wrapping up ALAW

I hope you've all had a simply marvelous Christmas and Boxing Day.  I hope you've found time to be with friends and/or family, people you love and who love you. I hope you've found time to be quiet and time to be joyous.  I hope you now find some time to take a deep breath, relax, and reflect on what 2013 will bring.

I had a most excellent Christmas - our boys came over, stayed the night and we played games, drank and ate, played some more games, talked and put our feet up and talked some more - oh yeah, and played some more games and ate and drank some more......did I mention we love games of all types?  It was one of my favorite Christmases ever!  Here's my family on Christmas morning:

I have found some time to be creative - a moment here and there.  I've been working on my ALAW (a letter a week) project, my second alphabet.  Here's the last of the letters I've written on my pockets (these haven't been cut apart and folded yet).  Then I'm adding photos that I've taken of flowers beginning with each letter to fill the pockets.  Next step is to figure out the book format I want to tackle.

I certainly like how some of these letters turned out more than others - even after practicing a whole page of each before moving to the pocket - the texture of the paper is different and the pen reacts differently, but I didn't have enough of the pocket paper to practice on it.....so I figured it out. 

Here's a few of the flower photos that will go in the pockets - they are 5x2.25"

Hopefully I'll get the book started in the next few days.....Now it's time to turn my mind to what I want to tackle for my first alphabet in 2013.....hmmm.....

second alphabet

An ongoing project is my ALAW (a letter a week) so at the end of the year I'll have two alphabets completed - I made the first alphabet into an accordion book (you can see it here).  This time I wanted to incorporate my photography as well as make a little more complicated book.

I decided on flowers as my theme since I have tons of flower pictures I've taken over the years.  My idea is to make a pocket featuring the letter of the alphabet (in the prescribed 3x3" format) and then tuck my photos of flowers starting with that letter inside the pocket.  The lettering in the background is computer generated and is a list of flowers beginning with the letter drawn.  I did a ton of research trying to find as many for each letter as I could.  (for example, the background text for the A is agapanthus, anthurium, aster, astilbe, acacia, alstromeria, acanthus, amaranthus, anemone, allium, amaryllis.  I won't have photos of all those, but of more than one!

lettering done with a parallel pen - still learning how to use it evenly

Then came the hard part of selecting which flower starting with "D" I was going to use.  I decided not to limit myself so redesigned the pockets with gussets so they could hold multiple photos.  I found this bit of leftover paper that is perfect but I don't have a lot of it so if I mess up writing a letter I don't have room for many corrections so I think I'll wait til I draw them all then go back and redo my least favorites.  Or, maybe I'll just go look for another paper :)

agapanthus and astilbe, photo size 2.5" x 5" to fit inside the 3" pockets

bird of paradise

clematis

dahlia and daffodils

Now that I've settled on a plan, I'm off and running - I've made a list of the letters I don't have a flower to go with and so now I'll be on the hunt as we go on vacation next week.  I need to fill in those holes!

They'll look something like this .....

I'm also sharing this post with Artists in Blogland.  It's a great site to share what you've been up to creatively....I usually forget to add my post, but lots of people participate so it's worth a visit.

THIS SOUNDS LIKE FUN

I came across this in my blog reading today and thought I'd share in case any of you want to join in.  Donna Downey (Simply Me) put out an international call to help her decorate her new studio space and it sounds like SO much fun!  She wants any and all takers to decorate a paintbrush that will then adorn the walls of her public restrooms.  Simple or elaborate, the style is up to you.  You can read more here.

    

These images are from her site - one on the left done by Julie Fei Fen Balzer and on right by Donna. (she could have put it in Jenn's turquoise and lime challenge this week!).  So if the idea of having an embellished paintbrush along with a card proclaiming your info hanging in the restroom gallery of Donna's studio appeals to you, visit her site for all the details.  Fun!

ALAW -january

I've been busily working on a new project - ALAW (a letter a week).  This project is a year long project at the end of which I'll have created two alphabets.  The "rules" are simple:  any medium, any style, size must be 7cm (3") square and after the letters have been created, they should be presentation ready in some form - a book, framed, hanging by wire, etc.  One of the two alphabets must follow the theme "dotty".

I followed along last year, lurking on the fringes and so intrigued by everyone's efforts, so this year I jumped in. My subconscious has been working overtime to come up with how I wanted to create them, what style/shape of letters and ultimately how to present it....  Here's my first 4 letters for each week in January.

Obviously, I've decided to do my 'dotty' alpha first.  I created dots of spattered watercolor as the background and the colors will progress through the color wheel three times.  The tiles will also be connected with the ribbon of circles on black (more dots) and then filled in with zentangle patterns.  I figured this way I'm practicing my lettering as well as my tangles.

A few of the other participants have started sharing their alphabets too so be sure and visit the ALAW site - you'll be amazed at the creativity!  If you're so inclined, it's worth a minute to scroll through some of last year's finished alphas -they're amazing!  See them here.

ED:  I just read Inspiration Ave new prompt for the week and it's alphabet letters.  Well, what do you know, I have some of those!  So I'm linking up.