A Syncopated Wedding Part II: Stationery

Making your own stationery is a great option for your wedding or event if you have the time and the inclination.  It may or may not save you money.  That all depends on what you want and how complicated you want your design to be.  I had a very specific idea of what I wanted in my wedding invitations.  I didn't save money by making my own invitations, but I did get everything perfectly coordinated and exactly the way I wanted it.  It was definitely a learning process, but I think it was totally worth it!  Let me just be perfectly honest with you.  I spent hours upon hours working on these invitations.  If you are going to tackle this project, be willing to invest a lot of time.

My stationery package consisted of wedding invitations, wedding programs, wish cards, table numbers, cake labels, escort cards, thank you cards, envelope liners, tags for thank you gifts, and other things here and there.  Wow!  Typing it all out really makes it seem like a lot of work.  I can hardly believe I did all of that.  Once I decided on my basic design, the small things were fairly easy to do.  The first and most difficult part was deciding on the design.  I had to choose the clip art, decide how I wanted the clip art to look on the page (I think I had about 5 versions), choose the fonts, choose the font colors, arrange the text on the page, choose the fonts sizes. . .I could go on.  There are hundreds of options.  At some point you have to just choose something and go for it!

First I'll show you the invitations.

On the top left is the folder the invitation was packaged  in.  That's what it looks like closed.  To the right you'll see the coordinating thank you card I made to use after the wedding.  I ordered a custom stamp from Etsy to use for the return address for the reply card and for the thank you cards.  I blurred our address in the picture, so it looks a little funny.  On the bottom you'll see the open folder.  The invitation is on the left.  To the right in the information about the reception and the reply card.

Here's a closer view of the "celebrate" page and the reply.  You can see that I designed the reply card to be filled out horizontally, but when it stands up in the folder, you can see the RSVP date (see picture above).

In the picture above you can see the cake label.  We opted to have five smaller cakes instead of one big wedding cake.  They were all different flavors.  More on that coming soon.  Beside that is the "escort card."  We really didn't have escort cards.  I made one card for each table.  Below that is a "wish card."  Each guest wrote a wish for us to hang on a wish tree.  Beside that is a table number.

wedding program

inside the wedding program

There you have it.  If you'd like any information on exactly how I put put everything together feel free to comment below!

Sources
Style on a Budget: Pocket folders and paper
TracyAnnDigitalArt:  Clipart
Lovetocreatestamps: Custom stamps
Nashville Wraps: Raffia for the folders, programs and various wedding related crafts

Linking up at Still Being Molly,  Liz Marie Blog and Tatertots and Jello.

Watercolor Crush: Watercolor Invitations

A few weeks ago I first told you of my watercolor crush.  Last week I shared my DIY ombre watercolor art.  This week I'm sharing my DIY watercolor invitations.  A few years ago when I got engaged I couldn't find any invitations that I liked, in my budget, so I decided to make my own.  It was a really good decision.  Yes, it was a lot of work, but I got exactly what I wanted.  That process is what first got me interested in creating stationery.  I'll be sharing more about my wedding invitations in a series on my wedding in June.  There are so many great tools available to make your own stationary on the internet.  I got the fonts I used for free and bought some clip art from an Etsy seller.  In a few weeks I'll be hosting a Mother's Day Tea at my house for some family members.  I was excited to design my own invitations for another event.  I wanted the invitations to look light and springy, so I decided to incorporate my new-found love of all things watercolor!

I used Microsoft Word to make my invites.  The first thing you'll have to do is decide how big you want your invitations to be.  I decided this by first finding envelopes.  I bought envelopes from an office supply store that are big enough for greeting cards.  Then I created a text box in a word document that is about two tenths of an inch smaller than the envelope.  I gave my text box a dashed, light grey line so that I knew where to cut.  Since I was making a small number of invitations, I cut them with scissors.

I used some free fonts that I found at dafont.com.  "You're Invited" is one of my favorite fonts, "Windsong."  I wanted a typewriter script for the main body.  I like the contrast between the caligraphy and the rough type.  I chose "Traveling Typewriter."

In this picture you can see the light dotted line that I used as a guide.

I used 110 lb. cardstock to print the cards.  You can purchase watercolor paper at an art supply store.  I'm not sure if you can print on that type of paper from a standard printer.  I might try it next time.  It would probably give you a nicer effect from the watercolor paints.  Since this paper is not meant for watercolor, the paper did curl a bit when it got wet.  I fixed this by putting the finished, dry invitations under a stack of heavy books for a few days.

Before I started painting on the invitations, I practiced.  It's always a good idea to practice before trying something new.  I used an invitation that I found online as inspiration.

Source Unknown

At first I tried to copy this design, but I found that if I just did what felt right, it went much better.  I think the thing that gives the invitations a finished look is a little tap of the brush.  Dip your brush in whatever color you want, and then in the water, and then tap it over the paper.  You'll get a spray of color.

Another tip is to add the lighter colors first.  You can always go back and add more saturation, but it's difficult to make a color lighter.  If you get a little too much color, you can dip your brush in water and try to dilute the color quickly before it dries.

Yes, our home has an official name!  Kepner Memorial Parsonage, Kensington Palace, it's kind of the same thing.

Next week I'll be finishing up my Watercolor Crush series with a look at my other new set of curtains.  I hope you'll stop by to check it out!