My friend Lisa Branson contacted me shortly after I wrote this post and asked me to make a correspondence book. Lisa and her husband Chris are best friends with the Blanchards, who moved to California a couple years ago. The families have done a great job of keeping in touch, and Lisa wanted a book to contain all the back-and-forth communications. She told me with a smile that they have a nickname...they call themselves "The Bran/Blan Clan" (short for Branson & Blanchard). That proved to be the perfect jumping-off point for their book!
I used the 4-hole Japanese stab-binding technique:
I had metal letters that slide onto ribbon, so I used some turquoise satin ribbon and small brads to add their nickname to the cover. I also alternated two shades of silver to help separate the words.
For the paste papers, I used a geometric patterns in shades of turquoise so the book wouldn't be "too girly for the husbands to write in."
Thanks, Lisa, for the opportunity! Hope your book is getting filled up with all kinds of great memories with your family and the Blanchards!