Time for Bridesmaids' Gifts!

This is the one I made for my little sister.

When it came to the thank-you gifts for my cousins and sister, I knew exactly what I wanted to give them right from the start. Since we all love faerie tales, I decided to get them each a miniature book of their favorite story. My Maid of Honor's is Cinderella, my one cousin said she prefers Beauty and the Beast, and my sister told me she likes Sleeping Beauty.

From there, I started looking online and in stores for little books. Most of those I found were much too large or just didn't look like a faerie tale book. Some of the books online were cute, but they cost upwards of $60 per book since they were "specialty items".

Seeing that I couldn't find what I wanted pre-made, I decided to make them myself. At first, I looked to see if there were any kits on hobby or craft sites or in stores. No luck. They either weren't what I wanted at all, or were too expensive for the amount of content that I'd get.

Not to be deterred, I went to Borders and found three little hardcover, gilt-edged, blank journals. they were about 4 inches tall and 2.75 inches wide with 60 pages - just what I wanted! As soon as I got a coupon, I went and bought them. Now, it was just a matter of finding pictures and then writing out the stories. Because I know that I have a tendency to procrastinate, I started this project in June, about nine months before I would need to finish. I figured that gave me two months per book with a one month break in between.

I used Google to find my images (all used within copyright laws to the best of my understanding). After I collected 30 or so for each story, I resized them and put them in 8.5 X 11 inch Photoshop documents to print. Luckily, the future Beloved Husband had access to a really nice Laserjet printer and printed them out for me. After I had physical copies in my hot little hands, I glued the cover image onto the front of each book and put the rest in order inside the book, leaving blank pages for narration.

The first thing that I realized was that gluing pictures in soon made the book too thick to close. To fix that, I cut out every other page in the books, effectively making room for the new sheets that I was adding. I glued as I wrote so that, if I used more pages than I had originally allotted for a portion of the story, I could adjust the illustrations. That was a good move, since I usually underestimated how long it would take to write the beginnings of the stories.


Often I would have many illustrations for the same section of story. When that was the case, I would have several pages of pictures, some of that story segment, and then the last couple drawings. This was actually quite a blessing because it enabled me to fill more pages and thus make a relatively short story last a full 30 to 40 pages.

I loved it when I was able to get a picture that took up two pages! I thought it made my little books feel so much more like those beautiful leather-bound tomes that you see in the movies. I wanted them to look as sumptuous as possible - after all - these were Faerie Tales! They should look just as cool as the stories they contained.

Overall, the project took me the full nine months. True to form, I would procrastinate, take long breaks, or just allow myself to be distracted. At one point, I ended up taking one of the books to school with me so I could work on it in between (and during) classes.

Just when I thought I was done, Mom and I found some awesome stick-on rhinestones at our local craft store. A perfect finishing touch that only took a half hour to add.

So, I suppose, in closing, the main point of this entry is: if you have a smashing idea, don't settle for something that doesn't quite fit the bill - keep looking or make it yourself. I guarantee you'll be glad you did and your bridesmaids will love it.