DIY Wedding Invitations

Hiya, Crafters! For my first post I wanted to show you how to make your own wedding invitations. I was recently married last year in October. We had a destination wedding in Las Vegas! Since we only invited 9 people I decided it would be fun to send them a formal invitation even though we already invited them. I wanted it to be fun and unique to the standard wedding invitations that we see today. I searched and searched Pinterest and was finally inspired by a beautiful envelope card. 

Here's what you'll need to make this invitation:

• 12x12" cardstock in the color of your choice. You'll need one sheet per invitation.
• 8.5x11" cardstock in the color of your choice. You can also use normal paper as well. You'll also need one sheet per invite.
• 1-3 pieces of 12x12" cardstock in an accent color. The is dependent on how many invitations that you are making.
• 8.5x11" sheets of vellum. You'll need approximately one per invitation
• 8.5x11" sheets of white cardstock. You can roughly use one sheet per two invitations.
• Coordinating ribbon - the amount needed depends on how many you are making. Here you can choose ribbon with wire or not. I chose not to.
• Paper cutter
• Printer
• Bone folder
• Permanent adhesive
• Picture corners (optional)
• Velcro dots (optional)
• Stamping and embossing tools.
• Vellum tape or boarder punch

 Start with the 12x12" cardstock that you want as the base of your card. The original blogger provided a template but it is not to scale. It helped me out tremendously. Again, you can find her (I don't know her real name!) original post here.

Once you've cut out and folded your card claim it as your own first. Flip it over and stamp it and sign it. If you do anything else first, the stamp will come out uneven or your could unintentionally smoosh the accent. I learned the hard way.
After that's done fold up the flap to make your pocket, then fold the rest of the card using your bone folder.

Next you'll want to write "Love" on the inside flap. There are many ways to do this. I used VersaMarker and clear embossing powder. It's so awesome and I'm so happy I got it. I use it all the time. Use your embossing gun to set the powder. It will be a darker shade of your base cardstock.

 After that, you'll want to cut out the paper that you want to accent your base card. My wedding colors were purple and blue. I chose purple for my base card so I used blue to accent everything. I cut the blue cardstock at 4 3/16x7 1/4". This will also be the same measurements for the vellum. I'll get to the vellum later in the post. Adhere the cardstock to the main body of your card.

I then cut out more of the blue to accent the information that I placed inside the pocket. The measurements came out to be 3 3/16x6 3/4". This is just what I used. This is a great opportunity for inserts about your reception, and even a map to the church or venue that you're using for your ceremony. This is where you really need to make it your own. I always use scrap paper when I'm figuring out sizes. Set this aside for later.

Now on to the vellum! I thought it added just a classy touch to the invitation. But what was I supposed to write? After going over samples I was able to make my decision and had my then fiance read over it to make sure I didn't sound like a doofus. I wrote it out in word, chose a font that was elegant yet easy to read and printed it right onto the vellum. Some of the paper had streaks of ink that blemished the actual invitation, so I did have to print more than I needed.

The problem I soon found with vellum is that normal tape or glue shows right through it! I've seen now that there is such a thing as vellum tape, but I did not have that to my disposal. What I did to hide the ugly look of tape showing through the vellum is using a boarder punch in the middle. I then wove ribbon through the daisies and adhered the ribbon to the tape completely keeping it from contacting with the vellum. Go me, haha! Remember you will want your vellum to be the same size as the cardstock under it at 4 3/16x7 1/4".

Next you're going to want to print out the information your guests will need for the wedding and reception. We made an entire day of it. Obviously this is your day so you don't have to do what you don't want to do. (Remember that! I had a lot of advice and people inviting themselves to my wedding. It was really stressful and at the end I came up with a mantra. "Honey Badger don't care." At the end of the day you're getting married and as long as that happens your wedding was a success!) The piece of cardstock you set aside will have this information layered ontop of it in white. Measurements for that were 2 15/16x6 1/2". Stick that in your pocket.

Now you can adhere your engagement photo, or one that you really like to the pocket. I didn't use the picture corners, but they can add a nice embellishment to your invitation. We actually didn't take any photos. We were only engaged for six months before we were married. But I had an excellent picture from earlier in our relationship and used that. The size was 2x3", but as long as it doesn't overflow from the face of the pocket will be fine.

For the monogram the top layer is 1 1/2x1 1/2". I was going to use a stamp, but the font didn't match the font of the invitation so I printed them out on white cardstock and cut them. From there on I just cut the other two coordinating cardstock upwards. I'm sorry, I don't have the measurements. Use your scrap paper to find what you like best. I then adhered my monogram to the flap and added the Velcro.

Now if you like you can certainly add embellishments or more of the ribbon to the card. I liked the minimalistic look of this and left it alone. Also, when you add the velcro, have the bit that it's going to stick to already attached to the piece you stuck to the back of your monogram. This is so that when you close it the first time it will stick to the paper in the perfect spot. 

And that's it! You've made your own wedding invitation at a significantly reduced cost than ordering them. Go you! Please leave your comments of what you thought. Constructive criticism is a blessing. And if you like, post pictures of your own invitations. I would love to see them!

Thanks for stopping by, Crafters! See ya!