No Matter the Occasion

I recently had to move my studio down into another part of our house. I simply out grow my tiny little work space. Now, however, I've got some elbow room.

I've been working on several different types of books lately.  Now that spring has sprung, rainy and wet and I can't wait for some sun shine, I've been working on a lot of bright and cheerful projects.

Tis the season for baby showers, bridal showers, retirement parties, graduations, and weddings.

There are probably 101 or more occasions that one can think of for the use of an autograph guest book album. There's nothing like creating those special memory books and flip albums filled with photos of a special occasion to last a life time.

How many times will you graduate from high school? college? get married? or have your first baby?

That's why many of my guest book albums have blank signature pages ready to write down those memories, best wishes, advice, and provide plenty of room for journaling. In the back are acid-free and lingign-free card stock pages that await your special photos. It's like a scrapbook to hold on and cherish through the generations.

What occasion is coming up in your life?

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!

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?

May All Your Dreams Come True

Something blue just got more interesting with this golden rod blue bird guest book album!

From the glossy bird cover and this bird stamp (below) this book was inspired.

"May all your DREAMS come true." What a sweet saying for the front page of this guest book album. It's so versatile, for a wedding, bridal shower, graduation, even a retirement party. I like how the bird is in flight, because isn't that how we all are? When we're getting married, starting a new journey in our life, we're fluttering and taking flight toward a dream.

Beyond the dream of the front page of this guest book album, are the autograph pages stamped with this new floral design swag.

There's plenty of room between these stamped flowers for your guest to write advice, well wishes, and their name to create memories of your special day.

Unlike any of my other guest book albums, I took that last autograph page and did something extra special. This page is more of a transition from those special hand written notes to the photo card stock pages. So, I stamped it with the floral swag, then with the little snowflake flower stamp that leads us into the photo pages of the book.

As you can see the snowflake flowers then grace the photo pages and carry the floral theme throughout this book.

May All Your Dreams Come True!

Custom Order - Eggplant and Plum

Remember the Ivory and Black Damask Guest Book Album from a few weeks ago?  This isn't it. It looks almost like it, but this my friends is a custom order for a very special couple getting married in September.

Their wedding colors are a deep purple, like eggplant or a plum.

Part of customizing a book is being able to match the couples wedding colors, but also to give it a few of those extra special touches.

Like this verse the couple has picked for the front page of their guest book album. A beautiful vow about becoming husband and wife.

I added extra pages to this book, which made it much thicker than my standard guest book albums, but as you can see the binding still looked very nice. I searched for the darkest purple I could find and that is what I used for the ribbon.

So even though it's ivory and black damask, this couple was able to put their own personal imprint on this design with their front page, name card, and color choice.

And, I'm happy to say that this guest book album has been shipped off to the happy couple in Canada.

May their wedding be a blessed and joyous event!

Victorian Anniversary Guest Book Albums

I love these vintage floral print double sided card stock pages. One I like roses, and two the floral print makes me think anniversary. Maybe because every year I get flowers on my anniversary.

I have to say, that I'm more liking to blue, personal preference, as blue was one of my wedding colors.

In both these books I stamped the corners of the signature pages. The pink pages photographed below belong to the pink and green floral book (1st photo above). .

Inside the blue floral anniversary guest book I placed ivory and creme pages, but with the same stamp design

Each of these anniversary guest book albums features 30 pages for signatures, a place to record memories, and special notes from friends and family. There's also 20 photo card stock pages.

As with any of my book I can add pages, just let me know how many.

It may not be a guest book for a modern bride, maybe a Victorian bride, but most certainly a guest book album worth remembering the special day you were a bride and celebrating all the years of marriage past.

Blue or green, which is preference?

Gray and Ivory Damask

The ivory damask print on this cover reminds me of the print of shear lace table covers, you know the kind at grandma's house with the old fashion lamps or wash stands?

 Inside the pages are ivory and creme'. I've stamped the signature pages at opposite corners with the floral corner swag stamp.

I've included a matching pen and a felt sleeve to complete the package.

It's formal and antique looking, almost as if it should be in a house entry way or a hall. I think anyone who is looking for something vintage style and yet modern will enjoy this guest book album no matter what the occasion.

Olive Swirl

I had one piece of this olive swirl paper left and couldn't think of a better way to put it to use than to create this elegant guest book with matching pen.

The binding is wrapped in a bronze fabric that gives a slight shimmer in the right light.  I binded the edge in a 4-hole stab stitch with white satin ribbon.

The pages are white heavy weight paper and ivory card stock.

Instead of stamping these pages, I predesigned them using my Microsoft Publisher Software with simply the word "Guests" at the top of every other page.  So when you open the book, you have guest written on the top right of the right page and the left pages is completely blank.

Wedding, Bridal shower, Baby shower? Or how about graduation? What would you use this guest book album for?

What a Hoot!

My high school mascot was an owl.  When I came across this textured card stock I knew I had to make a book with it. All I could think about was my high school graduation -- because of the owl.

Isn't he adorable?

I created pages using Microsoft Word that put the phrase"Hoot...Hoot..." across the top of the pages, just like the little owl is saying on the front cover. Since the book is small (5.5" x 8.5") it can be taken to school on the last day or passed around at a graduation party for friends and family to sign and write notes.

In the photo pages in the back, I stamped them with a cute little owl. He doesn't match the owl on the cover, but hey their friends and they like to hang out. Who else belongs on a photo page than an owl, right?

Although, high school was quite a while ago.... I can just imagine the fun graduating students will have with an autograph album like this one. In 50 years later, after their grand kids are graduating it will still be fun to pull out and remember the good ole days.

What a hoot!

Amore Scrapbook Photo Memory Album Keepsake

My husband's side of the family is a Italian. This photo album was inspired by the word "amore" meaning love in the Italian language.

I had this cute blue cherub angel love paper from DSW and used a recycled orange bag for the netting. (a brilliant idea by my son.)

A lot of love went into the creation of this book, and a lot of little hands helped put it together.

I created a felt pouch for this album just like I did for the A Lifetime of Love Album.  Using some red fabric paint we decorated the felt pouch with this book's title Amore.

The inside of this book, look like this (in random order):

This one was also placed in my shop over at etsy. I'm working on make a video as I mentioned about doing for the A Lifetime of Love album, which I'll share with you in tomorrow's post.

My favorite feature of this album is actually the red netting on the front. As I mentioned, it is a recycled orange bag. When my oldest daughter asked what to do with the bag, I told her to throw it away. Bless my son for speaking up and saying, "But we can use it!" When I asked how or for what, he said, "On the book."

My oldest daughter loves the wooden beads we placed on a journal card that you can slip a photo down through the ribbon or write on. Of course, my youngest child loves all the sparkling rhinestones.

What's your favorite feature of this Amore album?

A Lifetime of Love Photo Memory Album

I put this together last week.

With the stores replacing all the Christmas stuff in preparation for Valentine's day, it had me thinking about my sister. Her anniversary is on Valentine's day. She's been married now for over twenty years.. sorry sis but I can' t keep track of exactly how long.

Anyway, with those two factors, I was inspired and put together this memory album. Everyone knows a book has got to have a title, so I'm calling this one, "A Lifetime of Love."

I picked up some great Valentine's papers right after Christmas when they were first putting them on the shelves, and those same little hands that helped me make book covers, threaded and laced the hearts on the front cover.

What do you think?

There's eleven inside pages, twenty-two if you count front and back, and not counting the various flaps and tags that I stuck inside.

I had gotten this corner rounder punch about a year ago and picked up the wrong kind. Didn't know what to do with it until now. Great for punching corners to stick tags in the album!

Here are just a few photos of the inside pages.

I made a felt envelope to slide the album in and protect it. The idea came from Martha Stewart for gift wrapping alternatives. I used buttons on mine instead of ribbon and added the double hearts to match the theme of the album.

The two hearts on the outside, and the cover of the album can actually be personalized with names, too.

There are so many details of this album I'd like to show off, but it would take a hundred pictures to capture them all, so I tried to make a video of the book. I'll see if I can't get it loaded to share with you all soon.