Guestbook

I had the privilege of making dad and Stephanie's guestbook. I knew the theme was burlap and sunflowers. So the first step was picking out what kind of burlap I wanted to use. There are all different kinds of burlap (thanks JoAnn's for having an enormous selection). I ultimately decided I had to go with the one with the greenish tint, because, of course, my dad's favorite color is green!

Then you have to cut the burlap just right. Burlap doesn't really cut straight and I was already stressing about whether I should use scissors or my exacto knife or buy some heavy duty thing that can cut through steel? I wasn't sure. Well, the JoAnn's lady showed me a nifty little trick where you take one strand of the burlap and pull it straight out. When you do that with a crossing strand you are able to make straight lines where you can cut in between the missing strand! It was such a cool trick and made my life so much easier... I guess my heavy duty cutting tool will have to wait until a later project!

Then I found some lace ribbon that I thought would match well. I didn't like any of the thick lace, so I got the smaller lace and flipped it upside down to make two, symmetrical lines going across the book. Then I got a large sunflower and used wire cutters (thanks art teacher!) to get the flower away from the stem. I mod-podged everything to the front of the book and let it set to dry. I was worried the mod podge wouldn't hold the flower in place... so once I was sure it was dry I shook it around pretty good. It didn't budge and I was happy! :)

I filled the book with scrapbook paper. I put the letter "S + J" in cardboard and added little metal decorations to the corners of every page. I thought it looked like a nice touch. The last thing I did was add lines. My ocd self couldn't imagine people signing all crooked, so the lines were a necessity. 

This last picture has nothing to do with the guestbook or my dad's wedding.... but I love this picture of Caroline and I taken during parents weekend in front of her house. I love her little white swing and I love my sweet little sister even more.