Deadline: MET.

I was asked to make the guest book for a wedding shower, and since I'm one of the bridesmaids (and I'm a sucker for projects like this) I quickly agreed. I think all together it took between five and six hours of work to put this one together. Probably more because of my indecisiveness than because of the actual hands-on work, though. Now that I know what I'm doing I could probably turn another one out a LOT quicker!

Here's the binding. It looks super-fancy but it literally took under 10 minutes to put it together once all the holes were punched:



I hand-tore all the white cardstock pages so they have deckle edges all the way around.


Since I helped the bride with her wedding invitations, I was able to secretly snag a leftover piece and use it on the title page.



The pages look a little plain right now, but will soon be much more exciting. On the left side of each spread I put in photo corners sized for a 4x6 photo. My plan is for her to put pictures from the shower throughout the book. On the facing page are two little envelopes. I also cut a bunch of little cards - each guest can write their little message and tuck it into the book for Heather and Chris to read together later on.



Here's the finished product:



The final dimensions of the book are 10 1/2" x 5". I added in extra sheets of cardstock inside the spine to compensate for the extra thickness that will be added with the photos, envelopes and insert cards. Otherwise the open end would fan out and the book would never lay flat. Hopefully I added enough - I'm sure I'll hear soon enough!

So now I have the urge to make about 20 more of these in all different shapes and sizes... some with different sized envelopes inside, others with the traditional lined sheets for signatures, some landscape-oriented like this one, and at least one in portrait orientation. I want to try different materials for making the spine, and maybe even some different bindings. And what would I do with twenty guestbooks? I guess hope I get invited to lots of events that need a guestbook! Hee hee! Actually I have to get back to Father's Day cards first. It's only a week away! EEK!!

Have a great evening everybody. (YES ALL TWO OF YOU I KNOW)

Love Shelley!