ALAW done!

My first alphabet book of the year is finally done.  Hosted by Fiona, ALAW (a letter a week) is a fun way to play with lettering and create 2 alphabet books (or whatever display method you like) a year.  I'm a little behind in settling on the format for this alpha and I'm not 100% in love with it, but I like the idea and will play with it more.

Inspired by a project in the new issue of Pages magazine by Wen Redmond, I used an ultra simple book "binding".  I cut a narrow notch in the top and bottom of each page then used ribbon to tie it all up. You can see the notches as I show you the pages below.

I used a sheet of mulberry type paper I had on hand, tore the sheets so I got the deckle edge, used watercolor - every shade of blue I had - to do my mark making, added black circles here and there.  If I were to do it again I'd do the letters on the same paper as the book or on a more contrasting paper (I used bristol paper), but since I didn't know what I was going to do with the letters, I just picked a paper and started.  I was pleasantly surprised at how well the mulberry paper held up to the watercolors.

For the first time, I actually know exactly what I'm going to do for my next book.  The theme is "peace" and I'm going to use my photography, lettering and a flag book format to create an interactive book.  I'm excited to get started!  Please wander over to the ALAW blog when you have a few minutes and see the huge variety of projects and lettering mediums. As usual, the creativity is just amazing!