Our envelope placecards

So, yet again, I take on another DIY project for my wedding! This one. . . .the placecards.

So since Aaron and I got engaged at the top of the Eiffel Tower, we deicded to put a little Paris into our wedding reception, corny as it may sound. Each of our tables is named after a monument in Paris (or close to it): Tour Eiffel, Louvre, Musee D'Orsay, Champs Elysses, Arc de Triomphe, Versailles, Notre Dame, and Montmartre. So we went with a little "travel" inspiration in our placecards too. We decided to make our placecards old vintage envelopes complete with cool stamps, calligraphy, and a "worn-in" look. Here's how they came out:

The lettering may look a bit funky, but that's only because I edited the image so no last names were showing!

I was so please with how these came out, and they look SO cool when they are all sitting right next to each other. Since we're going with jewel tones, the stamps fit right now. So how did I do it?

Here's the supplies you'll need if you want this look:

*Size A-2 envelopes in ivory
*Brown stamp pad
*Make-up sponges
*Calligraphy pen
*Stamps
*Ink postage stamps

Now, where can you get the tricky stuff? For the ink postage stamps. . . these beauties. . .

I just found a set of four stamps in the rubber stamp aisle at Michaels. They're not super cheap. They run about $10 to $14 for the set of four stamps, but I used my 40% off handy coupon on it. If you're thinking about skipping this part, don't. Everytime I looked at the envelope before I stamped it, it just seemed empty. These stamps gave it that extra something.

For the stamps, I bought a lot of 100 around the world stamps on Etsy for a grade total of $5! The seller is artyparty, and she does a great job of categorizing various stamp collections. You can buy stamps by color or my country. You can peruse her shop on etsy here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/artypharty?ref=seller_info

Now, if you've never done calligraphy before, test it out first. It's not too difficult if you have decent handwriting skills to begin with. I learned a bit of calligraphy when I was a kid, and I would not consider myself an expert by any means! But I think the names on my placecards look very nice! :-) Practice, practice, practice. . . .and if you're still not happy, get someone else to do it for you! Con some bridesmaid to do it!

So here's the process for make them. . . .

Step one: Bake the envelopes

Heat your oven to 325 degrees. Put the enveloped on a cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Your enveloped will be a little warped when they come out, but they'll flatten a bit over a few weeks. However, I think that helps the "worn-in" look.

Step two: Age the corners

Take your stamp pad and make-up sponges. Sponge just the corners with a bit of the brown stamp pad. Experiment with how much you want on the corners. Here's what one of mine looks like:

I just put a piece of newspaper under the envelope and sponged lightly over the edges. Don't overwork it.

Step three: Apply the stamps, write the name, and use those ink postage stamps to finish it off!

I found the stamps needed a good glue stick to get them to really take hold. Another thing I did, since mine was a mixture of colors, I seperated the stamps out into different colors. This way, I  made sure the colors were evenly mixed. It was so much fun to decde who would get what country and what design!

That's it! Really easy and it turned out so wonderful! Can't wait for my guests to see them!

Our finished wedding invitations

It's been a while since I have posted here, and I have a lot to cover. First off though, is our finished wedding invitations.

I scoured the internet for the perfect wedding invitations, and I came to the conclusion I came to on many aspect of my wedding. . . .I'll just do it myself! That way, I'm happy with the product. First of all, we went with a pocketfold invitation. I mentioned in my previous post that I used the graphics fairy website for resources on designing them. That website has been a wonder to me and all the graphic design when it comes ot my wedding! I downloded a couple of fonts from various free font websites. The "cursive" looking font is called "Parisienne" and the block letter-looking font is call "Crushed." I thought they both played nicely against each other.

The way I edited the inviations was simply though Microsoft Word. I put the frame I wanted from graphics fairy on there and then made sure the frame went behind the text. I then used multiple text boxes to insert the wording on my invites. I made sure the text boxes did not have any fill to them or outline. I adjusted the colors on the font to match the frame as closely as possible. I found after I designed everything that I could fit two invites on one sheet of paper, two of the inserts on one sheet, and four of the RSVP cards.

After printing it all out, then came the fun (sarcastic here!) part of putting it all together. I had a on Complete Works of William Shakespeare around I was oksy with tearing to pieces. Let me back up one step here. I ordered all my supplied from www.cardsandpockets.com. Before I setteled on any colors, I ordered samples. This proved to be a very important step. I didn't like some of the colors I received originally, so I sent away for more options and finally find a combination I liked. When I ordered the samples, I also ordered a sample of an ivory envelope liner. So when it came time to assembling everything, I had a template to follow.

We decided to put the Shakespeare text in the envelope, the inside flap, and the pocket. This was SO much labor! Way more that I anticipated. However, it was worth it in the end. It was such a beautiful touch, and it made for very unique invitations!

All in all, it took three of us five hours to put together 50 invitations, and that's without addressing them. However, all that labor was worth it when I got so many wonderful compliments on how beautiful then invitations were!