#1
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Survey Says...
So I am taking a survey on alphas and how important they are to you.
Do you have to have them with every kit? Do you use them on every page? Do you have ones that you use over and over? Let me know your thoughts about the questions above and anything else you want to share.
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#2
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Probably not the best one to answer this since I've just gotten back into digi scrapping.
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#3
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Do you have to have them with every kit?
Have to- no. I do look for them in kits I am considering purchasing. Do you use them on every page? I have not always, but lately yes more often than not. It really depends on how lazy I am feeling when I get to the title as it is one of the last steps I do when working on a page. I tend to stick with one kit/collection when scrapping most of the time and I enjoy using them to build my own titles. Do you have ones that you use over and over? Yes - some are favorites I have had for many years Let me know your thoughts about the questions above and anything else you want to share. A basic, versatile alpha is definitely a kit or collection bonus that can be a factor in my purchase. Unique fancier alphas are also a good thing - something with style that I could not easily recreate myself from a basic font with some layer styles added.
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#4
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I actually don't use alphas very often. I use a lot of word strips as titles or pre-made word art or just a mix of fonts.
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#5
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I will answer this, even though I don't technically count haha I will only use alphas that are super clean, classic & bold, or simple paper tab & dot alphas. Finicky, fussy alphas in more unique fonts don't usually work for me, are much harder to use, and aren't usually eye catching when used as titles on pages that I've found.
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#6
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Do you have to have them with every kit?
I do want them if I'm purchasing a kit. I think, "Why would I pay the same price for this kit without an alpha?" Do you use them on every page? Not on every page, but I like having the option of an alpha. Do you have ones that you use over and over? No. I usually use one kit to scrap a page so I would use the alpha that came with the kit, although, I've been mixing it up lately if i can't find just want I want. Let me know your thoughts about the questions above and anything else you want to share. I'm not really a fan of simple alphas that I could easily create myself like basic fonts with a paper clipped to it. I prefer a little effort put into creating the alpha which I do see and appreciate here at SSD.
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#7
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Do you have to have them with every kit?
No. I almost never use them, so I don't care if a kit has them or not. I rarely even download them when I buy a kit and when I do, if I know I wont use it after I see it "in person", I just delete the alpha folder. They can take up a lot of space - especially the giant full sheets! Do you use them on every page? Not even close. Almost never. Do you have ones that you use over and over? No. |
#8
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I hardly ever use them. It's so much faster for me to use a font and apply styles to it. So "no" to all 3 of your questions!
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#9
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Do you have to have them with every kit?
No. Do you use them on every page? I always choose the wordart title included because it saves me time and it's usually prettier than what I could write myself. If the wordarts included in the kit don't work for my page then I'll try to use the alpha. If the alpha isn't my style then I just write it with the typing tool in a font I like. Do you have ones that you use over and over? I'm a one kit scrapper girl so no, I don't go fetching for specific alphas. It would take me forever to find what I'm looking for anyway. I prefer alphas that are eye catching, have something a little special to them. Maybe a bit of bevel, maybe a bit of shine, or a bit of sparkle... it really depends.
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Last edited by Leablahblah; 03-16-2021 at 06:16 PM. |
#10
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Do you have to have them with every kit? I don't have to have them, but they can be a factor in whether I purchase or not. A cute less basic alpha will often push me to saying Yes to a kit vs a kit with no alpha. I also feel like it makes the kit more worth the price.
Do you use them on every page? No. Sometimes I use fonts to make titles. Do you have ones that you use over and over? Very few. The ones I tend to use again and again are usually tan, white & black. I agree with Leah, that I look for something special in a kit alpha - I'm a sucker for a doodley alpha or something I can't make easily with a font.
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#11
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Do you have to have them with every kit?
They don't have to be in every kit, but if there's not a lot of word art in the kit, I'll need an alpha. Or I'll go looking for one in my stash. Do you use them on every page? I've been using them more often lately. Not on every page, but 1 out of 3 will have an alpha somewhere on the page. Do you have ones that you use over and over? I have some classic stand-alone alpha packs that I will turn to if there's not one in the kit, or if the one in the kit won't work for my project. Mostly black, white, and kraft ones by a former SSD designer.
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#12
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Do you have to have them with every kit?
No and for those kits that have the papers/elements/alphas separate, I tend to not buy them. Do you use them on every page? No. I'm big on using big chunky fonts then clipping a paper from the kit to them instead of alphas. Do you have ones that you use over and over? No. I'm a kit scrapper and find it hard to mix/match items from various designers. |
#13
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Do you have to have them with every kit? I don't "have to", but I really like it when they're in a kit- so no matter what my plan for a page is, I can open the one kit and have everything I might need
Do you use them on every page? I don't use them on every page, but I do use them often. I use numbers from alphas on almost every Project Life page, and I like to tuck a first or last initial into a flower cluster, etc. I do these things more often than I make whole titles from alphas. Do you have ones that you use over and over? I have one from a retired designer here that I used very consistently in a themed album. Since I used it so much & remember the name/designer/what folder I have it stored in and I'll use it if I need to I don't usually dig around through other kits to find an alpha that will work with what I'm doing.
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Last edited by knittingbec; 03-16-2021 at 08:18 PM. |
#14
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Do you have to have them with every kit?
No, I suppose not. But I do like them. Do you use them on every page? No. I took a glance at my gallery (some of it.) It looks like on each page, there are often about 6 layouts that did use the kit's alpha. Do you have ones that you use over and over? No. I've turned into a mostly one-kit-at-a-time scrapper. Like someone else said, it's nice to have what I might want right there in that one folder.
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#15
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#16
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I don't use them super often. I prefer to have word art titles
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#17
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Do you have to have them with every kit?
YES! I love alphas... I do find some like the circle ones and those with a heavy pattern harder to use. Do you use them on every page? Almost every page has a title and I will use the alphas - usually the kit doesn't have one, I struggle with what alpha to use. Do you have ones that you use over and over? No - I used to pull out all the alphas in a kit and have them in a separate folder, but I've stopped doing that. Too much time to try to hunt down the right alpha.
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#18
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#19
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I don't "need" an alpha but it's always nice to have. (Not having an alpha wouldn't stop me from buying a kit.) I like WA for my title. It's easier/quicker than arranging an alpha on my page lol, but I do like mixing alphas and WA to create titles.
I don't use them on every page and I don't have a go-to. I don't title every page.
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#20
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I hate title in general, and I would always rather use a 3x4 card for my title than creating my own with alphas.
I do not require an alpha with a kit; if I do use an alpha, it's almost always an old one from my stash.
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#21
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#22
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Do you have to have them with every kit?
Not at all, I agree with what Robin & Reba said. If I'm being honest, I'd say 95% of the time, I do not use the alpha that comes with the kit. I think the patterned ones are pretty, but I can't use them. Sometimes I can use the glittery ones, but rarely. I really like simple, solid colors. A little thicker usually, and I also like a nice small alpha. I tend to make my titles with small/big words. Do you use them on every page? Usually, unless I have a premade title. Do you have ones that you use over and over? Yes, I will often purchase just a set of alphas if I see a nice neutral set. I have some from several retired designers I've been using for probably 10 years that I still use over and over again. Zoe Pearn, Fee Jardine, Shawna Clingerman & Julie Billingsley I still regularly use their alphas in layouts. |
#23
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I use alphas if I need to add a specific title to my page - but I struggle so much coming up with titles for pages these days that I much prefer to use word art or word strips where someone else has done the work for me!!
If I do use alphas, my preference is a fairly plain black, white or sometimes kraft one, or primary colours, in a simple bold-ish font. I like those ones with a - I'm not sure what you call it - black or white 'outline' which is actually just inside the edges, and/or a stroke around the outside. I have a few of these types of alphas in my 'Go To' stash. And I REALLY appreciate when designers include both upper and lower cases.
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#24
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This was an interesting read.
I used alphas a lot more in the early days of scrapping when I had way less decorative fonts & styles. Nowadays I do lean towards a font that I then style up on my own. I have 3 alphas I use again and again, a gold modern style, a vellum one and a B&W zetti/art journaly one that couldn't be achieved with a font and styling. I am more likely to use alphas with a kit if the letters are not all the same style - or if there are several coordinating alphas that I can mix and match. |
#25
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Do you have to have them with every kit?
No I mix and match alphas a lot, I often don't even use the alpha that goes with that specific kit. Do you use them on every page? No, sometimes I don't create titles or I use a wordart from a kit as a title. Do you have ones that you use over and over? Yes I do have some go-to alphas that I tend to use a lot. |
#26
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I rarely use the alphas in kits. I prefer to use a wordart or title in the kit.
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#27
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Do you have to have them with every kit?
Would be nice especially in a full kit but not absolutely essential as I probably would have something that would work in my stash. In fact I don't always use the alpha that is in a kit but preferring other alphas I have. If an alpha is particularly themed towards the kit then I would say it is kind of essential. Mini kits, I only really expect papers and embelishments....anything else is a bonus Do you use them on every page? /I'm 70/30....depends on how I'm feeling as to whether I use an alpha for my title....sometimes it's been a combination of two or three of those. I find by the time I get to title work I'm not feeling as creative so something premade usually wins in the end Do you have ones that you use over and over? Yes, but not super consistently. They are mainly stamped or more handwritten type alphas in neutral colors anything else you want to share. sorry but I am not a big fan of single sheet alphas, much prefer individual alpha files. Not a huge fan of pre-shadowed anything.....doesn't just have to be alphas on that one, I'd rather do my own shadows I'd love any tips on recoloring multiple alphas.....is there an easier way to do it than individually using the Adjust Hue/Saturation sliders in PSE/PSCC
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Last edited by littlekiwi; 03-17-2021 at 02:49 PM. |
#28
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Do you have to have them with every kit?
No. I've been scrapping for a long time and have a million alphas so it wouldn't be essential. Also, I'm a pocket scrapper these days and rarely use alphas. That said, I would probably want to pay less for a kit without. Do you use them on every page? Nope. Often just use fonts Do you have ones that you use over and over? I don't have ones that I specifically look to but when reviewing all my alphas, I probably do use the same ones more than others. I usually use simpler, bolder alphas. Mostly white. Let me know your thoughts about the questions above and anything else you want to share. I know there is a lot of debate about this but I prefer my alphas on one sheet for reducing the amount of storage they take up. ETA: just out of interest, I went back to see the relative storage space for individual alphas vs a combined alpha sheet and, to my surprise, discovered that they are virtually the same. The individual alphas add up to roughly the same (and sometimes even less) than the sheet. So, never mind that last point. Last edited by DawnMarch; 03-17-2021 at 04:04 PM. |
#30
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Do you have to have them with every kit?
For the past maybe 5 years I used your super awesome templates for my PL pages. I used my calendar cards and journal cards as my "titles" and rarely used an alpha over the last 5 years. This year I mixed it up and am using a Cindy Schneider album for my PL and I'm using the alpha on every single page. Do you use them on every page? See above. I didn't for 5 years but this year I am. Do you have ones that you use over and over? Nope. I just use whatever comes with the kit. I generally don't have the time to look through my stash and find a coordinating alpha so I just use what comes with the kit. I do echo somebody else's comments about the round sticker ones being a little harder for me to use. |
#31
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I would say an alpha isn't necessary for every kit IF there is good word art, larger size, multiple word choices that can be used for a title.
If you are not including word art for titles, than please include alphas.
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#32
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If the person has great titles in their kits, I don't use the alpha, but I would be disappointed then if there was no alpha.
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#33
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No alphas for me! I realized I never used them and went through my stash deleting all but maybe 5 that were super special. That freed up a lot of space, and I was running out of storage!
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#34
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Do you have to have them with every kit?
Most kits I do keep them because they came with the kit and I may use them. Do you use them on every page? Hardly ever use the alphas from a kit, I usually find a font I like. Do you have ones that you use over and over? Not really
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#35
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Do you have to have them with every kit?
Yes, I prefer to buy kits with alphas. But if they're too wacky, I'm less likely to use them. Do you use them on every page? Yes, I do use them on every page - I am more of an event scrapper so all of my pages have titles. Do you have ones that you use over and over? I do have some staples that I go back to if I don't like the alpha in a kit or I can't make it work. My all-time favourite alphas that work with any kit are Shawna Clingerman's Chippy Alphas. Let me know your thoughts about the questions above and anything else you want to share. I do prefer alphas that have some definition and are more than just paper clipped to a font. In my earlier days of scrapping, I picked up every crazy alpha I saw but now I tend to prefer more simple and classic ones. Though I do still have some unique ones in my stash for specific pages, like alphas that look like sand or grass or elastics or paper clips etc. One thing I've found lately is that if the alpha folder has its own preview, I'll copy it over to my alpha stash (in addition to the kit folder), which makes it more likely for me to use it generally as opposed to just with that one kit.
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Last edited by DaniW; 03-20-2021 at 01:05 PM. |
#36
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You made me really curious as to how many alphas I have used in the past month for the passport challenges.
9 out of 14 layouts done so far have used some alpha in some way on my layouts. I still have 3 more to completely finish (they're in various stages of progress) but I'm pretty sure one more will have an alpha of some sort. That really surprised me...because I do like fonts a lot too or maybe I just love letters and numbers anyway they come
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#37
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Do you have to have them with every kit?
I do want them if I'm purchasing a kit. I find them kind of fun if they are unique to the kit. Do you use them on every page? Not on every page, but I like having the option of an alpha. Do you have ones that you use over and over? No...I tend to use whatever comes with the kit usually. I am trying to get better about mixing kits and using more of my supplies. Let me know your thoughts about the questions above and anything else you want to share. I am a font junkie so I love the alphas that are quirky and fun for the kit like Furry ones for a kit with animals or grassy with a sports or outdoor kit...etc...a fun and unique alpha that took time to create I would use but if it is just a font that someone dressed up with a pattern from the kit...I can do that...if you know what I mean. I also love alpha sheets rather than dragging each letter onto my layout.
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