Forgive me for the surge of all things wedding. I’m so
surrounded by it, its all I think about! WARNING: picture heavy.
Today I’d like to show you a quick tutorial of how I made
my own D.I.Y invites for my engagement. The theme of the party was all things
peacock, but it was more a subtle colour scheme than everyone dress up your
tail feathers. I wanted to incorporate that in the invites so as to spread the
word while still being simple, timeless and elegant, a lot like me you see! *sighs*
Things I used:
- Tri – fold wardrobe blank cards and envelopes in ivory from Hobbycraft.
- Blue & Green ribbon
- Peacock feather stamp and clear stamp block from Hobbycraft
- Coloured ink pads
- Computer/Printer
- Wax seal
- Postable wax (this is a flexible kind that is less likely to crumble in the post)
- Glue stick
The idea
There is a huge range of cardstock in hobbycraft but I fell in
love with the tri-fold wardrobe ones. I had a lovely idea of turning them
horizontal and opening them up much like a scroll which would fit in with the Fiancé
and my love for all things historical ( I think we’ve been watching too many
Game of Thrones episodes) while allowing me to fit the multiple jargon needed
on the invite.
The beginning
Once I had the image in mind I set out to type up the
invite on word. I decided to have my sister as the hostess which I thought better implied frivolity and a big emphasis on PARTY.
I then went on an internet search to find the perfect
font. I love the whole Edwardian script style but knew half of my relatives
wouldn’t be able to read it. Some great sites for downloading free fonts are:
Snippet and Ink (my favourite from which I used Champagne & Limousines)
I had toyed with the idea of printing them on card and
sticking them to the tri fold but after some trial and error we found it best
to just print straight onto the card.
Once you have your invite wording sorted, find a suitable
font. I found having the address and R.S.V.P a different simple font from the
invite helped create a more professional feel.
Make sure you go to Page layout – Size – A6 Card (or
whatever your size is) so that you work from a realistic page, saving you
trouble when printing.
Add a simple boarder from Word to create a finishing
touch. I chose a double border from word’s list and changed the colour to a
dark royal blue.
 |
| Sample of the finished font and invite inside |
Hey presto you are ready to print!
Word of advice: Be sure to have a few packets extra when
buying the tri-fold cards as the printer eats a few of them up, I had to feed
each card manually and print them one at a time to ensure that the alignment
was absolute perfect every time and did have a few lopsided unusable cards
while figuring it all out.
Decorating
I began preparing the cards by sticking a length of dark
green ribbon around them and cutting off the corners to create little arrows at
the opening. The blue ribbon was purchased from Paperchase and was just the right size to sit perfectly in the middle of the green. I only stuck the ends of the ribbon on to the card so as to insure flexibility when the card was opened up.
I then carefully stamped a green feather in the corner of each invite to give that subtle hint of the peacock theme. The clear stamps are dead cheap (around £1) from Hobbycraft and I recommend getting the clear stamp block (another £1) too as it'll help minimise the messy-ness and is easier to get the positioning correct every time plus speeds up the process like you won't believe.
I decided in line with the image in my head, to have a
custom seal designed from which I would stamp magnificent wax seals on each
invite. Ah! Brilliance. So I went on another internet search and found a UK
company that were able to produce a gorgeous wax seal for me in very little
time.
Once arrived, I sat down with the Fiancé and we created
little wax seals on foil paper to attach to the cards with glue later.
It was quite an easy method and I would recommend to
anyone looking for a unique touch to their wedding invites to give it a go. The good thing is
our custom seal can now be used to piss everyone off for the rest of our lives
on wedding invites, thank you’s, birthday cards, Christmas cards.. ^_^
Once we created our little seals, we just pop them off
the tin foil (it doesn’t matter which side you melt them on) and stuck them on
to the invites over the ribbon and between the closing with a dab of paper
pritt stick glue. The gooey kind if you know what I mean.
And that was it, all in all it was a 2-3 day job but
could have been done in a day if we had worked solidly (not just evenings like
we did). It was such an enjoyable experience and I felt so proud when I
realised family and friends had no idea they were hand made by us!
Have you had a go at making any invites for your wedding
or such? How did they turn out? Please share your stories and ideas as I’d love
to hear from you!
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