the bold & the beautiful

I am loving the Etsy shop of Marit Hanson Weddings and just had to share some of the bold, graphic and fun invitations and save-the-date designs she offers! Totally cool. Note: For all of you damask-lovin' brides (I know you're out there) she has some affordable damask-ish selections, too!

The style below is actually a POSTER!

Etsy Week Day II: Littlebeane Boutique

The owner of Littlebeane is an interior designer by trade who is now a stay at home mom who creates the most adorable stickers and seals, invitations, gift tags, address labels and stationery for fellow Etsy users. What I'd like to highlight of all these is her stickers. I have ordered dozens and the selection...and quality of them is amazing!

Now, I'm sure I don't have to run down the plethora of things that brides-to-be can use stickers to personalize, but here are a few that immediately come to mind:

--Invitations
--Envelopes
--Programs
--Out of town guest bags or boxes
--Favor bags or boxes
et al

**Nota Bene: For Northeast Ohio brides, Littlebeane is based in Lyndhurst! So buying from the boutique means buying local. Always a good thing;)

And now, stickers!

Here is one of the sticker sheets I received. We used these to seal the envelopes of our save the dates. It included our wedding date and wedding web site address.

And I used a slightly different sticker on our DIY invitations--as part of the bellyband.

Rehearsal Mixer Papyrus!

Now that invites are out and RSVPS are rolling in, I am beginning to think about our rehearsal mixer/ meet-and-greet and what the invites for that will look like. I have decided (I think)that would like to make this another DIY project--especially as I have a lot of damask-print scrapbook paper left over from my bellybands.

Like I've talked about before, we're having a rehearsal mixer for our bridal party and out of town guests the evening before the wedding at a dowtown Cleveland wine bar.

Here are some invites that fit the bill and that I am thinking about recreating:
The first two are from Etsy seller DecadentDesigns:

I have that exact paper above

Not sure where I snagged this one from:

OR maybe I'll just flat out buy these from Etsy seller PaperandInk!

The Invites

I shared the envelopes.
Here are our DIY pockets. Overall I am pleased and we have been receiving compliments from guests, which is nice!
All printing done (super duper cheap) on Vista Print's regular and oversized postcards.
Pockets from Cards and Pockets Store.
Stickers from Etsy.





AND we got our FIRST RSVP postcard back in the mail today!

Call Emily Post....

I'm a bad, bad girl...
I used labels on our invitations. CLEAR mailing labels. And, *gasp* colored ink! I wanted something that looked nice and neat but couldn't afford calligraphy (or rather, calligraphy wasn't something I cared enough about to splurge on) and I don't like my own handwriting enough AND kind of was just too lazy to address them by hand.

So here ya go. The finished envelopes.
-Labels, my mom
-Envelopes, Silver Pearlescent Metallic from PaperandMore

Front:
-Stamp, Etsy

Back:

These--the DIY pocketfolds fiance and I worked long and hard to assemble-- are getting sent out tomorrow!! I feel like we are sending off our children! I am pleased with how they came out EXCEPT for the hideous freaking one-cent "tiffany lamp" stamp. I mean come.on. US Post Office. Can we do a little better with the aesthetic appeal of the one-centers--assuming that most people will be buying them for a WHILE?!

Will post detailed photos of the actual invite tomorrow.

FYI--Here were our DIY Save the Dates (in case you missed) And yes, I addresses all 150 of these myself with my trusty Sharpie:
Front:

-Envelopes, Azela Metallic, PaperandMore

Back:

Actual Save the Date (Vista Print):

The orange (tangerine) color started as a piece of our color scheme so it is reflected throughout our correspondence stationery. But we have since ditched it. Hey. A girl can change her mind!

Happy Friday!

Hustlin'!!

Stampin': Invite Crunch Part I

Well, this should technically be 'invite crunch' part two--as fiance and I spent our Thursday night taping and assembling the remainder of our pocketfolds as we are hustling to meet a May 15 invitation send-off date!
Not so sure May 15 is going to happen....but in a strong effort, here I am on a SATURDAY night doing what else but...stamping dozens of envelopes with the return address stamp we had created.
It's a wood-handle rubber stamp I ordered to use on the back of our envelopes for both our return addresses and as a decorative element.



Done and done.
Next up: Finish the belly-bands--A.K.A: "THEE biggest time-sink ever"

How To Make A Belly-Band

Of course this is only one way to go about it...

Below is a tutorial on how to create a very functional belly-band that will slide on and off of your pocket fold (or other) invite as a decorative element.

I hope it is useful!

1. You will need

• Satin double-faced ribbon or other ribbon of your choice
  
• 2X2 or 3X3 inch cardstock squares with a logo printed on them OR plain squares (and smaller stickers with a logo)
  
• Medium Permanent Zots (glue adhesive dots)
  
• Sharp Scissors
  

2. As I used 3X3 heavy paper squares and stickers, the first step was to place the sticker in the center of the paper square

3. Cut ribbon to about 1/4 inch longer than you'll need to wrap around your pocketfold (to allow for overlapping)

4.Press one edge of cut ribbon to Zots paper so that a few Zots stick to the ribbon edge. Do not pull Zots off with your hands. It is easy to just press the ribbon to them, and the zots will stick.

5. Wrap ribbon around the pocketfold so that edges slightly overlap and press edge with Zots adhesive to the other edge, making sure the ribbon is snug on the pocketfold but not super tight or too loose (so it can eventually slide it on and off) and then slide it off of pocketfold.


6. Take your decorative square and attach a Zot to the center back of the square then center it over your ribbon seam onto the ribbon.. Add a few more Zots to secure square to ribbon.

7. To speed up the process, pre-cut and adhere your ribbon and have your squares assembled:

8. Repeat!

Easy!

PSA: DIY Pocketfold Invites=Tape Guzzlers!

So, as you probably know, I am in the process of assembling our wedding invitations which are vertical pocketfold invites with three inserts, including a "Directions" card, a "More Information" card and an RSVP postcard.
The only thing on each invite that needs to be adhered down is the main invitation, which I have to attach to the top portion of each pocket...
But this is using up an exorbitant amount of double-sided tape!

pile 'o tape

My pockets were very cheap to have created and printed...but the cost of tape is adding up fast!
I'm using simple 3M Scotch permanent 1/2 inch double sided tape, which is working just fine. But one small roll of the tape only gets me through FIVE invites!! That means I am going to need 25 rolls of this tape to finish the 125 invites I still have left!! That's $1 per roll (they have it at Dollar Tree)= $25 added onto the final cost of my invites...just for sticky stuff! And that's not counting glue dots I will need to secure the decorative ribbon for the closure.
YIKES!
There must be a better way. Help!

Save-the-Dates

From what I know, the save-the-dates I mailed and yes, hand-cancelled, Saturday afternoon have been received from those as far south as Florida, so I can now share! This may be sorta deja vu for those of you on The Knot, but you can always pretend!

Envelopes
100 Azalea Pearlescent Metallic from PaperandMore:$22
Save the Date Postcards: 100 from Vista Print: $4.99
Seals: 100 from Littlebean Boutique:$17
Stamps: "Beautiful Blooms"
1 Fine Sharpie (for my self-adressed envelopes): $1





And there you have them!