Wedding Guest Book

This is the second project I worked on for my sister's wedding. She wanted a guest sign-in book for the reception with their engagement pictures on the pages. The book turned out to be 8.5x11. I was nervous about it because I'd never done one this large, let alone one with pictures (which means I needed to tweak the binding), but I think it turned out nice.


I used a quote about love from one her fiance's emails in the front cover, and then filled the book with 25 of their engagement pictures--one on each page. We found metallic sharpies for the guests to sign their names or write a brief message to the bride and groom.

On the back inside cover, I put their wedding invitations as a remembrance for their future kids to see.

I was excited with how it turned out . . . and sad to see it go!

Marriage Manuals

While I was home for my sister's wedding, I was also in charge of part of the bridal shower activities. Since there are no manuals for surviving marriage, I made these "Marriage Manuals" that all the guests could write advice in.

(front covers)

There were three volumes:

Volume I: How to Make Your House a Home

Volume II: How to Live Rich When Poor

Volume III: How to Keep the Love Alive

(back covers)

They were accordian books with pockets in them. The guests wrote advice on each topic on the slips of paper, then slid them into the pockets.

(Pre-bridal shower photos)

You could also use this at a baby shower for guests to fill in advice for the new parents.

Catching Up

It's amazing how life seems to move in fast forward when your computer is down! I have so much to catch up on--and I think I may be laying my trusty laptop to rest soon (which means not-so-trusty anymore). For now, I'll try to update on my husband's Mac (yuck). :)

I had an order from a friend to make a mini-journal for her niece who would be traveling a lot this summer. Her niece's name is Wren, and she's just a little toddler right now.

It would be more of a coloring book than a journal, so I put in a variety of pages as well as white pages.


Plus I added a page of stickers that my own toddler absolutely loves. Yes--they seem quite boring for the older generations, but my little girl has so much fun with them.

Coming next . . . "Marriage Manuals" I created for my sister's bridal shower--full of pockets for lots of advice from the attendants.

Another College Survival Guide

I got another order for a College Survival Guide, and seeing as how this order was from some friends back home, my husband wanted to put the text together for them. The mother mentioned Paige's favorite colors were purple and green, so this is what I came up with. The purple on the binding edge was textured paper, and the inside cover was a green textured paper. It was so much fun to do. I hope Paige enjoys it as much as we did!
The table of contents:

A sample page of the text:
And I'm still working on the exciting project I haven't posted yet. It got interrupted with a move, but now that we are almost settled, I'll be booking again soon!

Catching Up

I have to admit that I enjoy booking so much more than I enjoy blogging. So I do often get behind on keeping caught up on posting my latest projects.

So here they are . . .
The first set I did was in preparation for the Get Lit festival of 2010. This festival is a weekend full of writing conferences with published authors and poets. I made these journals for me and the two other girls attending with me--as a keepsake for the weekend, to keep notes in, and for any other writing related things.



And the second project I finished was a journal for my SIL to her mother for her mom's birthday. My SIL picked out the cover design (one of my favorites), then requested a picture of her mother on the inside cover. The title page said "till mamma" which means "to mom" in Swedish.


I'm super excited about this next project that I'm working on. I've never tried anything like it before, so I'm anxious to see how it will turn out. Stay tuned!

Jessica's College Survival Guide

I loved working on this project! It was so much fun putting a book together that actually had text to it! The book was titled "Jessica's College Survival Guide," and the author did a great job compiling all sorts of great tips and advice for a first year college student. There were eight chapters, with love notes from family members at the very end.

Here's the front cover:

The title page:

One of the pages mid-book:
And the back cover:

Other great ideas are to compile old love-emails together into a book, gather letters from family members to a birthday grandparent, or "publish" your own story.