Archive for September, 2008

Our Top 10 Tips for DIY Wedding Stationery

Making your own wedding stationery has never been so popular. Whether you are on a tight budget or want to ensure your stationery is unique and personal, DIY stationery makes sense.

With a wealth of cardmaking and craft goodies available, you will be sure to find something to suit your taste, colour scheme and ability. Most handcrafted stationery uses card blanks (card pre-folded in various sizes) with decorative embellishments plus an insert with the invitation wording. 

Here are our top tips for ensuring your creations look “Handcrafted” and not “homemade”.

1. Choose good quality supplies
Don’t compromise on the quality of card you use as your base. Choose card blanks designed for wedding stationery – you should look for a card weight of 240gsm or more.

2. Keep it simple
Unless you have lots of craft experience it’s best to go for a simple design. You will be glad you did when you are sticking on your 100th flower.

3. Look around for Inspiration
Research lots of different designs for inspiration and use them as a starting point for developing your own ideas.

4. Choose your envelopes first
Or at least make sure you can find matching envelopes before you commit to a design.

It’s usually no problem if you will be going for a plain white or cream envelope in a standard size, but coloured envelopes tend to be available in a limited range of sizes and non-standard sizes may be hard to find.

5. Avoid the wonky look
Unless you have a great eye and a very steady hand, it’s a good idea to make up templates to ensure you get everything in the right place and straight. For example, if you are placing a square of decorative paper onto your card, take a piece of paper the same size as your card, measure and cut a hole exactly where you want the paper to go. Lay the template over each card to ensure the paper goes in the right place every time.

If you still don’t trust yourself, choose a design where it doesn’t matter, such as a feather laid across the card.

6. Don’t stint on the sticky stuff
Your stationery certainly won’t look professional if bits keep falling off. Make sure you use good quality glue and tape to attach your embellishments and inserts.

7. Allow plenty of time
Ask anyone who has made their own stationery and they will say it took longer than they thought. Ask your friends and family to help and set up a production line.

8. Buy a few extras
When buying your supplies always purchase a little more than you need – it is so frustrating if you run out of something and then find the item has been discontinued. Allow for a few spoilt cards and the inevitable last minute extra guests.

9. Check the postage
Make up a test copy of your design and post it to yourself. Not only will you be able to ensure it arrives in one piece, but you can check the cost of the stamp and avoid nasty surprises if your invite is too bulky to send as a letter.

10. Test your printer
If you plan to print onto card or special papers like vellum or pearlescent paper, always test these on your actual printer first. Printer types and models can vary considerably in how they handle different sizes, thicknesses, textures and coatings.

© The Wedding Crafter 2008

This article may not be copied, reprinted or used in any way without permission

Creative Cards and Shapes

Here at The Wedding Crafter we stock a wide range of card blanks in different styles but there are lots more possibilites and if you are feeling creative and have the time you can create your own unique cards from A4 or A5 card. In this article we show you a couple of ideas to get you started.

You will need a paper trimmer or guillotine plus a card scoring board - like the Dovecraft Wonderboard available in The Wedding Crafter shop.

Before you commit to a design, ensure that you can find suitable envelopes for sending your invitations. If possible try to ensure the finished card fits into one of the standard sized envelopes. Of course, if you are doing menu cards, then there are no limits!

These two examples both start from an A4 sheet of card scored and folded to make 3 panels (the finished cards will both fit a DL envelope).

Take your card and score 98mm from the edge, turn and score 98mm from the other edge - if you have a Wonderboard, use the groove marked “3 panel fold A4″. Fold along the crease lines.

For a cream and gold invitation:

Use cream textured card and fold as above. Trim 2cm from each edge and cover one edge with decorative paper (we used Ivory/Gold flower embossed paper). You can fold this example with the decorated edge on the outside or inside as you prefer.

Tie with ribbon to finish.

To create a tuxedo style card:

Using black card, score and fold as above. Make a small mark 5cm from the bottom of each edge. Trim off a triangle of card from the crease line to the mark you have made (trim just past the mark so it is removed) on each side. We have added some diamontes to finish and created an insert with the bride and groom’s names showing at the top.