Layout of the Week - Wedding Invitations

Yes, I know this isn't a scrapbook layout & I promise to get back to layouts next week. I've just had these invitations on my project list for quite a while. These invitations are for my brother & future sister-in-law's wedding in September. A few years ago, I tried having my own company creating handmade invitations & baby announcements. I have made quite a few over the years, but found that there was no way I could get paid enough for the time I was putting into them. So now, I create them by request for family and friends. In case you'd like to try your hand at creating your own invitations for your next small party or large event, I'll let you know how I created them. My brother needed 80 invitations and let me know that their colors are a sage or avocado green, copper & ivory. So that's where I started.

I usually create invitations by cutting each layer of paper on my large (12 x 12) Fiskars rotary blade cutter. Cutting each of the two or three layers of paper, one piece at a time. This time, I was in a time crunch and was excited to learn that Paper Zone (a cool paper store in my area) had pre-cut cardstock in tons of colors and sizes. Just by chance, they had EXACTLY the color I was looking for. They call it Wasabi, it's in their PZ Facets collection. So I purchased 4 packs of 20 sheets, in the A-7 or 5 1/8" x 7 1/8" size) to use as the backing sheet.

Next, I chose a copper metallic paper for the middle layer. I wanted a 1/4" border around all sides, so I cut the sheets of 8 1/2" x 11" paper down to two 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" pieces.

For the vellum topper, I chose ivory vellum from World Win. This vellum works very well in ink jet printers, which allowed me to choose colored ink to match the copper theme. I set my invitations up in Microsoft Publisher, I'd rather use Adobe Pagemaker, but don't have access to it on my current computer. My brother & his fiancee chose Vivaldi as their font. I was able to use the Pantone color chart available in Publisher to chose the exact ink color I was looking for. (It's 153CVC, in case you were wondering.) I cut the vellum into 4" x 6" pieces. I used page set up to choose a "portrait" setting and so I could put two sets of wording at the top and one sideways under them. This way I was able to cut three vellum toppers out of each 8 1/2" x 11" sheet, thereby saving a few sheets of paper and a little bit of money. The vellum would sit on top of the Wasabi paper & copper paper, with a 1/4" border around it.

After sorting the three layers into individual invitations, I used a Memory Makers Paper Piercing Tool to poke small holes approximately 1/4" from the top & sides on the left and right sides of the vellum. (I use my paper piercing tool on top of a self-healing mat.) I then placed small copper brads from American Crafts into each hole.

For a final touch, I used spray adhesive from Loctite to mount small copper skeleton leaves from Mountain Valley Paper Company at the bottom of the invitations. The wedding has a Fall leaf theme and I thought these leaves would be a fun addition.

The invitations will be mailed in matching Wasabi envelopes from Paper Zone, in the A-7 or 5 1/8" x 7 1/8" size.

The approximate cost for the supplies to create 80 of these invitations is $120.00

I'm happy with the way these invitations turned out and thankful to be done with such a large project. I probably wouldn't recommend a wedding as the project to tackle the first time you try creating your own invitations, but you should definitely try creating some for your or your child's next birthday party! People always love receiving something handmade in the mail. I've had many comments over the years from customers & friends, that they are keeping my invitations as mementos of a joyous event.

So, don't be afraid to try creating your own invitations! And remember, you can always ask me any questions you have while working on your project. I've run into all sorts of dilemmas in my projects and would be happy to share my solutions with you!