The 4 Year Love Story in Under a Metre

Hello, this is my first Instructable so bare with me if I've done it wrong, but I think I did alright.

I wanted to show this off somewhere and what better a place than the wedding competition, right? My mother recently got married (July 30th, 2011) for the second time to a man from the other side of the world, the USA, who she had been in a long distance relationship with for the past 4 years (we're from down under - Australia, which means measurements will be in metric. For the Americans and others using the imperial system, right click here, and click open in new... ).

For her wedding, I made a old fashioned looking, romantic scroll with a modern twist that tells the story of how they met, and also acted as the order of service for the wedding day. The scrolls were a huge success with guests giving me compliments and comments such as I should go into business making wedding stationary, that they look great/beautiful/special/lovely and my favourite, "they're so different (as in unique), and we LOVE different. It's great because most wedding stuff we've seen all looks the same."

Alright, enough with the ego stroking. Let's get on to how to make them.

**WARNING** I like to write. Enjoy.

Step 1 Materials

We'll start with a list of what you need:

The Printed Design

 * Adobe Illustrator (and maybe Photshop) or other vector creation software.

At a pinch you could use some VERY clever Microsoft Word/Publisher techniques - however, unless you know your exact scroll size from the start, using vector image software is a huge advantage when it comes time to print.

* Computer (one that's powerful enough to run the vector software)
* A bit of a creative streak (maybe your teenage niece or nephew knows something about designing if you don't)

The "Parchment"

* Large sheets of 160 - 200gsm paper.

Unless you have an A3+ printer or your design is very small, you'll probably end up using the paper the printing house uses (I printed at Office Works here in Australia) which means you're likely stuck with white paper. However, if you've got the choice, use a light parchment like colour. I'll get into more detail about what size paper when I discuss printing.

* Shellac (see varnishing instruction for quantity)
* Methylated Spirit (as above)
* A warm room

The Scroll Ends and Decoration

* Two different coloured ribbons.

I used a thicker (17mm wide) white ribbon under a thinner (10mm wide) green ribbon that closely matched the green on the bridesmaids dress. You'll need enough to wrap around each individual scroll, which ended up being about 100mm (Go 120mm just to safe) of each ribbon, per scroll for me.

* Red oven bake clay for the seals.

Ask for it at your local craft store. I brought it in 57g (2oz according to the packaging) quantities for about AU$6 which I found made about 20-25 20mm seals.

* 16mm dowel (if you make the same size scrolls I made, you'll need about 240mm of 16mm dowel per scroll)
* Sandpaper
* A 20mm wax seal coin (see the instructions for more details)
* PVC wood glue
* Thin (less than the width of your thinnest ribbon) double sided tape
* Patience and dedication

Tools/Other

* Mitre saw (preferably electric circular drop style, but I only had a hand operated one)
* Large paint brush (for painting varnish on paper)
* Baking paper
* Jar to mix varnish in (if you are making a lot, you'll need a very large jar)
* Newspaper
* Oven
* Scissors

Comments

[lmeijer]

When i was on elementary school, we used to make drawings and made it look old by using ecoline (i'm Dutch and i don't know if it's called the same in English). This technique meant you would paint the whole thing with black and/or yellow ecoline (with this technique it has to be rather firm paper), and then wash it off with water and dry it. I wonder if this might work as well, because i find this a rather hard thing to do as it's hard to find shellac in stores in Holland. I think i never actually saw it anywhere... But would it be possible?

[Hom3rSimpson]

Hmm.. I don't know what ecoline is really, so I can't get a definitive answer sorry. From the description you gave though, it might work - my main concern would be that when you wash it, the ink might come off as well.

The best advice I can give, is to try it on a spare bit of paper. Just print on the paper before hand to test it.