DIY wedding guest book bulletin board tutorial!

DIY wedding guest book bulletin board tutorial!

• 6.13.2012

Fun idea for a wedding guest book, or just a little note board, here!  I'm embarrassed to say I'm just now sharing this tutorial with you when my friend and I did this project literally more than a year ago for her wedding last summer. It's been sitting in my draft posts, taunting me since then, and I guess I was sort of waiting for it to be wedding season again?

Anyway, whether you're planning a wedding this summer or not, check out this tutorial for a cute note/bulletin board--kind of like those ribbon-ey ones that you see in the stores, but much lighter-weight and made of whatever colors and fabric you want.

My friend wanted one of these for her wedding for her guestbook, and I helped her make it.  I'm sure you all love creative guestbook ideas! ;) (For ours, I ordered a photo book of our engagement pics and had people sign it like a yearbook).  My friend picked out fabric that went with her decor, and had a very specific idea in mind!  Here's how it worked as a guest book...



It was totally easy to make!  Here's what we used:

In addition to a base (foam board, a couple bucks at JoAnn), you'll need fabric, spray adhesive, a stapler, some ribbon, and some cute buttons or something to decorate the joins:

How much you need of each depends on how big your board is.  Mental math time.

So here's the tutorial:

• Plug in your hot glue gun!
• Spray your foam board with spray adhesive.  Outside is best--that stuff gets everywhere!

• Very carefully spread your fabric over the board, putting the design where you want it but keeping it on grain.  (Tip that we didn't do: IRON your fabric before you do this!).

• Cut around the board, giving yourself a couple inches to wrap around.

• Here's my favorite part: pulling evenly as you go, staple the fabric around the back of the board, all the way around.  Sort of make hospital corners at the corners to keep them neat.

• Now you'll figure out the placement of your ribbons.  We measured every 6 inches and made a little mark on the back of the board.  Do this all the way around.

• Now, get out your hot glue gun and glue down the end of the ribbon.  Following the diagonals on the front, glue it down at the opposite side, too.  In hindsight, you probably don't need to wrap them around as far as we did--we were going for stability, but the glue is pretty strong, and the papers not too taxing!

• When you do all sides, you'll have little Vs on the back.

• Now, tuck a bead of hot glue under both ribbons where they meet, securing them to the board and to each other.

• Cool! Now, glue down your cute decorative buttons.

That's it! Done!

Shauna tore up nice ivory paper and stamped it with little birdcages and other cute prints that went with her scheme.  Then put them all out on the welcome table with a variety of pens.  Here it is with everyone's wishes on it--very cool to see them all at once!

The colors and fun homespun vibe totally went with the other decor she had. (Of course we also made the burlap and lace jars--tutorial here-- and the burlap boutonnieres the groomsmen wore.  Her friend made the little handmade felt birdies, one for each table.

 

Wedding DIY projects are the best!