Z as in Zebra

Today you’ll see the fifth and final book from my bridesmaids collection. For the past four Thursdays you’ve seen the books I’ve made for Allison, Zoe, Jacee, and Arica. Book #5 was for Megan, my best friend from college.

Megan is an amazing designer and creates adorable patterns and textiles for a children’s clothing company in Atlanta. Someday I hope the two of us can team up and design our own line of products! In designing her journal, I wanted to make sure and capture Megan’s fun-loving, artsy personality.

Megan’s favorite colors are shades of teal, aquamarine, blue, etc. I made her book cover from an aquamarine bookbinding cloth that has a slight shimmer to it. I also added a contrasting, hot pink satin ribbon as a page marker:

Before wrapping the boards with the bookbinding cloth, I cut grooves into the Davy board to give them a beveled effect.

Like Jacee’s book, I used plastic marquee letters to spell out Megan’s name.

What did I love best about Megan’s book? The wild paste papers! I found this amazing paisley paper that coordinated perfectly with the teals, pinks, and blues of the book.

It was great fun being able to make these books for my dearest friends. Journals make a great gift for anyone, from bridesmaids to moms to teachers to significant others. If you’re stumped about what to get someone as a gift, contact me and I can help you come up with the perfect gift for your special someone!

By now, you’ve seen the books I made for three of my five bridesmaids: Allison, Zoe, and Jacee. Book #4 was for my sister Arica (fyi: it’s pronounced like Erica).

Making Arica’s book proved to be the most challenging. Arica is a very talented writer and loves to journal, so through the years I have made several different journals for her. The trick this time around was to do something completely different from all the other journals I’ve made for her in the past.

For starters, I used a metallic book binding paper that looks either blue…

…or silver, depending on the lighting.

For the paste papers, I used a blue scrapbooking paper that featured squares with rounded corners squares. This motif echoed the square shape of the book itself. I also placed the spine at the top of her journal, rather than at the left-hand side.

As with the other bridesmaids books, I embellished Arica’s name on the cover. For hers, I used brads with adhesive letters.

Next Thursday I will be showing the 5th and final book in the bridesmaids series. Be sure and check back to see what I made for Megan!

Jacee is one of my dearest friends, so it was only natural to choose her to be my Maid of Honor when I got married this past May. For the last two weeks, I’ve shown you the books I’ve made for Zoe and Allison, two of my other bridesmaids.  Today’s post is showcasing the book I made for Jacee.

For years, I’ve been hanging on to this piece of amazing, deep red bookbinding cloth. Since Jacee is a classic beauty, I decided that making a book for her was the perfect excuse to use the paper. Unfortunately, you can’t tell from the photos that the paper has a shimmer to it…sort of a metallic, ruby-slippers quality.

I used black satin ribbon to make tie closures:

Normally, I don’t like pairing black and brown, but this time it just worked. I had some chocolate brown paper with white, red, and beige polka dots that complimented the cover perfectly.

And, like all the bridesmaids books, I personalized Jacee’s as well. For hers, I used little plastic cutouts known as marquee letters:

So far, you’ve seen 3 of the 5 books that I made for my bridesmaids. Check back next Thursday and see the book I made for my sister Arica.

My cousin Zoe and I have been friends since we were born. Zoe’s just five months older than me and despite the fact that we grew up in opposite parts of the world (Me: Nebraska, Zoe: Indonesia) we’ve always been close. Naturally, I chose her to be my Matron of Honor when I got married this past May. Last week, I showed you the book I made for my sister Allison as her bridesmaid gift. Today’s post is showcasing the book I made Zoe.

Before I started creating their books, I did some ‘investigating’ and casually asked the girls their favorite colors. One of Zoe’s was moss/apple green. I had the perfect paper in mind to use for the paste papers, so I started there and designed the rest of the book around the paste pages. Here’s the final product:

I used a moss/apple green paper that featured hints of burnt orange and maroon as well as straight lines and concentric circles.

The cover was a paper-backed flocked material that mimicked suede:

I embellished Zoe’s name using letter brads. This particular kind has a metal base and then the letters are selected from a clear sheet and glued to the face of the brads.

This was #2 of 5 books that I made for my girlfriends. I so enjoyed designing each book especially for them. Come back next Thursday and see the book I made for Jacee, my Maid of Honor.

I believe that a journal is a timeless gift. And creating them by hand is an act of love. While I was planning my wedding, it was very important to me to choose bridesmaids’ gifts that I knew my friends would like, as well as something that would reflect their uniqueness and also be something they would hang on to for years.

Naturally, I chose to create handmade journals for each of them. Shown below is the journal I made for my youngest sister, Allison.

I used red suede for the cover to give the book a soft yet durable feel. The final size of the book was roughly 5″ x 8″:

I used a blocky, primary-colors print for the inside paste pages:

I embellished the cover using alphabet brads to spell out Allison’s name:

I alternated white and red paper to create the pages, as you can see from the photo above.

Come back next Thursday and see the book I made for Bridesmaid #2!