Envelope Wedding Guest Book

Instead of blank sheets, this wedding guest book has lots of little envelopes - guests can write a message on a card and tuck it into an envelope for the bride and groom to read later. Simple, elegant and unusual without being too wacky! The colours can be changed to suit the theme or colour scheme of the wedding - the basic idea can be customised and tailored to your own needs, that is the beauty of handmade!

This project does not require too much in the way of equipment, as if you don't have your own binding machine (and let's be honest, most of us don't!) you can take your project to any copy centre that has binding facilities.

Materials:

• Cover stock - heavy card, mount board, or my favourite, the board from an old board game
• Patterned paper of your choice - at least two larger sheets for the covers. Quantity depends on the number of pages your guest book will have (and therefore the number of envelopes required)
• Glue stick
• Embellishments of your choice, to coordinate with covers
• Plain white cardstock
• Binding wires (if binding yourself)

Equipment:

• Metal set square
• Metal ruler
• Craft or Stanley knife
• Clothes pegs
• Scoring board (if you have one)
• Binding machine (if binding yourself)

You can use any heavy cardstock for your covers - but heavier does equal better, using card that is too lightweight will give the whole book a cheap feel, even if it is otherwise immaculately put together. Even if you are planning a wedding on not a lot of money, DIY does not have to equal inferior!

My favourite thing to use for coverstock is old board games. They are wonderfully heavy while still being easy to work with, and they will end up in landfill otherwise.

Whatever stock you are using, the first thing you need to do is cut the covers down to size. I chose to make a book 18cm square. Measure the covers to the size you want, using a set square to make sure that you cut it straight. The best way to cut it is with a knife and ruler. Go slowly, several light strokes to cut through will be far neater (and safer!) than using a lot of pressure and trying to cut through in one or two strokes.

Once you have cut the covers to size, it is time to make them look pretty!

Place one of the covers down on the patterned paper you are using. Cut the paper to size, leaving around an inch of paper all around. Cut the corners away from the paper. Use a glue stick to glue the cover down, then glue the seams around the edge and secure with clothes pegs until dry.

Once the glue has dried, cut some plain white card to slightly smaller than your covers and glue down to the back of the covers.

Now it is time to personalise the front cover! I chose a simple design for this one, printing a label and embellishing it with glitter card and flower embellishments to match the patterned papers I used. But go nuts and decorate however you like to match the theme or colour scheme of your wedding!

Next, it is time to make the envelopes.

Start with a sheet of patterned paper 15cm x 13cm. Score lines along both of the long edges, 1cm in.

Then, starting at one of the short edges, score lines 2cm and 9cm from the top. This will be much easier if you have a scoring board, but, if not, you can measure with a ruler and pencil then score with a blunt knife, screwdriver or dead biro.

Cut waste material away from the scored areas as shown above to create the pattern for the envelope. Then fold in the flaps as shown and glue into place. Repeat for as many envelopes as you need.

If required, you can adjust the size of the envelopes to suit your own needs.

Once you have made the envelopes, it is time to make pages for the book. Cut the pages from white cardstock to the same size as the covers. The number of pages will depend on the number of guests you will be inviting - I used 30 sheets of cardstock with 2 envelopes per page (I chose to have envelopes on only one side of each sheet).

Once cut, I glued the envelopes into place, offset slightly, both to compensate for the bound edge and as a design feature.

Once the pages are complete it is time for the fun part - binding it all together! If you don't have access to a binding machine, you can take your book to a copy centre that has binding facilities. If you do have your own, bind according to the manufacturer's instructions. Don't forget to bind the back cover first and flip it around to hide the open edge of the wire.

Once bound, your guest book is complete! I hope you like this guest book idea!