Jackie’s hand font and 2Peas Garden Girls love me dingbat font
Have you heard of dingbats? That’s the name for a fun type of character font that works well with digital scrapbooking techniques. Wikipedia defines a dingbat font as:
A dingbat is an ornament, character or spacer used in typesetting, sometimes more formally known as a “printer’s ornament” or “printer’s character”. The term continues to be used in the computer industry to describe fonts that have symbols and shapes in the positions designated for alphabetical or numeric characters.
When I (Katie) first started digital scrapbooking in 2005, I loved using dingbats (also referred to as wingdings) on my layouts. Perhaps this is because I was familiar with them as a paper scrapper? Many font companies produced font cds in the late 1990s and early 2000s that included several dingbat fonts on them. I remember being so excited about these and I loved typing on the keyboard to see what kind of little image each letter key would bring up. I’m always surprised these days that I don’t see more use of dingbat fonts on digital layouts. Even our team here at The Daily Digi admitted that they don’t use them. I myself have fallen away from remembering to check my stash of dingbats, but I’ve had a renewed interest in these characters lately. They are such an easy and fun way to add great details to illustrate titles and themes on scrapbook pages!
Here are some of my favorite dingbats: (many are free!)
Pea Betsy free at fontsforpeas
Pea Cookie Doodles free at fontsforpeas
Pea Deliah’s Doodles free at fontsforpeas
CK Ali’s Doodles at Scrap & Paper Shop
Garden Girls Love Me – free at 2peas
2 Peas Blocks – Road Trip and several other of the “blocks” style dingbats in the 2Peas dingbat font section
Boys will be Boys and several other David Walker dingbats in the 2Peas dingbat font section
Seeing Stars free at dafont.com
speech balloons free at dafont.com
Harry Potter and the dingbats free at dafont.com
Lettering Delights has a lot of cute dingbat fonts that they call “Doodle Bats”.
How to use dingbats on a digital scrapbook layout:
Using dingbats is as easy as typing, just click on the alphabet key associated with the image you want to use. You can adjust the size of the font and fill with different colors. You can even use the shapes as a clipping mask and fill with colored or patterned papers. Some dingbats can be colored in like doodles using the techniques found in this post.
Scrappers Guide has some great reference articles to help you use and view dingbat fonts.
It’s easy to turn a dingbat into a digital sticker to use as a page accent.
Layout by Katie. Credits: 2009 Year in Review Template by CatScrap, Cardstock by Suzy Q Scraps, David Walker Boys will be Boys dingbat font, CK Becky font
I love to use dingbats as tiny embellishments on a page.
Layout by Katie. Credits: Michelle Coleman Wonderful Kit, Ali Edwards template no. 3, CK Ali’s writing font and CK Ali Circles font for dingbats
Dingbats can be used like a digital stamp to add just a little graphic design to a layout or photo.
Layout by Katie. Credits: Paper by Bren Boone, Photo Piles frames by Katie the Scrapbook Lady, Ali Edwards Doodle font, Ali Edwards CK classical font
Dingbats can also be the star of the show! They can be the main design on a scrapbook layout, or even in a creative project. I bet once you see the wall art featured in the Yoda is my Homeboy post on Write Click Scrapbook, you will never look at dingbats the same way again!
Image from Write Click scrapbook post – check it out!
That post inspired me to create this fun little piece with one of my own favorite characters and quotes
Layout by Katie. Worn Paper by Weeds and Wildflowers. Harry and the dingbats font, Artistamp medium font.
I’m ready to raid my dingbat files now, how about you? I’d love to see what you create with these tiny little bits of art. Feel free to leave a comment and a link if you want to share your digiscrap dingbat layouts. Remember, it’s ok to play and have some fun!
P.S. The random winner from yesterday’s feature all about Iara of Baers Garten Designs is Beatrice! She won $1o in product from Iara 
THANKS to everyone that commented!
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Very neat idea! Thanks for linking us up to all those fonts. I went and downloaded the speech bubble one because I am always digging through my digistash trying to find those — this gives me 26+ options at the stroke of a key! AWESOME! Thanks for the inspiration!
I just found time to read this dingbat post. I already had a folder full but all the ones you shared are new to me. Thanks for another great post!
What fun! It never occurred to me to use dingbats. Off to go search some out!!
I forgot all about dingbats. Thanks for the reminder and the great examples.
I’ve used dingbats a few times… mostly smiley faces and hearts. I wrote a letter to my oldest son on a scrapbook page once, and used a heart dingbat when I signed my name (like I usually do in real life). That last design of yours makes me want to go re-read some Harry.
I sometimes use dingbats as stamps. I have the “Cats vs Dogs” dingbat from Dafont, and I created a stamp from the chihuahua image so I don’t have to remember which keystroke it is (I have a chihuahua, so it comes in handy.) I have also used one of the birds from “Birds of a Feather” at Dafont. I lowered the opacity of it to match the style of another bird stamp that had come with a kit I bought.
Thank you. I know I have a stash and you’ve inspired me to hunt them down. Love the list of some new ones too!
Great article.I had fun playing with them last week, too. I used Pea KT Pupply Love
http://scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/187946/ppuser/4989
fun layout!
I’ve never thought to use dingbats, but now I want to try them. Great article!
I love using dingbats on layouts! Just a cute little heart or I love you sometimes adds just the right touch! Thanks for more sources!
L-O-V-E this post! I can’t wait to play with some dingbats! THANKS (again), Katie!
“See” you at the chat!