Sign up   Login  
Newer blog post
more in Blog
Older blog post
Newer blog post by Ms Fondue
more by Ms Fondue (oldest)
Older blog post by Ms Fondue
Ms Fondue's Picture
Miss Fondue, Nashville Age and Occupation: 27, Technical Analyst Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Network Admin Student/Senior Game Advisor Engagement Date: December 25, 2007 Wedding Date: May 2009 Blogging Since: September 14, 2008 Venue: Ravenwood Golf Club About Me: I’m your average computer geek marrying a gaming geek and trying to find a good balance of elegance and geek chic in our wedding. I adore The Sims, Nintendo, cosplay, (good) music, TiVo, theme parks, and our two crazy felines.
About Ms Fondue

Don’t worry; I won’t keep you guys in suspense!

You’ve previously seen the damask stamp I ordered from Impress Rubber Stamps on projects like our coasters. However, I originally purchased it when I was working on our invitation design last spring.

I showed you all the original designs we considered. But as I was designing all of those, as I mentioned, I decided I wanted something with a little more texture. Now it’s time to reveal the real thing.

Note: If you are invited to our wedding, please do not proceed beyond this point!

Our invitations were created in four stages:

  1. Print the wording onto cardstock
  2. Emboss the damask design
  3. Add ribbon
  4. Assemble cardstock pieces

For the first stage, I simply created a Microsoft Word document using the dimensions of my white cardstock and printed them all on my home printer.

The second stage was the longest, and so I bring the tutorial I promised in my coasters post! (Would you believe I took these step-by-step photos back in April, just in case I was ever blogging for Weddingbee one day? Ha!)

Supplies:

  • Stamp
  • Stamp pad – make sure it is pigment ink, not dye ink, as dye ink dries too quickly
  • Embossing powder – I used clear for this project
  • Heat gun
  • Stamp-a-Majig – Optional, but useful

The Stamp-a-Majig is a nifty tool that allows you to line up where you want to stamp before you actually stamp your image. I used it for the first few invitations, but I eventually got the hang of where I wanted the stamp to be without it. But, if you are using one, the first step is to line up your Stamp-a-Majig where you want your stamp to go. I also placed my invitation on top of a scrap piece of cardstock so I could stamp the edge of the paper and not stamp my table. (While I might not mind a damask dining room table, I have a feeling Mr. Fondue would.)

Designing the Invitations, Part 2: An Embossing Tutorial :  wedding diy invitations nashville stationery tutorial Img 038

And then stamp!

Designing the Invitations, Part 2: An Embossing Tutorial :  wedding diy invitations nashville stationery tutorial Img 03801

After you have stamped one invitation, cover it in embossing powder. Be very generous. I used two pieces of folded cardstock for this step. One was used to pour and the other caught the excess powder. Then they would switch places for the next invitation.

Designing the Invitations, Part 2: An Embossing Tutorial :  wedding diy invitations nashville stationery tutorial Img 03802

Tap the paper a lot to get all the excess powder off the page.

Designing the Invitations, Part 2: An Embossing Tutorial :  wedding diy invitations nashville stationery tutorial Img 03803

You can go ahead and put powder on a lot of the pages before you heat them. I just lined them all up.

Designing the Invitations, Part 2: An Embossing Tutorial :  wedding diy invitations nashville stationery tutorial Img 03804

Then get your significant other to do something and melt the powder with the heat gun. It’s really easy to tell when the powder has been melted, but my gun takes a minute or two to heat up all the way.

Designing the Invitations, Part 2: An Embossing Tutorial :  wedding diy invitations nashville stationery tutorial Img 03901

You can tell in this shot that half of this one has been melted and half hasn’t.

Designing the Invitations, Part 2: An Embossing Tutorial :  wedding diy invitations nashville stationery tutorial Img 03805

And that’s all there is to heat embossing!

For the third stage, I just cut a strip of ribbon to the length I needed, ran some adhesive down it (I used Tombow Mono Permanent Adhesive), and stuck it to the cardstock, with the ends folding over the edge of the paper.

Then in the fourth stage, I again used my Tombow to attach the white cardstock to the red, and the red to the pocketfold. Voila!

Designing the Invitations, Part 2: An Embossing Tutorial :  wedding diy invitations nashville stationery tutorial Img 03701

Here’s a close-up so you can see the texture.

Designing the Invitations, Part 2: An Embossing Tutorial :  wedding diy invitations nashville stationery tutorial Img 03702

Our programs will also be mimicking this design.

Have you used embossing in any of your DIY projects?

Tags: diy, invitations, nashville, stationery, tutorial |
advertisement below
Newer blog post
more in Blog
Older blog post
Newer blog post by Ms Fondue
more by Ms Fondue (oldest)
Older blog post by Ms Fondue

64 Responses to “Designing the Invitations, Part 2: An Embossing Tutorial”

1 2 3 4 

1.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Ballet Flat (message)  852 posts, Busy bee

That looks so impressive!!

 
2.
Mrs. Tiramisu
Bee
Mrs. Tiramisu (message)  1,091 posts, Bumble bee

Beautiful!

 
3.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Bruschetta (message)  5,565 posts, Bee Keeper

I love Impress Stamps! These look great — the texture really adds that little “I-don’t-know-what” ;-)

 
4.
Member Icon
Member
Almostananderson (message)  139 posts, Blushing bee

Very pretty!

 
5.
Guest Icon
Guest
ErinMarieMack

These are beautiful! I am impressed:)

 
6.
Guest Icon
Guest
Ruby Slippers

Gorgeous! Excellent job!

 
7.
Guest Icon
Guest
maritessb

they look sooo professionally done. great job!

 
8.
Guest Icon
Guest
Melissa

Your invitations look gorgeous! I used embossing powder on our Save the Dates. Like you I felt like printing your own invitations lack texture and this is a great inexpensive way to add some pizazz. I used the heat from a toaster rather than buying a special heat gun. Thinks works just as well. I finished them this weekend and plan on posting pics on my blog later this week. (http://kruseandpeeples.blogspot.com/)

 
9.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Sushi (message)  1,479 posts, Bumble bee

Wow. They look great! Do you know if they make pigment ink that you can draw with or trace with? ie. what if I want to emboss a computer generated graphic? Is that possible?

 
10.
Guest Icon
Guest
JaymeLyn

you are fabulous miss fondue!

 
11.
Guest Icon
Guest
budgetbeautiful

Thanks for this-I’m planning on embossing some elements of our wedding stationery, so this will come very handy when it’s go time! :)

 
12.
EAQ219
Member
EAQ219 (message)  1,458 posts, Bumble bee

I know it might be too early in the relationship to say this, but I think I love you. You just may have inspired me to do this with our invitations. Yours look amazing!

 
13.
Guest Icon
Guest
Aut

I wish I knew about this when I did my invitations–they’re amazing!

 
14.
Vic004
Member
Vic004 (message)  804 posts, Busy bee

Awesome your invites look fabulous, I have been waiting for this tutorial! YAY!

 
15.
elle1009
Member
elle1009 (message)  120 posts, Blushing bee

Those look freakin’ awesome – absolutely gorgeous!!!

 
16.
Serendipity
Hostess
Serendipity (message)  7,835 posts, Bumble Beekeeper

***SWOOOOOON!!!***

 
17.
Member Icon
Member
Miss OceanBeach SF (message)  181 posts, Blushing bee

Thank you!!!

@Miss Sushi: They do make pens that you can write with and then emboss. I’ve seen in them in craft stores around the stamps and embossing supplies, but I’ve never actually tried it to see how well it works.

 
18.
Guest Icon
Guest
Jaynay

ABSOLUTELY GORGE!!!

Miss Fondue, I have a few questions:

Did you use a regular stamp ink pad, or an embossing ink pad?

Can you please email me and tell me what kind of powder and embossing ink pad you use? I also emboss but I constantly have stray powder dust so I’m not sure if it’s my powder or the ink pad that’s giving me problems. Thanks in advance!

 
19.
Guest Icon
Guest
anne

great job!!

 
20.
Luvbug6315
Member
Luvbug6315 (message)  425 posts, Helper bee

beautiful. I used embossing powder on my save the dates and what a difference it makes!

 
1 2 3 4 

Leave a Reply


You can also just...

Newer blog post
more in Blog
Older blog post
Newer blog post by Ms Fondue
more by Ms Fondue (oldest)
Older blog post by Ms Fondue

Copyright 2004-2013, Weddingbee.com
 

Find your vendors on Weddingbee

Favors by Weddingbee

Shop Now »

Ms Fondue
Ms Fondue

Miss Fondue, Nashville Age and Occupation: 27, Technical Analyst Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Network Admin Student/Senior Game Advisor Engagement Date: December 25, 2007 Wedding Date: May 2009 Blogging Since: September 14, 2008 Venue: Ravenwood Golf Club About Me: I’m your average computer geek marrying a gaming geek and trying to find a good balance of elegance and geek chic in our wedding. I adore The Sims, Nintendo, cosplay, (good) music, TiVo, theme parks, and our two crazy felines.

Boards
Classifieds