Guest Book: 1st Birthday

A first time mother (not me) got a wonderful idea to have a guest book for her daughter's first birthday party. When she asked me to make one I thought what a great idea, a memory keeper! I might just do the same thing when my baby turns one... after I figure out if we'll actually have a party or otherwise...

Anyway, the colour theme for the party is white and pink. I got other details like the little girl's name just in case I was able to incorporate it, you never know.

The guest book I had in mind was a concertina, for various reasons, one, it will fit all the greetings and wishes from the guests at the party, two, the mother could stick in photos of the party, and three, and stick in all the 1st birthday cards. With this in mind I made sure there was ample space. So, the structure was all sorted, next was the design for the covers.

It started off trying to decide which motif represent childhood more, the bunny or the teddy. As they were equally important I feel I decided to go with both.

Both motifs have a furry texture when touched and I kept the design to an outline with suggestions using the hearts and flowers. I added more flowers and satin hearts around the motifs. I wanted to get a childhood feel without the overall design ending up being kiddish, something that also appeals to the grown ups, and I believe I have succeeded.

And here's a classy take to the old teddy and bunny, and I just couldn't resist to add on more flowers on the ends of the ribbons that tie the guest book close because they just work so well and give a finished look to the ribbons.

There's a chance I might have finished up all my pink flowers already... have yet to take stock...

More images of the guest book click here. (Do let me know if the album isn't viewable)

A Flag Book: The Cookie Project

It was that time of year again, the significant other's bithday. So this year I decided, I'm going to bake cookies, slap on fondant or icing on it, and write short messages from friends and family with edible ink pen on each one, record it, and compile into a book for keeps as cookies gets eaten.

When I started receiving the quotes, greetings and memories I realised there was no way they'd fit on a cookie unless they're huge! Because I don't think I could write that small and still be legible to read.

Scratch cookies, straight to the book.

Chi guarding daddy's birthday book

I chose the flag book structure, invented by Hedi Kyle in 1979, as construction was easy and I don't have to worry about the layout of the images and text. Each page is treated as a singular.

The book when closed is about 3 inches by 6 inches, and 18 inches by 6 inches long when fully stretched open.

The black ribbon slides off with the title to open the book. The title is to signify his age and there are 37 stories and wishes inside.

Turning the pages

The wonders of this flag book structure is that it allows the pages to be open flat and be read like a book...

The criss crossing of the pages when opened

And when extended it creates a sculptural form, and the way the pages are arranged are more noticable.

On the inside of the front cover end sheet I wrote an explanation of the project, and on the back cover is the 37th story which was mine, long and epic, hehe...

With the covers overlapping

I had an interesting time making this book, lots of factors to deal with, content mainly, if it weren't for the messages the book wouldn't work so well, structurally it'll be fine, but content plays a part too. I had to deal with contacting people, setting deadlines, the logistics of layouts, printing, construction... On the morning of his birthday I was still hunting for images of cookies I was hoping to find in magazines to tie the whole theme together to be used for the front cover.

But it worked out the way it should in the end. I like the white of the cover contrast with the black band, I'm not sure if you could see it from the picture but the white is a textured white, I'm not too fond of a totally flat surface.

So, this is one of my rare Artist Book moment. Thank you to my darling husband for being the inspiration. Now my sister in law wants one too for her birthday! Oh dear...

A Surprise Birthday Party

My fiance got smarter this year. He was all prepared to not get sprung on like what happened to him last year on his birthday. So I have to be even smarter. I planned it a month plus in advance, I organised getting his friends together for that day, and it was held a couple of days before his actual birthday. Was he surprised, totally.

I made these stencils to go for the chocolate pudding, he likes this particular Superman logo, it's from the Kingdom Come series if you're wondering. You'll see later how that turned out.

This was the present that he got that night, I had to make the paper bag because it was the best way to wrap up this particular present.

Here are the rest of his presents, I wrapped them up individually and gave one a day leading up to his birthday.

Here's us with the cake I specially ordered for him, a bit of a drama happened getting this cake and everything turned out fine in the end. Phew. I so love the girl who made this, she is the bomb! All I said to her was Superman and teddy bear, and I left her to it.

Check out the detail on the bear. Look at that logo. So cute and perfect! I chose not to have any wordings for the cake and asked for the bear to hold a present instead.

I was fiddling around with the cake and moved the present and aaahhh!! He's wearing the red underwear and a belt! You couldn't see this detail earlier on because the bear got a cape on and hidden by the present. I love her attention to details I tell you. All you people who live locally and want to get your hands on this, go to Sugarush.biz, and you will deal with a very sweet person. The super teddy was saved and is now in an air tight container in the fridge, the rest of the cake was demolished, a yummy chocolate fudgy cake.

Here's the crowd, we came in last and everybody sang happy birthday to him, that's about almost 30 people in this room. Wished I saw his expression though, he was stunned and that managed to pull a fast one on him. Although that day there were danger of it being leaked when people were asking him if the dinner was that night, of course he had no clue what they were referring to...

Remember the stencils in the beginning, this is what they're for. Superman themed chocolate pudding! Out of all the chocolate puddings I tasted, they have the best. Johanes was such a dear preparing the menu and making sure everything was done properly. That's why I like going there, and the food is good too. Villa Mauri, go, say hi to Johanes.

While we were enjoying the yummy dessert, Dr Phillip was regaling us with his saxophone playing a couple of renditions for us. Some guests from the restaurant sat in to listen to him play.

He got two cakes that night. The second one came out after the chocolate pudding and more birthday singing. Everyone had a good time, the food, the crowd, the atmosphere, the service, it went as planned. Now I have to think up a plan for next year.