Apr 19, 2011

Engagement Party Invites: Finished Product

So the other day I posted the computer design of my engagement party invites. Here’s how I finished them.

Step 1: Print the invites

You may have a printer at home that prints nicely on cardstock without making you want to throw it out a window. I do not possess such luxuries, so I turned to my local Staples. Honestly, the work there is a little haphazard, but it’s also cheap and easier than fighting my home printer. I set up my file with 2 invites per 8.5 x 11 page, and had Staples cut them down to my 4 x 6 size. They charge by the page and cut.
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Step 2: Mount invites on cardstock

I attached the printed invites onto a piece of pre-cut brown cardstock, using a super strong double-sided tape. At this point I thought they looked boring, so I bought some chalk ink and dragged the edges of the cardstock through the ink pad, dabbing a little extra at the corners. Chalk ink is a stamp pad that looks, obviously, like chalk rather than ink. This added a lot of extra vintage appeal, improving the whole look of the invites.
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Step 3: Make envelopes

I owe Mr. B a big thank you for helping me with these! He volunteered his dad's quality printer, swiftly set it up for the awkward paper size (this normally would take me an hour), and manned the manual feeding of each individual envelope- complete with saintlike patience when the printer jammed every 7th envelope and took a really friggin long time to come back to life after jamming. I would have been abusing the printer at this point, but luckily having him handle the printing allowed me to ignore it, stay calm, and chalk ink my invites. We completed 40 invites and envelopes in under 2 hours.

It was really nice to work on a wedding project together. Mr. B is an accountant, so the past few months he’s been working 60+ hour weeks, which makes me the lead on wedding stuff. But now that his schedule has calmed down, he's getting more involved. Which is awesome, since this project wouldn’t have looked as nice without him.

So the final product (it pains me to scribble out the info! These envelopes looked so cool in person!!):


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Supplies:
Invite Printing: Staples, $21.
Envelopes: A6 envelopes in Paper Bag Paper Source, $3.50 for 10
Stamps: Celebration, a new design from the USPS.  
Adhesive: Memory Tape Runner
Chalk Ink: (this is stamp pad ink that looks like chalk when you stamp) Inkadinkadoo, $4, at AC Moore.
Envelope Font: Franklin Gothic Demi Cond (Word 2007 standard)

Share links to your DIY invites! I'm always looking for inspiration!

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