiving an ‘A’ from that class.

What I learned from this experience is that the story or meaning of the story can be larger than the just the words. Through the design and the words, new meaning can be displayed.

100 THINGS I LOVE

From the moment I received the layout “100 Things I Love” by Deena Wuest for my book, Get Creative with Type, I have wanted to create a layout following her design.

I have been thinking a lot about my wedding anniversary of 19 years in May, so I decided that I would put together a “100 Things I Love About Amy” layout to present to her on our anniversary. After spending hours and hours to come up with the right words and getting it input into Adobe Illustrator (it is also doable in many other programs like Adobe Photoshop, CorelDRAW, and Microsoft Publisher) and playing around with 5 different font and various sizes, I was finally able to put together my own “100 Things I Love” layout.

This was a fun project and as you can see, my results are exactly what I wanted.

Do you want to create a “100 Things I Love” for yourself? Well, I have created a Photoshop template to help you out. You will still need to come up with the list of 100 things for your specific need, but I have shown you two samples to get you started with ideas. You can also change the color and modify anything that you want. The file is saved in layers to make it as easy as possible to use. I am also adding another Photoshop template (with a heart shape) that you can use to add as many (or as little) words, phrases or text to express your thoughts to a loved one. You can download both templates here.

Get started today by adding those sentimental thoughts or words of encouragement to fit in these basic shapes and make it meaningful.

Take care,
Brian

BONUS:
Okay, so I love to talk about the fun things going on here at scrapNfonts. We have a new, deco-art inspired font collection that is now available. SNF Cresota includes the decorative initials and small caps perfect for any title or heading. It can also be used to create a fun journaling block or quote. SNF Duluth and SNF Duluth Block can be used interchangeably for a fun deco-art journaling block or title. I could see this being used to recreate a favorite movie poster or when you want a custom, fresh feel to your card or scrapbook layout. Also included in the bundle is the Geo Deco Outline Doodlebat. The images from this doodlebat can be used easily with any of the Deco-styled fonts. Check these fonts out now and enjoy this month's free art-deco inspired download.

Five new fonts from Brian are playful and cute!

2010-04-29T09:47:00.016-06:00

Hand-drawn lettering, hatchings, scribbles and doodles are fun styles of lettering that are super popular. These playful elements add a youthful feel, you've probably noticed them lately in advertisements, catalogs and magazines. Capture the same look on your scrapbooking, card and paper crafting projects with a new bundle of sketch fonts designed exclusively for scrapNfonts by Brian Tippetts!

This month, Brian highlights the new Sketchbook Bundle with project samples and a free download. PS- You can buy the Sketchbook Bundle here for only $10.
______________________________________________________

Font Tip: Let's Play
by Brian Tippetts

In my March tip I talked about many different font styles and ways to find your own font style. In addition, I showed samples in each style to help you get started.

In this tip I am very excited to focus on a new bundle of fonts that fall in the “playful and display” style of fonts. The fonts are all included in the Sketchbook Bundle and are available now at ScrapNfonts.

This “sketch” style of font is very popular now. In fact, just the other day I received two catalogs in the mail that were both using this style of font. This fun, sketchy style is being used to add a fun and youthful feel. The same look and feel is now available for you to use on your scrapbooking, card or papercrafting project.

Included in the Sketchbook Bundle are four different fonts and one DoodleBat font, providing a great opportunity for mix and matching of fonts within the family.

There are many ways to mix and match fonts from the same style or font family. In this case, these fonts all have the “sketch” style and can be mixed together easily. I have created a few different samples of cards and invitations to show you how these fonts could be used.

In this first sample, I wanted the design to be simple and youthful. I used an “I” and “U” from SNF Sketch Block and the heart from DB Doodle Sketch. You can see how they can look identical, yet a great way to mix in some DoodleBats into your message. Then I used SNF Sketch Black Out for the text below. Oh, I almost forgot, the photo corners come from the DB Doodle Sketch too.

To create an invitation for an upcoming family picnic, I wanted to create a fun, graphic look. By using SNF Sketch Black Out for the large letters to create “Summer 2010 Picnic” and then the rocks at the bottom, the sketched letters are easy to see and very fun. For the message to attend and the date, time and location, I used SNF Sketchy in all caps. I used “earthy” colors to tie the whole design together and it looks great.

For this card, I wanted to see if I could add my own touch to the fonts. I used SNF Sketchy for the title, then used the same heart as the first sample from DB Doodle Sketch. To customize it, I drew the wings in Adobe Illustrator to add to the heart to go along with the saying. It turned out perfect. I’m guessing that you would love to have the “winged heart” for you own use. Well, you’re in luck, I have included the “winged heart” as part of a fun, free download.

Well, I hope you are excited as much as I am about this new “sketch” collection of fonts. As you can see from this layout by Merrilynne Harrington, they are a blast to use and really add a touch of playfulness to any scrapbook, card or papercrafting project.

Enjoy these playful fonts and please find someone to send a “winged heart” to.

Oh, and PS- Show me the projects you come up with using these new sketch fonts by sharing them in our Idea Gallery.

Brian

Brian's Tip for Defining Your Font Style

2010-03-25T09:29:00.015-06:00

Classic, vintage, playful or cute? What does your font collection say about you? This month, let Brian help you pin-point your personal font style. Plus, he identifies a few SNF fonts that fit each specific style.
____________________________________________________________

Font Tip: Show Your Style
by Brian Tippetts

As the famous French fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent once stated, “Fashions fade, but style is eternal.”

Style is one of those hard to explain, but easy to point out concepts. In scrapbooking, Cathy Zielske is a perfect example of the clean and simple style. Clean lines, solid colors, journaling either justified or closely justified and symmetrical designs based on simple grids. Being a designer, Cathy has stayed true to many of the “classic” fonts for her layouts. Fonts like Helvetica, Garamond, Times New Roman are clean and traditional font styles that have been around for ages. She has also included some scripts that continue the clean and simple feel that completes her designs.

Just as Cathy has a recognizable style, we can all pull together those elements that communicate who we are and define our own style.

A good exercise to try is by looking through your favorite magazine and marking the pages that have colors, fonts, patterns and grids that you identify with. Do you tend to prefer bright colors or muted ones. Solids or patterns, symmetrical or asymmetrical balance or grids and most importantly, classic style fonts or playful and cute style fonts. This will help in picking your next scrapbook paper, accents or embellishments and the font style to use for your next headline or journaling.

Now that you have narrowed down what your favorite style is, let me offer you four basic font style categories and examples of fonts from the ScrapNfonts collection that can help you out.

Classic style

Clean and simple, easy to read, perfect for large journaling blocks, can be used large or small, easy to mix with other fonts, doesn’t need to be the center of attention.

Classic style fonts: SNF Schoolyard, SNF Infinity Bold, SNF Metro, SNF Universal

Vintage or shabby chic style

Ornate and weathered, popular type styles of the early 1900s, decorative and more the center of attention on a page.

Vintage style fonts: LD Bostonian, SNF Chipboard, TXT Antique Poster, LD Old Glory

Playful or display style

Fun, playful fonts that are the center of attention, font designs that match different themes, perfect for titles but can be overused, should limit the number of playful fonts on layouts so that it doesn’t look like a ransom note. Can also include how the font is displayed, like vertical text, text on a curve, or any other playful way to display the font.

Playful style fonts: SNF Caution, LD This and That, SNF Infinity Bold, SNF Dauber

Cute style

Handwritten fonts with a “personalized” feel, perfect for large areas of journaling including notes or stories, easy to mix with classic style fonts, can also be used as background design, not the center of attention.

Cute style fonts: LD Abe Lincoln, SNF Goody, SNF Sophia, SNF Lollihop

Regardless of your personal style, there are many fonts to match your every desire and style. I definitely have my favorites when it comes to fonts, but I love trying out new font styles to see what I can come up with.

As a bonus and to celebrate Easter, I have created four Easter cards for you to download and print or use for something fun. I mixed two font styles by using a vintage (SNF Chipboard) and a cute (SNF Lollihop) style of font. The eggs come from EggBat DoodleBats set.

Have fun and enjoy your style!
Brian

Brian says: "Not all fonts are created equal"

2010-02-23T16:22:00.013-07:00

Font Tip: Are all fonts created equal?
By Brian Tippetts

As we introduce a new script font family named Infinity to our wonderful audience, I am reminded of the many hours and precision (especially with a script like this one) that it takes to create a font.

However, it is more than just a nice script font with two weights—regular and bold. When you look inside the font at the content or the character set included, a new reality sets in. Which also explains why fonts differ in pricing and how useful they are.

So, what are the differences and why are some fonts around $100 and some are $3. This is a very good question with a variety of answers. Let me go through some of the differences to help you better understand.

A little digital font history

When I first started my collection of fonts, they were very expensive (over $100 per font family) and could only be purchased through a limited number of font vendors. The main ones were Adobe, Agfa, Bitstream, Linotype and a few others. The fonts were designed and crafted over an extended period of time, usually months, and by well-known type designers, like Matthew Carter and Carol Twombly. Eventually, when the software became available to the mass, many new font foundries opened shop and started creating fonts. The software was still quite expensive, so only the passionate type designers were getting involved and the resulting fonts were still expensive.

Then came software for the masses and the font scene exploded with fonts available for every known occasion. I even joined in by creating international language fonts for a software company that are standard now on every computer.

Now, with the ease of making your own fonts, we can find thousands available online for every price including free fonts. So, why did the prices fall? Well, the time put into the font, quality of the font and what is really included. What is comes down to is what you are getting inside and out.

If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it must be a duck—NOT TRUE.

From the outside, fonts look pretty much the same. They have a name followed by an extension, either TTF or OTF and they install the same. Even when you preview the font with the following text, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,” it is still impossible to tell the difference. By the way, do you know why they use that particular phrase to preview fonts? It is because that phrase uses every letter in the alphabet.

So, the first sign that the font could be different comes when you are writing about your summer trip and showing the cost of items that you purchased during the trip. As you type in the keystroke for the “dollar” sign or look for the “cents” character, you notice that they don’t exist in that font. Then you realize that when you add an en-dash or an em-dash that those characters are not there too. Then panic sets in. You try the “®” and the “©” symbols are they are missing too. What you find is that your new font only has uppercase, lowercase and numerals, but is missing many symbols and most punctuation. "How could they do this to me?"

To show what I mean, let me show you the character sets of three different fonts.

The first font is one that is no longer part of our collection and is named CK Tea Party. As you can see, the character set has the basics—uppercase, lowercase, numerals and limited punctuation. The cost of the font was $3.

The second font is the latest release from ScrapNfonts and is named Infinity. It comes in two weights—regular and bold and includes uppercase, lowercase, numerals, full punctuation and symbols and all international characters, including “e acute” used in résumé and “n tilde” used in piñata. Also included are fractions that look so much better than just typing “1+\+2”. The Infinity font family (regular and bold) cost $10 as a bundle or for a limited time, only $8 for the two weights.

The last font that I wanted to show you is a font named Feel Script. The creators of Feel Script decided to utilize the new OpenType font technology and add hundreds of characters to the character set. Included is uppercase, lowercase, numerals, punctuation, symbols, international characters and many alternates, ligatures, swash characters, and so much more. The set is very complete and a typographer’s dream. With all the included characters, it only makes sense that it cost $99.

It is easy to see why, based on the number of characters in the set, fonts vary in price. This doesn’t even take into consideration the quality of characters or how they connect, any kerning or spacing pairs and whether the font is corrupt-free. I’ll save these discussions for a later post.

At scrapNfonts, our goal is to provide you with fun fonts for your creative projects that have complete character sets, so you don’t have to scramble to find a missing character or punctuation, all at a price that is very reasonable.

We hope you agree and will continue to support the time and effort that goes into creating a world-class font, like Infinity.

Enjoy!
Brian

Bonus Tip: Font Aid IV

If any of you font lover’s are still looking for a way to help with the crisis in Haiti, there is a font that has been created which includes close to 400 different ampersand glyphs (each from a different person) and proceeds from the sale of the font will go to Doctors Without Borders. For more details, go to: http://www.typesociety.org/fontaid.html

PS- As always, I've included a free download for this month, featuring word art designed with the new Infinity fonts. You can download it here. And in case you were wondering which fonts I'd recommend using with SNF Infinity or SNF Infinity Bold, check out LD Blankie, LD Modern Sans and LD Woodland. I think any of these three fonts will compliment the swirls, loops and script style of Infinity.

Meet designer Kim Hughes!

2010-02-11T16:04:00.000-07:00

Popular artist Kim Hughes is behind many of the fonts you love at SNF, including the new SNF Lollihop and SNF Goody featured in the cards she designed above. Here's a little more about this talented lady!

"Hello! I am a proud mom of two wonderful kids who are ages 10 and 12. We currently live in Arizona, but we are originally from upstate NY and have lived in four other US states. You can say that we love adventure and aren't afraid to take some risks!

I have been paper crafting in some way for about 10 years now and can't imagine my life without it. I am currently one of six Go-to Gals for Paper Crafts magazine and have worked closely with many other publications and manufacturers in the past.

Presently I design for Zva Creative, Papertrey Ink and Ellen Hutson LLC. I was a stamp illustrator and have designed multiple fonts for Creating Keepsakes and I look forward to creating fonts once again for scrapNfonts!"

Read Kim's blog
View Kim's resume

Brian Tackles Font Management and Organization

2010-01-27T20:55:00.025-07:00

Love fonts but hate the clutter? Brian tackles your font questions with 5 simple tips for organizing your fonts plus 4 recommendations for font management software (one is even FREE!) If you own 100 or more fonts, then this tip is for you! Let's turn it over to Brian....
----------------------------------------------------------------
Happy New Year to all of you font lovers and here is wishing you the best 2010. I hope that by now you have your “I love ScrapNfonts” blinkie so that you can show the world your passion for fun and creative fonts.

First off, I have created a NEW YEAR page of quotes, tag, and embellishments to get you started with your cards and scrapbooking projects. FREE to you, our ScrapNfonts friends. You can find the download here.

As we start a new year, our thoughts quickly turn to cleaning up the holiday decorations, exercising more, and most importantly, how to manage our fonts. Well, I’m not going to provide tips on holiday decorations or exercising more, but I do want to provide information and tips on managing your fonts so that you will have more time to work on the holiday decorations and exercise!

Over the last few months, I have received numerous e-mails asking for help with how to manage all the fonts that you have on your computer. I also realize that crafters have tons of fonts, probably only second to me. At last count, I have over 5,000 fonts so font management is VERY important to me.

Who Needs Font Management?

Every time you load a font, it uses part of the operating system to run and therefore, gives you less application support. It also slows down the system when you get too many fonts loaded. The new Windows 7 operating system ships with around 235 fonts (most are international font sets) and most of them load each time the system is started up. So, the easy answer is, we all need to understand font management and how to utilize it better.

The operating systems (PC or MAC) will provide basis font management. Meaning they have the ability to activate or deactivate fonts at the system level. However, applications may not recognize the fonts unless you restart the application or the computer. It may provide a preview of the fonts with the font name and lastly, it should have a way to print a sample of the fonts in your collection.

This may be just what you are looking for, especially if you are only dealing with a limited number of fonts, maybe less than 100 fonts of your own. On the Mac, you will be using Font Book and on the PC you will be using the Windows control panel to load into the fonts folder. The latest Windows 7 upgrade has greatly improved the font management capabilities and may be just the solution for you. It now provides more advanced capabilities, like grouping fonts to activate for specific projects, so that they are “on” just for the project and then can be turned “off”.

The basic font management functions that you will be getting from the operating system font managers are:

• Lets you activate and deactivate your fonts
• Shows you a font preview
• Displays the font name
• Informs you when fonts are missing or have been moved
• Will have limited print capabilities

What does a more advanced Font Management system provide?

For most of us, with more than 100 fonts, we need a way to manage more efficiently the fonts in our collection. With third party font management software, you will be able to not only perform the basic functions, but you will have advanced capabilities like:

• Auto-activate fonts at the application level
• Activate and deactivate groups or sets of fonts
• Permanently or temporary activation of fonts
• Ability to organize large libraries of fonts
• Warning when fonts have become corrupt and even fix problems
• Advanced preview window displaying fonts in multiple sizes
• Print out custom font samples with text that you provide

With that being said, let me recommend a few font management programs for both the PC and Mac operating system platforms.

FontExpert 2009 (Windows 7, Vista, XP)

Beyond the basic font management features, FontExpert 2009 offers you the ability to assign keywords, categories, ratings and captions in the tags view, search for duplicates and corrupted fonts as well as examine your system for font errors.

Main features:
• Supports TrueType and OpenType fonts
• Search for fonts in the database by keywords, ratings and categories in new search view.
• The software can search your local disks, CDs or DVDs, network drives for fonts, and put all fonts to a special list for your further work.
• FontExpert automatically detects corrupted and incomplete fonts, and allows you to search for and manage duplicate fonts.
• It is easy to manage any fonts that are shown in any view of the program. You can sort, filter, preview fonts, copy, move, delete font files, activate or deactivate fonts, add or link fonts to font groups (sets).
• With the help of Detect Font Problems feature, it is easy to find errors in installed fonts and to optimize Windows by resolving typeface conflicts and by removing records about missing fonts.

Company: Proxima Software
Website: http://www.proximasoftware.com/fontexpert/
Retail cost: $59.00

AMP Font Viewer 3.86 (Windows Vista, XP, 2000)

This program is easy-to-use and a step up from your basic font manager. For Windows 7users, you will want to use the font manager that comes with the operating system and provides more powerful management tools.

Main features:
• Supports TrueType and OpenType fonts
• Install fonts from a folder (one by one or from a list)
• Temporarily activate fonts
• Deletion of installed fonts
• List of all installed fonts with several display options
• Several options for organizing fonts in categories and managing them
• It can print a list of all or some of the installed fonts with an example of each font.

Company: AMPsoft
Website: http://www.ampsoft.net/
Retail cost: Freeware

Suitcase Fusion 2 (Windows 7, Vista, XP and Mac OS X v10.6, 10.5 and 10.4)

Suitcase Fusion is a powerful, quick font manager with a simple and an intuitive user interface. This is the font manager that I use with my collection of over 5000 fonts.

One nice feature in Suitcase Fusion is being able to collect your fonts in a structured and secure repository called the Font Vault. The Font Vault gives users much more control over their fonts, eliminating unnecessary font conflicts, duplicate font issues and providing easy access to your own font collection.

Main features:
• Supports TrueType and OpenType fonts
• Simple and easy-to-use interface
• Font Sense, the most advanced font matching technology available, that allows for a deep level of font analysis when identifying fonts for auto-activation using multiple criteria—font type, foundry, version, etc.
• Easy organization and back-up of font library
• Powerful font auto-activation for Adobe Creative Suite products (not Photoshop) and QuarkXPress
• Powerful font diagnosis and repair
• Font Doctor (free with purchase)

Company: Extensis
Website: http://www.extensis.com/
Retail cost: $99.95

FontExplorer X Pro (Mac OS X v10.6, 10.5 and 10.4)

FontExplorer X Pro software is font management from the font experts. Linotype has been around for many years creating and licensing fonts with experience in font management.

FontExplorer X Pro is optimized for use with large font collections and can handle them quickly, efficiently and reliably.

Main features:
• Supports TrueType and OpenType fonts
• Customizable interface, including list view and kerning pairs
• Backup functionality
• Easy activation/deactivation groups and smart sets
• Powerful font auto-activation for Adobe Creative Suite products (including Photoshop) and QuarkXPress
• Quick font deactivation and font cache clearing functions
• Integrated font store for purchasing additional fonts

Company: Linotype
Website: http://www.fontexplorerx.com/pro/
Retail cost: $79

Which font management software do you recommend?

Your decision should be based on asking yourself the following questions:
• How many fonts do I have in my collection?
• How often am I adding new fonts to the collection?
• How much money do I want to spend on a font management solution?
• Do I have a need to create sets or groups of fonts to activate together or am I fine?
• Do I regularly use programs like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign or QuarkXPress?

From these questions, you can narrow down what font management software will work best for you. For me, I have a large collection of fonts and I work on a Mac, so Apple’s Font Book was not an option for me. I have been using Suitcase Fusion for many years, so it has been my choice for font management and it has done a great job. It is both PC and Mac compatible but also the most expensive, so that may be enough reason to look at either FontExplorer X Pro (Mac) or FontExpert 2009 (Windows). If you don’t want to spend a dime, then I would suggest the Windows 7 font management, AMP Font Viewer 3.86 for older Windows users, and Font Book for those on the Mac.

And finally, I wanted to include some tips to help organize your fonts. After watching my lovely wife load fonts into Suitcase directly from a font CD and getting error messages whenever the CD was ejected or moving fonts into different folders throughout the computer, I have 5 simple ways to simplify and organize your fonts:

1. After downloading fonts or pulling them off from a CD/DVD, always place them in a central location. I have a folder named “fonts” located on the main hard drive. All fonts go to this folder and within this folder I have created sub-folders for the different collections that I have. For example, I have Adobe, Bitstream, Agfa, ScrapNfonts, Émigré, Dafonts, and many others listed as sub-folders. If your CD/DVD has an application that automatically copies the fonts over, make sure to direct it to your “fonts” folder.

2. If you are given the option to download either a TrueType (TTF) or OpenType (OTF) font, download the OpenType font only. This will reduce duplicates and OpenType files are smaller in size and hold more characters in some fonts. If you are using a personal cutting machine like the Silhouette, Creative Cutter or Wishblade, you may want to check with the manufacturer to make sure that both TrueType and OpenType fonts work with your machine.

3. If you find that you have a group of favorite fonts that you use 98% of the time, then it makes sense to create a “set” within your font management software and turn the set to be permanently on. Others can be activated individually as needed.

4. To prevent losing your font collection, due to a hard drive crash or change in computers, you should regularly back-up your font collection. A great benefit that is offered for free at ScrapNfonts, is that once you have purchased a font and downloaded it from ScrapNfonts, if the font gets lost or corrupt, you can go back to your account at ScrapNfonts and download the font again. All fonts are “saved” for you in your account.

5. Have fun!

Well, I hope that this helps in your quest to better manage the fonts that you have and use. I know this was a lot of information, but hopefully you will read through it and find ways to more efficiently manage your fonts. If you are still having technical issues, due to the software or hardware, I would encourage you to go to the manufacturer’s website and look for troubleshooting or FAQ pages.

Enjoy and keep sending your questions, fonts to identify, wish list for new fonts or anything else you want to get off your chest. I always love hearing from you. Email tips@scrapnfonts.com

Brian

OTF vs TTF vs PS...

2009-12-23T09:16:00.003-07:00

Font Tip: Choosing the right font format
By Brian Tippetts

“Which font format should I use--TrueType, Postscript, or OpenType?” This is a question I get asked frequently and because we offer both TrueType and OpenType formats at ScrapNfonts, I thought this would be a good question to answer.

The quick answer is they all will work, but as technology continues to make improvements and updates, we should move to the newer options. Currently, on my Mac, I have all three different font formats running successfully at the same time.

Here is a font format primer to help you understand what you currently have in your font collection and what you are getting the next time you purchase a font.

Postscript (PS)
The PostScript font format was developed by Adobe (same company that produces Photoshop and Photoshop Elements) in the mid-80s and was based on Adobe’s PostScript printing technology. It was a high-end technology that was mainly used by designers and printers to create high-resolution output. The Postscript fonts consisted of two parts, the screen and printer font.

TrueType (TTF)
The TrueType format was jointly developed by Apple and Microsoft in the late 80s, several years after the release of the PostScript font format. The TrueType fonts contain both the screen and printer font data in a single font file, making the fonts easier to install. The TrueType format also included some new technologies, including “hinting,” a process that improves on-screen legibility.

OpenType (OTF)
The OpenType format, a joint effort from Adobe and Microsoft, is the latest font format to be introduced. OpenType, is also known as TrueType Open version 2, is an extension of Microsoft's TrueType Open format. Like TrueType, it still contains both the screen and printer font data in a single font file. The biggest advantage that OpenType has over TrueType format is that the font files can contain up to 65,000 characters per font. TrueType and Postscript font formats only contained less that 256 characters.

So, what does all this techno-jumbo mean?

Well, many font creators, like ScrapNfonts, are beginning to convert older TrueType fonts to current OpenType formats and also creating new fonts in OpenType format. Does this mean you are getting new characters in the sets? Probably not in converted fonts, but in new fonts, the possibilities are endless--ligatures, swashes, dingbats, initial caps, and old-style numerals all within a single font file. Of course, you will need an application that fully supports these fonts, like any Adobe product. Unfortunately, Microsoft (even though they helped co-create this format) still doesn’t fully support all the type features of OpenType in its Word program.

If you are asked to decide which format to download, TrueType or OpenType, you should choose OpenType. It is the latest format and is backwards compatible so it will work just like a TrueType font.

I hope this has been helpful for you and again if have questions that you would like for me to answer relating to fonts, please send them to tips@scrapnfonts.com and I may answer it in an upcoming post.

Bonus Tip:

I know many of you also need some help with font installation. However, because there are so many variables in computers and different operating systems, I thought that I would offer a link to some quick font installation help.

Go to http://www.fontshop.com/help/installation.php

Typing on paths with Brian

2009-12-15T10:19:00.005-07:00

As promised, Brian has another font tip for you this week, and boy is it a fun one! It's a little more advanced, but can open up SO many design possibilities, plus he's got some freebie goodies. Here's Brian!

--------------------------------

Hello again and thanks to of all of you that have replied to my call for questions relating to fonts. I can tell we have a passionate group of “fontaholics” as one reader said. I love hearing from you so keep the questions (and suggestions) coming to tips@scrapnfonts.com and maybe your question will be featured in one of my upcoming posts.

Before we get into the font tip of the week, I wanted to tell you a fun story. About a year ago, I was contacted by a police agency in the midwest, requesting my help in solving a crime. At first, I thought this was a joke and didn’t feel any need to reply to the e-mail. When I finally did, I was told this was a legitimate case where a crime had been committed and a note was left using many different fonts. They needed help identifying the many fonts and had heard from a fellow officer, whose wife is a scrapbooker, that Brian Tippetts (that would be me) was the person to ask to identify fonts. Anyway, I was able to help identify many of the fonts included in the letter and hopefully help solve the crime. So, next time when you are deciding what font to use in your card or layout, remember, fonts are important and can solve crimes! Enjoy.

Font Tip: Text as design using type paths
By Brian Tippetts

A fun way to add type in a playful way is by integrating the type into the design of your layout or card. You can tell your story or include a sentiment all in fun and unique way. You can do this by using type paths. These are “paths” that you create and select to be used for your text. This is, however, one of those concepts that will be easier to show you what is possible.

In example 1, I have created the 3 different paths using the Pen Tool in Photoshop. You can use the freeform pen tool that follows the movement of your mouse and creates a path or you can place specific “anchor points” to control the curve. Either way will work.

Then, in example 2, the Type Tool is selected and placed over the beginning of each “path” so that the icon changes to type on a path, you then click on the path and begin adding your text.

Once you have entered your text, you can begin to build your layout or card by changing colors, adding a title and background or just having fun. Once you get the hang of it, you will find many uses for type paths including stems for flowers, text around a circle or frame, or for any birthday to highlight the age.

BONUS: To get you started with type paths, I am making available the Photoshop (PSD) file for the Winter Card with layers, so all you have to do is change the text on the path and title. Currently, I have “LD Let it Snow” and “LD Joe” fonts used in the design of the card. In addition, I am including a Photoshop (PSD) file for type paths for the numbers 2 and 5 so that you can make a custom Christmas design using December 25.

SAMPLE LAYOUT: “It is great to be 8” by Brian Tippetts

New Guest Blogger: Brian Tippetts

2009-12-08T21:13:00.007-07:00

We are very excited to announce our first ever guest blogger, Brian Tippetts! Brian has a long history with scrapbooking, design and typography. He has spent his entire career focusing on "what type is out there and how it can help communicate to the reader." We are honored to have him sharing his tips. Take it away, Brian!

------------------------------

Hi and welcome to my first font tip here at ScrapNfonts. I am starting out with a fun tip that can be useful for your holiday cards or layouts. Enjoy!

Font Tip: Using contrasting fonts
by Brian Tippetts

One easy way to help make your card or scrapbook layout read better is by using contrasting fonts. What I mean is don’t always use the same font for the title and journaling, but use contrasting styles of type.

In example 1, you will see that I used a sans-serif typestyle for the title and then a script for the journaling below. This not only makes it easier to read each text block, but it also adds a fun style to the look.

You can also do the reverse look. In example 2, I have used a script font for the title and then a sans-serif font for the journaling text.

Contrast is a design principle that is used frequently. Whether big and small prints or loud and soft colors, contrast can add a whole new dimension to your design. Contrasting fonts is a fun way to add style but most importantly can add to the readability of your journaling and title.

Bonus Tip

Here is a way to save time and money. Instead of printing out your journaling or titles over and over again to see if it “fits” within your design, try using this FREE font size ruler to help you. Print out the ruler or photocopy it onto a transparency, then overlay your card or layout in the area that you want the journaling or title. See which font size works best, using either serif, sans-serif or script styles.

This will save you time and money (from all the extra prints) and will give you the perfect size every time.

I want your feedback! If you have a font question (how to use fonts correctly, identifying one that you have seen, font technology, anything font related), please send an e-mail with your question to tips@scrapnfonts.com and include “Brian’s Top Tips” in the subject line.

Lucky Lucky ScrapNfonts

2009-12-02T21:43:00.000-07:00

Guess who has joined the scrapNfonts creative team? Brian Tippetts! Not only is he the former Editor-in-Chief of Creating Keepsakes magazine, he also has his own book about using fonts in scrapbooking called Getting Creative With Type. Yup, we're feeling pretty lucky to have such a guru of typography grace us with his wisdom.

Lucky for all of us, he wants to share his knowledge! He's going to be a regular guest blogger right here on scrapNgal blog! Keep an eye out for his font tips and tricks, freebies and inspiration. He's already getting started with two awesome offerings:

1. A free Christmas page of quotes and tags
2. A chance to win a copy of his book

So stay tuned. There's lots of great things coming your way.

Thanksgiving in all it's glory

2009-11-23T10:02:00.002-07:00

Thanksgiving at my parents house is a big deal. They've had years where they have successfully managed to sit and feed over 35 people! Tables and chairs are set up in every room, and my mom is a stickler for details. The whole ordeal is so nice, and a special little touch are name tags on each place setting. I made the ones above using DB Harvest and SNF Daphne.

Here's to wishing you each a week full of gratitude and good food. Enjoy this free pdf download with Thanksgiving word art!

Contest on BBTB

2009-11-20T09:59:00.001-07:00

Regina Easter's Bitten By the Bug blog contest has started with a lucky winner getting a prize from SNF! Check it out here.

The Christmas bug is buzzing

2009-11-18T21:45:00.008-07:00

This week I got to play with the new holiday Card Word Art sets from ScrapNfonts and boy were they fun! They come with simple holiday words, phrases and some designs inspired by DoodleBats, Brushes and existing fonts in really nice color palettes. I just printed out everything from each set and started mixing it up. There are so many options.

The colors are just right so that they blend well with paper I already had. For the Holiday Spirit Card Word Art, I matched it up with my Cosmo Cricket Early Bird paper and some red card stock I had on hand. The circles in the set are exactly 1.5" so if you have a circle paper punch at that size, cutting these are a cinch. Almost everything else is straight edged so it's really easy to mass produce with a scissors or paper cutter if you're making all your Holiday cards this year.

There's something about circles and pop dots that just go together in my mind. It's like peanut butter and jelly. They just are better together.

The second set I played with was Fa la la Card Word Art. Ok, so I just want to say that to me the holidays = Christmas music. This set totally gets that. Most of the word art in this set is inspired by Christmas music and I LOVE that.

Me and those circles with pop dots should make a club. Does anything do better to flatter a circle? I don't think so. Pop dots, you're my hero.

I was going to add this little guy below to my Fa la la la la card, but I ended up really liking the look of the striped paper, so I left him off. The paper from these cards is from Basic Grey's Lemonade, except when I used the strips provided in the word art kit and the one light blue strip is from random blue cardstock scraps I had laying around.
Can you believe it's already time to make Christmas cards? I'm so excited!

SNF on BBTB

2009-11-17T21:32:00.002-07:00

The lovely Regina Easter, whose delicious projects you might recognize from our design team, hosts her own blog, Bitten By the Bug, with challenges for cricut fans. The projects on that blog are stunning! Well, recently she had her design team incorporate DB Mulberry Lane into one of the challenges. They were fantastic! Check them out here.

ScrapNfonts has also offered to host her next contest, to be announced later this week. Stay tuned to find out more!

November Challenge

2009-11-10T21:16:00.004-07:00

We're trying something a little different with this monthly challenge. I am a big paper lover, and I think there are a lot of paper lovers out there. Am I right? Sometimes the paper is so pure and lovely that I dare not cut it, but cut away! The prize of this challenge is more paper!

So here's the challenge: Create a card or a layout featuring a single word sentiment. You can have other words on the project, but one word should be the primary point of focus. Please use a scrapNfonts product in the layout and submit photos of your project to the SNF idea gallery by Monday, November 23rd. (P.S. If you don't have any SNF product, shame on you, we always have free stuff to choose from, so get at it.) The winner of this challenge will get this paper crafting kit:

image from cosmocricket.com

Here are some ideas to get you started.

Button, button, who wants a button?

2009-11-10T20:15:00.008-07:00

The sincerest compliment to all of us at ScrapNfonts.com is the kind referrals that our loyal customers pass on to their friends. Please, share your love of our fonts by posting a button on your blog!

This button links to scrapNfonts.com. Copy and paste this code to your HTML/Java Script:

<a href="http://www.scrapnfonts.com/"><img src="http://www.scrapnfonts.com/images/snfbutton.png" /></a>

This button links right here to scrapNgal.com. Copy and paste this code to your HTML/Java Script:

<a href="http://www.scrapngal.com/"><img src="http://www.scrapnfonts.com/images/sngbutton.png" /></a>

That magic photo

2009-11-09T21:13:00.003-07:00

Disclaimer: I am not a professional photographer... but sometimes I like to fake it.

I take a lot of photos. Most of my photos are "meh" and I think, gosh, I can do better than that. Every once in awhile I get a magic photo. Sometimes I don't even know I've taken it until I'm reviewing my photos on my computer. It was REALLY exciting to get a magic photo before the digital era, when you had no idea what your photos looked like until they were developed and processed... I'm so glad for digital.

Magic photos are photos I've taken that take my breath away. It's almost unbelievable that I took that photo! They come every once in awhile, I've had maybe 10 magic photos in my life. I took a magic photo last week and I can't stop staring at it. So I thought I'd add to it with a little scrapNfont magic.

Using SNF Jasper Hand and LD Woodland in white font color, I typed over my photo. I added a slight drop shadow then I made the typed layer transparent to 40% to keep most of the focus on the photo.

Here is Britta faking that she is a professional photographer with her magic photo (notice the watermark):

Gosh I love that photo.

Frightening Food

2009-10-27T21:35:00.006-06:00

Do you ever have times when your mind thinks of randomly absurd things and you do a double-take on your thoughts?

"Where in the world did that thought come from?"

Guess what? During the Halloween season you can let those thoughts fly and no one bats an eye. Like eating witch's fingers? On Halloween people say "oh cool!" Any other day, people say "huh?"
I made these fun "petrified mice" for a Halloween party last weekend. They were a hit.

One of the best parts about it was the name tags. They were so easy to make with DB Halloween Little Notes for the frames, SNF Dracula's Typewriter for the spooky name and LD Gregarious for the actual food name (in case anyone was worried they were really eating petrified mice. I know, they're so realistic).

I had labels for all my food. It was a blast!

Let's get a closer look at those absurd witch's fingers, shall we?

Have you seen these before? They're just shortbread cookies with almonds and red decorating gel. They are sooooo creepy, but SO cool for Halloween. You don't have to make creepy looking cookies to get the same "cool" response from your family or guests. Think of spooky and absurd names for all your food! I promise, it's one of the rare times that your random thoughts will get rewarded. Here are some I thought up:

Dragon skin or Dragon scales (for chips)

Bat Wings (BBQ chicken wings)

Zombie slime (Avocado dip)

Bird Brains (popcorn)

Werewolf droppings (whoppers)

It's fun! Give it a try!

October Challenge Winner

2009-10-27T21:08:00.000-06:00

Congratulations to Hannah of Germany! She was the winner of this month's layout challenge. Here is her layout:

October Challenge

2009-10-13T22:47:00.004-06:00

We have another template challenge for you this month!

You can either download this template as a photoshop file or a png file and work with the layers in a graphics program you're familiar with, OR you can use the image of the template as a sketch to base a paper project off of. All scrapbook pages or cards based off this template are welcome! You must ALSO use at least one product from ScrapNfonts in your layout. If you don't have any ScrapNfonts products, you are welcome to check out their free fonts.
Click here to download the Photoshop file template
Click here to download the PNG file template
Upload your finished project to the ScrapNfonts idea gallery by October 26th. The winner will receive a coupon code for free product at ScrapNfonts. Here is a layout I made with this template, to get you started.

Calendar Girl

2009-10-12T20:36:00.001-06:00

Are you all singing "I love, I love, I love my calendar girl..." in your head now? I am.

Ever since the Calendar Super Bundle with the 2010 Calendar brush set was released I've been on a calendar kick!

"Anonymous" commented in my last calendar post asking for some direction on making calendars. Well, I am happy to share! Follow along to find out how I made the above adorable calendar. There are three parts to this: The making of the booklet, Creating the calendar and Putting it all together.

The Making of the Booklet

Ok, so this is a fun way to put together a little booklet. I started with double-sided 12" x 12" scrapbook paper. For my calendar I needed 7 pieces of 6" x 10.5" paper. So all I needed was three and a half scrapbook papers cut like I pictured below.

Since it's double sided, it's like I had seven different papers.

But it's even better than that! Since we're making a booklet, I made sure to flip matching pieces of paper to face each other. I especially wanted February to have the red polka dotted paper.

Next I needed to fold each paper in half. I wanted to be precise about it, so I measured exactly 5.25" and penciled in a light line with the help of a ruler.

Then I lined the ruler up exactly along the line I drew, held the ruler down firmly with one hand and gently pressed the paper up against the ruler with the other. I folded it exactly along the edge of the ruler so I would have a crisp fold. Once the fold was dented, I removed the ruler and firmly pressed the crease.

I did that with all seven of my papers, then I arranged them in the order I wanted them for my calendar.

Let's see... cover, January, February...

Perfect. There are my cute little polka dots for February.

If you happen to have an industrial strength stapler, binding these pages together would be quick and easy. Since I do not have an industrial strength stapler (and I rather think I wouldn't use it if I had one because I think the alternative is much cuter and more personable), I'm going to sew the papers together!

To start, I will draw five little dots, one inch apart, right along the middle crease of the middle paper. After I draw the dots, I'll use a needle and gently push it through all seven papers on the dots to make holes. Watch out for fingers!

Carefully holding all the papers together, I then take a needle and thread it through one way, then back over itself the other way. With five holes I know I'm going to end up with the two thread ends in the same place.

And so I will tie a knot. ("Right over left and left over right makes a knot sturdy and tight" ...no matter how many times I tie a knot, that always goes through my head.)

Isn't this so fun! It's at this point where I get giddy and excited for the possibilities. I play with my little booklet and dream of it's future and think, "When you grow up, you could be a scrapbook or a storybook or an extended greeting card...." Oh right. I'm making a calendar. February, you still there?

Check.

Creating the Calendar

I used Photoshop to make my calendar. If you don't have Photoshop, follow along and you might be able to figure out how to do something similar in a program you have. OR you could just print out the pre-made calendar pngs in the 2010 Calendar Brush set and skip this whole section.

Here we go. First I opened a new file and sized it to size to 5.5" x 4.75" which is the size I want my calendars to be. Then I copied and pasted the blank month calendar template png in the 2010 Calendar brush set and scaled it to fit in my file. Hint: hold the shift key down while scaling the image to keep the proportions consistent.

Second, I typed a 1 and made several copies of it so each number was on a new layer. Then I changed the numbers to be in chronological order. To align and evenly space out the numbers, I put the far right and far left numbers approximately where I wanted them, selected all the numbers, hit the "align bottom edges" button, then hit the "distribute horizontal centers" button. (If these buttons are not visible, go to Layer > Align > and you will see these options.)

I did that with numbers 3-9 below. Then, after they were evenly distributed, I selected the whole row and while holding the Alt key down, I dragged the whole row down to the next calendar week. Holding the Alt key makes copies. I repeated this until all the rows were filled.

Then I went back and fixed the numbers so they would be right for January.

I used LD Little Fishie for my font, but this is totally cute with any of the fonts in the Date It Calendar Super Bundle. I know. I tried them all. It's so hard to decide on a font when you love them ALL. Next I added the month and year.

Whoops! Let's get the year right, shall we? And while I'm at it, I'll add a little color and some holidays and all those birthdays I don't want to forget.

After I save this (as a psd file and a jpg, just to be safe), it's easy to do the rest of the months just by shifting the columns of numbers. There are always seven days in a week, so the columns of numbers never change, just their order in the rows. To print, I opened two months of jpgs in a new document so I could print two on one page. You know, save paper, I'm all economical like that.

Putting it all together

Yay! So exciting! Here is what I have now:

It's time to cut out the calendars and glue them in place.

Oooo. Some of these papers are so pretty, I could almost leave the calendar just like this.

Almost. But gosh darn it, I just love those little DoodleBats, don't you? I put them on all birthdays and holidays and I still don't have enough. I think my calendar needs more. And bigger.

Awesome. Now my calendar is perfect.

Thanks for getting all the way to the end. I hope this helps you get started with you own calendars! (I'm talking to you, Anonymous!)

Calendar Inspiration

2009-10-06T20:38:00.007-06:00

Calendar ideas using the Date It Calendar Super Bundle and the new 2010 Calendar Brushes.

This calendar uses DB Chill Out to make the main top image, the 2010 Calendar brushes for the blank month template and the little months in the bottom right corner (Dec 2009 and Feb 2010), DoodleBats for Holidays and a birthday, and LD Demure for the name of the month and the numbers on the dates.
This calendar uses DB Calendar Doodles for the Pumpkin (colored in separately) and the Calendar Brushes for the month of October.

This calendar uses DB Circles - Be Mine for the circle stamp and the calendar brushes for the February month.

Silly Face

2009-09-29T21:02:00.002-06:00

This uses the new Wild Things bundle (including LD Kracken - "Silly Face" and "winner", LD Wild Child - "Contest" and DB Mutant Trait Doodles - monster after title, labels under photos), DB Forest Friends - journaling arrow, DB Dainty Swirl and LD Soccer Mom. Whew! That's a mouthful.

Other credits: paper is In Living Color from all things visual, ribbon is from Shabby Princess Happy Go Lucky.

A scrappy quilt

2009-09-22T15:54:00.007-06:00

Check out this fabulous baby quilt I received as a gift from my sister-in-law.

Is that not one of the cutest blankets you've ever seen? The fabrics are adorable and the quilt is a work of art.

I've noticed there are a lot of similarities in trends for quilt fabric and craft paper. It inspired me to try to blur the lines a little with a layout inspired by this quilt. It was really fun and I used the fonts from the new Jillustration Sweet Nothings bundle.

The title font, LDJ Mac n Cheese, is really neat! Have you ever seen an outline script font like that? Jill, the artist behind Jillustration, really takes the cake with that font. The lowercase letters are the connecting ones, the capital letters are capped on the left side so they can start the word, and you need to type the right bracket ] to cap off the end of the word. So to type the title, I had to type: No], Thanks]. But seriously, it's such a cool result!

Other credits: "I prefer my fingers" in LDJ Jillberish, journaling around the outside in Scrap Casual, Papers from Lettering Delights Denim and Blue Jeans Paper Pack.

Where do you find inspiration for your scrapbook pages and cards?

Christmas in September Winner

2009-09-21T22:45:00.003-06:00

Congratulations to Amber from Maryland for this submission to the September challenge!

Christmas in September

2009-09-09T20:24:00.004-06:00

Ah, September... the lovely crisp air in the mornings, the ring of the school bell sounds down the street and autumn is fast on it's way. It's the last full month before the beginning of what I call the holiday time warp. You see, once September is over then October is suffused with Halloween, November is building up to Thanksgiving, and BAM, it's already time for holiday decorating, company and neighborhood parties, gift buying, cookie baking and what can be the most time consuming: sending out the holiday greetings.

Which brings me to this month's challenge: Christmas in September (or Hannukah or Kwanzaa or even New Year's). Here's to being ahead of the holiday time warp. Bring on the holiday spirit in cards, scrapbook layouts or other craft projects that use scrapNfonts products. This is a challenge to those of us procrastinators out there.... Post your project in the scrapNfonts idea gallery by September 20th for a chance to win a coupon code for free scrapNfonts product.

Luckily, we have some inspiration from the lovely and inspiring Regina Easter, who is on top of things with this delightful Christmas Card.

For this card Regina used the new SNF Marmalade to write the "Happy Holidays" in the background and Y from DB Retro Noel for the main image.

Fortunately, disorganization can come in handy for this challenge, too. Do you have any old Christmas photos you want to add to your scrapbooking history? Now's your chance. Have at it!

Happy scrapping.

Picture perfect spoon bridge

2009-08-28T10:21:00.004-06:00

I'm really starting to like working with frame brushes. The new Film Frame Brush Set at ScrapNfonts is no exception.

Other credits for this layout: LD Remintong Portable, TXT Long Hand and Post Stamp Brushes from ScrapNfonts, flowers and journal strips from Shabby Princess's Harvest Spice, Paper from Wanderlust from Lettering Delights.

p.s. The Post Stamp Brushes are still in the lead, especially when a holiday is involved.

August Challenge winner

2009-08-24T20:41:00.004-06:00

We had a good turnout for this month's challenge. Thank you to all who participated. It was fun to see the layouts in the gallery! Here is our winner:

Congratulations to Susan for winning the August Challenge! She has won a $10 coupon code to ScrapNfonts.com.

Thumbelina

2009-08-19T11:40:00.003-06:00

I am in love with this card by Allison.

Template anyone?

2009-08-12T19:52:00.014-06:00

This month's challenge is a little different, perhaps easier, perhaps harder. Have you worked much with scrapbook page templates? If not, here is your chance to try one out. Today's challenge is to make a project using this template.

There are several options with this challenge. You can either download this template as a photoshop file or a png file and work with the layers in a graphics program you're familiar with, OR you can use the image of the template as a sketch to base a paper project off of. All scrapbook pages or cards based off this template are welcome! You must ALSO use at least one product from ScrapNfonts in your layout. If you don't have any ScrapNfonts products, you are welcome to check out their free fonts, which have recently been switched out.

Click here to download the Photoshop file template

Click here to download the PNG file template

Upload your finished project to the ScrapNfonts idea gallery by August 22nd. The winner will receive a coupon code for free product at ScrapNfonts. Here is a layout I made with this template, to get you started.

The fonts are SNF Jester Fool for the title, SNF Sophia for the handwritten font, and DB Garden Shower to make the cute flowers in the upper right corner. Other credits: Paper from Shabby Princess Spontaneous Delight.

Happy Crafting!

Oh, baby

2009-08-12T08:50:00.002-06:00

Finally I got the images to upload! Here is the layout I promised a week ago using the swirly frames.

Other credits: LD Cursive, LD New Arrival, DB Dainty Swirl

Using frame brushes on photos

2009-08-05T22:06:00.004-06:00

The new frame brushes over at ScrapNfonts this week have some fun potential! If you've never used brushes before, don't be scared! Each set comes with a brush file for Photoshop and Photoshop Element users, but it also comes with .png images that can be used in virtually any photo editing program (including free programs, like Picasa and Photoscape) and other design programs.

Here's a quick walk-through on using the new frame brushes on photos.

First, let's start with a photo. Which one should I pick... Ah, here's one with the most beautiful baby girl ever (according to a biased new mom, which I whole-heartedly admit I am). This picture is just begging me for a frame.

Next comes the brushes. If you're working in Photoshop, all you need to do is double click on the .abr file, and the brushes will automatically be added to your current list of brushes.

Photoshop tip: If you want access to the brushes through your Photoshop
Library, you can also go to "My Computer", then go to C:\Program
Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop [your version]\Presets\Brushes and drop the .abr
file there.

If you're working in a different photo editing or design software, open your photo and the .png you want to use in the program.

Now is the fun, artsy part. Every photo program is a bit different, so take time to play with your program to familiarize yourself with it. If you have Photoshop, select the brush tool, then pick your frame brush, pick the color, scale the brush to the size you want in the Brushes window, hover it over your photo where you want it, then stamp. With other programs, you might have to open a collage option, or copy and paste the .png into the photo.

Here is the photo as if I just layed the .png on top of it.

If your program allows layers, I recommend putting the frame on a different layer than the photo. You can play with frame options better that way. With the frame selected you can adjust the hue (the color) the saturation (the brightness/dullness of the color) or the lightness, OR do a color fill if your program allows.

For this next picture, I set the lightness as high as it would go so the frame is white.

I want a softer look, so I'm going to adjust the opacity on the frame layer to 65%, and this is what I end up with.

Once you have the basics down, you can really set a mood with the right frames and effects. This picture is ready for my blog or facebook, or a scrapbook layout. Hmm... I think a scrapbook layout. I'll keep you updated.

Drumroll please...

2009-08-03T20:30:00.002-06:00

With the help of Random.org, we have a winner in our Lettering Delights giveaway! Number 72:

Congratulations Sara Susy Bob, you get to satisfy your digital love! Could you leave a comment with a way for me to get a hold of you, like an email address? I have temporarily set up comment moderation, so no one else will see it. Congratulations, again!

Lettering Delights Giveaway!

2009-07-30T14:19:00.003-06:00

The people over at Lettering Delights have been putting in a lot of long hours. They have totally revamped their website with all sorts of new features and products. I think one of my favorite new things is that the site remembers everything I've ever purchased from my account, and I can access it anytime, and save individual images from the "Try Me Now tool." No more downloading! And it will be WAY easier to search on their site than through my messy folders full of other folders of scrapbooking paraphernalia.

One of their divine new collections is the Oriental Garden Collection. I made this from it:

I love those papers, they're totally sazzy zen - if that's possible.

Well, on behalf of Lettering Delights, I am offering $20 worth of product for free to one lucky person! All you have to do is leave a comment on this blog and tell me your favorite scrapbooking/crafting tool or supply. (Mine would have to be papers or fonts. I'm totally a sucker for cool digital or printed papers.) Leave your comment by Sunday, August 2nd at 10:00 pm Mountain time, and a winner will be randomly selected and posted on Monday. Happy commenting!

Usurped

2009-07-29T21:14:00.002-06:00

In most of my scrapbook layouts, I think it crucial to mark the date. I'm all about the historical documentation. Maybe it makes me feel more important, I don't know. For about a year now, my favorite way to mark the date was with the Post Stamps. Love them! They easily were winning the race in the dating game.

My personal favorite was the middle "Good times" stamp with LD Post. It's irresistible!

But now there's another competitor in the field...

It may take a few more layouts, but I think DB Captured Calendar is trying to usurp the title of Favorite Date Marker. It's pretty close...

Goodness, there's so much design potential there, it makes me giddy!

What do you think?

Photo Tip: Add drama with off-center focus

2009-07-24T11:30:00.002-06:00

I love taking pictures that tell a story. So often, it feels automatic to put the subject of a photo in the center of the frame. I've learned that you can add drama and make photos a lot more artistically interesting by putting the subject of your photo off center.

Imagine your frame is cut into thirds vertically, like a tic-tac-toe board. Take the photo so the subject of your photo is in the middle of one of those lines that are cutting the frame into thirds.

If you use automatic focus, put your subject in the center of the frame of the camera, then hold the button down part-way, until it focuses. Then, while maintaining the part-way push of the button, shift the camera so the subject is off-center, then click the button all the way to take the picture.

It makes for a more interesting and more dramatic photo! Try it! You'll look like a pro.

Here is a layout I made using the off-center photo centering technique.

I used Scrap Casual (LOVE this font, it's a current freebie on SNF), LD Carefree Black and DB Weather Doodles

Other Credits: Far Out Posie Paper Pack from Letteringdelights.com.

The power of suggestion

2009-07-16T07:55:00.002-06:00

So during the week of the Parade of Products, I posted a blog about how American it is to celebrate food. Well, the next day I saw this pie baking competition for my city's Independence Day celebrations and thinking about how American I would be (and how fun it would be), I decided to try it! I toiled and cooked, and made pie crust from scratch (gasp!) but it was all for naught! I missed the deadline! I was so pleased with how my pies turned out, I decided to scrap about it.

The journaling says this:

When I found out our city hosted an apple pie contest for the 4th of July, I was super excited. I ran to the library and got an apple pie cookbook, then to the store to get all the ingredients. I found out about the contest just a day before the deadline, but I thought I had plenty of time. I started working on the two yummy Cherry Apple pies for my submission the day of the contest. When I was half way through, I realized I had badly misjudged how long it took to make a pie. Holy cow, it took me three and a half hours! So, I missed the contest deadline. On the up side, I had two delicious pies all to myself!

For the title, I used LD Grandpa and LD Petticoat Black. The journaling is LD Grandpa again.

Other credits: Cherrylicious collection, JDT Heartland Pride and JD Flag Post from LetteringDelights.com, background paper is In Living color from allthingsvisual.biz

- Britta

Congratulations, Cynthia!

2009-07-16T05:40:00.002-06:00

The winner of our DB Geo Deco - Solid Layout challenge is Cynthia from Kentucky. Congratulations! She won a $10 gift certificate to ScrapNfonts. To see her layout in the gallery click on the image below.

Thank you to all who participated!

First ScrapNgal Challenge

2009-07-08T21:53:00.005-06:00

I know there are oodles and oodles of creativity out there just itching to get out. Let those creative juices run free! In honor of our first ever layout challenge, ScrapNfonts is offering you DB Geo Deco - Solid for free, but we want to see what you can make from it. Any and all projects using this DoodleBat are welcome! Please post them to the ScrapNfonts idea gallery by Monday, July 13th for a chance to win a gift certificate to ScrapNfonts.

I thought I'd take a stab at this challenge myself and this is what I came up with.

I started with the background paper. I used Geo Deco "s" and "y" to make the repeating damask background. Then I used "r" for the little circle frame. I had a lot of fun with it!

Other credits: DB Dainty Swirl, TXT Delicate Script, Lettering Delights JDT Tags clipart.

Reasons to celebrate

2009-07-03T00:00:00.000-06:00

The Fourth of July is classified as a time to celebrate with bells and whistles, lights and explosions, fanfare of all kinds, and it sure is fun! There's always something to look forward to on a holiday like this.

When the holiday is over and I go back to the daily grind, I tend to get into ruts and only look forward to the next "big celebration" as a time for fun. Lately I've been re-evaluating and realizing how many little things every day I have to celebrate: when I try a new recipe and it turns out better than expected, waking up in the morning and realizing I can lay in bed for another half hour, seeing the sweet moments between my husband and daughter, my health, my freedom... The list could go on and on.

The layouts featured today celebrate those little moments. The first is by Jaleese, using SNF Jasper Hand, in the Parade of Products today.

The next layout is by Rani and it uses LDJ Go All Out and DB Brush Bursts, also both in the Parade today.

Thanks for visiting! Have a fabulous Fourth of July holiday weekend!

Family and Frills

2009-07-02T00:00:00.001-06:00

Today's featured layout is by Nicole LeBlanc. She used the following scrapNfonts products: Scrap Rhapsody, LDJ Fanciful, DB Fleuries, DB Painted Paisley and TXT Sloppy Script. All these products are on sale today during the Parade of Products.

Patriotic Freebie

2009-07-01T12:52:00.002-06:00

Get these adorable candybar wrappers free for the 4th of July! To download the pdf, just click here, but hurry, this offer expires July 5th.

A big slice of American

2009-07-01T00:00:00.002-06:00

What's a fourth of July without a good barbecue, or some cold popsicles? Boy, am I glad that so many holidays are defined by the food we eat. I look forward to certain holidays just for the food! They say that some people eat to live and some live to eat. Well, I'm definitely one of the "live to eat" kind, and perhaps that's a quality that many consider patriotic. As American as apple pie? Yes, please!

Keela Fox is the design team member featured today with this great layout about one of my favorite topics: food! Not just any kind of food, but ice cream!

The ScrapNfonts products she used are on sale today during the Parade of Products (all food related, I might add). They are: LD Kiss the Cook, TXT Soda Shoppe, DB Picnic Party and DB Food Fun.

Other credits: By Miss Mint at Peppermint Creative--Sk8r Boy Papers/Elements, Curled Frames, Wild Weekend Coordinated Kit and Rainbow Joy Elements

How do you play?

2009-06-30T00:00:00.002-06:00

It's obvious what Regina Easter does when she has time to play! She whips out her paper, her cutting machines, her sewing machine, and her miles of creativity. I love seeing what new projects she comes up with. Using DB Kapow for the title and LD Little Piggy for text, both on sale Tuesday during ScrapNfonts Parade of Products, she came up with this clever card.

I LOVE the details she puts into her projects. She also used DB Bugs for the mosquito. Check out those little jewel eyes and the raised body.

And the stitching, button, and hemp bow? So cute!

A card like this would sure make my day if I was feeling a little under the weather! Thanks for sharing your talent, Regina.

My favorite photo

2009-06-28T20:43:00.004-06:00

Do you have certain photos that you just love and can use them over and over again? I took a photo 4 years ago just after my niece climbed on top of my husband in a hammock at my family's cabin. It was at our family's 4th of July BBQ, and just looking at it I can imagine the smell of the grill, the warmth of the air, and the sound of the lake water lapping at the shore. It was such a sweet moment. I think I've used this photo in at least four different projects around my house.

To me, this picture is the epitome of summertime, family, picnics and the 4th of July. I love it and couldn't resist using it in this layout.

The scrapNfonts product used in this layout are in the Parade of Products and on sale today. The products I used are: Post Stamp Brushes, Post Master Brushes, TXT Delicate Script, and the Summertime Word art (free through Tuesday).

Other credits: Retro Pop background papers from Letteringdelights, Favreau tattered photo overlays from Catscrap.

Thanks for looking!

--Britta

DoodleBat Lovin'

2009-06-09T21:59:00.004-06:00

It's amazing to me how many fabulous things can be done with DoodleBats! The fact that they can be scaled to any size because they are a font makes them tremendously versatile. I've been super impressed with some of these submissions to the ScrapNfonts idea gallery, I just wanted to share:

This bear card is by Virginia from KS. Another bonus to DoodleBats being fonts is that they work in several scrapbooking cutting machines, which is what it looks like was used for this bear from DB Animal Occasion. Find out how to do this here.

DoodleBats can also be an oh so subtle background, like in this LO by Britta using DB Dainty Swirl.

I think this card is adorable by Teri Berrios using DB Dress Up for the shape of the dress.

Here's another LO using a DoodleBat as the main image frame by Keela Fox. (DB Woodsy Journal)

Regina Easter is a fabulous crafter, and here she uses a DB as a tag, adding her own color and darling details. (DB Christmas Fun Doodles)

Find more inspiration for using DoodleBats in the ScrapNfonts idea gallery, and shop for DoodleBats here.

Congratulations, Amy!

2009-06-09T16:02:00.003-06:00

Amy from Georgia is the winner of ScrapNfonts Picture Perfect Layout contest! She won a $15 gift certificate for ScrapNfonts products. Congratulations, Amy! This is her adorable layout, "Joyful Heart" with adorable photos.

We're back!

2009-06-09T16:00:00.001-06:00

After being on hiatus for awhile, scrapNgal blog is back and ready for business. I'm Britta and I'll be hosting the blog for awhile as we shake things up a bit. Stay tuned, we have a lot of changes and lots of fun things planned.

Christmas Cheer Card Challenge & Contest

2008-11-03T18:47:00.001-07:00

Regina Easter, a wonderfully talented artist and member of the scrapNfonts Design Team, hosts a separate blog called "Bitten by the Bug" where she and her Bitten by the Bug design team step up to creative challenges to give you all kinds of inspiration. The latest? A Christmas Cheer Card challenge & contest, proudly sponsored by scrapNfonts. Enter the contest by November 30.

Visit regina-bittenbythebug.blogspot.com to see more fabulous projects using scrapNfonts products and get details about the contest.

June Free Quotes Page

2008-06-17T12:21:00.002-06:00

Don't miss our June free quotes page, available to download now.

Celebrate! Free sentiment page download

2008-05-26T08:13:00.009-06:00

Happy Memorial Day!

Celebrate the beauty in life with this free sentiment page. Download in your choice of:

PDF, ready to print (553 KB)

PNG (in a .zip file), great for digital scrapbooking (559 KB)

Sign up for the ScrapNfonts newsletter for more free downloads.

Ready for Easter?

2008-03-19T07:45:00.003-06:00

The annual Easter Egg Hunt at my in-laws' is a BIG deal. Not just for the kiddies, but for the adults too! Yep, we enjoy two separate hunts with cash prizes for the winners.

Two years ago I victoriously found the coveted "golden egg," valued at $25 compared to the change you might collect from the rest of the eggs hidden among the brush. Unfortunately, I lost my champion title last year, so I'm pumped to redeem myself this year.

I'm not the only one who loves to hunt. We've been "training" 14-month-old Alexa how to pull in her share of booty from the kids' hunt. She's been practicing. LOVES the "egg game." Runs to collect eggs and practically hyperventilates from excitement as she races to fill her basket!

So you can understand why I love Design Team member Keela Fox's "Hunting Easter Eggs" layout. Good times.

DB Journaling Boxes (oval, journaling lines)

DB Pet Fun (chick)

LDJ Jumpin' Jill Flash (title)

LDJ Lefthand Jam

Digital paper: Watercolor Papers and Flower, Spring-a-Lings by Jacque Larsen at The-LilyPad.com

Free Valentine sentiment page

2008-02-13T08:49:00.011-07:00

Get your free sentiment page, just in time for last-minute valentines! Then show off your stuff and post your projects in the SNF Idea Gallery. Download in your choice of:

PDF, ready to print (514 KB)

PNG (in a .zip file), great for digital scrapbooking (525 KB)

Fancy Nancy

2008-01-31T03:04:00.000-07:00

Want a good read? Check out “Fancy Nancy,” a children’s book about a girl who really lives it up, from wearing lace-trimmed socks with her soccer uniform to decking out her room to reflect her passion for all things posh. Besides a story that’ll warm your heart, you may even pick up some style tips along the way.

Decorate your life with style and try our calendar Doodlebats (each one a collection of 36 doodles, one for every letter and number on your keyboard). Yes, I realize it’s almost February — but marking Valentine’s Day on my calendar with whimsical pink hearts helps me forget about the great white cold outside. (Want to use my February calendar? Download it--without my birthday notes--here.)

And even if you’re a Simple Sarah, when you doll up your calendar (at least the special occasions), you’ll see how a Doodlebat can make the anticipation for upcoming holidays that much sweeter!

xoxo

Products used:

LDJ Shortbread Hand (month and weekdays)

CK Ladder, with 1 pt character spacing (birthdays)

DB Calendar Doodles (hearts, cupcakes, flag)

Feelin' hot-hot-hot

2007-06-17T16:04:00.000-06:00

It's 60 degrees in some places. Ninety in others. Dry in spots, humid in others. I know a lot of you are experiencing what I am - major heat! Thank heavens for air conditioning. Sometimes that's the only way to battle scorching weather. And isn't funny that how hot that heat really feels depends on where you are? Ninety-five at the beach on the sand sure doesn't feel as bad as ninety-five in the city or ninety-five while mowing the lawn! :)

Some lucky ducks have the perfect summertime solution... lounging by the pool. It is perfect. Taking in the sun and fun, and when you get too hot, just take a dip in the pool.

Cathy Pascual, a ScrapNfonts design team member, created this colorful summer layout about just that. Lounging by the pool. I love how she washed out that black and white photo as the background in the bottom half of the layout. And that title font! So cute.

She used:

CK Chloe (journaling)
LDJ Cool Cat (Title)
DB Hawaiian Glyphs (waves in title)

Check out the design team gallery for more information on the digital elements Cathy used for this very creative layout.

You can tell it's Summer when..

2007-06-12T09:37:00.000-06:00

people stop updating their blogs! :)

There is so much going on. Vacations. Swimming. Relaxing. SCRAPPING?

I know there are less posts on the scrappy message boards I frequent and less uploads into galleries right now. I know a few people who are scrapping though and it sure is a great time for a crop.

One of the ScrapNfonts designers - Andrea Gomoll - has shared this terrific layout celebrating summer road trips. Here's what's SUPER cool about this layout. See those cute bursts on the background paper? Well, she actually used a font to create that background.

Here are links to the fonts she used just in case you like 'em as much as I do. :)

DB Brush Bursts
LDJ Forever Friends
LDJ Clarissa Boxed

So... what are you doing this summer?

Seemed like just yesterday

2007-05-31T21:28:00.000-06:00

that school was starting. The busses have stopped running already for some school systems! Hard to believe it's almost summer.

In my constant (but futile) quest to keep my scrapbooks up-to-date, I'm now thinking about how to scrap those school memories and photos from the past school year. School photos, class photos have always been a bit challenging to me. Coming up with fun ways to scrap those little wallet photos or their similar enlargements is a mind boggler sometimes.

ScrapNfonts.com has some great school-related fonts and Doodlebats.

Tiffany from the ScrapNfonts design team used LDJ Crayon to create this really colorful border of crayons! How cute is that?!? Click on the image to see how she incorporated those challenging (but cute) school pics. Great layout!

Some other great school fonts:
LD Elementary - looks like that basic handwriting text we all learned in 3rd grade (or was it 2nd grade?)
CK Child's Play - a little kid's handwriting
LDJ Flashcards - well, a font on flashcards!
TXT Schoodle Doodle 1 - classic school icons - notebook paper, locker, apple, calculator, etc.

Don't they come in threes?

2007-05-22T10:45:00.000-06:00

Not triplets, necessarily, but I've heard things often happen in threes. Have you heard that? Anyway, I've recently had three friends give birth. I need to make cards for them, cards that they'll most likely keep forever, knowing their sentimental nature.

Once again, Regina from the ScrapNfonts design team has come up with some FANTASTIC baby cards. For this "It's a Girl" card, she used two Doodlebat fonts - DB Baby Girl font for the stroller and DB Boxy Baby for the words. (The glitter adds that extra little touch I love!)

She also created a Boy card and a cute card with little baby booties on it! As a matter of fact, I guess that makes THREE cards, too. :)

Take a look at the design team gallery for more font creativity!

How could I forget?

2007-04-24T08:28:00.000-06:00

I realized - to my horror - that I forgot my mom's birthday. MY MOM! Of all people. Not my siblings or my neices or nephews. My wonderful mother. I realized right then and there that I have got to get it together. I've got to find a way to not forget birthdays, anniversaries, thank you's, milestones worthy of a cute postal-mail acknowledgement.

I have 2 hurdles to jump to reach that thoughtful goal of mine.
1. I have to make a good, comprehensive list and I have to be reminded a week ahead of time.
2. I need a quick way to put together something cute but personalized just in case that other problem of mine - procrastination - rears its ugly head.

Addressing problem #1
I'm using two free online services now and setting one to remind me 2 weeks ahead of time so I can get started on my greeting/card, and another to remind me 5 days ahead of time to put the thing in the mail! The services are Google Calendar and Birthday-Reminders.com.

Addressing problem #2
This one is tougher because I don't want everyone's greeting card to look the same. So, the SNF Design Team helped me out. Look at these awesome creations!

Card by Regina Easter:
Here she used ScrapNfonts Doodlebat Flower Power

No more belated greetings for me. Do you have other solutions? Share them in your comments!

(Oh, and my mom did get a cute card in the mail... and flowers.... and chocolates... and I called her voicemail and sang her a song. I had to make up for my tardiness!)

We're getting started!

2007-04-16T14:29:00.000-06:00

If you've stumbled upon my blog, you'll probably notice that I am just getting things up and running. Don't let that keep you from bookmarking this spot though. I promise, not too far down the road from now, you'll be finding bucket loads of inspiration and tips and fun stuff that will keep you coming back.

So, stay tuned. ScrapNgal is here to stay, here to inspire!