How to arrange your felt board

*** If you're more of a watching type of person instead of a reading type of person, there will be a video coming soon. :-) ***

You would think that think that letter arrangement is pretty simple and self explanatory, but you really can save yourself a lot of frustration and wasted time if you follow these simple tips!

The number one thing to remember is don't press the letters into the board until you have ALL of your spacing figured out! Moving them afterwards will take a lot of extra time.

I will repeat that several times throughout this guide so you don't get too excited and forget. I make this mistake myself quite frequently.

1. Choose your quote or saying

For a 10x10 board, shorter quotes work the best, as you won't be able to fit anything super long. A good rule of thumb is a maximum of 10-12 characters per line and a maximum of 6 lines, although you can definitely squeeze in more, depending on your vertical and horizontal spacing, and the look you want.

Here are some ways to find great quotes

• Google images - search for "inspirational quotes", "funny quotes", "parenting quotes", etc.

• Instagram - do a hashtag search like #inspirationalquotes, #oneliners, #quoteoftheday, etc.

2. Choose your alignment

My favorite is centered, but specifically for quotes that have author credit after the quote, it looks better to have your board left aligned, or sometimes you're just feeling it.

Here is an example using left and right alignment in the same message:

3. Choose your kerning

Kerning is the spacing between the letters, and while you might not think its important, it makes the difference between a beautiful board where the focus is the words... and a strange looking board which draws your eyes to the odd spacing and not the words, as you can see.

Sometimes you need to play around with this a bit to be able to space everything the same and also fit all your words onto your board. Try to get it figured out before pressing anything into the board.

4. Arrange your quote vertically

Get all your letters picked out and arranged on the board so that you can figure out how many lines you need. Don't press them in until you are done figuring everything out.

Once the letters are down, try to make sure that your lines each have the same number of felt creases in between, and the same number of creases above and below your quote.

If you have an odd number of lines, like in the photo above, put your middle line in the very center of the board. If you have an even number of lines, put the space in between the lines at dead center.

For example, if I have a 5 lined quote, I usually put two creases between each line, and four creases above and below, as in the photo above.

If I have 7 lines (a tight fit), there will only be one crease in between each line and two creases above and below my quote.

(Keep in mind that the number of creases will vary from board to board, especially if it isn't made by Artistic Atmosphere)

Of course, it is totally up to your own imagination, and sometimes, it is more fun to have the spacing be uneven, to showcase the punch line or a certain word that your want to stand out, like this:

5. Arrange your quote horizontally

If you're centering your quote, and you have figured out your kerning and have your letters laid out, if you have two or more words in that line, start by pushing the two farthest outside letters into the felt (YAY, finally!), observing that equal space is left between the frame and the letters on both sides. Continue towards the center until each letter has been pushed in firmly.

Continue towards the center, spacing the letters evenly, until each letter has been pushed in firmly.

Every once in a while it is a good idea to sit back and look at your board to see if anything looks funny so you can fix it before you get too far.

If there is only one word on a line, start with the center letter and work outwards instead. Do this for each line until you're done!

If there's three words in a line, you combine those two techniques. Go from the outside towards the inside, then for the middle word, start in the center.

If you're doing left or right alignment, it's pretty simple. Make yourself a margin by laying something straight in a vertical line down the board (or just eyeballing it), and make sure each line begins in that spot.

As you can see in the photo below, the left margin has each line starting the same distance from the frame.

Start with the far left letter first and work towards the right side, until you're done.