Thursday, July 31, 2008

How did you make them?

I get this question a lot, so here we go. Start to finish, how I made my invitations.

First - I downloaded the 'flourish' from http://www.stockxpert.com/. They have TONS of amazing flourishes. Try searching by flourish, vector, swirl etc. Be creative!

Second - I messed around. I knew I liked the look of right justified writing and it worked well with the flourish. It took me a while to 100% decide on the fonts, but when I put together Edwardian Script and Copperplate Gothic Light.

So there's the basic design. I did it all in PowerPoint and printed it on our color laser printer at work (lucked out there).
I bought Stardream Bronze paper from http://www.anchorpaper.com/ cut to size (14" x 7"). I used a mat and bone folder to fold at 4.5" from each side so they overlapped. I did this instead of having them meet in the middle because I wanted the inserts to fit on the side.


I printed out all the inserts and matted them to a deep red cardstock that I got at both Michael's and A.C.Moore.

After I glued down the main insert panel to the cardstock I had to figure out how to wrap the ribbons around the inserts in order to have them stay in. I tried this a few different ways, but I couldn't make it work. Here's how I finally got it to work:

I cut the ribbon (Merlot - 5/8") to a length of 11.5" so it would wrap around the inserts (two on each side). I lined the ribbon up along the mat so it would be straight, wrapped it around and secured it with my handy DOTTO dot runner (permanent glue).



Next I measured along the sides so they would be glued down in the middle.

Then I glued them on!



Next I closed them and wrapped them with some pre-cut 1 1/2" merlot ribbon. I used the DOTTO dot runner to secure it and then secured the monogram tag on.


Some more pics:
Supplies:
Stardream cardstock - bronze
Ivory cardstock from Staples
Deep red cardstock Michael's & ACMoore
Double faced satin ribbon - Merlot - ACMoore 5/8" and 1 1/2"
DOTTO dot runner - permanent
Bone folder
Mat
Please let me know if you have any questions on them. They have been a HUGE hit with our guests!

6 comments:

Gwen Stylez said...

So fantastic! Love them! I'm going to add you to my blogroll. Love, Jennie (Gwen Stylez)

Anonymous said...

I love your invitations. They are beautiful!!

Were you able to change the color of the "flourish" once you downloaded it?

About how much did the invites cost you in total?

Thanks, Tosha

~Jaime~ said...

Thank you!

I didn't try changing the color since it fit very well with our fall theme. I would imagine that someone more savvy than I in photoshop would be able to alter it.

They were about $6 all total - with paper, envelopes, ribbon and glue. However, I have a ton of paper and ribbon left over to use for my programs, so that's not exactly an accurate figure.

Anonymous said...

I love these invitations!!

What size of envelope did you use?

Thanks!

~Jaime~ said...

Thank you! I think they may have been A7 or A8 envelopes. The invitation was 5x7 and I did both inner and outer envelopes.

Anonymous said...

Do you know the name of the flourish? Its perfect.....