My friend Heather threw a surprise anniversary party for her parents' 40th anniversary. Her idea was to sort of recreate the original wedding. She used the colors and made mongrammed wedding favors. Super cute idea. She asked me to come up with something in lieu of a guestbook, but really inexpensive. Here's what I made for her:
I used the new FABULOUS bride specialty papers from Stampin' Up! So easy to make things look classy! Inside, the pages are made from 6x6 page protectors and simple, yet elegant stamped pages.
Sorry about the shadow on there. It's really hard to see but the corner has a flourish stamped in grey from the Baroque Motifs set. The papers are basic black and shimmery white. It looks really classy in person, hard to get that from the photo.
I know what you're thinking, it looks like a scrapbook instead of a guest book, right? Well, it's both. Because this was an anniversary and celebration of 40 years of memories, Heather wanted more than just signatures. She wanted something that added to the memories collected over the years and she wanted something that was more interesting to flip through in the future. So she came up with this fabulous idea! She made little cards with short prompts, like: "My favorite memory of _____ & _____ is ..." and "The funniest thing they ever did was...". She made those cards and trimmed them down so they mat perfectly in those black photo mats I made. At the party people go to choose which writing prompt they wanted and filled it out, put it in the book, and signed the mat.
Keeping it simple helped keep the cost and time down. This came together in a flash. Yet it's not missing anything by way of classiness.
It would be great at a wedding too. Have someone take pics of the guests and put their photos in there on the page they sign. What a time capsule item that would be!
The cover is made with chipboard, covered with the bride papers. I used the cropodile to easily punch through it and threaded ribbon through for the binding. Covering chipboard is a great way to make a sturdy cover without the expense of an album. And these papers combined with the organdy ribbon are sleek and elegant.
The recipe:
Baroque Motifs stamp set
Basic Black cardstock
Shimmery White cardstock
Gray ink
White Organza Ribbon
chipboard
6x6 page protectors
cropodile
*All of these items are available for purchase on my Stampin' Up! website.
