Invitations, part 1

So this past weekend, I finally got off my lazy behind and started working on the invitations. Mostly, I was dragging because I had no idea how I wanted those things to look. I had played with a few design ideas a few months back but really hated them. So I started from scratch again with something simple, and ended up with something that is going to be quite labor-intensive. :-(

First of all, my supplies to play with include:
- blue cardstock paper
- invitations kit with 1 plain white page and 1 plain white envelope
- paper cutter
- bone folder
- corner embosser and punch
- flowery edge punch
- slow-drying silver stamp pads (can be used for embossing)
- clear stamp pad (only for embossing)
- 1 white pearly translucent embossing powder
- 1 lavender embossing powder
- embossing heat tool
- clear stampers (to be used with an acrylic block)
- an acrylic block
- double sided tape
- glue stick
- printer paper
- image editing software
- word processor

The first thing I did was sit at the computer and set the page margins and settings to match the size of the paper from the invitations kit. Then I took a generic wedding invitation wording and pasted it onto the page, adjusted towards the lower right. My fiance and I thought the wording sounded boring, so I sat and stared at it for a looooong time wondering how to spice it up. I eventually settled on something and the fiance approved it. You'll see the result when I post the pictures!

Once the wording was done, it was time to move on to graphics. My vision was to use a combination of printed, stamped and embossed graphics on the invite. I had been saving photos and graphics found on the internet. I tried to be careful to only use stuff that has the appropriate licensing restrictions. I dumped all my collected images into a folder on my computer and browsed through the thumbnails, looking for ones that would look nice on the invite. I had to use my image editing software to edit or crop a few of them, but I ended up mostly using a graphic created from a tool in my image editing software. Once everything was in place on the page, I printed a bunch of test sheets.

The test sheets were taken to a sturdy work area, where the experiments with stamping and embossing were going to take place. I experimented with the different stamps and decided to only use one or two. The question that kept coming up was how the heck do I stamp all the darned pages in the same spot? Well, with the clear stamps, you can actually see where you're stamping and there's a grid that helps you place the stamp, but you'll never get it be totally exact, I think. So this is probably not the best route for the obsessive perfectionist. Once I've picked out my stamps and figured out where I want them placed, I had to figure out which stamped images I wanted embossed, or if I wanted embossing at all. The truth is, I think embossing is SO COOL!! I felt like I just had to include it! So I tried all the different combinations and showed them to my fiance. Although the translucent, clear embossed image was nice, my fiance preferred the silver stamp with the purple powder combination, so we chose that embossing combination. Personally, I liked it when all the images were embossed, but my fiance liked it when one of the stamps were left silver. Right now we're down to two choices.

So that's where we're at with the page that contains the wording. It's printed on plain computer paper that will be mounted onto blue cardstock paper. The cardstock paper will be folded in half, like a card (lol!), with one side sporting a flap that will contain the RSVP instructions and venue information and such. Anyways, wrangling with the blue cardstock is another post entirely! :-)