Saturday Sneak Peek - The Guestbook!

I thought I had a plan.  I had found a plastic canvas book cover with a spot to insert a picture and some potential.  Admittedly, not a lot, but I figured I could work with it.  But I have to say, I wasn't much inspired.  Plastic canvas is so.....80's, and even then, never really found its way out of "old lady crafts".  And this was peach yarn in plastic canvas.  But I figured - what the heck - it's a guestbook.

Then one day, on the phone, MMM said to me, "I've been meaning to talk to you about that.  I mean, is that really 'you'?"  As in, is that reflective of your style?  Really?  And, of course the answer was no.  I found the thing at thrift - remember that's my watchword - everything about this wedding has to be thrifted or homemade, within reason.  Thrift?  Check!  Will it suffice?  Check!  Wait, wait!  SUFFICE?  This is our wedding.  Do I want stuff to just suffice, or do I want it to be special and memorable?  Duh.

Then MMM said something inspirational (and you might think this is no big inspiration, but sometimes I just need a little push to get my brain cells to line up in a row).  He said, "Why don't you just carve up some old book?"  By that, he meant - tear the pages out and replace them with blanks.  But then my brain cells lined up, and I could hardly wait to go to the Good Samaritan.

I dug through their shelves of antique books until I found just the right one.  It's an old school book about the journeys of Lewis and Clark.  It was the right color and size, and it was just $0.75!  Actually, I felt a little sad about what I was about to do, but now that it's done?  No regrets!  And look at the title.

If that's not apropos for a couple about to take the leap, I don't know what is!  LOL!

I traced a rectangle on the opening page of the book, and then used an exacto knife to just slice that rectangle down through all the pages.  I probably should have glued all the outside edges first, so that they wouldn't slip and slide as I was cutting.  Oh, well, you live and you learn.  I used Mod Podge to glue all those outside edges after I finished the interior box, clamping the pages so that they dried tightly together.  

I bought scrapbook paper to match the turquoise of the wedding doilies, and cut pieces to fit the inside.  Before I glued in the one in the bottom of the box, I added a script-y 'P', for my soon-to-be surname.

 The front of the book has this cool stylized bison, which has no particular significance, but I do really like it.  It adds a certain charm.

Below that, there was a perfect space for our names, so I added them with a Sharpie.  Here's your chance to note that My Montana Man has an actual first name.  A nice, manly one. 

I drilled through the cover, attached a faucet handle, and added a braided length of the same turquoise crochet thread I used for all those doilies.  I simply used hot glue to attach it to the back of the book, then added a flat orange button to disguise it a bit.

Lastly, at thrift, I bought a never-opened package of scrapbook pages.  These were the old kind - before everyone and their dog took up scrapbooking.  This is heavy old paper, and I liked the way my cutter cut through it - kind of leaving a sort of deckled edge on each of the 3 x 4 1/2" cards.  I added an embellishment to each card.  Folks can leave us a wish or a blessing for our marriage and sign the card.  I made enough so that each individual wedding guest can do that.  

After we're married, I can open this guestbook and see all the lovely things folks wrote and remember the day as we live out our own highest wishes.

Do you like my guestbook?  I think it's special.  And like MMM said, it really is 'me'.

Love,

Sass