This file includes ideas on letter sticker substitutions and ways to use ABC stickers after the commonly used letters are gone.

ABC Letter Substitutions

(Use small stickers like hearts, flowers and stars to cover splices. Use the same stickers elsewhere on the page so it will be less obvious. Punctuation mark stickers also can be used to alter a letter.)

A - use an upside down V and a straight piece from another letter

B - trim an R and put a sticker to cover the missing part
B - use a D and add a sticker where needed

C - cut it from an O, G, Q, a zero, a six or an upside down D

D - use a C, O, G or Q and add a straight piece from another letter
D - trim the B and use a sticker to cover where needed

E - use an F and the bottom of an L - or put an L on top of an F
E - trim off part of the B

F - trim off some of the E, B, P or R

G - add a straight piece to the C

H - use two I's and a small straight piece

I - trim the bottom of the J and add a sticker
I - use an upside down number one and add a sticker where needed

J - trim the I and add stickers as needed

K - trim off part of the R and add stickers as needed

L - trim off part of an E

M - use an upside down W or two upside down V's

N - use a Z on its side

O - trim the Q
O - use the zero

P - trim off the R or B

Q - add a piece to the O or zero

R - trim the B and add a piece from another letter
R - use a P and add a piece from another letter

S - trim the 5, 8 or 'and' symbol

T - add a piece as need to the I, L or number one

U - trim the O, Q or zero

V - use part of the W, A or X

W - use two V's or an upside down M

X - use two lower case v's - one right side up, the other upside down

Y - put the top half of an X to the lower half of an I or a T - trim or add stickers as needed
Y - put a sticker or piece from another letter below the top half of an X

Z - use the N on its side

Lower Case ABC Letter Substitutions

a - trim the q or d

c - cut out middle of the e

d - flip a lower case p

e - fit a piece into the c

i - use upside down exclamation mark

i - use the stem of lower case u with a period for the dot

j - flip and trim the f - add a period for the dot

l - trim the h, b, d or k

m - add an n or part of an h or upside u to another n

n - trim the m or use an upside down u

p - flip a lower case d

q - flip a lower case b

r - trim the n, m, or u

s - fit two quote marks together to form an s

v - trim the w

w - use a v and add a trimmed v to it

Using Leftover ABC Stickers

• Put ABC/123 sticker stencil parts over photos spelling out names of people or places (good for vacations). Cut around the letter outline or cut into blocks (quicker).
• Mix several colors of leftover letters together. Arrange them until you have the right letters from each color. (e.g. 'EASTER' in pink, blue, and yellow. You don't have a blue 'A' but have a yellow 'A' -- so use yellow as the second color.)
• Make rainbow titles by alternating letter stickers as follows: bright pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. For a coordinating border that go around the page with hearts or stars in the same color order, repeating around the page.
• Adhere the stencil of the letters to colored paper. Cut out each letter and adhere to a square of coordinating paper. (This looks great with dark green on dark green gingham.)
• Use a sticker or sticker composition in place of a letter you may be missing.
• Use the rarely used letters like 'Q', 'X', and 'Z' to make building blocks for baby pages.
• Use leftover 'Q's' for a 'Quips and Quotes' page--favorite expressions or cute things your children say.
• Scatter 'Q's' on the page and journal the most unusual questions your children ask.
• Use several 'Z's' for a person who is sleeping (negative 'Z's' also work).
• Use extra 'X's' for kisses.
• The centers from letters and numbers make dots, confetti, raindrops, etc.
• Randomly place letters on a sheet of paper cut lengthwise in half. Cut in half lengthwise, and then each strip again in half, for four 1" by 11" borders!
• Align ABC stickers on wax paper with the top third of the letter off the edge. Or use a design-line or other large sticker backer sheet for a quick and easy way to line up your titles without a lot of repositioning.

Never Enough Y's

With 'happy' and 'merry' and names ending in 'Y' there are never enough of them.

I made a page with 'Thank God I'm a Country Boy' in black letters across the top and down the right side. The letters were tilted informally. I used cowboy boots, hat, and small brown horse stickers to decorate around the letters. I put one horse between the 'Y' on 'country' and the 'b' on 'boy'. I let the horse's feet overlap the 'B' slightly and the horses back completely cover the lower part of the 'Y'-- which was not really a 'Y' - it was the top of an 'X'. By also having some other stickers overlap parts of other letters it isn't obvious that I didn't really use a 'Y'. (I used a piece from the lower part of the 'X' for the apostrophe in 'I'm').

Other Missing Letters

Another way to overcome a missing letter is to fake it with coordinating stickers. For instance, if you don't have enough E's to spell Easter, use an F and use a line of flowers where the bottom of the E should be. Also do it for a few other letters so it looks intentional. Use P for R or B and the top of the X for Y, etc. Another ides is to put two I's with a hot dog in between to make an N, a salad bowl for an O, and a Y out of hot dog links. This works with all kinds of stickers--toys, picnic, camping, Christmas. Use a watermelon half for the 'U' in 'summer' and an apple for the 'O' in 'New York'.

Using 123 Stickers

(Compiled by Audra in MS)

• Use as borders for School Days pages
• Put one number over the other with an edge showing for a shadow effect.
• Use the title 'How Many Days 'til Christmas?!' The border will be numbers starting at 49, 48, 47, 46...Use pictures of the children making a paper chain or something else preparing for Christmas. You can skip numbers and use...in between.
• To help teach her two-year-old nephew to count, Nancy T. created a Sentiments Album counting book. Each page has one number from 1 to 10, 20, and 100. The pages feature photos of family members, stickers, and die-cuts. Example: nephew and his three cousins in a pool titled '4 Crazy Cousins'.
• Place leftover ABC/123 stickers randomly on 10x12 paper. Cut into 2-inch strips for borders or into triangles. Or use it to mat a photo (great for large school portraits).
• For a family reunion layout do a border--10 cousins, 5 aunts, 5 uncles, 4 grandparents, 2 great aunts, etc.
• Do a final page in a baby or child album documenting the time periods. '2 months,' (with picture) '5 months,' etc. or '2 years', '3 years old' etc.
• Make an S out of an 8, use zeros for O, and don't forget, 6's are just upside-down 9's!