My Favorite Alphabet

Welcome to October!  Since it's the first day of the month, new magazine issues have just come out.  I'm pleased to share that I have two layouts published this month--one in Scrap n' Art, and the other in ScrapStreet.  Both layouts celebrate fall.

In my last post I shared a card with an autumnal blue/brown color scheme.  Today I have a layout to share with a similar color scheme.

Supplies: cardstock by Bazzill; border stickers by Doodlebug Design; journaling spot, title spot, and photo corner stickers by Bella Blvd; acorn, heart, & alphabet stickers by Simple Stories; label stickers by October Afternoon; round die cuts by Graphic 45; faux brads by Craftworks; ink by Tsukineko; pen by Zig; buttons upcycled from old clothing.  Color inspiration by The Color Room palette #125.

The journaling on this layout reads: "Halloween can be sad if peanut allergies prevent you from eating your candy.  Luckily we found two peanut-free Halloween parties this year."  The photo on the left side of the layout is from a candy-free party at the library, and the photo on the right shows my son's peanut-free loot from an old time Halloween party put on by the Ramsey County Historical Society.  I tried to recreate a party atmosphere on my page, with a "confetti and streamers" type of look.

In particular, I want to draw your attention to the dotted die cut circles on the page.  These are from what is, in my opinion, the coolest alphabet sheet ever!  It's the "Domestic Goddess" alphabet by Graphic 45.  

This is an older alphabet set.  You saw me use it last year, to add my husband's and my initials ("S & D") to this anniversary card (blogged here).  Since that time, I've been left with letters that don't really spell anything, but that doesn't matter.  Each alphabet circle can be flipped over to use as an embellishment.  See the dark brown circles with the lighter brown dots in the closeup below?  Those are the reverse sides of random letters.

What I love most about this alphabet set is that every single part of it is useful.  The letters can be used for titles--as I showed with the the anniversary card.  Any leftover letters can be used as embellishments--as I showed with the Halloween layout.  And once you've punched all the die cut circles out of the sheet, you can use the leftover sheet as a mask, in order to add a patterned background to projects using wet media.  You'll find an example of this masking technique below.

Supplies: Double Dot cardstock by Bo Bunny; woodgrain paper by October Afternoon; cross hatched patterned paper by Bella Blvd; dotted paper by My Mind's Eye; border stickers by Bella Blvd; alphabet stickers by October Afternoon; mini alphanumeric stickers by Authentique; die cut labels by October Afternoon; die cut circle pattern (used as mask) by Graphic 45; Distress Stain by Ranger; ink by Clearsnap; tulle ribbon by Wyla; corner punch by Creative Memories; pen by Zig; household stapler.

Did you spot the subtle circular pattern on the navy blue cardstock?  And the bolder circles near the title and labels?  These were all created by using Distress Stain with the Graphic 45 die cut paper.

I hope that in the future more companies will make multi-purpose, no-waste alphabets like this.  Fingers crossed!