Laura McCabe Designs: DIY Homemade Wedding Invitations!

List of Supplies:

- Card Stock: Use "cover" weight for card base (I used PZ facets paper in "Pebble")

- Various other card stock: Use "text" weight and "cover" weight for different parts of the invite (I used a shimmery aqua in cover weight for the main wording and map base, a darker sapphire blue in text weight for the accent color, a light blue vellum for the map, a recycled brown paper-bag paper for the pocket and envelope, a dark brown woodgrain embossed paper for the outer sleeve, and some greens in different colors for the leaves.)

- A good paper cutter! This is very important...

- Sharp pair of scissors

- Scoring tool: (I used a Score-It-All template - the pink thing shown in the pictures below)

- Adhesives: (I used Tombow Mono Adhesive roller tape thingies in permanent and removable - I am now addicted to these! And of course my trusty UHU stic)

- Stamps and Ink: (I used a Hero Arts dandelion stamp and Tombow acid free brush pens in two shades of turquoise and a green)

- Various Marvy Punches for interest and shapes

- Get photo "save the date" magnets (if so desired - I ordered mine from Vistaprint)

First lay everything out on a big table and do lots of research on the internet for inspiration!

Cut 8x10 card stock down to desired size.

Use Score-It-All or other scoring tool to place fold lines where planned.

I created two different folds here for a trifold card base.

Very straight and precise folds...

Even out score lines and fold card.

Cut out a small rectangle for pocket. Make sure to measure so that it will fit just right. I utilized a half inch fold on each side for adhering - see below...

Score around three edges to create pocket.

Cut little wedges at the two bottom corners - this allows the fold to be less bulky.

Use the nifty Marvy 1" circle punch to create a half circle cutout on pocket.

Center the punch so it creates a nice uniform notch like here.

Fold the three edges and glue corners with adhesive tape.

Using my Tombow adhesive tape around the pocket edges.

Center and adhere pocket to left side (or whichever side) of card base.

And Voila! Looking super cute already...

Time to create the map! I traced the roads from a printed google map of the area and added small clipart for the church, reception, and compass. I drew the scroll and added info in a font I found on the internet that was decided to be the main font for the entire invite. A bunch of cutting and pasting later and I scanned the entire map and resized (now if you have nifty photo editing software like Photoshop this can all be done on the computer - but I made due with what I got) I recommend a decent scanner if you are going this route - I used an Epson Perfection V500 PHOTO scanner.

(This was the most frustrating part for me and took the longest) Resize and lay out map so that it prints two maps side by side on a piece of vellum (again I guess if you had Photoshop this would be way easier). I couldn't get the printer to print two on a page at the correct size for almost a whole day! Oh my! But I finally came up with the perfect result - with the help of my computer savvy brother - Persistence pays!

Cut vellum map to desired size so that it will fit in pocket when added to backing paper.

Cut map backing out of cover weight card stock to make it sturdy (I used a pretty shimmery aqua paper). Attach vellum to card stock with Tombow adhesive.

Print out, cut, and glue together the center main wording for the invitation. I found a nice font online and researched a few wording samples to come up with my own for a simple, casual looking invite. Cut out a larger rectangle (about 1/4" larger on all sides) than the wording page to use as an accent color. The wording here was printed on a cover weight shimmery aqua paper I used throughout and the accent was cut out of a text weight sapphire paper (you could reverse the weights here as either way would work).

I'm a little OCD (can you tell?) so I had to lay everything out in piles of 10 to make sure I made enough of each element for the invitation. I love me some organization!

(Not pictured - sorry forgot to take pics) I went through and hand colored the dandelion stamp with Tombow acid free brush pens (really quite easy!) and stamped each individual invitation. Each one came out a little different and it was a tad time consuming, but I loved the unique awesomeness of the final result!
I also adhered the main wording to the center of card and slipped the map into it's pocket. I used both my UHU glue stick and the Tombow adhesive for the center wording because it was a little thick and needed double duty stick. I certainly didn't want the cards to fall apart as soon as someone opened it!

A much loved friend's assistance and caffeine is always beneficial. Here my best friend Brad is helping me put the final invitations together...

Stuffing pockets!

Adhere the photo "save-the-date" magnets to pocket. I used Tombow Removable adhesive for the magnet so that it could be easily taken off and put elsewhere when received. I discovered that the permanent stuff I was using for the rest of the invite left goobery residue to the back of the magnet - no thank you. We ordered the magnets from Vistaprint. This was much less expensive than using a typical wedding photo site (we just ordered typical business card sized magnets - I designed them using the easy to use website and bam!) Plus we saved by buying in bulk which we needed anyway - win win. All in all, it was a perfect idea and really made the invitations more personal with the added bonus of a forever keepsake for friends and family.

Almost done! (Again, not pictured - silly me). A box of card sleeves. These were super simple to make. Cut an 8x10 piece of woodgrain dark brown paper into 2" strips so that they are 2x10. Use scoring tool to create two folding joints for a cleaner fold that will fit the card perfectly. Fold together and glue edges together to create a "sleeve" (kind of like a Starbucks sleeve for a hot coffee cut - here I go using Starbucks references). I then used a Marvy punch shaped like an oak leaf and punched out a bunch of those in green card stock. Glue one leaf to the front of the sleeve and tie a knot (get it "knot" - i crack myself up). I used natural twine for a rustic vibe, but ribbon would be pretty too. And Voila! an easy way to play up the front of the card! (I found out later that a lot of the guests thought they were supposed to untie the knot to open the card... but it's supposed to just slide off - oh well).