Preservation Arts

Open Type Fonts: Why They’re Super Cool for Paper Crafters

Most commonly we see computer fonts listed with the extension .ttf at the end, telling us that the font is a True Type font and will generally work with both Mac and Windows. True Type is the standard font format, although there are several other types.

In recent years, font developers have been creating more and more Open Type Fonts, denoted with “OTF” at the end. This font type is an extension of the True Type format and will also work with both Windows and Mac, but here’s something that many font users don’t know… Open Type Fonts have many more capabilities than True Type Fonts. Many Open Type faces come with options called Stylistic/Contextual alternatives, meaning that you can change the way a certain letter looks in different situations. I’ve put together the example on the right using the font Reminga. (By the way, there are lots of free Open Type fonts out there, check out this list for a few ideas).

In the first example, you can see that I’ve turned on the Stylistic Alternatives option, and the “s” becomes an old-fashioned one, giving the whole phrase a new look. To do this in Photoshop, I opened my Type dialog and checked out the menu options. Not all Open Type fonts have all options. In fact, many don’t even take advantage of the feature at all.

With contextual alternatives you can really change the look of certain letters, depending on the situation or where they are in your text or title. So let’s say I want to create a piece of word art for a title on a scrapbook page or a sentiment for a card. I can do several different options using different alternatives.

In the last example below, I’ve created one title with the default letters in the high-end font Affair, a second with stylistic alternatives, and the third with contextual alternatives. The “s” changes with each selection, and the “l” changes with the contextual alternatives.

Next time you’re playing with fonts, check out the Open Type fonts you have on your computer. You might be delighted at the fun titles you can create and print by changing up the type face with Open Type features. What I’ve shown you here is just the tip of the iceberg. There are thousands of Open Type fonts out there with many fun alternative letters. Have fun creating!

Link to Freebie Font for Die Cutters

Click the image to visit Clever Some Day and download the free dingbat font.

This free font from Clever Some Day is so cool, and I can just imagine the uses for this with hybrid crafting. Just type one of these out in a word processor or photoshop, resize as desired, give it a color (or leave it black!) and print. Then match up with a Nestability and cut and emboss! So cute!

While it is made for electronic cutters, I think it would work fabulously to decorate traditional die cuts in a different way. I plan on giving it a try very soon. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Another Kaleidoscope Pendant Card and Free Downloadable Kit

I am so thrilled to have been a part of the Spellbinders Blog Frenzy. I’ve been overwhelmed by the kind comments several of you have made. I’m so glad that many of you appreciated the tutorial. I can’t wait to make more for you.

As promised, I’ve put together a digital kit containing the embellished shapes from my scrapbook page as well as five free digital papers. For tips on printing out digital paper and using it in your papercrafting, check this post from a few weeks ago.

Click here for the rest of this post and to download the free kit!

Spellbinders Shapeabilities Pendants Blog Frenzy

Spellbinders Introduces:
Shapeabilities Pendants Blog Frenzy
June 22 through June 29th, available for ordering June 30, 2009

Commenting on this post is welcome but does not enter you into the contest. This contest is sponsored directly by Spellbinders Paper Arts. Please read the post to find directions for entering. If you have any questions, please e-mail PenContestQuestions@Spellbinders.us.

Welcome to the 8th (and last!) day of Spellbinders Pendants Blog Frenzy!

Spellbinders is celebrating the introduction of Pendants die templates, a new die line that will inspire your creative mind.  You have the opportunity to win the Pendant and Borderabilities dies I’m introducing today by entering the contest at the end of this post.  Be sure to read all the rules before entering! You still have until June 29th, 11:59 pm EST to enter Linda Duke’s blog contest at: http://www.lindaduke.typepad.com and until July 1st, 8:30 am EST to enter mine.

Edit: due to issues with my blog and Internet Explorer, the contest deadline for Day 8 has been extended until July 1st, 8:30am EST. I am very sorry for the inconvenience this issue caused. I believe the problem is now fixed. Thanks for your patience!

To see previous reveals, feel free to visit the following:

June 22, 2009 -  Beccca Feeken     http://www.amazingpapergrace.com/

June 23, 2009  – Debbie Olson     http://debbiedesigns.typepad.com/

June 24, 2009  – Michelle Wooderson     http://michellewooderson.blogspot.com/

June 25, 3009  – Keri Lee Sereika    http://pinklemonade.typepad.com/my_weblog/

June 26, 2009 –– Sherry Cheever     http://sherrycheever.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/

June 27, 2009  – Heidi Blankenship     http://embellished-dreams.blogspot.com/

June 28, 2009 -– Linda Duke     http://www.lindaduke.typepad.com/

Click here to view the rest of this post, see the new dies, and enter the contest!

Hybrid Scrapbook Page About Baby Food, Link to Free Digital Kit

Happy Monday!

The page I’m sharing today is another Hybrid page made with the Express Yourself free Digital Scrapbook available at ShabbyPrincess.com along with several now-retired Spellbinders dies. The circles in this layout really pull the whole thing together as well as help draw attention to sweet baby Hannah’s face.

At the time this layout was made, we were just barely starting to make some progress in getting Hannah to eat solid foods. She’s turned out to be very stubborn in that department and her weight stayed constant at 16 pounds for several months – to the point of worrying our family physician.

Finally now at 13 months, she is eating larger volumes of select foods and gaining weight. We’re looking forward to her next check up next month to see if she’s come back up onto the growth chart.

Using Printed Digital Paper

Today, my friend Debbie Seyer from the Spellbinders Design Team posted two beautiful cards that she made using the damask paper from my Inauguration Digital Paper Pack. The cards were fabulous examples of using digital scrapbook paper on paper cards – true hybrid paper crafting!

As Debbie mentioned, printing and using digital scrapbook papers can be super addictive, and there are literally thousands of free papers and embellishments out there in the blogosphere, just waiting to be found. My favorite spot to find them is the Digifree Search engine, an automated search blog that gathers up all the freebies you can imagine and lists them in one place. They update daily, or very close to it. Here are a few tips for printing digital paper:

• Use cardstock: the better quality cardstock you use, the better your paper will look. Most printers have settings that will allow you to print on heavy or thick paper.
• Set your printer quality to “best.” Otherwise, your paper may come out looking dull and less vibrant than on your monitor.
• Be careful not to resize it, unless you mean to. Depending on how you print, some applications will automatically resize things to fit them on a page. With 12×12 papers, they won’t fit onto an 8.5×11″ piece of paper, but if you let the computer automatically resize it, you may end up with something different than you intended, ie REALLY tiny little damask ornaments. Make sure that whatever application you use to print, you do so at 100% of the original pattern size.
• When I’m printing a number of papers or an entire layout, I opt for full size prints using 13×19 Matte Photo Paper from HP. I’ve yet to find 8.5×11″ paper that I’m crazy about. I sometimes use the Wal-mart stuff (Georgia Pacific) but I’m going to try some Neenah Solar white later. I’ll let y’all know how it goes.

Here’s a hybrid project that I did using the same damask paper that Debbie used. As with my last post, this was also a Design Team entry project. I loved putting all the separate little elements into this. It was a blast!

Supplies:

Damask Paper: Inauguration Paper Pack

Red Mulberry paper

Red, cream, white, black cardstock

Green patterned paper: Making Memories

Arrow patterned paper: Scenic Route

Circles, watch face, charm, symbology, doodle dies: Spellbinders

Stamps: K&Company, Stampin’ Up, Spellbinders

Black Paint

Inks, ribbon, staples, jump rings, brad

old sewing pattern

baseball card protector, cut up

Thank you again to Jennifer Furlotte at Pixels & Ice Cream for the original damask pattern that I used to create the red damask paper. She does great work.

True Friend Card

I thought I’d share with you a card from my Spellbinders Design Team entry today. I love the bracket shape that is so incredibly popular right now. It just adds a bit of elegant whimsy to everything. By looking at it, this project may not seem like a hybrid card, but it is.

The 5×7″ body of it, as well as the scalloped edge was created with the Silhouette, which works really well for cutting large, unique card shapes.To create both shapes, I drew the vector outline in Adobe Illustrator, plugged the Silhouette into my Mac, and cut it right out. I’ve played with both my Windows PC and my Mac with the Silhouette, and they both work fine, I do like the software that is available for Windows better than the Illustrator plug-in. It has better pre-sets for cutting different types of material. Using the Mac gives me greater control over my designs… or at least it saves me a few steps. To create your own designs in Windows, you have to design it in Inkscape or Illustrator, export it, then import it into the Silhouette software. Cutting straight from Illustrator is a bit easier in that sense.

I love the Silhouette and the ability that it gives me to cut designs from my computer. It really appeals to the techie part of me. As shown in this card, there’s definitely room for both the digital cutter and the hand cutter. The textures (blue dot circle) and the embossing (tag) just aren’t possible with the Silhouette alone.

The stamp that matches the Spellbinders Reflections Butterfly is now retired, which is kind of a sad thing, because I really love the stamps that coordinated so well with the various Shapeabilities. They were just my style.

The dot stripe stamp has been my go-to stamp for almost a year now. I love Impress Rubber Stamps, and I definitely need more.

Thanks for looking!

Happy Spring Card & Hybrid Freebie Download

I created this card with a few of the leftover pieces that I had from my One Week scrapbook page. This fun little card was also shown on HSN, although it was difficult to see amongst the other beautiful projects.

Supplies:

Yellow Dots Patterned Paper: Jennifer Davis

Happy Spring & Branch stamps: Taylored Expressions

Labels 1, Nested Birds, Petite Scalloped Ovals, Petite Classic Ovals: Spellbinders

Ribbon: Creative Impressions

Impressability: Spellbinders

Marker & Airbrush system: Copic

Brad: Chatterbox

Corner Rounder: Creative Memories

Brown & green ink: Clearsnap

Click here to read the full post and grab the downloadable freebie!

As Seen on TV…

On Tuesday, Kim Hupke from Spellbinders presented the Wizard and Nestability Dies on the Home Shopping Network. This scrapbook page was displayed during the segment as an example. There are a total of five dies used on the page, as well as paper from My Mind’s Eye, rub ons from American Crafts, and the retired Indulgence Numbers dies from Spellbinders. Both the label and the bird were designed digitally, printed, then die cut using Spellbinders dies. This hybrid technique is fast becoming one of my favorites.The patterned paper is one that I featured earlier and have available for download here.

I’ve also recently become a huge fan of Dew Drops from Robin’s Nest. They add the perfect touch to projects. You can see them on this page surrounding the “1.”

Isn’t my baby Hannah just beautiful? It’s hard to believe she’s over a year old now.