Custom Guestbooks: They're Not Just for Weddings Anymore!

Guestbooks aren’t just for weddings, anymore. With parties celebrating various life milestones - such as a Sweet 16, graduation, or retirement – custom guestbooks are becoming more and more popular. Let’s refer back to Jocelyn, who will be celebrating her 18th birthday in September. The last item we need to complete her Masquerade Party is a complementing guestbook. As this is a big party, complete with seating arrangements, a sit down dinner and even a few performances, we know a guestbook would be perfect for this event. Not only will Jocelyn have a record of everyone who came to celebrate her special day, each guest also has the chance to write a personal message to her.

While Mixbook’s guestbook themes highlight weddings, we can bring all kinds of custom guestbook ideas to life, thanks to the complete customizability Mixbook offers.

To start, choose the size of your guestbook. For Jocelyn’s party, we have chosen the 11x8.5 Classic Landscape size. We are going to start from scratch with the Blank Canvas theme. If any of our current themes already match your party theme, feel free to choose that theme - it'll make realizing your custom guestbook ideas that much easier. Once the project opens up in the editor, we are ready to begin.

First things first! All guestbooks need lines for our guests to write on! Technically, we can let the guests have a signing free-for-all, but Jocelyn may want a cleaner look to reflect her elegant 18th birthday masquerade party. While adding a text box and entering a long line of underscores is definitely a way to get these lines into your project, Mixbook is one step ahead of you! Instead of sitting there with one finger on the shift key and the other on the dash key, why not just grab our sticker of guestbook lines?

Grabbing this sticker (or any other stickers you have found from other themes) is ridiculously easy (and similar to taking stickers from your past projects). Here are the step by step instructions:

Step 1: Hit the Add Stickers button and click on the Theme Content Tab.

Step 2: Locate and click on a wedding guestbook theme, such as Contemporary Guest Book.

Step 3: Once the stickers have loaded, click on the sticker of lines (and any other stickers you may want to add). All stickers you have clicked on will have a green check mark and will now appear in your Sticker Tray under the “Project Stickers” section.

Step 4: Close the Add Sticker window and click and drag the sticker of lines onto the page.

Step 5: Resize the sticker until you have achieved the desired effect. To resize the sticker, click on one of the red corner squares and drag it outwards to enlarge the sticker.

Once we’ve got the lines in place, we can continue editing the guestbook to better reflect Jocelyn’s masquerade theme. Just like we did in our Thank You card, we are going to pull stickers from her invitation once more. The following pages from her guestbook utilize stickers from her invitations and stickers pulled from the Recommended Stickers section of the Sticker Tray. For a more personal touch, I have also added a photo of Jocelyn. Lastly, I have chosen backgrounds that match the invitation, but, of course, are light enough in color, so that writing can be seen on the pages.

If you're wondering what type of pen to use in your guestbook, we would suggest using a an acid free permanent fine-tip pen. These can be found at craft and scrapbooking stores. You can also use ultra-fine tipped permanent pens, as those will not smear (after they dry), but we always recommend using acid free permanent pens, as this will extend the lifespan of your book.

So there you have it! Guestbook complete! Keep in mind, the pages shown above are only one example of the endless possibilities you have with Mixbook. We encourage you to play with the layouts and explore your own custom guestbook ideas, using other stickers and themes (since we know how to do that now!). Jocelyn’s party planning is now complete - invitations, RSVP and Thank You cards, and now the Guestbook! All that’s left for her to do is order. With this new arsenal of knowledge, what parties are you going to plan? Get inspired by our party-themed Pinterest board!