Weddingbee

Here’s the second print-out. The hotel information went on the back of the card, and the names were inked in green. The circle for the date proved difficult to line up perfectly on the Gocco, so I ended up nixing that idea and used a gold metallic pen to circle the date.

Then it was GOCCO TIME!!!

Here’s the main part of our Save-the-Date (please pardon the poor lighting). Notice the tree doesn’t look very crisp? Gocco Tip: Don’t use graphics that require precision!

Next, I made stickers for calendars. I got this idea from Martha Stewart Weddings! I bought labels from Office Depot and used the Avery Template on Word to enter the text. I also used one of our monograms bought from Creative Montage for the center sticker!

Then, it was Gocco time again! I made a card to affix the stickers to. I used double-sided tape to attach the stickers. The “Save-the-Date” text was done in Gold gocco ink (which is amazing) and the “We’re getting married, so label your calendars!” was done in Brown.

Finally came the magnets. I originally had the magnets printed by VistaPrint, but after a week on our fridge, the edges started to curl, so I had to make them by hand. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone, unless you’re like me and looking to save a buck. It’s a lot of work, A LOT! I had the photos printed at Kinko’s (for free, the woman took pity on me) and I bought magnet paper from Michael’s. [I’ll do a price breakdown later!] Here is the file I gave to Kinkos.

Check out Mr. Coconut hard at work (i.e., not playing Wii).

Then came the envelopes. These are my pride and joy, not because I made them but because they were SO PRETTY. They are this deep brown with shiny gold flecks. I can’t describe them properly. I bought them from Paper and More. For the address labels, I got this idea from Martha Stewart. They were printed out on the same card stock used to make the STD and then ran through a Xyron (bought on sale for $11.99 from Michael’s).

Here’s the final product all ready to go. Notice the curled paper clip? Yes, Mr. Coconut spent some quality time with the needle nose pliers!

Oh, and here’s my Rachel Ray trash bowl. It came in handy, and I would greatly recommend it for all projects! It keeps your area clean and you’re not constantly running to the trash can!

Resource Information: Adobe Illustrator; Gocco supplies from Northwood Studios; Paper and envelopes from Paper and More ($3 shipping).
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Option 2: Ignore the weird yellow color – it’s supposed to be a rich orange color

Option 3:

I knew immediately that I wanted either option 1 or 2. Option 1 was elegant, but option 2 had a lotus flower and was more unusual.

I can be indecisive and overthink everything so I decided to poll my family and my close girlfriends. I received so much feedback ranging from minor wording changes to complete redesign. What I learned from this experience, and throughout the planning process, is that it’s better to avoid seeking the opinions of too large an audience. It really just makes things more complicated and the decision that much harder to make. Most of the time you just have a gut feeling and it makes decision making much less stressful. I’ve identified a team of my key peeps I consult with which include Mr. Marg, Momma Marg and my MOH. Of course now I’ll add the hive into my team

So this is what Team Margarita came up with:

Option 2 but in plum with gold:

Envelope with gold letterpress:

Anyone else have a team to help with decisions?

All images courtesy of Saima Says Design
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Printing proved to be easy thanks to Ryan at the Kinko’s in my hometown. I had contacted Paper Source in order to make sure I had the correct Pantone code so that our invitation ink would match the envelopes and ribbon perfectly. Once printed, Mamita Pom and I carted them home to complete the crafting process - slicing and dicing - for only a few hours. The process went by rather quickly - so quickly, in fact, that I definitely do not regret taking on the project whatsoever. My mom is a scrapbooking genius and therefore, knows her tools very well - this, of course, made things run smoothly.

Our Finished Save the Dates.

With that said, I will itemize all of the resources used in the making of our Save the Date Collection as well as the costs involved below.

Tools Used to Create the Save the Date Collection
Adobe Illustrator
Paper Trimmer
Paper Trimmer Scoring Replacement Cartridge
Large Corner Rounder
Large Hole Punch
Scissors
Xyron 900 Creative Station
Mamita Pomegranate (sorry - she’s not web enabled yet!)

Products Used to Create the Save the Date Collection
10 Packs of Paper Source Soft White Cover Stock
(didn’t use it all - will use for invitations)
10 Packs of Paper Source Moss #10 Open End Envelopes
2 Spools of Paper Source Moss 1 1/2″ Double-Faced Satin Ribbon
1 Xyron Laminator/Adhesive Cartridge
100 Stamps

Budget Breakdown
$11.49 Cards - 34 sheets of Paper Source Soft White Cover Stock
@ $.338 per sheet ($3.38 per pack of 10 with bulk discount)
$5.75  Labels - 17 sheets of Paper Source Soft White Cover Stock
@ $.338 per sheet ($3.38 per pack of 10 with bulk discount)
$49.50 100 Paper Source open end Moss green envelopes
@ $.495 per envelope ($4.95 per pack of 10 with bulk discount)
$13.30 100 6″ lengths of Paper Source Moss green 1.5″ ribbon
@ $.133 per 6″ ribbon ($7.95 per spool of 10 yards or 360 inches)
$42.16 Cards - 34 double-sided color-prints at Kinko’s
@ $1.24 per page
$10.03 Labels - 17 single-sided color-prints at Kinko’s
@ $.59 per page
$41.00 100 stamps
@ $.41 per stamp
$7.50 1/2 Xyron Laminate/Adhesive Cartridge
@ $15 per cartridge on eBay.com (I used half the cartridge)
___________________________________
$180.73 for 100 Save the Dates

$1.81 per Save the Date

Please comment or message me with any questions!
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I had an idea in mind - simply to create a label with a length equal to the width of a portrait-oriented letter-sized piece of paper. This would make trimming very simple. I think I was inspired by a Martha Stewart label I had seen in Michaels during my Valentine’s Day crafting. I quickly whipped something up in Illustrator.

The Xyron sticker maker is electricity free and has its own built-in trimmer.

Once I fed each sheet of six labels through the Xyron, I trimmed off the excess paper and Xyron material. Then I trimmed around the block of labels using my paper trimmer’s ruler as a guide. Finally, I trimmed each individual label from its block of six. This is a task best done while watching a good movie - or in my case, past episodes of Alias.

Trimming the last label on my mom’s paper trimmer. See the huge pile of scraps on the side? Whew!

I decided to use the remaining paper that I used for the Save the Dates themselves (Paper Source Superfine Soft White Cover) for the Wraparound Labels. Since it was cover weight paper, I felt it would be necessary to score the fold that would wrap around the side of the envelopes. Fortunately for me, Mamita Pom had the Scoring addition to her paper cutter.

Scoring the label fold using the black paper scorer on the cutting board.

With just a quick swipe across the crease of each label, I was done! Time to apply one of my finished labels to an envelope and check out my handy work.

The finished, creased, sticker address labels.

I think the benefit to using the cover weight paper stock was that it was easier to peel off the sticker backing from each label. It was a quick and easy process. Soon I had a huge stack of labeled Save the Dates, ready for postage.

Peeling off the backing from one of the address labels.

Below you will find the final product - a damask bordered address label with a fine moss green stroke. The addresses were printed in the same Copasetic font as the Save the Date itself.

The front of the Save the Date envelope with Wraparound Label. I’ve left the guest addresses in a blurred state so that you can see where they were positioned.

I included a sneak peek of our custom designed monogram above our return address for the back of the envelope. I used the concept of the Copasetic font “K” to create a Frank Lloyd Wright-esque block. Since our first names both begin with “K” and my married name will begin with an “M” - I love how the two “K’s” combined seem to make an “M” shape between them.

The back of the Save the Date envelopes with Wraparound Label and Monogram. I’ve left our return address in a blurred state so that you can see where it was positioned.

Coming Soon, in the last installation, I will go over the costs involved with undertaking the design and DIY of our own Save the Dates. Stay tuned!!

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I had meant to share with you the entire creation process - including the cutting, trimming, corner rounding, and hole punching of the actual cards themselves. However, my memory card begged to differ. As much as I love new technology - it doesn’t pan out for me on occasion and this was one of those times.

Each printed sheet of Cover Stock from Paper Source contained three cards, so we had to cut, trim, and corner round each card.

I meticulously shot pictures of each step of the process and then continued to make way on the daunting task with my mom. However, when I returned to shoot the next stage, I turned on my camera and I received the following error message, “Memory Card Error.” I raced to upload the photos to my laptop and all I was able to accomplish was a spinning hourglass. ARG!!

The Moss Ribbon from Paper Source used for the Ribbon Pull. To make a good forked cut, fold the ribbon in half and make an angled cut - this way you have a symmetrical fork.

I re-shot the process and went back to my crafting. I double-checked my camera and sure enough, it turned on fine and the photos were all there. We completed the cards, ribbon pulls, stuffed and sealed the envelopes. I moved on to creating the wraparound address labels. Once a mock-up was complete, we went to shoot that process.

The Moss Ribbon and Open End Envelopes we used - all from Paper Source.

$#&%@!! @*^$#%$!! This was basically my response when I returned to shoot the labels and saw that “Memory Card Error” again. I gave up. I decided to just shoot the collection as I had it currently (with no un-cut card sheets) and leave the imagination up to you. If anyone has any questions on how to create the cards, cut and trim them, or round the corners - I’d be glad to answer them.

Pulling a finished Save the Date out of the envelope.

With that said, I’m rather pleased with how they turned out. I think they look rather professional and definitely have the look I was attempting to capture. The only thing I would have done differently was to use an easier font to read in case of elderly eyes. Although, I do love the Copasetic font we used as it reminds me of the one used at the winery.

The front of a completed Save the Date card.

I downloaded any complicated graphics from www.istockphoto.com including the flourish from the front of the Save the Date card and the damask pattern from the Address Label. I created the striped pattern for the back of the Save the Date card in Illustrator as well as our monogram.

The back of a finished Save the Date card.

We had them printed at Kinko’s and had a surprisingly fantastic experience with the service there. I think it was due to the fact that an old high school classmate of mine was working there and made sure that the cards were absolutely PERFECT before we walked out the door. Ryan knew his printing stuff, was extremely helpful and was absolutely hilarious. If it weren’t for Ryan, I think I would have been ready to shoot myself after spending 2.5 hours at the copy shop. THANK YOU RYAN!!

Ryan from Kinko’s holding one of my Save the Date proofs hostage.

Coming soon, in the second installment, I finally got my camera to take pictures of the handmade address label printing, trimming, creasing and stickering process. Finally, in the third installment, I will go over the costs involved with undertaking the design and DIY of our Save the Dates. Stay tuned!
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Third Place - Float Paperie

Fourth Place - Helena Seo Design

Fifth Place - Louella Press

Click over to Minted to see 5 more runner-up winners.  All these winning designs will be available for purchase later this month.  Minted is also hosting a holiday card challenge for three more Weddingbee readers if you’d like to submit a design!

Congratulations to the wonderfully talented winning designers and our fabulous Weddingbee couples!

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I love letterpress! I’ve always dreamed of letterpress invites for my wedding, but when looking at our budget and the price of custom letterpress I had to reluctantly let go of that dream. Now with digital presses being fast and economical, many printers like to do “short” runs on those presses instead of the offset printers. To me they feel very commercial, and I wanted to give my invites a very personal touch. I was about ready to compromise on the invites and take them to a print house, when during my daily wedding blog reading I can across the Gocco on Weddingbee.

Let me just say that the Gocco is my answer to personalizing all our wedding stationery! I did a lot of research online to find the right price and model for me, and came across Northwood Studios online. I purchased the PG-11 version instead of the PG-5 because of the registration capabilities from Northwood Studios, as well as the extension package with the basic inks, a How To Gocco DVD and CD along with extra bulbs and screens. I think it was well worth the extra dough. The CD doesn’t work (which I need to email Judy about), but the DVD was hilarious! It was straight out of the 80s and had obviously been an old record from a VHS tape, but it had some great advanced Gocco techniques. Also, included in the extension package was a written guide, which proved extraordinarily helpful!

First project with my Gocco: Save-the-Dates.

I got the birds and branch image from istock via Miss Penguin’s wisdom on her own save-the-dates. This is the card design, but for the envelopes I just used the birds and branch as well as our address. As a designer, I felt like I was cheating. I could have come up with the illustration in Illustrator but am a) too busy and b) just plain lazy! Besides, it was so easy to download and import into Illustrator – it look 5 minutes to download and import rather than the 8+ hours to draw myself. I love the fonts! I used Futura Medium (block font) and Laurell (cursive font), which I acquired years ago.

I double checked everything a million times before I flashed the screen because I knew I only had one shot to get it right! After all, this was my first ever Gocco project. Side Note: Always remember to use the blue filter to avoid excess carbon from imprinting onto the screen. Also, conserve bulbs and screens. I printed the birds on the front and the address on the back while using one screen in order to conserve the single use screens and bulbs.

Again, I used the wisdom of Miss Penguin on Gocco Printing and registering. Above is a photo of me printing the back of the envelopes. Because I had printed the front first, I covered the screen with regular paper to avoid the ink printing on the back.

This is me counting to 10 to get the right amount of pressure/ink on the print.

This is Mr. Cookie and Lyla helping me

Here is the front of the envelope

Here are the envelopes laying out on my kitchen countertop

I loved how the envelopes turned out, but was very disappointed in the cards. I used a turquoise ink for the birds and branch on this beautiful chocolate brown paper by ArtCo. that I got at Xpedex Paper here in Denver. When I printed it the ink looked fine, but when it dried the ink turned silver. I think it must have been a reaction to the chemicals in the paper because when I printed the same ink on white paper the turquoise was fine. I seriously considered redoing the save-the-date cards, but I discovered the problem after printing about 25, and I didn’t want to waste screen, bulbs, and paper. I guess it was a great learning experience, but now I have to rethink my invitations because I wanted to use the same ink and paper for invites!

Inking my Save-the-Date screen…

The printed Save-the-Date cards.

Final product. Overall, it was really fun — even though I am disappointed with the colors of the cards. Next Gocco project: INVITATIONS!
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