(yes, I know it’s Wednesday. Life happens.) 
The topic of alphas came up in one of my Photoshop yahoo groups yesterday, and I thought I’d share with you a solution I’ve come up with for managing them.
Now let me say this: I don’t use alphas much in my scrapping, possibly partly because they’re so cumbersome. You have to figure out which letters you need, open each file, drag the letters onto the page and close all the files. Almost easier to just type some text and run an action or apply a layer style to them! But I have a few that just work well for a lot of different things, and I wanted to make them easier to use.
Here’s my solution… the dragsheet! (That’s what I call it, at least).
What I do is open all the .png files, and drag the letters onto a 12×12 page. (Sometimes 12×18 if the letters are large). Then I save the .psd file, and delete the .png files.
Now all I have to do to use the alpha is open the .psd file then click and drag the letter I want onto my layout! I have all the characters right in front of me, there’s no opening and closing files.
You can use this technique for all kinds of things – if you have a kit that has a lot of small pieces, why not drag them all into one file? You can name it with the name of the kit and designer for reference, too.
Use it to gather your favorites! We all have our favorite basics – staples, bit of stitching, brads, etc. that we go to over and over again. Rather than remembering which kit had the good staples, why not make yourself a favorites dragsheet? You can rename the layers with the kit/designer name or the original filename, so you know where it came from, but now you’ll just have a single file to open for all your favorite things!
To get you started, I made you the alpha dragsheet you see above! Click here to download. It’s notebook paper letters without shadows, so you can add your own shadows. If you need help with shadows (especially those of you with PSE, download our Shadow Styles here!
Leave me a comment and let me know if you like this method of working with Alphas – would it entice you to use them more? Do you use them at all in your scrapbooking?
Happy Scrapping!
Jenn
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March 25, 2010
Creative Junkie
yet another one of those “duh” moments – WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THAT?
.-= Creative Junkie´s last blog ..Stuff I love: Epiphanies =-.