Many Books Were Harmed in the Making of This Party...

Yes, it's sad but true, we did tear out many pages of books in order to have splendid decor for Emily's Book Release Party at Nester's house. If it helps you forgive me, they were mostly trashy old romance novels that were in the trash pile of a used bookstore. So if you took a little book flourish, take caution when reading. You never know what might be on there! (yikes.)

It was great to do this event with Nester, because I knew that even if I showed up completely empty handed, it would have been one of the most gorgeous parties I'd ever seen. And it was. Her house was a vision, and she had worked hard to make it bookish beautiful. So all I did was add a few quick and easy (you know me!) book themed projects that were simply an embellishment on her already established decor.

book flourishes

Since I already had tons of pages lying around, I decided to start twisting them into little flowers to be able to use as page bouquets. Also, I knew they could double as a favor to give away to the sweet friends that came to celebrate. (see how i can't turn off the party planner?!)

materials: book pages, clothespins. the end.

1. Start in the middle of the page. Grab the middle of the page with two fingers and then gently twist and crinkle slightly until the page takes the shape of a flower.

2. Then, place another page in the center of the already shaped "flower" and do the same thing until it has a full and artsy flower look.

3. Once the page petals are shaped, still holding the center of the flower, clasp a clothespin as the center "stem" to hold the pages in place.

4. Set 3-5 in vases or jars anywhere to have beautiful bouquets of book flourishes.

book bunting

for this cute thing i have my intern to thank. i had asked her to make some garlands and buntings out of pages, and she did! they all turned out so great! for the above bunting, she simply cut the triangles out from the pages and hot glued them to the string. i loved it and it adorned the mantle perfectly! simple, but really added to the mantle decor.

she also hand cut beautiful little paper birds (you can see some on the gifts). she attached several to string with hot glue, and we had a bird garland dangling above where emily signed books. (no picture of it though!!) and then, finally we had yet another fun garland of sculpted page flowers hot glued to a string that we hung across the stairway to keep people from drifting upstairs. it's the little things in life, people...let me tell ya!

hanging book arrangement

materials: books, ribbon or fabric cut in long strips, hot glue.

1. remove outer cover of book.

2. open the book outwardly, as to fan the book all the way out.

3. hot glue a ribbon to the spine of the book, which has now become the very center point of the book, with the pages fully encircling it.

4. hot glue pages together to keep a full look.

5. test out how it will hang by holding up the ribbon from the center of the book.

6. find a location to dangle them from at varying heights. as soon as i came up with the idea, i knew exactly where i would put them in nester's house.

I think my favorite picture of the entire day was this shot I happened to catch of Em. That look of joy pretty much sums it up.

For tutorials on the rest of the bookish decor,

head over to Nester's place. You won't be disappointed!