Weddingbee Blog

June was a busy month on the DIY front. Early on I spent a lot of time sewing flowers for my bouquet, but with time slipping away I really needed to work on my invitation design. I know…I know…it was June and nearing the three-month mark (BAD BRIDE!!), and I needed to get those puppies out ASAP! But I had been busy and hadn’t quite figured out how I wanted the final product to look yet. (Plus, I had a plan involving sweatshop-like conditions with family and friends helping me out on an upcoming weekend.)

I initially played with black ink on ivory card stock with a purple backing and created this:

It was nice and all, but it didn’t have the standout factor I was aiming for. I wanted something different from the ordinary and with some color, so I decided to play around with dark paper and gold ink.

YUDU makes a pretty great looking gold ink, but I didn’t want to spend the extra bucks on a trial run, and I found a cheaper alternative in AC Moore. For less than four dollars I found Simply Screen Ink in Gold Dust and couldn’t pass up the deal!

Source

Ink in hand, I was prepared to play with my YUDU until I realized, “Oh crap, I don’t have anymore purple card stock. S#@T!!”

I was ready to postpone the fun until I remembered the leftover construction paper in my craft closet, which gave me the hope to keep on trucking. I trekked on, spread my ink, and passed it through the screen and was very pleased with the results. I successfully printed 10 perfect invites (well, perfect for the imperfect screen) within 10 minutes on various shades of construction paper that I had on hand.

I think the result is pretty stellar, don’t you?

The shimmery gold ink over the dark paper was stunning! It had a great shimmer to it, especially when it hit the light at certain angles.

Now don’t get me wrong—I know that this run is not perfect. The big issue is the screen, and the fact of the matter is that I need to burn a new one with the changes I made to the font, but lazy, procrastinating me hasn’t gotten around to it yet.

To sum things up, I am pleased with the overall look of gold ink over a dark background and am very curious to see what the gold would look like over a deep purple/plum–colored paper. The downside? Mr. Locket does not like the light-on-dark look and thinks it looks like a negative and that it’s too “goth.” He could be right…it might be a bit too dark for a cheery wedding invite (and the groom should have his say). So I am back to the drawing board trying to figure out what will look best and am on a pretty tight time crunch. But hey, I work best under pressure, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. And if all else fails, there is always the print-your-own-invite section at Michael’s, right?

What do you think? Too dark for a wedding invite? When did you ship yours out? Is the three-month mark really necessary if you have already sent STDs?