30th Birthday Guest Book Idea

I've been brainstorming for ideas for my 30th birthday party.  Yes...I turn the big 3-0 on June 21st this year and have decided to have a big party at my house.

I've also been reading a creative/artful journaling book I got from the library.  One of the chapters talks about a "guest book" art journal. 

This has resulted in an idea that has been swimming around in my head for the past few days...I want to make a guest book for my party.  And not a typical guest book where people simply write in it...an artsy one where people can draw, paint, and collage in it (as well as write).  And my plan is for this guest book to not be solely for my birthday party, but my 30th birthday will be a starting point for it.  

My plan is for it to be similar to "The Book" my family wrote in at "camp" (aka: the house my mom's family owned in the Adirondacks)...that sadly burned down a few years ago.  I'm not sure why we called it "Camp"...since it was really a house and staying there was much more comfortable than camping.  It used to be a boarding house and had a lot of bedrooms.  So "Camp" was a lot more than a little cabin in the woods. 

After the fire, when we were picking through the charred rubble, seeing what we could salvage, my cousin found the book for my mom (Mom was the one who bought the book in the first place and left it at camp for people to write in).  It was a bit charred on the edges and waterlogged from the firefighters, but we could still read a lot of pages.

And as you can see, we didn't just write in it.  We drew, painted, doodled, and pasted things in.  There was a summer when my family (Mom, Dad, my brother, and me) would bring friends up with us almost every weekend.  And we would "make" our guests write in the book.  We would use the book to journal about what we did over the weekend, and also for lots of quotes and inside jokes that were created while at Camp. Mom's 2 older brothers, my cousins, and grandma would visit and write in the book as well.  

Anyway...

All this to say that I want to recreate my own version of  "the book" for my house.  My house isn't quite as much fun as Camp was (Lyndonville just can't compete with the Adirondacks!) but when my family and friends get together here, fun is definitely had...and we can write about it in a book just like we used to.

My idea for the "title" of this guest journal is "30 and Beyond"...since I am starting it at my 30th birthday party and will be using it beyond that.  I wish I had more pictures to share with you, but I haven't actually gotten a book or started decorating it yet.  I want to just get a sketchbook and decorate the cover. (I saw this idea using Washi Tape today)  Part of me would love to use a Smash* Book...I've been seeing them in the craft stores and have been wanting an excuse to buy one.



It's essentially a scrapbook for the lazy scrapbooker.  But DIYer part of me rebels at the idea of buying a pre-made book (have I mentioned I suffer from "ICanDoThat-itis"?).  But I like that the pages are made with pretty paper.  Oh what to do?...what to do?  There's a cool tutorial I found about making your own Smash inspired book, but I don't have the required binding equipment.  I may just stick with my original idea of using a plain sketchbook and just having all my scrapbooking stuff and art supplies on a table for people to use at the party.  I'm sure my crafty friends will have a ball with it!