Make Your Own Baby Shower Guest Book

Hi (this is Sizzle) I am excited to share with you my latest project.  You remember the baby shower invitations my friend and I made a couple weeks ago, right? 

Well this was my next project.  We are doing an open house style shower so we won't be doing the typical shower games but we wanted to have a place where the guest could leave advice for the new mom.  I looked on-line for guest books and the cute one were like $50.  That is a super rip off, I thought anyways, so I decided I would just make one myself.  I think it turned out cute---what do you think?

I sometimes wonder if people like what I blog about because I never rarely get comments so let me know what you think! 

I used our invitations as a theme.  I used scrapbook paper to decorate the chip board and then had it laminated so it would last longer. 

I made the book from an old box I had laying around.  Don't throw anyway boxes!  They make great chipboard and covers for books like this one.  You could do mini-scrapbooks, sketch books, coloring books for kids - ANYTHING.  Just empty a special closet or something for them. 

Here is what I did used:

(a sketchbook- for the paper, 1" rings and an old box - I got all of it at Wal-mart)

This box was left over from a Martha Stewart applique kit shown in this post.  I took it apart and cut it down until I had two flat pieces. 

After I took all the flaps off I cut it down to 8x8 size. 

Ta da. 

This saves you money.  You don't need to buy those chipboard books you can easily make your own. 

Next I covered it with the paper on all four sides, decorated it and took the covers to Office Max to get them laminated.  This is what it looks like:

Front coverInside fron cover (I later put a poem here)The inside back coverThe back cover

I used paper from the sketch book which I cut to size and I also printed off some cute poems from this site

 

I placed them between the signiture pages just for an extra touch.  I thought it would give people something to read and remind them how special it is to be a mother. 

This is what the inside front cover looks like now.

Here is the poem by Mrs. Roy L. Peifer:

I Took His Hand and Followed

My dishes went unwashed today,

I didn't make the bed,

I took his hand and followed

Where his eager footsteps led.

Oh yes, we went adventuring,

My little son and I,

Exploring all the great outdoors

Beneath the summer sky.

We waded in a crystal stream,

We wandered through a wood;

My kitchen wasn't swept today

But life was gay and good.

We found a cool, sun-dappled glade

And now my small son knows

How Mother Bunny hides her nest,

Where jack-in-the-pulpit grows.

We watched a robin feed her young,

We climbed a sunlit hill,

Saw cloud-sheep scamper through the sky,

We plucked a daffodil.

That my house was neglected,

That I didn't brush the stairs,

In twenty years, no one on earth

Will know, or even care.

But that I've helped my little boy

To noble manhood grow,

In twenty years, the whole wide world

May look and see and know.