Hi, everyone! Sarah here. I love using the thick foam and chipboard alphas that are so trendy right now when I’m creating my hybrid projects, but I don’t always love the predetermined amount of letters and numbers or the limited styles and colors that are available. Today, I’m going to show you how I mimic the look of these fun alphas using digital products.
Almost any flat paper digital alpha will work. For this project I chose Extra Extra! Painted Alpha by Just Jaimee.
To begin with I imported the letters for a couple of words that I have in mind for a scrapbooking project into my Silhouette software. I traced the letters and then copied the cut lines an additional five times. I find that this amount gives me a really nice thickness to my letters.
I then printed my project out onto bright white cardstock and cut with my Silhouette.
I separated the letters out into stacks, to help make sure that I didn’t miss any of the layers when I put the letters together.
Next I began adhering the stacks of paper. I began with the bottom layer, placing the glue on top and then placing the next layer on top of that. I prefer working with a liquid glue when doing this project because it makes it easier for me to line up the layers making sure everything is uniform. Continue this with the rest of the layers ending with your printed letter.
Here are what my finished words look like. It takes a little bit of time, but this is something that can easily be done while watching TV or listening to music.
I also put together a title in this manner using Allison Pennington’s Composed Literary Letters: Old School Edition.
If you don’t have a Silhouette you can still use this method to create a title. There are quite a few alphas in The Lilypad shop that you can either cut by hand or use punches to create your layers. This Clipped Alpha by Gina Miller has great straight lines to work with and makes for a really fun title!
I love that this method allows me pick exactly which letters I want to use for my title without leaving me with a ton of leftover letters that I will never use, not to mention I can customize my alpha to match my particular project. You can also use this method to create thicker versions of word art and other digital paper embellishments. I love the added dimension this gives to my hybrid projects.
Allison says
You are a GENIUS!
Kristina Lee says
Thanks for adding the instructions for non-silhouette users, too! This is a super simple trick to get sturdier hybrid elements. :)