Weddingbee Blog

Due to an ice storm, my Christmas day was super productive since I couldn’t leave my parents’ house! I started and finished our STDs this past Christmas.

I had posted previously about the concept here, and the design didn’t really change at all before we were finished - we just made a few font modifications, and the design was slightly elongated to fit the envelopes.

Supplies :

• 3 sheets 30×42 4-ply museum board ~ $15 each
• Gocco ink - red, black, white ~ $5 each (but there is tons leftover)
• Navy envelopes ~$30 for 100 (including shipping)
• 7 sheets computer paper
• 1.5 rolls of permanent adhesive for the 1.5″ Xyron ~ $10ish
• Roll of magnet strip ~ $6

Equipment :

• Designed in Illustrator
• Laser cutter w/ AutoCAD template
• Gocco machine
• Printer & photocopier
• 1.5″ Xyron machine

After creating the design in Illustrator, I created a template in AutoCAD to maximize the number of cards I could get from one 15″x21″ sheet (4 small sheets per large sheet to fit on the laser cutter bed). I decided to cut the anchor out as well, so I vectorized an image in Illustrator, and exported it as an .EPS to import into AutoCAD.

I cut down the large sizes of Museum Board to fit the bed and watched the laser cutter do its magic! Unfortunately I decided to do this during my lunch break and did not have my camera with me, but this is generally what was going on:

And then I had almost 80 of these : (We cut the mirror image to ensure that if there was any burning, it would be on the reverse side.)

I next burned the images onto Gocco screens. I burned two screens, each with two items to be printed, for a total of 4 prints per invite (my parents thought I was crazy). After the invites were printed (on a ink-jet printer) I photocopied them (necessary since it’s carbon that burns the screens).

Screen #1: “the remove and remember” on the side actually got printed on the back of the invite - I used the ’Ink Blocker’ to prevent any ink from seeping onto the other section.

Screen #2: This screen is basically split in half, the left half was printed first, and the right printed second, on top of the first.
After the first round of printing:

I forgot to take a pic of the print for the light gray compass rose before I printed the next layer on. The 3rd and 4th rounds of printing got quite messy, and I ended up cutting the Gocco screens so that the ink from the first round of printing would not print again.

Almost done! I added a piece of magnet to the back of each for fridge hanging.

Mess of Gocco screens and little anchors:

The envelopes I ordered from Envelope Mall -Carnival 4-1/8 x 9-1/2″, (No 10 Policy) in Deep Blue. They have a small flap that opens on the end:

I made 1.5″ labels in Illustrator with our guests’ addresses, and cut them with my paper cutter. I also added a small rope graphic which wraps the label. I ran these through the Xyron and stuck them on, a la Martha style!

Et voila! The completed STD :

And here they are en masse, ready to be mailed! Bonus - they weighed exactly 1 oz., meaning I didn’t need a special stamp!

What do you think!?