Geri deGruy's blog of art, musings, and inspiration

Our daughter and her wonderful sweetheart of 8 years got married and we are so thrilled!!!

Months before the wedding, they asked me to create the guest book. Their colors were pink and brown, not colors I use a lot, but I thought it would be a fun challenge to make a book with them.

In this post I'm going to share about making the cover. I ordered a 3-ring binder book that would accommodate 12" x 12" pages so I'd have room to create and so they could use it as a scrap book after the wedding. That sounds like a simple task - ordering a book - but I obsessed over this whole project in ridiculous ways! I wanted to honor and bless them and it almost immobilized me for awhile. 

I love the photo on the front! For the book cover picture, I coated a sheet of Lutradur with InkAid White Matte Precoat, brushing the solution in all directions. After it dried I coated it again and let that dry. This precoat dries white and allows a much clearer printed photo. And indeed it came out clear and beautiful. 

For the photo background, I painted another sheet of Lutradur pink with Jacquard silk paint, ironing it between parchment papers to set the paint. I chose a flowery pink/brown fabric for the base, layered the dried pink Lutradur on top and did some overall wild stitching. When I had stitched as much as I wanted to, I took the piece to the front porch and carefully melted some of the Lutradur with a heat gun. It will stick to the stitching and create a pattern. You can melt away as much or as little as you wish. 

I cut a rectangular hole a bit smaller than the picture, glued the picture behind the background and when it was dry, sewed around the opening, adding some gold zigzag stitching. The whole thing was glued down with matte medium. 

The name on the front was stenciled onto hand-dyed cotton backed with stabilizer, then sewn together before gluing. 

NOTE: I like the placement of the elements on the front, but it was decided for me by our cat who took a swipe at the book before I'd even begun and put a scratch where the picture now resides.