STDs&#8212;The Fun Kind

STDs—The Fun Kind

May 27th, 2009 @ 1:23 pm by Mrs. Bunny
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Back in December, I had a week of vacation to burn. I didn’t have anywhere to go or anything to do… except work on wedding plans.

I spent an entire day at a coffee shop creating these:

STDs---The Fun Kind : wedding diy save the dates Savethe09

This is the back of our Save the Date card! The goal was for it to have the look of a handwritten vintage postcard. What do you think? I’ll show you the front of them in another post.

I spent several hours working the backs up in the trial version of Adobe InDesign that I downloaded.

I learned how to use InDesign in college — first for the school newspaper, of which I was the editor, then in a graphic design course I took during my final semester. Let me just say that taking that course, which was not required for my journalism major, was one of the best decisions I ever made, in spite of the fact that I took ridiculous amounts of time to complete every project. I just couldn’t let it go until I figured out how to make something look exactly how I envisioned it in my head!

In my opinion, Adobe software is the best out there for creating professional-looking projects.

Unfortunately, it’s not cheap. Not even close. A single copy of InDesign costs $699. Photoshop, which is everyone’s go-to program for image editing, costs the same. On the upside, you can download 30-day trial versions of those programs for free here.

That just means that your designing has to be done on a deadline, which is not so hard for me. I’m a reporter. Deadlines are my life! But it could be hard if you are not familiar with the software.

That said, if you’re a quick learner and you’re already familiar with a program like Microsoft Publisher, you should be able to pick it up. If you know what you’re looking for, the help feature will give you step-by-step instructions on how to do almost anything.

And I’ll show you my own step-by-step how to in my next post.

DIY brides, did you design your own STDs and invites? What program(s) did you use?

Tags: diy, save-the-dates |

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30 Responses to “STDs—The Fun Kind”

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Hostess

LatteLove (message) 5,587 posts, Bee Keeper

I learned adobe on my college newspaper too, and loving having access to it from home using a remote desktop (with approval from my boss!)

VERY cute STD idea!

5/27/09 @ 1:27 pm (reply)

Hostess

tessabella76 (message) 3,122 posts, Sugar bee

I just used Publisher to design my invites. I already had it as part of my Microsoft Office Suite and it was relatively easy to use once I got the hang of it.

I love your STD’s! I’d like to do something similar for our response cards.

5/27/09 @ 1:32 pm (reply)

Member

anhngo (message) 11 posts, Newbee

I used Adobe Illustrator - I second your thoughts about Adobe!!

5/27/09 @ 1:40 pm (reply)

Guest

futuremrsrune

Thanks for the tips. I will look into those free trial versions to work on my drink menus for the bar & place cards which are actually vintage postcards.

We actually ventured into downtown Miami with my father & his camera with black & white film. We took some “vintage” looking shots, picked out favorite & uploaded them to Walmart.com. They had a pattern with our exact colors and vintage style. Best part - 87 cents a piece.

We first were going to print out on card stock and place the photo in the front with more info on the back - but once we found the walmart STD’s we were hooked. They even let you place lots of information on nice paper in the back. I think that’s DIY with some help but within DIY budget!

Thanks again for the info!

5/27/09 @ 1:41 pm (reply)

Guest

Lisa Liang

I used Inkscape, an open-source version of Illustrator.

5/27/09 @ 1:46 pm (reply)

Bee

Miss Bunny (message) 349 posts, Helper bee

@Lisa Liang — I’ve never heard of that before! I’ll have to look into it.

5/27/09 @ 1:55 pm (reply)

Member

evarenee (message) 39 posts, Newbee

I love Adobe, I’ve used illustrator to create everything for my wedding. I love your STD’s they are great.

5/27/09 @ 2:04 pm (reply)

Member

TheMapChick (message) 119 posts, Blushing bee

I also used Illustrator for all of my paper products. I love it and am lucky enough to have the entire Adobe suite available to me for my job.

5/27/09 @ 2:04 pm (reply)

Guest

Sarah

I love Adobe. But then I’m a graphic designer and use InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat for all sorts of things on a daily basis. My wedding isn’t until next May which means I’m trying NOT to design anything yet for fear that I’ll change it all a hundred times before I actually need to get it printed.

The Adobe system definitely isn’t cheap. You can get the Creative Suite with InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Acrobat but thats $1,800. Yikes! Free trial software is a great idea!

5/27/09 @ 2:11 pm (reply)

10.

Member

Rinstar (message) 80 posts, Worker bee

I’ve learned to use paint.net for making all sorts of things. Its kinda like Photoshop lite, but it’s free! So considering I’m a graphics novice, it is just the ticket. It has been great for all my wedding related projects, though. I really like it, except it is kinda bad when it comes to dealing with adding text. If you get creative, though, you can figure it out.

5/27/09 @ 2:19 pm (reply)

11.

Bee

Miss Yorkie (message) 1,291 posts, Bumble bee

Love it! I’m all for vintage postcard save the dates! It’s a great way to set the tone for the rest of the wedding details. :o)

5/27/09 @ 2:20 pm (reply)

12.

Member

Miss Ink (message) 34 posts, Newbee

Yes and Yes. For the StDs, I made a linoleum print with chine collee (I’m a printmaker). For our invitations, RSVP cards, and direction cards, we used Illustrator (FI is a graphic designer).

Your StD idea is super! The hand-written detail is a wonderful and personal touch.

5/27/09 @ 2:30 pm (reply)

13.

Member

Keladry (message) 294 posts, Helper bee

Adobe all the way! I’m using a combination of Photoshop and Illustrator (my fav program ever!). My wedding isn’t for over a year and I’ve been through three versions of my save the dates already!

5/27/09 @ 2:30 pm (reply)

14.

Member

lit_geek26 (message) 138 posts, Blushing bee

I love these but I’m totally biased because ours are really similar! We’re using postcards that are photographs of our venue when it was a casino/resort in the 1900s. They’re antique-y looking and we think they’re so cool. On the back we put our general info (although I love how you drafted it as a letter!) and an old-fashioned “Post card” graphic.

5/27/09 @ 2:40 pm (reply)

15.

Member

mdarrah (message) 1,205 posts, Bumble bee

Miss Bunny those are great!!
I used photoshop for our save the dates, and hten printed them with VistaPrint. So cheap and they turned out great! Hooray for techy-DIY!

5/27/09 @ 2:44 pm (reply)

16.

Bee

Miss Ribbons (message) 2,018 posts, Buzzing bee

Journalism grad here — I’ve been using InDesign for all of my invites. I wisely bought the discounted Adobe suite right before I graduated last year and it’s turned out to be the best investment ever (it was about 250 for everything!).

So if you’re still in college, find out if you get a discount.

5/27/09 @ 2:56 pm (reply)

17.

Guest

JLS

I’ve been using Illustrator and I really like it. In fact, I just did my invites last night! I have CS3 b/c I do some photography and I needed Photoshop. If you’re a student or your child is a student, you can get CS3/CS4 at http://www.academicsuperstore.com for a discount. You just can’t use it to make money, only for personal use. I paid $259 for all three, Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.

5/27/09 @ 3:24 pm (reply)

18.

Member

xLailax (message) 414 posts, Helper bee

I soooo want to take a graphics design course! I cant even use the 30 day trials though, I dont have a personal computer… only my work computer and it doesn’t work properly if I try to load any software to it. Then when I’m back at work it syncs up to the server and I get an audit message requesting I delete xyz immediately! haha, crazy.

5/27/09 @ 3:31 pm (reply)

19.

Bee

Miss Cola (message) 2,868 posts, Sugar bee

If you don’t need the full blown version of PhotoShop, PhotoShop Elements is a good option, for only $140. Unless you’re a professional graphic designer, it will give you plenty of functionality, and the price is right!

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelwin/

5/27/09 @ 3:47 pm (reply)

20.

Bee

Mrs. Tiramisu (message) 1,098 posts, Bumble bee

@CaliValley82: Yes! I also used Photoshop Elements and it worked great for everything I needed it to do. I used a student discount, and got it for Mac for $80.

5/27/09 @ 3:52 pm (reply)

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