The Wonderful World of Annotation

Ah, annotation! Recently I've developed a fondness for it, my craftivity projects taking me from chaotic notes in book margins to beautiful illustrations, and sometimes a combination of both. In this case, it was a gift to one of my favorite people who had the audacity to up and move to a different state, thus leaving me behind (lookin' at you, Evelyn!)

But in all seriousness, I wanted to give her something special because she is an inspiration to me as a friend and writer. A book series we both love is Knights of Arrethtrae by Chuck Black. You can check out our reviews for the entire six book set under our Book Reviews section at the top of our page. :D

Lady Carliss and the Waters of Moorue is a shared favorite of ours. Check out my review for it to know more! https://journeyintostory.wixsite.com/journeyintostory/post/lady-carliss-and-the-waters-of-moorue-a-book-review

After grabbing a used but nice copy of the book, I cracked open my highlighters, fancy paper, glue, ink pens, and pencil. It was time to get busy!

The maps at the front of each book vary depending on the story, and while the one for Lady Carliss was sufficient to explain her travel, it lacked the size and detail of maps in the following books. I browsed several of these maps to piece together one that was large enough for the blank space in the back of the book, but didn't strain my eyes writing every single tiny city name. Just the basics, some I thought were interesting and showed up in other books, and a dotted line detailing Carliss's journey to Moorue.

A map is just one of the many, many ways you can annotate a book and make it personal. One of the ways I worked was in illustrations that could be either literal or symbolic, such as the one on the right. The next photo of the knight was more literal, showing the good king's son from a story about a man sacrificing himself for his kingdom (sound familiar?). The third illustration pictured below was more symbolic. The deadly esca lizards have a lethal sting, representing the vices of the world that seek to ensnare our souls. I drew an esca lizard wrapped around a skull to show the death it presents, which also served as eerie foreshadowing! You can't truly appreciate light without seeing the darkness that surrounds it, so don't be afraid to draw or highlight those darker themes in a book. It only makes the message of hope and light more powerful!

In the final picture you'll see my handy dandy color code bookmark! Recycling is a fun element to annotation, challenging ourselves to discover new ways to use what we have in art. Flower printed paper from a used planner, discarded copy paper, and a tassel from a graduation cap wall decoration came together to create this bookmark. I glued two sheets of copy paper on top of the thicker calendar paper, then cut out a rectangle and let it dry. After that added more torn flower paper for a writerly look at the top of the front, following by the highlight strips and an explanation for what they meant. Lastly I snipped a hole through a top corner and slipped the tassel through. It only took a day to craft it, and it turned out to be quite a sturdy bookmark with a useful front and elegant back.

There's hundreds of ways you can annotate a book, so always look everywhere for fresh ideas. Pinterest is amazing for this, but also observing what appeals to you and brainstorming about what might be fun. I dug up a package of Bible tabs with words like favorite and faith in pretty print, and used six of them to mark my six favorite chapters. That way no matter how far Evelyn goes, we'll always be connected through the power of books.

For a rustic, bookworm look, I cut squares of fancy scrapbook paper and ripped them in half. Each half could be glued on a corner of the book, but this idea can be expanded to cutting out shapes from the paper and adding them to your favorite scenes, making bookmarks, and so much more! Experiment with calligraphy, doodles, stickers, borders, string, glitter- remember, you can almost always find a copy of a book online, so don't worry about "ruining" anything with wild ideas. If the thought of permanently changing a book worries you, you can always order a second copy ahead of time.

But it's important to remember to embrace that creative fire and let changes happen. Annotation can be a work of experimentation, or a celebration of talents you already have. There are hundreds of ways you can make a book yours. Go online for ideas, use ones from this post, or, best of all, think about what special gift you have to make your book special.

If you want to share your creative ideas, comment below and let me know how you would annotate a book! If you want to share a post about your process, feel free to contact us and see if it can get posted. I would love to hear from you.

Finally, I regret that I could share so few pictures from my project. Our Wix site is running out of storage space, so we're having to be frugal with how we upload photos. Hopefully we'll be able to upgrade soon and be able to share more, but until then, if you want to see the rest of the pictures, go to our Instagram page at journeyintostory. There you can see the reel detailing my thought process behind the artwork, as well as a post I'll be putting up today. I hope you can join me and lend me your thoughts and creative ideas!

Until next time!

Keep writing, y'all <3

-Serena