Before we get to our last day's discussion on fonts, I wanted to point you all to a fantastic link (thanks Elizabeth & Monika!) for some font eye candy: Hyperactivitypography! Spend some time browsing this fun booklet and you're sure to increase your knowledge of all things fonts, or at the very least, appreciate it for the genius use of all kinds of delicious type!
OK, so onto the topic of the day: Handwriting! And before you ask - yes, it counts as a font. After all, your handwriting is your very own personalized font. It speaks your voice better than Problem Secretary or Jane Austen ever could. And I know that some of you have such fabulous handwriting, quite frankly, it should be made into a font (I'm totally speaking to you, Emily) so let's use it! Take a look at some of these page examples that feature the signature scrawls of their creators:
Ah, fresh flowers! How I love them! And this page declaring my love needed a scripty title font for the word "love" don't you think? After perusing my fonts, I couldn't find just the right script, so I opted to use my own cursive sketched on cardstock. After I trimmed it out, I lightly outlined the word with a fine-point black pen.
On this opening page of my All About Me album, I used my own signature as a big, bold title. I could have used a font, yes, but it wouldn't have been as distinct (or as much "me") as my own writing. I just lightly sketched it out on the hot pink patterned paper and then trimmed it out.
I adore this handwritten & hand cut title by Emily Pitts. Her fabulous handwriting, paired with the happy mix of colors and patterns, makes this a completely unique and unexpected title treatment. And the fact that she stitched around each letter just adds another awesome detail!
The tiny crazy quilt Emily created on this page just begs for an equally crafty title to accompany it, so she used her handwriting as a template for a stitched title. Isn't it amazing??
This page was a message to my son, and I thought the most effective way to communicate it was with my own script. I used chipboard letters for the word "proud" to make it stand out a bit, but the bulk of the message is straight from my own hand.
Are you beginning to see that I like to combine my own writing + letter stickers for title treatments? It is one of my favorite techniques! Here, I wanted a softer, loopier font to mix with the basic serif font of the green letters. I wrote the word "machine" on red cardstock with pencil and then trimmed it out, erasing the pencil lines when I was done.
So what if you want a handwritten look, but despise your own handwriting? Then use a font that looks like the handwriting you wish you had! There's a great selection of Handwriting fonts at Fonts for Peas and Dafont. On this page about my slight shoe addiction, I used the font Cursive Standard for my title, printing it in reverse on the backside of my red cardstock and then trimming it out. (This little trick means there are no tell-tale print lines on the front side of your cardstock!) For my detailed tutorial on how to reverse-print fonts, check out this link.
So now you have no excuses not to use handwriting on your pages, alright? Now go try it and let us see what you create! And hey - thanks for letting me share just a little bit of the font love this week. I've had fun with you all!