Wedding Guest Book

No, not my wedding!!

I'm going to be a witness at my friend's wedding in August and recently decided to make a book for her that the guest can write messages in on the day. We made her invitations together which were purple and cream so I have made the book in similar colours. When I say I made the book what I actually mean is that I took a kraft spiral bound book with blank pages and made a layout to decorate the front cover. I haven't adhered it to the book yet so in the picture it's actually sitting on top of the book. 

I don't tend to follow any particular instructions or patterns and my artwork usually evolves as I go along. I like to build up layers of paper and ephemera and often use scraps, book pages, bits of lace, decorative pins etc. Occasionally I hit a wall and walk away from my craft desk for a little while, or I put my project on the mantelpiece in the living room where I look at it from time to time until I have an idea of how to carry on. I'm pretty pleased with this one and I'm fairly sure my friend will like it!

Altered Book

I had the best time earlier this week when I was introduced to Altered Books at The Artistic Stamper. Of course I knew about Altered Books and I've dabbled with one on my own at home but I've wanted to do a proper class or workshop for years. I'm so lucky because the shop is only about a mile up the road on the same road that I live on now!

4 hours of crafting, playing, altering, laughing and planning the next get-together went by in a flash. Jennie showed us 3 techniques and my head was absolutely buzzing with ideas when I got home (only slightly wet after walking back in the rain!), so much so that I also dreamt about playing with my book all night!
As it's a Bank Holiday weekend here in England I spent all day yesterday finishing Wednesday's 3 pages and playing a little bit more. I tried some Tim Holtz techniques from his "Compendium of Curiosities" books, some more successfully than others as the paper in an older book can be a little bit unpredictable so results can vary!

Anyway, here's what I've done so far - I'm quite pleased with most of it and the first one is my favourite so far:

(This is the first time I've blogged from my I pad so I hope it works!!)

That's all for today as we're off to see our best friends for the afternoon, enjoy the rest of the weekend wherever you are!

Big hugs!