Guest book chalkboard signage
To wind up coverage of the July 3 wedding of Caroline and Rob, here is the Guest book and the darling Guest book sign I promised to show you. First a little background story.
Deni ( The lovely and talented Mother of the Bride) shared the proposal story with me.
If memory serves me, Rob came over to Caroline’s and asked her is she wanted to take a hike in the nearby Blue Ridge Parkway where they often went for such ventures. She was cranky and tired but agreed to go. She kept complaining the whole way up until they finally reached a favorite scenic stopping point, which is where he proposed. I’m certainly not giving it the flair it deserves but the point is, the book they picked to use as their Guest book is a photo montage of the Parkway.
Page from the Blue Ridge Parkway photo book
So without further adeiu, here it is:
Blue Ridge Parkway Guest Book
As always I used the Belluccia font style ( I hand lettered it in this case). ( Here’s the link to see the whole Belluccia font family: http://new.myfonts.com/search/Bellucia/fonts/ )
I lettered on cover stock paper that matched one of the tannish gold colors on the book then added the blue and white for a nice pop.
You can easily create this look yourself by hand or on the computer.
Layout the design using the Belluccia font. If using the computer, print on an 8.5″ x 11″. If you are going to try your hand at tracing the font, you’ll need a light table. ( This is how Deni created all her projects- by tracing the font.)
Place the printed design under the final paper you’ll be lettering on. Trace lightly with a pencil.
Go over the lettering carefully using either a regular or brush marker, gel pen or paint pen. If you feel really adventurous, you can try your hand at using paint and a brush!
You’ll want extra sheets of the final paper for testing and just in case it doesn’t turn out the first time. It happens to the best of us:)
Once it’s done, cut out the design ( if you used an 8.5 “x 11″ for printing- if you hand lettered on a 12″ x 12″ you’re ready to attach to book) and attach to a larger scrapbook paper (12″ x 12″).
Cut and attach that paper to fit the inside page of the book. Double sided scrapbook tape or spray adhesive will both work. The adhesive can be tricky to work with though. Find pics of instructions on this blog in the older entry dated April 14th, 2011.
Here’s a few more pics to show the steps for this one.
Drawing out the design before hand lettering
When I’m going to hand letter a design, I first do a pencil sketch to look at the size and placement of the words. Then I put this on my light table placing the paper I’ll be lettering on top. This ensures the final design is exactly where I want it.
Final design with pencil sketch
Final design attached to the first inside page of the book
When attaching the final page into the book, I think it’s good to leave about .25 ” all around. It frames it nicely and gives you a little wiggle room when attaching.
I just love the whole idea of having a Guest book that can sit on your coffee table filled with lovely wishes and recalling such a sweet moment in your life:)
This idea is becoming popular. I just had a client call me and send me a picture from the April 14th post I created to show me what she wanted for her sister’s guest book. She is giving it to her as a gift. Lovely idea!
I may have to do this for the next shower I’m invited to:)
I told her she was in luck, since I was the creator of it:) So I know exactly what to do. I can’t wait to see which book she chose.
Do you have any books you think would make a great guest book? I’d love to check them out.
Give away alert! When I return from my calligraphy convention, I’ll be giving away an illustration from my Country Chic themed ornament set ( Still being created.) to all my subscribers. All you need to do is either subscribe to my blog or, if you are already a subscriber, simply make a comment on any of my posts !
