Be Our Guest: DIY Clothesline Guestbook

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Mrs. Parasol, San Ramon, California Age and Occupation: 25, Non-profit writer, editor, and blogger Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Law school student Engagement Date: December 19th, 2010 Wedding Date: September 2011 Venue: Bent Creek Winery (Livermore, California); Reception: Family Residence (San Ramon, California) About Me: I am a California girl at heart. I love the outdoors, sunny days at the beach, and hiking in the woods and mountains. I also love good books and am fresh from completing my Master's degree in English and Comparative Literature in New York City. Living in NYC was an amazing experience, and while I'm glad to be back on the West Coast, I'm also thankful that my two years back East gave me an opportunity to explore new places, make new friends, and indulge my passion for Broadway shows. Oh, and I received a pretty awesome proposal from Mr. Parasol in Central Park. Above all else, Mr. Parasol is my biggest cheerleader and my best friend. But even though I'm thrilled to be marrying him, I wasn't always totally on board with this whole wedding thing and at first, I wanted to run off and elope. I've finally been convinced to throw the wedding I never thought I wanted, and so now I'm busy planning an intimate September wedding filled with DIY details. Along the way, I'm slowly learning to appreciate, perhaps even love the wedding planning process.

Be Our Guest: DIY Clothesline Guestbook

July 26th, 2011 @ 9:40 am by Mrs. Parasol
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Hive, today is a very exciting day for me. After collecting a lot of ideas over the past several weeks, I finally attempted my first wedding DIY project, and I am thrilled to share it with you. I make no promises about how good this particular project turned out, or whether or not this tutorial will actually be useful. But I will say that I had a ton of fun doing this, and I am looking forward to many more DIY wedding projects in the near future.

If the title didn’t give it away, today I’ll be showing you how to make your very own clothesline guestbook. Get excited!

Image via Chicago Now

OK, back to business. First, assemble your materials:

Personal photo

Paper
Pencil
Scissors
Thread
Safety pins (not pictured)

Because my printer decided to stop working today, this tutorial will be especially DIY. I had planned to make the notecards on my computer, but because of my printer issues I had to draw them by hand. I am by no means a great artist, but I gave it my best shot. Also, when I make the clothesline guestbook that will be used for the Parasol wedding, I plan on using twine and clothespins. Today I opted for thread and safety pins because that’s what I had on hand.

Next, start drawing!

Personal photo

As you can see, I decided to go for a literal clothesline with this project, so I made the notecards look like various pieces of clothing. These certainly don’t look as nice or symmetrical as what I could have designed on the computer, but overall I’m pretty satisfied with how they turned out.

Now it’s time to cut out your clothing-shaped notecards.

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And voilà! Now you have fun notecards that are ready for your guests to leave you their best wishes and write a kind word or two.

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To get a better sense of how these would look when our guests use them, I decided to write a few wedding-related notes.

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Now it’s time to add the clothespins.

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These little guys look ready to go! After stringing some thread between two window shutters, I hung up the notecards. Here’s the finished product:

Personal photo

And there you have it! Your very own clothesline guestbook. Overall, I am thrilled with how this turned out. It only took me about 10–15 minutes to make this, and it was really easy to assemble. I think it looks cute and fun and adds some delightful decorative flair.

I’m also surprised by how much I like the clothing-shaped notecards. I thought it might be too cheesy or literal for me, but I actually really love how they look—they’re so adorable! I’ll probably try out a “regular” notecard, but right now this is the style to beat.

Are you making your own guestbook? I’d love to hear about your ideas and projects!