How I Put My Artistic Stamp All Over My Wedding (Pt. 2)

While I'm updating, I'll post some photographs from my July 16th wedding. Disclaimer: all of these photographs are from the wonderfully talented team at Amber Hunt Photography (hence the watermarks). To check her out, visit amberhuntphotography.com

Copyright 2011, Amber Hunt Photography

Above is the stationery set I created for my wedding - a save-the-date, an invitation, an RSVP card, and a thank you note. If you're interested in having custom designed invitations for your wedding (or other event), check out my website at invitesbyandrea.com or email me at andrea@invitesbyandrea.com!

Copyright 2011, Amber Hunt Photography

I asked our cake bakery (Lakes Cakes) to duplicate part of the pattern I designed and used on the invitations on our wedding cake.

Copyright 2011, Amber Hunt Photography

I also designed the ceremony programs, reception menus, and the backs of the playing card favors we handed out to our guests.

Copyright 2011, Amber Hunt Photography

Remember all of those watercolor placemats I painted? Here's what they looked like at the reception with coral roses placed on top. :)

Copyright 2011, Amber Hunt Photography

Want me to design invitations or stationery for your event? Want me to paint watercolor placemats for your reception? Contact me at andrea@invitesbyandrea.com or visit my website: invitesbyandrea.com for more information! I look forward to hearing from you!

Mini Japanese-Stab-Bound Scrapbooks

I finally have time to make this long-overdue post. I finished these mini scrapbooks as gifts for the members of our wedding party several months ago, but waited to post them, lest one of my friends checked this blog and stumbled upon the surprise. Now that the wedding (and honeymoon, and a vacation with my new husband's family) is all in the past, I finally have an opportunity to update again. :)

The idea was this - as a thank you for participating in our wedding, I painted, designed, and assembled small Japanese-stab-bound books for them, highlighting memories we've shared in the past. Out of our five bridesmaids and three groomsmen, there were only two who I hadn't known for at least fourteen years - one of my maids of honor, who I've only known for six, and my new sister-in-law, who I first met four years ago. Over the years, I'd amassed hundreds of photographs, and it was enjoyable to go through them all and pick my favorite 24 images for each person (though I admit, I had to turn to my mother-in-law for some photographs of my sister-in-law and my husband growing up together to fill out her book).

Below, you can see the eight final products (though one of the books wasn't bound yet at the time of the photograph). There were three basic steps to creating these books (though each step had several sub-steps as well) - creating the pages, covering book board to create the front and back covers, and binding the pages and covers together. At the end, I also painted each person's name on the front cover of the book as a final touch. Each book had 12 watercolor pages, 4 thinner cover sheets (to protect the watercolor pages from rubbing against the front and back covers), and a front and back cover (book board wrapped in decorative paper), and each one measured approximately 4.5" x 7" in size.

Since I enjoy watercoloring, I hand-painted each page of each book, but the scrapbooks could have just as easily been made from any kind of paper. In fact, as a zeroth anniversary present to my husband, I also made him a collection of mini scrapbooks documenting our relationship, and these I just made using regular scrapbook paper. Since watercolor paper is so thick, I limited each wedding party book to 6 pages - each page was folded in half (with French folds), so that the total thickness was 12 pages. For my husband's books, where the scrapbook pages were much thinner, I went up to 25 pages (a 50-page thickness when folded). Whatever thickness you choose, make sure that you're able to pierce all of the pages with an awl. The thicker the book, the harder it can be to bind it together at the end.

 Materials you'll need:
- Center pages (they can be blank if you intend to use your book as a journal or sketchbook, or already designed and filled with words, pictures, drawings, photographs, etc.)
- Book board
- Decorative paper to wrap your book board (unless you're cool with your hardcover book looking like it's made out of cardboard)
- Lining pages (they make your book look fancier and somewhat protect the first and last center pages from rubbing against the book board cover, but they're optional if you don't want to spring for them
- Needles and thread
- A paper awl
- An exacto knife, cutting board, and a metal ruler with a protective lip
- Book glue and a paintbrush you don't care about

 

1. Paint pages.

Since I didn't want the pages to get wrinkled when soaked with watercolor, I stretched sections of paper on a sheet of gator board. There is a brief description of watercolor stretching in the section of this entry where I discuss how I made the card box for my wedding. I stretched the small "cards" sign for that box in the same way that I stretched these pages. While the watercolor paper was completely soaked, I covered it with vibrant, saturated swirls and designs. I knew that most of the paper would get covered up with photographs and words anyway, so my purpose was just to give it a pop of color in the background. I kept each wedding party member's favorite colors in mind when painting.

2. Cut pages to appropriate size.

Since I planned to use French folds, I cut each watercolor into strips that were twice as wide as what I wanted the final page to be. French folds involve folding a page in half and then tucking the loose ends into the binding rather than the folded end so that the backs/insides of the pages can't be seen. It was an obvious choice for me since I was stretching the watercolor paper while I painted to keep it flat, and it's impossible to paint on both sides of the watercolor paper in this way without possibly wrecking one side. It was also ideal for the scrapbook I made for my husband, as the scrapbook paper I was using was decorated only on one side, with the back of the paper being a plain, boring white. You can see a good example of French folds in the bottom right of the photographs of the finished products at the beginning of this entry.

I find that Japanese-stab-bound books are easier to open and leaf through if the pages are wider than they are tall, but they don't have to be. I was also restricted in size because I was using scrap pieces of watercolor paper that were left over after I painted the placemats for my wedding reception centerpieces. But Japanese-stab-bound books can be any size - they don't have to be as small as I made them.

3. Fold pages to get an idea of the final page size.

After they were cut to the appropriate double-page-width size, I folded them in half. Then I decided where I wanted the crease. Generally, the binding goes halfway between the left edge of the book and the crease, and if you put the binding too close to the edge it won't hold the book together as well. I made the crease about an inch and a half from the edge.

To fold the paper, I used the wrong side of my exacto knife blade and ran it along a metal ruler with a protective lip where I wanted the crease in order to "score" the paper. It didn't cut all the way through, but gouged enough into the paper to make it easier to get a crisp fold. A paper scorer would have also worked.

4. Add page content.

As I decorated the pages I made sure that no words or photographs were too close to the crease I put 1.5 inches in on either side. If I had put any content past that line, it would not have been visible underneath the binding. Similarly, I made sure not to put anything over the center crease, since that would be folded in the book, causing any images to be half on one page and half on the next. Each page had a bit less than 4.5" x 5.5" inches of workable space to decorate.

I just printed the images off of the computer on my printer so that I could control exactly how small to print them. I needed to make the photos pretty small so that I could fit two pictures (and handwritten captions) on each page. I attached them to the watercolored backgrounds with photo corners and book glue, and wrote the captions with Sharpies.

I wanted to add all the content to the pages before I bound the pages into a book because Japanese-stab-bound books can be difficult to open, and certainly the pages never lay flat again (especially the page on the left side of each spread).

5. Cut book board to appropriate sizes.

Now is definitely the time to give a big shout-out to the wonderful paper and book binding supply store in Ann Arbor, MI: Hollander's. They have everything you need to make a Japanese-stab-bound book, and even give lessons (though I learned in one of my graphic design classes at Eastern Michigan University). I have never purchased book board, book glue, or decorative paper to wrap my book board in from anyone else. They also have needles, book binding string, and awls - basically everything you'll need for the next several steps.

First, cut out two rectangles of the appropriate size for the front and back covers. It's a good idea to make it a little wider than the pages on the top, bottom, and right sides so that if it's a little off, the center pages won't stick outside of the hardcover and get bent. Next, cut out a tiny strip of the book board where you made your crease on the pages - usually you just do this on the front cover, but you can do it on the back cover too, if you want your book to be more flexible and less stiff.

Then, measure halfway into the smaller of the two main parts of the front cover and decide how many holes you want. I used four holes, but you can really use whatever number you want. Measure an equal distance from the top and bottom for the first and last holes (I did 3/4") and then measure the space left between those two holes and divide it by one more than the number of holes you have left to place. For example, my front cover was 4.5 inches tall, and after I went in 3/4" from the top and 3/4" from the bottom, that left 3" in the center. Since I wanted four holes and had already marked where two of the holes would be, I needed to figure out where to put the last two. I divided 3" by 3 (2 holes left to place + 1), and knew that I needed to place 1" in between the remaining holes. So, if I turned the cover on it's side, it would look like this: 3/4" of space, first hole, 1" of space, second hole, 1" of space, third hole, 1" of space, last hole, 3/4" of space.

Once I knew where I wanted the holes, then came the task of creating them with a paper awl. It's a tedious process, turning and pushing the awl until it finally pierces through the book board, but on the plus side, it really builds up your hand muscles (especially if you're making eight books...) ;)

Once you have the holes in your front cover, you have a template to make the holes in your back cover. Just line up the small part of the front cover (the part you just drilled holes in) along the edge of the back cover, mark where the holes need to line up, and push the awl through to create the holes.

6. Cut cover paper.

Each cover needs a front and back wrapper, meaning you'll need to cut four rectangles out of the decorative paper you found for the covers. Two of these rectangles will be slightly smaller than the total area of the cover, and two will be bigger than the cover. For the bigger pieces, it's nice to have an extra 1" on each side to work with.

7. Cover book board.

To wrap the book board in the decorative paper, first start with the larger piece. Place it face down on the table. Smear the front of the book board in a thin layer of book glue (using that paintbrush you don't care about, since it'll be pretty useless for anything but gluing after this) and carefully center the book board on the decorative paper. If it's the back cover, just place it in the center of the decorative paper, and if it's the front cover, make sure that you leave the appropriate size gap in between the smaller piece and larger piece when placing - use the thin strip you cut out as a guideline. Flip over and smooth out any visible wrinkles from the center outwards.

Next, take the smaller size paper and center it on the other side of the book board, leaving a small cardboard border along each side. Again, spread glue on the book board rather than on the paper - it's more likely you'll get wrinkles if you put the glue on the paper. When covering the front cover, press the paper into the gap between the book board so it'll be easier to bend once the glue is dried.

Cut the corners off of the larger piece of paper, paint a little glue where the paper flaps will go, and fold each flap up the side of the book board, covering the remaining bits of cardboard that were showing.

8. Smooth out wrinkles and fix binding holes.

Again, smooth out all of the wrinkles from the center outwards. Find where the holes you made are in the book board and press the decorative paper cover into the holes a bit so you can find them later. Lay completely flat to dry. If you use too much glue the book board may warp or curl up a little, but if you press it under something heavy and flat (textbooks, dictionaries, anvils, etc.) it usually straightens itself back out.

Once it's dry, punch the awl through the decorative paper where the holes in the book board are underneath. Now you're done with the covers!

9. Clip final pages together.

Once your pages are all full of content, line them up at the edge and clip them with binder clips so that they stay in place. If you haven't already and want to, cut a lining for the front and back of the book and put them on either side before you clip it in its package.


10. Use awl to punch through the pages according to the template.
 
Line up the pages with the front and back covers so you know where to make the holes. Mark with a pencil and punch the awl through all of the pages. If your book is very thick, it might be easier to do this in sections, but then you have to be careful when lining up the holes later. This is the most physical part of the book binding, especially if you have several or very thick pages (or both!) - you'll definitely have strong hand muscles after grinding that awl through all those layers of paper!

11. Begin binding the covers and pages together with string.

Get way more string than you think you need - I grabbed seven feet of it for each book. Thread your needle (make sure it's a small enough needle to get through the holes you've punched with your awl!), double up the string so it's only half as long, and tie a large triple knot at the end. Then, thread your binding!


12. Make sure to pull the string taut through every hole until binding is complete.

Japanese stab binding is really hard to describe in words without it getting really confusing. There are some great resources out on the web with more pictures or videos. Just search google for "Japanese stab binding" and you're sure to find a bunch of them. There's also no one way to do it, especially since your method will depend on how many holes you chose to create and how many loops of string you want to reinforce the binding.

If you went with four holes, as I did, and wish to have two layers of string in between each hole (as I did), here is a (probably unhelpfully confusing) description you can (attempt to) follow:

Start with any hole you want, but go through from the back toward the front first (otherwise your knot will end up on your front cover instead of the back cover). I usually start with the top hole on the back. Thread it through to the front, and then loop the string around the top twice, going through the same hole in the same direction again. Then, loop the string around the side twice, again going through the same hole.

Once the first hole is well bound, go in the second hole from the front, loop back to the first hole, going through it in the same direction (back to front) again, and then go in the second hole from the front side again. Go in the third hole from the back, loop back to the second hole from the front, and go through the third hole from the back again. Go in the last hole from the front, again going back to the third from the back and then back through the last hole from the front.

Reinforce the last hole as you did the first, looping it twice around the end and twice around the side. Go back down the width of the cover alternating holes to make sure every hole has two loops of thread connecting it. On your way, make the loops from each hole to the edge of the book.

When all of the holes have been tied tightly, bring the thread back to the back cover (if it's not there already), and bring it up to where your initial knot was. Make another knot to seal it, and then dab a little bit of book glue (or a lot, if you're like me), on both knots.

And voila! You've completed your book!

Every member of our wedding party just *loved* the books - it really was the perfect gift. We also attached an Amazon gift card and a special thank you note at the front of each gift, thanking them for participating in our wedding, and expressing hope that we'll share a lot more memories to come! :)

Shameless plug time: Love my mini scrapbooks? I can make one for you, too! Email me at andrea@invitesbyandrea.com for more information.

Reception Placemats

While I'm updating my blog, I think I'll add some more photos of the 27 placemats I painted for my wedding reception. I first mentioned the placemats in this entry, but I only included one photo. I spent approximately 135 hours hand painting each of these placemats with a coral watercolor paint mixture, and I think they deserve to be shared with a bit more detail. :)

Close-up of pattern

Each single placemat took anywhere from 4-6 hours to trace, stretch, paint, and cut out.

When I spread out all 27 placemats (each one of which is 18" in diameter), they stretched all the way down my apartment hallway, spilling into the living room.

All 27 placemats, stacked on top of each other (slightly offset). The front and back sides of my wedding invitations and the color swatches of our two wedding colors (jade and guava) are resting on the top placemat. The pattern on the back of the invitation is the same pattern I painted on the placemats (just at a different scale).

Detail of all 27 placemats, stacked on top of each other.

Shameless plug time: Love my placemats and invitation designs? Check out my custom invitation design website:invitesbyandrea.com! I'd also be willing to paint reception table placemats for you - for an added fee! You can email me at andrea@invitesbyandrea.com for more details!

Card Box

I had a lot of fun a couple weeks ago creating a card box for my upcoming wedding. The best part was that everything I used was just stuff I already had lying around in my boxes of art supplies - the acrylic paint was leftover from art classes I took at least two years ago, the little bit of watercolor paper I used was leftover from making reception table placemats, the ribbon was extra ribbon from the spool I intend to use to decorate my wedding cake, and the container was just the cardboard box from a package one of our wedding guests sent us from our registry! I essentially spent $0 to make the card box, and it turned out really well!

Materials used:

- Appropriately-sized cardboard box

- Newspaper (to protect the table surface from paint)

- Acrylic paint (several colors, including Liquitex (basics/student and professional brand - whatever I had lying around) in solid colors and Daniel Smith Luminescent/Iridescent to make the shinier swirls)

- Paintbrushes, palette knife (for mixing), paper bowls

- Glue, Scotch tape (to hold box while glue was drying), Duct tape

- Computer printout of sign

- Pencil

- Watercolor paper, watercolor paints (Daniel Smith brand), staple gun and staples, gator board (to stretch the watercolor paper)

- Ruler, exacto-knife, cutting mat

- Ribbon

First, I cut out the slot on top of the cardboard box where I wanted it, then I unfolded the cardboard box and put down newspaper. I mixed a big paper bowl full of green - as close to our wedding color (David's Bridal calls it "jade") as I could (white, blue, light green, green, yellow, black, iridescent blue, and iridescent gold, in various amounts). 

When mixing, I tried my best to keep in mind that acrylic paint always dries darker than it looks when initially painted/wet, so I aimed for a bit lighter than I actually wanted it to end up with. (Incidentally, watercolor works the opposite way, and looks lighter when dry than it does when wet, and since I'm more familiar with watercolor, I really had to remind myself to do things *opposite* of what I usually did). I painted one side of the box and let it dry for several hours. 

Next, I mixed a batch of coral paint (white, red, yellow, iridescent gold, iridescent russet, red-violet in various amounts) to match our other wedding color (David's Bridal calls it "guava"). Again, I let it dry for several hours.

(Note the fabric swatches from David's Bridal that I compared the color to)

I didn't really *have* to paint both sides - I mean, when it's folded back up, you can hardly see the inside of the box anyway. But I wanted the inside of the box to have a hint of coral color, so that if any guest *did* peak inside the box, she/he would be pleasantly surprised to find our other wedding color inside.

Once both sides were dry, I folded the box back up, gluing the flaps down and the sides together, and holding it closed with Scotch tape until the glue had dried.

Assembling the box back together again

In retrospect, I wouldn't have put that piece of packing tape on the bottom of the box. It was so much shinier than anything else on the box, and I ended up painting another coral strip over it later (after the box was already assembled, which was no easy feat!) just so it wouldn't be so blindingly shiny if anyone peaked inside the box.

A bit of coral paint had managed to find it's way onto the green side of the box, and a bit of newspaper had stuck to the wet paint, so there were some spots that needed touching up once I assembled the box back to its original shape. After fixing those spots, I stepped back and looked at my box. I had always intended to paint a watercolor side to glue to the side labeled "cards," but my box was looking so plain that I didn't think just a sign would be enough. The solid color was too "blah" and in a fit of desperation, I grabbed some silver duct tape (after a cursory internet check that duct tape, as many colors as it comes in, was not available in my specific wedding green or coral anywhere) and taped off the edges to give the box some definition.

I often approach arts projects like this, just going by trial and error until I find something that looks better. As usual, my first idea didn't work. The duct tape just looked tacky (although the silver contrast to the green *did* look nice from a distance), and the large stretches of green *still* looked too plain. But the duct tape did give me a couple of ideas - using ribbon at the end to highlight the edges, and incorporating some kind of contrast. 

So I painted over the duct tape with my green paint again, and this time I tried adding light green and silvery-gold swirls around the entire box. The silvery-gold swirls are really shiny, since I used a lot of the Daniel Smith iridescent paints I had, and they really gave it that extra level of "fancy" I was looking for. Before it just looked like a cardboard box painted green - not nearly sophisticated enough for my wedding. But the swirls gave it dimension, contrast, and sparkle. I was very pleased.

Adding detail to the outside of the card box

Next came the process of painting the sign for the outside of the card box. I wanted to incorporate our official wedding pattern, just as I did on the watercolor placemats I created for each reception table, and all of our stationery items. It's an old process for me - I do it with almost every watercolor I make - but to anyone not used to the steps, it's pretty complicated.

First, I printed the sign off of my computer. I suppose I could have just glued the computer printout to my card box, but that's just not me. I hand painted 27 watercolor placemats for our reception tables, for crying out loud. I just like the way things look by hand so much more than mass produced on a printer. I transferred the design from the printout to my watercolor paper by smudging the side of pencil lead along the back of the sheet and tracing it. The pressure from my pencil tracing the printout pushed the graphite on the back of the prinout onto my watercolor paper.

Then, I soaked the small piece of watercolor paper in the bathtub for ten minutes. I probably didn't need to soak it, but I wanted to add some dimension to the background of the sign by painting some coral swirls - just as I had on the watercolor reception placemats. And anytime you plan to soak your watercolor paper, you should stretch it just to make sure it stays nice and flat.

After ten minutes, I stapled it to my gator board (any wooden board would have also worked, but staples come out of gator board a lot easier) to hold it nicely taut and flat while I painted. While it was still soaked, I added the coral swirls in the background. When it was totally dry, I used a *tiny* watercolor brush (size 3/0) to paint in between the lines I'd traced earlier. Once the bands of pattern and the text ("cards") was dry, I pulled the staples out and cut the sign down to its appropriate size with my exacto knife, a metal ruler with a protective lip, and my cutting mat.

Making the sign for the side of the card box

The final steps were the easiest. I cut some ribbon to the appropriate lengths and glued them in place, and finally glued the "cards" sign I made to one side of the box.

Final product

I loved that it had so much depth and detail (the coral inside, the intricate pattern on the sign, the green and silver swirls on the box). It both looked handmade (which it was!) *and* professional and fancy (the iridescent paint and the ribbon really helped in that area), and that's exactly what I wanted. I was glad I was able to reach a happy medium. It only took a couple of mishaps to get to an end product I was satisfied with - but that's just the way things go. :)

Shameless plug time: I made this card box to match the design of my save-the-dates, invitations, RSVP cards, thank you notes, reception menus, ceremony programs, table markers, and escort cards. I also incorporated the pattern onto my wedding favors, cake, and reception placemats. I'm Invites by Andrea, and I'd love to do something similar for you and your wedding! I'd even be happy to create a card box for your wedding (in return for a materials and time-spent fee).

Invitation Printing and Assembling Tips

So you got a fantastic set of stationery designed for your wedding (or other event) through Invites by Andrea - first off, congratulations! Your custom invitations are part of an elite group! ;)

Now comes the decision of how your stationery will be printed and assembled - in short, how you'll get the stationery from Andrea's computer screen into the hands of your guests. The easiest way is to schedule me to print and assemble your invitations for you, but you can always do those steps yourself if you feel up to the challenge! Keep reading for some helpful hints on how to do everything yourself.

1. Know what you need

Before you start, know what tasks you’ll need to perform, how much time everything will take, and what materials you’ll need to purchase. Read through all of these tips and educate yourself on what’s up ahead.

Are you hoping to save money by doing all of the printing and assembly yourself? Look into the costs of all your materials – especially printing ink and paper. It might actually be cheaper to go through me or through another print shop, like Fed Ex Office (formerly Kinko’s), OfficeMax, or Staples.

Here is a list of basic materials you’ll need:
1. Black and color ink (probably several cartridges of each)
2. Paper (make sure you get a little more than you actually need, in case you or your printer makes any mistakes)
3. Quality paper cutter OR exacto knife, extra exacto knife blades, metal ruler with protective lip, and cutting mat
4. Paper scorer or exacto knife (if your project requires folding)
5. Envelopes
6. Address labels (for your return address – saves time on hand addressing! – or for all addresses, if your envelopes are dark in color)
7. Stamps
8. A glue stick or small sponge for sealing envelopes (just run the glue stick over the flap, or wet a small sponge and use that moisture to stick the flap down – so much easier, cleaner, and tastier than licking everything!)
9. Ribbon, extra paper, tape, glue, or any other materials you may need for more elaborate DIY invitations

Do you have enough time to devote to this project? Printing and cutting out invitations doesn’t seem that hard – but it is time-consuming. Make sure you’re not too busy with other aspects of event planning or other commitments that you fall behind schedule and end up sending your invitations out weeks later than you planned!

Are you confident in your cutting abilities? There’s nothing worse than gorgeous invitations with unintentionally frayed edges. Enlist some artistic friends to help, and invest in quality supplies if you’re uneasy about it.

Finally, make all your decisions before you start – what kind of paper you’re going to use, how you’re going to cut your stationary, what envelopes you need, etc. It’ll make your life less stressful if you don’t change your mind on weight of paper halfway through printing everything out.

2. Use a heavier weight, light-colored paper

Typical computer printing/copier paper is 20 lb or 24 lb. Using a heavier paper will help your stationery hold up better in the mail and feel more professional without being too much more expensive. I recommend using something labeled “card stock” or “cover stock” or anything with a weight of 60 lb – 110 lb.

Keep in mind that heavier weight papers may also cost more to send out. I typically use cover stock in the 60 lb – 70 lb range. I can fit two sheets in an envelope and only use one $0.44 stamp – but if I stuff the envelope with three or more sheets, one $0.44 stamp won’t cut it. Take a sample of your complete envelope package to your local Post Office to make sure. Most have a weighing machine you can use to quickly determine the weight (and therefore cost) of your envelope without having to wait in the general line.

Another thing to consider when choosing the weight of your paper is your printer. Not all printers can handle heavier weight paper, but most common printers should be able to handle paper in the 60 lb – 70 lb range. I use an HP Photosmart C3140 All-in-One from 2006, and I’ve never had problems with 60 lb – 70 lb papers. Do a few test prints with different weights of paper to see where your printer may have problems.

Unless you’re going to a screenprinting company, you won’t be able to print light colored words or images on dark paper from your computer printer. If you want a dark background, you’ll need to use ink to achieve that effect on light-colored paper, which could significantly increase your ink costs. Do a test run to see what colors of paper look best with your design. You might be surprised at how purple your blue text looks when printed on red paper.

3. Don't overwork your printer

Your printer probably isn’t used to printing large quantities all at once – especially on heavier stock paper. Be patient. No matter how large an order, I always put only five – ten sheets of paper into my printer at once. It’s easier for your printer to handle 20 five-copy print jobs than one 100-copy print job.

If you do smaller sets, it’s also easier to catch other problems, such as low ink. You don’t want to set your printer to 100 copies, walk away, and come back thirty minutes later to see that the last 50 copies printed without black ink! If you check the quality every five copies, you’ll only ruin a few copies instead of tens or hundreds.

Don’t print everything on the same day. If you’re planning to print 200 invitations, 200 save-the-dates, and 200 RSVP cards (for instance), break the project up over three days. Print 200 invitations the first day (broken down into 40 five-copy print jobs), and then give your printer a nice long break before you attempt to print out the next batch.

4. Know how to print double-sided

If you’re planning on printing double-sided invitations, make sure you know how to place the paper in your printer so that it will properly print the second side on the back. Every printer is different. Do a test run first.

Also check on that test run how well the front and back designs line up. My HP printer does a pretty good job, but the front and back are still off by 1/16 - 1/8 of an inch from each other. An easy way to fix this is to apply bleeds to your stationery. A small margin is added along the outside of every edge of the invitation, and the design is carried outside the borders of the invitation to ensure that no matter where the edge is cut, the design will still go to the edge. If you let me know that you’re planning to print double-sided, I can set an appropriate bleed for your stationery before I send you the digital files.

The black line is the border of your actual invitation, and the red line shows the extra margin added around the sides. The black line won't print - it's just part of the digital file. So if your cut is a little off, your pattern will continue to wherever you cut, and none of your guests will be the wiser!

Another thing to keep in mind with double-sided printing is the weight of the paper. If you’re using a thicker paper in the 60 lb – 70 lb range you shouldn’t have any problems with dark ink from one side showing through to the other side – but if you use a thinner paper, this may be a problem.

5. Don't write off print shops

It’s not necessarily cheaper to print your stationery yourself. Printer ink is expensive and can really add up with large print jobs, especially if you’re printing dark backgrounds or stationery that is heavy in one color. If you have a very blue invitation, for instance, you might go through your cyan-magenta-yellow color cartridge a lot faster than you normally do – since when the cartridge is out of cyan, it can’t print your invitations, regardless of how much magenta or yellow it has left. Estimate how much paper materials and ink will cost before you make your decision. You may find that going through me, or going to a Fed Ex Office (formerly Kinko’s), Office Max, or Staples is actually cheaper than what you’ll end up spending on ink.

If you’re planning to print double-sided invitations and you don’t have a printer that can do so easily, it might be worth it to go to a print shop just for the headaches you’ll avoid. Many print shops have printers that automatically print double-sided, which makes the whole tedious process faster and easier.

Of course, there are other reasons besides cost, time and resources to print your own invitations. I always feel more confident if I can oversee my project through the entirety of its printing process, and it adds a greater personal touch to what are already personalized invitations! Just do your research before you make your decision so you know what all of your options are.

6. Don't cut with scissors

None of my invitation designs are 8.5” x 11” (first, because it’s not a very attractive dimension for invitations and stationary, and second, because there are no good envelopes to package such a large size). This means that no matter what size your stationery items are, you’ll have to do some cutting to get them from the 8.5” x 11” size your printer spews out to the appropriate dimensions.

There are two easy ways to cut out your invitations – by using a quality paper cutter, or by aligning a metal ruler with a protective lip along the edge of your design, and using an exacto-knife to cut a straight line. If you’re using the exacto-knife method, you’ll also need a cutting mat to place underneath your project to protect your table and help ensure a perfectly straight line.

Alumicutter makes great metal rulers with protective lips. Make sure to always use the lip side (the taller side) to line your exacto knife against to protect your fingers.

Heavier weight paper is more difficult to cut, and your blades – whether on your exacto-knife or your paper cutter – will need to be sharp. If you use dull blades, or don’t press down hard enough, the paper will not cut all the way through.

Don’t use scissors. You can’t make a perfectly straight cut with scissors, and you don’t want the edges of your invitations to have uneven, wavy lines. What’s more – you’d have to either print a straight line or use a ruler and pencil to make a guide for yourself, and no matter how hard you try, some invitations will be cut just off of the line. Then you’ll either be stuck with thin black lines on the edges of your stationery, or you’ll have to go back and spend time erasing all the visible pencil lines. It’s more work for yourself, and it’s less attractive than getting a perfectly straight line every time with a quality paper cutter or an exacto-knife.

As part of preparing my designs into digital files that you can print and assemble, I add print marks outside of the edges of your stationery. Just line the paper cutter blade or your metal ruler with those marks to get a straight cut every time!

7. Cut out only one or two items at a time

Though it may be tempting to cut several pieces at once when you have such a large stack of items to get through, resist this temptation. Especially if you’re using heavier stock paper (such as the 60 lb – 70 lb I prefer), the more items you try to cut at once, the more likely some items will not be cut correctly. You wouldn’t want some of your edges to not be straight, or for some invitations to be a good 1/8 of an inch narrower than others, or for your cuts to not slice all the way through the paper. It doesn’t look professional. If you’re using a paper cutter, don’t try to cut more than two items at a time (though one is still ideal), and if you’re using an exacto knife, definitely stick to only one item at a time.

And, as always when you’re dealing with sharp objects, be careful. Don’t rush yourself. It is a time consuming task, often taking several hours, and you just need to be patient. Break the job up over several days. Keep your fingers away from your cutting blades. And if you do injure yourself, don’t be afraid to seek medical assistance. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

(Personal anecdote time: I’ve accidentally given my poor fingers several surface cuts working with exacto-knives on various graphic design projects, but one particularly careless evening, I was in such a hurry that my exacto-knife went over the protective lip of my steel ruler and into my index finger. It was a deeper cut than any others I’d received, but I still figured it would heal just fine, and did nothing more than put a Band-Aid on it. Four hours later, the bleeding hadn’t stopped, and I finally decided to go to an Emergency room. There, my finger was tightly taped up and made a full recovery within a few days (though I do still have a thin scar), but I’d waited too long to receive stitches. I was told that to be successful, stitches really have to be put in within three hours of the injury. If I’d just gone to the Emergency room sooner, I could have gotten stitches and my cut would have healed even faster.)

8. Score paper before you fold it

Scoring paper means creating a slight indentation in the paper before folding. It helps you fold your stationary straight and accurately every time. It may seem like just another step in an already long and tedious process, but trust me, it really helps your invitations look as attractive and professional as possible. Especially if you’re using a heavier weight paper (such as the 60 lb – 70 lb range I recommend), you’ll need to score your paper before you fold it.

If your invitation design requires a fold, I will include scoring marks on the digital file that I send you. Don’t use a paper cutter to score, unless you have a fancy machine that has a scoring/creasing option. The easiest and cheapest way is to just use a ruler and either an exacto knife or a paper scorer. You can get a cheap paper scorer for less than $3 at any arts and crafts or scrapbooking store – they’re often bone or metal, and have a rounded point at the end to crease paper without cutting it.

Line the ruler up with the scoring marks and use either the back of your exacto knife blade or your paper scorer to make a straight line on your stationary. Don’t press down so hard that you cut the paper, but hard enough that you leave an adequate crease. Then, just fold on the crease later for a perfect fold!

9. Avoid glue whenever possible

If you have grandiose DIY ideas for your invitations – such as multiple layers of paper or ribbon – keep in mind that the more stuff you add to your stationery, the more it will cost to ship it, and the more it could get damaged in transit. Ribbons may get creased or flattened in unattractive ways if they don’t lie flat enough in their envelopes. For my own wedding stationery, I left anything that was being mailed out (save-the-dates, invitations, thank you cards, and RSVP cards) perfectly flat, and added multiple layers of paper and ribbons to things that wouldn’t be stuffed into envelopes (ceremony programs, reception menus, escort cards, and table markers).

Whatever you add “extras” to, however, I find that it is always best to avoid glue whenever possible. It’s so hard to get just a dab of glue to hold a ribbon in place without your gorgeous invitations suddenly looking like an elementary school project instead of a professional set of stationery. Double-sided tape works better and keeps things flatter than glue for attaching second layers of paper to your invitations – and why not just use ties in the ribbon to attach it to your stationery instead of glue? It’s easy enough to get a single hole punch and thread ribbon through the hole to hold paper together – and it looks so much classier.

Of course, sometimes using glue is unavoidable for what you want to accomplish. When all I need is a little dot of glue, I use an old exacto knife blade or toothpick to transfer a bit of glue from the container to the stationery, instead of trying to get just a little bit from a larger container. I always find it way too easy to use too much glue – but maybe that’s just me!

UPDATE (Aug. 2012): Long after I finished my own wedding stationery I discovered the wonder of "glue dots" - clear adhesive dots that come in small, medium and large sizes. They're super easy to use and infinitely less messy than struggling with glue. If you'd rather have a thin line of glue rather than a dab, they also make "glue lines!" I've linked to my favorite brand, but several other companies make similar products. Check out your local Michael's or other craft store to see what your options are.


10. Dress up the outside of your stationery

Just as important as what is inside the envelope is what’s on the outside. The size and color of your envelope, the way the envelopes are addressed, and the stamp are the first impressions guests will get of your event. Mail is so boring and white – I love saturated, colored envelopes that really pop. It will instantly draw attention to your invitation and set it apart from the bills in the mailbox with it. Envelope Mall and Paper Presentation have great selections of colored envelopes in all sizes.

Of course, with dark colored envelopes, it becomes a more difficult task to address them. An easy and professional solution is to print address labels with lighter colored backgrounds from your computer. You could also find a white or light-colored gel pen or paint marker to use to hand address your envelopes. I used white Sharpie paint markers for my wedding stationery, and though several envelopes were wasted while I practiced using the liquid paint and getting the ink flowing, the end result was beautiful. As with everything else, it just takes time and patience.

Another fun thing to consider is personalized stamps (like the ones on Zazzle). Though more expensive than the typical American flag or Liberty Bell stamps you can purchase at your local Post Office, they can make a custom invitation even more customized, and instantly set the tone for what your guests will find inside of their envelope. The U.S. Post Office also has several fun designs to choose from that are more festive than the typical stamps.

11. Figure out how many stamps each envelope will need

Unless you’re just sending one or two flat sheets of 65 lb paper or less, don’t assume that one $0.44 stamp is going to cut it. $0.44 only covers one ounce of weight – so if it’s more than that, or if your envelope is square or oversized, you’ll need to pay more per envelope.

Take a sample of your complete envelope package to your local Post Office to find out how much each envelope will cost to ship. Most have a weighing machine you can use to quickly determine the weight (and therefore cost) of your envelope without having to wait in the general line. You can also buy stamps from these machines – though if you need a lot of stamps, you won’t be able to purchase all of them at once. The machines have a limit where you can only spend a certain amount of money per credit card you insert. When my fiancé and I went to purchase 280 stamps for our wedding and rehearsal dinner invitations, even using two different credit cards wasn’t enough, and then we had to stand in line to get more stamps from the counter, as well.

And when you’re purchasing stamps, don’t forget the self-addressed stamped envelopes for the RSVP cards!

12. Give yourself plenty of time

Printing and cutting stationery and stuffing and addressing envelopes are all time consuming tasks. Don’t rush the process, but don’t be afraid to be efficient. If you can, get more than one printer going, or call your family, friends, or wedding party up to help you cut and assemble your stationery.

Assuming 100 flat (no folds) single-sided, single-sheet invitations, here are my time estimates:
1. Printing: 30 minutes – 2 hours (depending on the speed of your printer)
2. Cutting: 2 hours – 3 hours (cutting out each individual item with an exacto knife is time consuming and tedious work – but they look so professional when all is said and done)
3. Stuffing, sealing, and stamping 100 envelopes: 10 – 50 minutes (depending on how many helpers you have)
4. Hand addressing 100 envelopes: 1.5 hours – 4 hours (depending on how speedy and confident you are in your handwriting, how many helpers you have, and whether you have inside and outside envelopes)

Total time: 4 hours 10 minutes – 9 hours 50 minutes – And that’s just for 100 invitations!

I hope all of these hints were helpful to you! If you have any more questions, feel free to email me. Good luck, and have fun!



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Shameless plug time: These helpful hints are intended for the DIY customer who has purchased designs from my customized invitation and stationery website - Invites by Andrea. Check it out and let me know what customized invitations I can create for you! :)

How I Put My Artistic Stamp All Over My Wedding

I'm a designer. So when it came to making decisions about decor and stationery for my wedding, I wanted to get my hands as metaphorically dirty as possible. First, I worked with my fiance to pick out our colors. We initially called them "dark coral" and "deep sea green," but that just seemed to mystify people. Apparently if you use more than one word to describe a color, you're being overly specific and non-artistic-people have no idea what you're talking about. Who knew? Then we discovered the color palette at David's Bridal, and I was happy to find very close approximations to my vision - called, of all things, "guava" and "jade." Once we started using those terms instead, people liked us better (though I'm betting they still had no idea what colors we were talking about).

Second, I designed our stationery. I created images of coral roses with some splatter droplets coming off because I was looking for a way to put my whole self into the design. I wanted to integrate my love for both graphic design and watercolor in our wedding imagery, and I loved how artistic the paint spray looked. I also created a vaguely heart-like pattern from the curls on the Baskerville italic ampersand I love so much (because yes, I'm such a nerd that I both love to turn fonts into patterns and have favorite characters within font families). Using those two images and our wedding colors, I created a pretty rocking set of stationery, if I say so myself. There was a save-the-date, a two-page invitation, a thank-you card, and an RSVP card.

It was awesome, and I was really pleased at the end result. I felt like it was really *my* wedding now, like I had really put myself into the design process.

And that's how I got "the bug."

Because once I saw how much of myself I could put into our wedding stationery, doors opened, the clouds parted, and sunshine streamed down from the sky. I began to wonder - where *else* could I put my artistic stamp?

I designed menu cards, ceremony programs, escort cards, and table markers. That might not seem too crazy - after all, those are all just more stationery items. But then I wanted to *actually* incorporate real watercolor, not just the *feel* of it. And so I painted the pattern I'd designed on 27 18"-diameter placemats. By hand. Each one took me about 5 hours - for those without a calculator handy, that's about 135 total hours. It took me two months. Thankfully, we scheduled a long engagement, so I had plenty of time to complete my project. And again, I was pleased with the results. I was excited at how much of *me* would be in the decor of our wedding. The 27 placemats would be on each of our 20 round reception tables, with the last 7 placed on our long head table at the front of the room.

But I'm still not satisfied. Now I'm working on painting my pattern on a cardboard box to make into our card box for our gift table. I finally decided to start delegating *some* tasks to other companies - our pattern is going to be iced on our cake by our cake baker, and as wedding favors we're having playing cards printed up with one of my flower designs and the pattern stripe on the back - but the idea is the same. Incorporate as much of my design into our wedding as I possibly can. 

It's a lot of work, but I know it will be worth it in the end. We'll have a very unique wedding, down to every last detail. It will be me, it will be us. When people enter our reception space, they'll know that an artist was at work. :) And that is exactly what I wanted.

Shameless plug time: Love my invitation designs? Check out my custom invitation design website:

invitesbyandrea.com! I'd also be willing to paint reception table placemats for you - for an added fee! You can email me at andrea@invitesbyandrea.com for more details!