Scrapbooker's Alphabets: Inspiration and Instruction for 50 Fabulous Decorative Alphabets [Paperback]

Ruth Booth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2006

Everybody who keeps a scrapbook, photo album, or personal journal will value this reference volume and how-to guide as a source for creating elegant hand-lettered classical scripts, modern geometric alphabets, or amusing and funky lettering styles. It presents 50 different alphabets for tracing or copying, along with step-by-step instructions, directional arrows showing how to draw each letter, and advice on letter spacing. The author also offers suggestions for using color, embellishing pages with added decorations, and selecting complementary backing papers. Just as important is this book's overview of the tools and materials required to execute the letter styles. They include chisel-edged fiber-tip markers, calligraphy cartridge pens, graphite and colored pencils, pointed brush pens, and gel pens. A personal scrapbook or album's lettering is as important a design element as its clippings or photos. Elegant lettering is great a way to enhance a personal collection, transforming it into a work of art. More than 250 color illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

(back cover)
Personalize your scrapbooks, journals, invitations, and greeting cards with beautiful lettering. Create elegant scripts, modern geometric forms, or playful and funky styles.

Choose from traditional, sophisticated scripts for formal occasions or select graceful, romantic calligraphy for heartfelt memory-book pages. You'll also find spooky goblin capitals that are perfect for Halloween fun, and colorful letters that dance across the page.

Organized by style, all 50 fabulous alphabets can be copied or traced using tools that are readily available from all craft stores. You'll also find a helpful examination of each alphabet's distinguishing features, clear step-by-step instructions, directional arrows showing how to render individual letters, and tips on letter spacing.

(front flap)
Scrapbooker's Alphabets is an invaluable resource for everyone who wants to hand letter their scrapbooks, journals, invitations, and greeting cards. Featuring 50 unique alphabets that you can trace or copy, this book organizes letters by style. You'll have no trouble finding the right alphabet for every occasion, including:

Romantic--A collection of graceful letter forms appropriate for telling your most heartfelt stories.

Playful--Lighthearted alphabets that are simple to create with familiar, easy-to-handle tools.

Funky--Expressive alphabets for telling your wackiest stories or injecting humor into everyday memories.

Exotic--A variety of letter forms that can capture the feeling of a vacation or help you tell stories of adventures you experienced in your own backyard. Casual--A collection of modern alphabets with traditional roots that have a warm, friendly appear. Classic--Letter forms based on historical or traditional examples, appropriate for formal occasions.

Each alphabet is presented with helpful hints that include suggested applications, the lettering tools you'll need, tips for good letter spacing, guidelines for correct spacing between text lines, and an examination of each alphabet's distinguishing features.

(back flap)
Ruth Booth is a freelance lettering artist and designer who works from her studio near Toronto, Ontario. She teaches calligraphy and related arts locally at The Calligraphic Arts Guild of Toronto, and internationally for The Association for the Calligraphic Arts. In addition to completing many corporate and private commissions, she develops lettering for trademarks, logos, and packaging. She also exhibits and sells her work in galleries and at juried shows in the Toronto area. Ruth is a partner of Booth Prussick Design, a studio that creates patterns for ceramic dinnerware, giftwrap, paper plates, journal covers, and background papers and alphabet stickers for scrapbook publishers.

About the Author

Ruth Booth is a freelance lettering artist and designer who works from her studio near Toronto, Ontario. She has created logos and package designs for a wide variety of businesses.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Barron's Educational Series (September 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764133799
• ISBN-13: 978-0764133794
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 8.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,015,335 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Calligraphers, Alert! Not for scrapbookers only, February 20, 2010

By 

Margaret H. Doman "Reading Radish Woman" (Tacoma WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Scrapbooker's Alphabets: Inspiration and Instruction for 50 Fabulous Decorative Alphabets (Paperback)

I enjoyed this book. I first saw it at the Letters of Joy Friday night lecture and Saturday classes - conference put on by the Write On Calligraphers of Edmonds, Washington in May. The Tacoma Calligraphy Guild has a vendor's table at the event that features books from John Neal Booksellers, one of the few premier websites for calligraphy and art books and supplies. Another is the Paper Ink and Arts website by Brenda Broadbent.
I liked it because I am not fond of dip pens and ink; I know, deep in my heart, that I will spill it all over myself and my environment. (Don't laugh; it's happened!)This book presents some excellent ductis-es (ducti?) of hands familiar to the calligrapher, as well as some playful hands for less formal uses. The less formal is what I like.
I ended up giving it to one of my granddaughters for Christmas. She's 15 and very artistic, as is her twin sister and their mother.
About Christmas, I give a book to each of our 11 grandchildren and one other thing appropriate for their ages, and I adhere to a strict budget. Amazon is a great source for art books, and the used ones are very useful as well. I'm not such a snob that I won't buy a used book. In the Puget Sound area, the Half-Price Bookstores are a favorite drop in point.