Hello World,

One of my friends was married last weekend, and she asked me if I would make her a guest book. She wanted a non-traditional guestbook, where each guest can sign a leaf instead of a bookpage. After the wedding, it can become a piece of home decor.

For this project, you will need plenty of free time, patience, and a steady hand.

Check out how to make own below:

1.  Gather your supplies: canvas, frame, acrylic paint, paint brushes/rollers, and chalk/pencil. (I had contact paper, but ended up not using it to isolate areas.)

2.  Head outside or in a ventilated area, cover your work area to protect it from paint.

3.  I bought this frame for $30 (originally $60) at Michael’s. I couldn’t find a simple silver frame, so I bought some spray paint to cover it. I did 3 coats of spray paint, allowing my paint to dry between coats.

4.  Paint your canvas. I used a roller for the grey base to avoid visible brush strokes.

5.  After letting two coats of paint dry, I disliked how the grey seemed greenish. Instead, I made my own dark grey paint by mixing generic black and white paints from Michael’s together.

6.  Determine how large you want your tree to be, and sketch it out with your chalk/pencil.

7.  Paint in your tree body and draw out every single leaf. I numbered each of them to keep track. I ended up with around 150 leaves once I was finished.

8.  Paint inside your leaves. I did two coats of blue paint. TIP: Completely cover your chalk/pencil marks when you paint your leaves. I thought I could just wipe the outlines away, but it removed my grey paint. I had to repaint around the edging of my leaves (which was time consuming).

9.  I added a small heart with their initials, to the tree trunk, with a thin sharpie. Then, frame your guest book.

10.  Tada! If you ship this, I recommend not procrastinating. My shipping cost just as much as the project did because I had to expedite it.

Happy Crafting!

P.S. The two other no-sew tutorials are still coming, I just wanted to blog about this first. 🙂