Fontastic!

This past week I have been studying typography, and I must say I find it VERY interesting! I always loved finding the "perfect" font for my projects, but I never understood all the ins and outs of typography. That's not to say I do now, however I know a little more than I did last week! For instance, a "Serif" is the little cross-stroke that comes off the end of letters. (See the bottom of the S in the picture below)

When preparing our scrapbooking layouts, there are so many font options available to us, including our own handwriting. Even on a tight budget, a layout can go from "Blah" to "Ah!" using only your computer, printer and internet connection!

Several years ago my "Thing 1" was Shrek for Halloween. Nearly nine-months pregnant with "Thing 2" and confined to the home, I was unable to visit the local scrapbooking store to buy Shrek scrapbooking supplies. (This was before I had a store of my own!) To my joy, after searching for "Shrek font" on Google I found one that resembled Shrek's head shape! I downloaded it to my computer, typed up the text I wanted, and printed the type onto regular printer paper. I then used removable adhesive to adhere the paper to my cardstock and used my X-Acto to cut the letters out.



After spicing it up with some gold embossing powder, this is how it turned out...






Today, with the help of my Silhouette Digital Craft Cutter, the act of cutting out the letters would take two minutes instead of two hours, however should I be at away from the office, I can still do it using X-Acto method.

If you're looking for new fonts, I have found the following sites to be great:

• 1001 Free Fonts
• Dafont
• FontLoft

If you're unsure of what you want to say or how you want your journaling to appear, take a step back. Perhaps leave the layout alone for a few days and let the project sit in the back of your mind. Rather than rushing into the journaling or title and committing to something that looks sloppy, put your best font forward and make it count.