Glitz Wedding Guest Book

A little bit of glitz to an otherwise glamorous occasion.

Teacher Appreciation Albums

Teacher Appreciate week starts May 2nd and ends May 6th.

So, whether your a parent, or a student, I'd like to encourage you all to write a special little note to your teachers this coming week and let them know they're appreciated.  I say this not only as the wife of a teacher, but as a parent who appreciates everything my children's teachers do to help them learn new things each day.

In honor of Teacher Appreciation I'm featuring these two albums I created themed "Back to School."

TGIF Weekend Blessings

It's Friday!

Okay, so it's not any ordinary Friday, it's Easter weekend Friday - Good Friday.  The kids are home and we're preparing for the celebration of Christ's resurrection.

Definitely a time for family and friends.

With that being said, the shop door is shut until Tuesday.

See you then.

May your Easter be Blessed.

Lime Cover Options

I have to get these in the paper gallery, but here a just a few of the new Lime soft covers I just got in from my supplier over the weekend. I love the third one. Can't wait to turned these into beatiful books.

Framed Wedding Invitation

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to take some time off and attend the wedding of a close relative. It was neat being able to sign one of my own hand crafted guest book albums at the reception.

Although, the weather was horrid, the wedding was beautiful. As you can see, as a gift I took the couple's wedding invitation and framed it.   The frame came from Micheal's and I took red scrapbook book paper (8.5" x 11") and cut it down to size.  Then I centered the invitation. 

This particular invitation opened with two flaps, so I cut the flaps off and put them in the top and bottom corners of the frame.

Someone had once done this with my wedding invitation and it still hangs in our home as cherished gift. This too, I hope will be appreciated by the happy newlyweds as the move into their own home and begin a life and family of their own.

Lemon Cover Options

I just got some new cover options in, working on getting them into the paper gallery.  But for now, with lemon being such a popular color I thought I would share some of the new designs.

Little Hoot...Hoot...

So cute, this little hoot was the last of it's kind. The makers DCWV have retired this stack.  Only fitting that the ending on a cute paper should be celebrated with the welcoming of a new baby!

The inside pages look this, ready for all those bits of advice.

An addition to this custom baby shower guest book album is the gift pages.

For the photo pages, I stamped a little hoot...hoot... owl in turquoise on the lime green pages.

Hopefully, Baby Richardson will soon be arriving, and the family will soon be having another kind of celebration!

How To Create Inexpensive Wall Art with Scrapbook Paper

Spring is a time filled with graduations, baby showers, and weddings.  It's also the time we start getting out the buckets and pails and doing that big thing called "spring cleaning".   I don't know about you, but sometimes, I like to change my home decor around just a bit when I'm cleaning for the new spring season.

Stacy from Life's Sweeter with Chocolate has this fabulous idea on how to spruce up your home decor with some inexpensive wall art she created with scrapbook paper and photo frames.

I did this a few years ago, using some water color painting by my oldest daughter when she was in first grade.  You can check out the article here on ehow to see how I did it.

In the mean time, these simple framed pieces of artwork also make a great gift for bridal showers, weddings, graduations, and even baby showers.

Here's how you can make you're own Inexpensive Wall Art with Scrapbook paper.

You'll need.

Scrapbook paper
Photo Frame
paper cutter
Photo Mat

Instructions:

1. Cut scrapbook paper to fit size of photo frame.
2. Place down photo mat, then scrapbook paper, inside photo frame.
3. Place back on photo frame, then hang.

I'm thinking of doing this a gift for an upcoming wedding.  I'll show you mine if you show me yours.  Send them to me mrschadt (at) mrschadt.com and I'll post a few of them here on the blog.  Can't wait to see them!

2011 Wedding Invitation Trends

According to the Minnesota Bride, lemon, lime, and deep hues of purple are the coming attaction for this years wedding theme colors.  Like these wedding invitations by Apple Barrel Ink.

This elegant stripe wedding invitation is classic by Eltee Creative.

Fabuluos Monogram Wedding Invitations by Alamode Bride.

For  other great wedding invitation trends check out The Knot.
or the wedding paper divas.

Graduation Autograph Books

I've been working on this idea for a little while now.  These are graduation autograph albums.  I don't know about you, but when I was in high school and even college we used to sign year books and tablets and even t-shirts with names and well wishes. Parents take a ton of photos for this special occasion and so, I got to thinking it would be nice to put them all together in a flip album type book to look back upon a few decades later.

Like most of my guest book albums, these graduation autograph books have blank signature pages in the front and black photo safe card stock in the back.

Know anyone graduating this year?

How to Select the Binding For Your Guest Book

There are several different methods of stab stitching a guest book or photo album.  But the question for today is, how do you decided which stitch design best suits your guest book?

Four Hole Binding

First of all, I just want to say that size matters.  The smaller the book, the less room to get real detailed and fancy.  Usually for a 5.5" x 8.5" album or even a 8" x 8" I highly recommend a simple four hole stab stitch design like the book in the photo above.

Hemp Leaf Binding

When you move up to a larger book, like a 8" x 10" or 8.5" x 11" for example, then my custom guest books are stitched in the Hemp Leaf Binding design as you see in the photo. 

However, ever once in a while, I'll also use the Tortoise Shell design like this photo below.

Tortoise Shell Binding

Three things to keep in mind when you choose your binding.

1. Size

2. Formal or informal occasion

3. Color.

I've already explained above how size matters.  The next thing you want to keep in mind is the occasion.  If it's informal, keep your binding simple.  If it's formal, hemp leaf binding is more appropriate. And, if it's elegant I'd go with the tortoise shell binding. But it's your book, you decide.

Lastly, I know what your thinking. What does color have to do with it?  Well, ask yourself, do you want your binding to stand out and be an accent? or do you want it to blend in? The more fancier the binding of your guest book, the more the color and design are going to stand out and be noticed.

Elegance Wedding Guest Book - Custom Order

Remember the design from a last week's post titled, The Design Process?

Well, I finished it yesterday.

What do you think?

I don't want to show you too much of this wedding guest book album, as you will be seeing it again on one of my June 19, 2011 posts. 

However, I couldn't help myself from showing off the triple binding in trio colors.  I have to say, this was the first time I'd tried to bind in three different colors and am quite impressed. I love the color varation. Don't you?

Baby Autograph Guest Book Keepsake Album

So, it's been quite around here for the past few days.  I appologize for the lack of posts.  First we had a round of sick kids, then a few days of no school for parent teacher conferences.

In the mean time, I've been working on a few custom orders.  Like this baby autograph guest book keepsake album for a special mother-to-be in Australia.

This is an 8" x 8" Hardbound baby autograph guest book in blue polka dot and brown.

Behind the signature pages are brown card stock for photos.  Like most of my paper covered albums, I included a matching pen and personized the first page. I really like how this book came out.  The size is just perfect and the polka dots give it that cuteness for a baby.  I have some other colored polka dot papers that I think I know what to do with now, don't you?

Wedding Guest Book - Turquoise Floral