Easy Peasey DIY Guest Book

This year Husband and I have been invited to a ton of weddings. Three on the same day, in fact.  It was a little crazy and we have one more to go. The wedding we most recently attended was of Baby B's Godmother and my dear friend, Cadiz.

I had the honor of NOT being a bridesmaid. Yes, you read that correctly. I was honored to not have to be part of the formal hoopla leaving me free to do the things I find fun. Namely organizing, crafting, consulting, Bollywood-dancing (I'm talking a full out routine!) cheer leading, streamlining, guest-book-making, etc.

Kolo Albums make great guest and parent brag books.

She had a number of DIY wedding projects since she's among the craftiest people I know. She and H (and a cast of dozens) handmade all the center piece flowers out of coffee filters a la Martha Stewart in a beautiful shade of blue.

We celebrated her birthday with a few hours of handmade tissue paper flowers and turned it into a chandelier kind of like the one featured here. Only better (in my opinion).

The week before the wedding, I got a call from the bride-to-be asking about what to do about a guest book. She said I generally had practical advice to balance out her visions of grandeur. I like to think that I'm a lazy crafter. I figure there has to be an easier way to do most things. If you're doing something that takes up more time that you'd like, then it's either not worth it or you're doing something wrong.  Anyways, I digress. I offered her the idea that I've used for other friends' weddings and said I'd make her a guest book using a photo album. You could knock this out in an afternoon if you plan ahead, at the same time it is easy enough to spread out over 3-4 30-minute windows of time.

Here's what I used:

• 1 Newbury Kolo Album in Lake 
• 2 Noci Kolo Albums in Lake
• 1 package of photo corners in black
• 1 sheet of Peacock Silver on Turquoise Fine Paper
• 1 sheet of Lakota Indian Paisley on Orange Fine Paper
• 1 sheet of cover weight paper
• Wedding Invitation
• A variety of 4x6 engagement photos supplied by the bride and groom.
• Glue stick
• Rotary Tool
• Cutting Mat
• Scissors
• Printer / MS Word  

Their photos were taken by Albert Yau, Second Print Productions. He is magical. It's like he watches Bollywood movies in his spare time or something.

I waited until Baby B was soundly asleep before I began this project. Otherwise, we'd have fingerprints everywhere. I laid out all the photos and arranged, rearranged and rearranged again until I was happy with the order. Next I used the photo corners and put individual pictures on the pages. I tried to spread them out so that the first few pages had one picture and one blank page and then doubled up with facing pictures.  That way there's plenty of room for the guests to sign around them.

Then I went through and cut 1" wide strips of the patterned paper. Each set of facing pages had matching boarders. A little bit of glue held them in place nicely. I let the book dry over night.

Finally, I worked on the insert for the front covers. The couple used Arial Narrow for their invites so I matched that general style in the 2.5" insert.

The parent album cover inserts were super easy since all I had to do was reduce the size of the guest book cover insert to just over 2" squares.  I left the first slot empty so they could insert their invitations, the rest was filled with pictures and a few slots in the back empty for wedding pictures!  When they have kids, they can give them another mini brag book to match.