Alphabet Book by Robin Seiz

Happy December to all of you.

Most of us are thinking about gift giving during this time of year. This project I am sharing with you is an alphabet book I made for my 19 month-old granddaughter for Christmas. I absolutely love combining paper (I use the Gelli Plate a lot) and cloth, and hand stitching whenever I can.

I knew I wanted the book to be small enough for her to easily handle; I made it 6”x6” but, of course, you can make one any size you like. I started with a cardboard template to measure the pieces of duck cloth. I find that I don’t really like cutting out material using my cutting mat; it just never works out for me. I cut out 6 pages, one each for the letters A-F. I, also, cut one page which was about 1 inch longer for the cover. Once the cloth was cut, I frayed the edges.

I chose 6 Gelli Prints that coordinated and were lying around on my desk; this is a great way to use your scraps. I cut each print to 5”x5” so they would fit on the cloth page with a margin. I started with the first Gelli Print on the inside of the first page. I knew the outside would be sewn to the cover. I machine stitched the Gelli Print to the page.

Next, I cut 6 - 2 1/4” x 2 1/4” pieces of duck cloth for the letters. I used Julie Fen Balzer’s alphabet Art Foamies and stamped the letters using Versa Fine Clair ink. It did smear a little. The next book, I will use Archival Ink which I think will work better. You could also use acrylic paint mixed with GAC900 as well. I placed the duck cloth letter on the Gelli Print and machine stitched it as well.

The adjacent page to the A, I stamped the Art Foamie Apple. I then hand stitched the detail, but of course you don’t have to do this. The stamp looked good all on it’s own.

I repeated this process for the other 5 pages, using the letters B-F and the Art Foamies Bear Borders, Circle (I used the back of the Button Art Foamie), Halftone Dots and Polka Dot Bar, Elephant (this is a stencil) and Sardines. I added some fun tactile pieces; buttons on the bear, pieces of cloth to C, and some shiny sequence (for the fish scales) to F. Under each picture, I free-motion sewed the lettering describing the object. ie, Bear with Buttons, Circle and Cloth, Dots, Elephant, and Flying Fish.

 

Finally, when the pages were complete, I stacked them on top of each other and sewed them together with book binding thread. Next, I stamped the cover, with A-F Art Foamies and used red embroidery thread to hand stitch the cover to the first and last page of the book.

I have moved onto the next 6 letters in the alphabet. That one, will likely be completed for Christmas. The others will follow when I have the opportunity to do them.

This project was really fun and it’s a great way to use lots of your Art Foamies.

I hope you try to make your own little journal. Post it, and tag me so I can see what you do.

Happy Holidays.
Robin