Alpha Inspirations

As with all of Brandy Murry’s kits, Botanical, has a rich variety of papers and elements with which to create our digital scrapbooking pages. I found inspiration everywhere! Here, however, are some ideas for using one extra special part of the Botanical kit – the digital alpha sets.

Alpha 1 has an elegant look that I love. They can easily stand alone and would make wonderful monograms for notecards. Here are a couple of examples that I think would work beautifully for any occasion.

Examples of digital cards made with alpha sets

Helpful hint: Gridlines are useful in helping you to center an initial on the card. Go to Edit > Preferences > Guides and Gridlines. Choose inches (or cm) as your unit.

Instructions on how to add gridlines in Photoshop

I like two subdivisions, especially when working on a small project such as a notecard. As you work on the card, be sure to go to View and click on both Rulers and Grid so that they will be visible.

Alpha 2 has a round shape. They look great spelling out words, but I also like using them as buttons. How about using one of them in place of a knot in the center of a bow? Or you could put an initial in the center of a flower, as I did in my sample layout.

Digital alpha letters used as the center of flowers or bows.

Helpful hints: To make them look more realistic, be sure to resize them to fit the flower center or to cover the knot on the bow. When you add your drop shadows, make them a little smaller and darker than the ones you are using for the bow or flower. That will help give the impression that the button is “pressing into” the center of each.

I hope you’ll give some of these ideas a try! Show us how you use your digital alpha sets by uploading your finished layouts to the Scrap Girls Gallery so we can admire your work!