okay! as promised, here is a technique! it’s a pretty simple one, but it can come in handy!
we ALL have some of THESE laying around…
and what do you do with your leftover letters? have you ever thought about giving them a MAKEOVER? need a certain color letter to match a layout but don’t have any? well then, change what you have into what you want! first, take the letters of your choice off the sheet and lightly adhere them to the back of the alphabet sticker sheet…
next, use an ink, in the color of your choice to change the color of your letter. here, i’m using a warm green chalk ink from colorbox. the chalk inks cover well, and dry quickly…
and VIOLA, here’s the finished product. letters that were once red are now green!
of course the lighter your original letters, the more color options you have. darker color letters will be harder to “tint”, although you can give them a light sand with a file to lighten them a bit. if the letters are slick, you can also give them a light sand to get the ink to adhere, otherwise, you’ll have to use a permanent ink. don’t have inks? use pens! permapaques by sakura or slick writers by american crafts work great since they won’t smear!
a few quick hints are…
1) make sure that the back of your sticker letter sheet is slick and that the letters will come off after you ink them! you can also just leave them in place and carefully ink them, or just ink up the whole sheet! if you do only want to ink a few letters and the back of the sheet is not slick, then you can put your letters on waxed paper to ink them.
2) if the color is not quite as dark as you want, you can add another coat of ink.
3) let the letters sit and dry a few minutes. you might also lightly blot them with a paper towel to remove any excess ink. otherwise you might get ink on your hands and smudge your work when you go to apply the letters.
tami sanders * paper crafter 