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For the top portion, I cut the manila envelope so that it was about 1/4 of an inch from the top point of the envelope. Then I put the entire square into the envelope itself:
Then I put a ruler at the top of the point and made a (clearly not so straight) line onto the template so that I had a mark for the uppermost point:

I took a ruler and made a line from the crease of the envelope to the mark I had just made for the uppermost center point:
I made those lines on either side and then cut off the corners…and there’s my template! Honestly, making the template perfect took me the longest time. From here on out was pretty straightforward.

I put the template on my paper and traced away. If you use a corner of the paper you only have to make three quick lines:

I cut the liner out along the lines I had just made:

And inserted into the envelope!

Now I just needed to get a nice crease so that it all folded together nicely. So I folded the envelope flap down and used a bone folder along the edge to make a crease:

Then took a tape roller (these things save a ton of time) and put tape on each of the edges:
Pressed it into the envelope flap, and voila! Once the template is finished it takes just a few minutes to make the actual liner. I traced a bunch of them at once, and then cut about 25 of them in under a half an hour.

Now I can hardly wait to get our envelopes back from the calligrapher!

Are you lining your own envelopes? Anyone else planning on using the long weekend over the 4th to knock out some crazy wedding tasks? « Hide it

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What’s your favorite source for cheap n’ chic wedding invitations?
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The shower itself actually makes me pretty nervous, but the invitations are oh so cute. My maid of honor and adorable cousin made them herself…we didn’t even know she was crafty I hated to blur all of the information out but wanted to show them to you anyway.

It’s hard to see in the pictures but they are thick and have a really nice matte finish. So well done! I am not quite sure how she did it but I know it involves scrapbook paper and Kinkos I can find out the details if you’re interested.

Was it strange to see your own shower invitation?
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Our invites feature a beautiful 3-layer panel card in dark brown, light blue and ivory, trimmed with rich double face satin ribbon. The blue & brown colors and birdie lovin’ totally matches our avian theme. The RSVP card features chicken and mushroom icons to add a touch of whimsy to the design.I was able to provide the map, thanks to our friend and uber-talented photographer, Miss Laura Kicey.

Our wee wedding website cards round out the package and subtly direct guests to the website for more wedding info and fun stuff (aka where to buy us presents if they so desire bwahaha)!

Our package includes 65 of the following elements:

-3-layer color-printed invitations with ribbon accent, printed outer envelope, RSVP card and printed RSVP envelope
-directions cards
-web cards

Anywho, here are more photos taken by Cindi for your viewing pleasure!

I can’t recommend BrassPaperclip enough to handle your crafty, customized wedding needs. It’s very difficult for me to resist the handmade, vintage-inspired items in her shop.

Is anyone else getting their invitations custom designed instead of DIY-ing them?
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What we used:

• Satin-edged organza ribbon from PaperMart
• Scotch Permanent Photo Safe double sided tape

Step 1. Cut a 2’3″ length of ribbon, trimming the edges at an angle. Wrap it around the pocketfold in a way so that the location of the bow is right where you want it. For our invites, we wanted it at the bottom right of the invite.

Step 2. Lay the pocketfold flat with the ribbon in the right place. Put two small strips of double sided permanent tape along where you want the ribbon to lie. I placed one near the folded edge of the pocketfold and one closer to where the bow would be (but would end up underneath the monogram label).

Step 3. Add 2-3 strips of double-sided tape on the flip side of the pocketfold as well, along where the ribbon will lie. Make sure that you have strips on the edges (i.e. one near the folded edge and one near the cut edge).

Step 4. Adhere the label on the front.

Step 5. Tie your bow! I found the easiest way to tie a pretty bow was making a loop with each length (as opposed to one loop and wrapping the other length over), wrapping one loop over the other, and then adjusting the bow so it sat properly.

And finally, you’re done!

And there you go, the complete tutorial to how we made our invitations! I won’t lie, it took many late nights to craft over 200 of these. Was it worth it? Well, if I had to do it again, I would definitely do it again, because the final product was exactly what we wanted, it was personal, and it was filled with love for our friends and family.
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I have to say, this project is a perfect example of “use what you’ve got around.” I went to Target (where else, right?) looking for inspiration. I came home with some scrapbooking paper and a couple of packs of matching stickers… and not a clue as to what I was going to make with them.

I ended up printing some text with crop marks onto some cream-colored cardstock I already had, setting it up in Illustrator:

Then I cut up some kraft-colored blank greeting cards that I found in my desk drawer into 3.5×5″ rectangles, and rounded the two right corners with a corner punch. You could use a colored cardstock for this too. I used the scrapbooking paper I’d bought to “line” the cards, again rounding the two right corners. Who says every invitation needs to be the same?

I cut out the text cards I had printed and continued to round the two right corners off, each piece a little smaller than the one below it, and aligned them all on the left. The two text panels were staggered so invitees could see the bottom map/directions panel and know to swivel the top one out to view it.

Everything was stacked and secured with coordinating metal brads from my mix-and-match collection of brads and eyelets. Since I’d bought them, I added some of the Target stickers to each for a little added dimension.

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Here is a screen shot of what my fully designed page looked like. I made some of them upside down so that the text wouldn’t get cut off, since the printer doesn’t like to print too close to the margins.

Don’t forget to first make sure that each slide is set to 8.5″x11″ paper (under “Page Setup” select “Letter” under the drop down menu “Slides sized for”).

For the main invitations, I similarly first drew a 4.75″x4.75″ thinly outlined box. I then added all the text and images and grouped them together. “Grouping” is essentially a function in Powerpoint that will turn all of the selected items into one image, and can be done by selecting all the items, right clicking while they are still selected, and going to “Grouping –> Group”. Once the whole thing was grouped, I was able to copy it by holding down “CTRL+SHIFT” while dragging it across to the other side of the paper.

On the bottom of that sheet, I made the little monogram labels that we would use on the front cover. After these were cut, I pasted them on Metallic Brown paper, cut in 1 7/8″ x 3 1/8″ rectangles using the leftover paper from the invitation backing.

Here is what the full sheet looked like with the actual designs:

Now for some of the details…We used the following fonts:
Lainie Day
High Tower Text
Bickham Script Pro-Regular (for the monogram)

We printed everything on Luxe Glass Text Heavy paper from Paper Source, using the Canon MP530 printer, which I absolutely heart. It was completely reliable and the colors were true to form. It’s actually a photo printer and scanner as well, which is why the print quality was so great!

And finally, the graphic itself. I couldn’t find a graphic I liked, so I created this out of a combination of three different rubber stamps! Here is my original stamped image:

I scanned it in, emailed it off to my friend who has Illustrator, and had her smooth out the edges and even out the black. Once she sent it back to me, I filled in the color with my perfect shade of pink using The Gimp, which is basically like a free software with similar capabilities to Adobe Photoshop (thanks Mrs. Lemon for introducing me to Gimp with your lovely tutorials back in the day!). And voila, the finished image:

That should cover the details, the design, and the dimensions. Next up, the finishing touches!
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