Making Your Own Beach Themed Wedding Guestbook

Happy Friday everybody! Wanted to leave you with this DIY follow up to the cute and inexpensive Starfish Table Number Frame - a matching guestbook! Gosh, I love guestbooks. They capture the thoughts, and feelings of people who've come to share a very special moment in our lives. It's a physical anchor of an event that may have gone by in a blur of faces.

To start making the wedding guestbook shown here, you’ll need to purchase a Hardcover Book with Window. You can buy the book from an arts and crafts store, at http://www.myphotobookcreator.com/ or from a scrapbook store. I like these books because they come in either black or white making them work for any wedding theme.

You’ll also want to purchase the following supplies to make your own wedding guestbook:

Photobook Creator or YourStory
Photobook with window
Paper
Scissors
Ribbons, labels, beads, jewels, dried flowers, glitter or other embellishments
A stencil or stamp and fabric markers, ink or fabric paint
A large jewelery photo charm

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  First, select the design for the cover. I love the beach and I also happen to have a client whose getting married at the beach. So I created a page with a beach theme. I used dingbat fonts which can be purchased inexpensively from http://www.letteringdelights.com/. The use of a dingbat font, which is a font that substitutes a letter for an image, makes creating these pages a snap. You simply choose the image(s) you like to create a pleasing page. I added a simple monogram and straight lines.

• Then I made the monogram smaller, small enough to fit the jewelry finding.

• Next created the interior pages. The interior of the book is a simple 8.5" x 11" page printed landscape. Using the beach monogram I created I made the guest book pages to match. 

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  Once you are happy with the pages you will then need to use the PhotoBook Creater or Your Story Thermal Book Binder to create the finished book. The thermal book binders come with software that will allow you to create pages but they didn't allow the freedom of choice that I wanted for this guest book. However, it's worth the $39.99 purchase price to buy the book binder. It makes wonderful professional looking photo books- perfect for making your own wedding photo books for your family and friends!

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  Using ribbon cut to the double the width of the book, I wrapped a ribbon around the center of the book cover and then knotted each end to the photo charm on the front cover. Be sure to pull alittle snug so that the ribbon stays on as the book is opened and closed.

There are lots of ways to make your guestbook personal. You can use craft glue or a glue gun to stick different embellishments to the cover. You can spray the book with glue and cover with fabric. It's really up to you. You could also:

• Using hot glue or superglue, attach your wedding invitation or a photo to the front of your guestbook.
• Adding a special poem or even a copy of your wedding vows in the front of your wedding guestbook can give it a unique touch. 

Now just in case you would rather buy a guest book than make it. I found a couple that i thought i'd share.

Top left: weddingaccessories.net Top right:beautifulbeachweddings.com.au

Bottom left:jeffwest.com Bottom right:amazon.com