For last weekend's bridal shower, I wanted a guest book that was better than the average bound variety. There are guest book alternatives abounding all over the internet. There are those cute fingerprint ideas and the signed bottle of wine and the wishing trees and pieces of a puzzle. I really wanted something else though. That's when I saw this fun piece of art on Pinterest. $160 though? Woowee. That was so not in the budget. So, what's a crafty girl to do? Make one of course.
The end result was exactly what I was looking for. The colors and pattern are completely customizable and BOY OH BOY, it was a fun DIY. I forgot how much I enjoy painting with watercolors.
All I needed was a huge piece of high quality watercolor paper (found in the fine art aisles of the craft store), water, watercolor brushes, and an assortment of watercolor paints. I started with watercolor pencils first to sketch out a roundabout design, but it's definitely not a requirement so don't waste the money if you don't already have them on hand.
You can barely see, but I sketched out the circles in a variety of colors just to have a basic layout and some balance before I started painting. Again, this is not necessary but I'll use any excuse to bring out my watercolor pencils haha.
Start painting with one color at a time.
Unfortunately I smudged that copy up there, so I had to start all over. Womp. Womp.
I'm glad I did though because I went with a more watered down version of the original blue and then filled the page in with other colors as well. Definitely use a well-pallet to mix colors and keep spare paper around to test out the colors. It took me a good while before I came up with a vibrant pink so don't feel like you have to rush.
When the paint is dry, you can then add some words as well -- I used a scripty "Love" but you could use the bride and grooms name, the date, etc. By all means, this is definitely when the watercolor pencils came in handy because it's generally much easier to control a pencil than it is a paintbrush. ((Regular pencils won't dissolve with water so don't use them.))
When the entire thing was dry, I put it in a huge white frame with a photo mat. In order to allow people to sign it, I put the glass in behind the art but under the backing.
The frame was a bit plain jane though. To jazz it up, I used coordinating colors of washi tape around the perimeter and called it a day!
For the shower, I paired the art with metallic and candy colored fine-tip sharpies and invited the guests to sign in and leave their best wishes for the bride- and groom-to-be.
I love how it turned out and think that for an even bigger party, this would be gorgeous all filled in. Now that the shower is over, the couple has a personalized piece of colorful art to add to their new abode. (They can take the glass back out of the frame to cover it up, if they want!) While I used it for a bridal shower, I could definitely see this at a housewarming, engagement party, or a baby shower too!
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How cute! Definitely a fun idea for a guest book and so much more personal than just buying one. Love the colors you chose :-)
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