Becky + Stephan

I meant to get this up a long time ago, but things just got away from me. It's another design I did for a really sweet girl out in Oregon, Becky.

She wanted pink, and one of the designs I had already done - which made my job a little bit easier :-) She was so much fun to work with and I LOVE how she added to her pocket fold by:

• Using an engagement photo to add a personal touch (or help relatives remember exactly who you are again..hehe - I should have done this!)
  
• the ribbon around the pocket
• using brads to hold the pocket in place instead of adhesive! (way cheaper I imagine PLUS it held it in place really well!!!)
  

I fell in love with this invite when it arrived in my mail box! It must have taken forever to assemble these but I can imagine the response she's getting from people - and it's nothing to do with my design! This girl really made her invite - HERS!

Check it out!

**Just a note to anyone interested in invite design from me - I am not taking anymore orders until after I return from my honeymoon in September. If you won't be needing anything until then, but want to book me now to save your place - please contact me at acgrundman@gmail.com as we'll chat!**

A Classy Fishing Themed Invite? Yah You Betcha!

OMG, I am so excited! I just finished my good friend Amy's wedding invites and I feel great! First off it was a nice break from the chaos of my own wedding plans, which today just were out of hand. And Second, to know that I was a part of her special day in such a great way, oh I could cry.

So, her lucky hubby-to-be popped the question on a boat while they were fishing, so she knew she wanted fishing incorporated somehow. She provided me with something she found that she wanted, and I tweaked it to what I could do right now, and this is the final product:



My favorite part of this whole thing is the RSVP - the wording on it, suggested in part by FutureMrs on Wedding Bee and the other wonderfully creative Hive over there:

For yes: We Will Be there Hook, Line & Sinker
For no: Sorry, Gone Fishin'

I think this will be the last project I take on before the wedding. At least a full pocket fold invite. Little things I'm ok with - but since I still have to do her programs, and thank you cards...who knows if I'll have any more time.

Bye Bye

The invites have left the house. They are on their way all over the country and over seas. I had a mini panic attack leaving the post office, did I address the right? Do they all have RSVP's in them?

I got over it and now I'm off to creating the invites for the next batch going out.

More, you say? Oh yes. Due to the large size of my family, and only being able to fit a certain amount in the reception venue we had to create a "B" list. It's not as bad as you might think, they are actually people we really want at the wedding, it's just that we need some of those "no's" to come through before we can officially send the invite. Otherwise we risk over filling the room and blowing our budget.

Off to have a glass of wine and then stare at my mail box, wondering when the first RSVP will arrive.

Wrapping it all Togeter

When I said that cutting the pieces of paper out that make the invite was the worst part of the invite process.....I lied. I hadn't yet been faced with the "belly band" issue.

I'm sure it would have been much easier if the piece of paper I was using to go around the invite was in fact the same size, as the invite. But no. I'm thrifty and wanted to use scrap from my inserts for it.

So I laid out the belly band like this, and tried as best I could after 2 glasses of wine to make it smack dab in the middle (you'll see the final result, is a bit off center. I blame the wine)

I then folded in the two sides, and using a glue stick applied adhesive to the edge of one of the belly band.Then I applied my square seal, and then put the adhesive to the other edige of the belly band. Doing it this way kept me from gluing myself to my invites - which I assure you could have been done with out any wine at all....

As you can see this one is a bit...off. LOL. But I fixed it before I mailed it out - I just never took the extra picture.


And here they are, boxed up ready to head to the Post Office, where I will double check to make sure I have the correct postage (I know I do, but I like to check things about 14 times...) and the post the ones to Europe to our friends overseas. LIKE AUNTIE NORA!!! HI NORA!!!

So this is 90 of them, I have about 30 more or so to get all together...and then they will leave me and I will be sad to see them go....

Finished 6x6 Pocketfold Invites!

Here they are, in all their glory. Months of work, waiting, freaking out and gluing tiny gems to paper and here they are! And they are almost ready to mail!

I have to admit that of all the steps: Designing, Printing, Cutting and Assembling - cutting was by far the worst part and the most time consuming!!!

Here's a quick run down of how it all came together.

• After the jewels were glued onto the invite and the invite stuck to the pink backing piece, I then stuck that whole piece into the pocketfold.
• Then I handed off the pocketfold to Mr S, who stuffed in the Drections/ Information card and the Reception/Accommodations cards and set that off to the side.

Now it was time to get the RSVP's in - and since I had 6 different RSVP's, and each one had to be numbered to coincide with the guests number on my Excel spread sheet this step tooo a little longer then expected.

• Mr S would read me the name off the mailing envelope (which I printed up months ago) I would find them on the list, write the number on the back lower corner of the RSVP and he would stuff it in, then lay the whole thing with it's envelope, in a big white box to wait for it's belly band.

The belly band will be the last thing to go on, I tried making the seals at home and honestly gave up cutting them out and simply ordered some sticker ones instead. Sure it was an added $40 for 250, but I'll use them all through out the wedding planning and what not, and it will save me a load of time.
I'm still finding time to take on design projects, be they for invites, programs, thank you cards, Let me know and do it soon if you're thinking about it. Soon I'll be shutting down design until after my wedding and honeymoon - so mid-Sept!!!

Putting On The Glitz!

I started this task last night, as I received the 1's, 2's and 5's RSVP's from my step dad.

I cut it all up, and then realized I still needed to put the crystals on the invites, so I shifted gears and started this process.

In the absence of my actual craft tweezers, I grabbed an old pair of my eyebrow ones, because grabbing the gems and dipping them in glue and properly placing with your fingers is IMPOSSIBLE!

• STEP ONE: Squirt some glue, about a dime sized amount onto a scrap piece of paper. It will be easier to apply the glue to the gems this way.
• STEP TWO: Pick up gem with tweezers and dip lightly only the back, in the glue.
• STEP THREE: dab back of glue covered gem on scrap paper to remove excess, a very little amount is needed and you don't want the glue oozing out the sides.
  

(forgive my photos this time around, camera was having an off day, as was I! UGH!)

When all finished lay the items out to dry, it shouldn't take too long. Especially if you don't use too much glue. Be sure to lay them out flat, do not stack they can and will stick together!

And with Elmer's or the Jule glue I used, you will find that excess will dry clear but it's still better not to have a whole lot because you will still see the clear lump if it's too big.

And then you're all done adding the glitz to your invites!!!

It's so Rewarding!

Remember a bit back I designed some wedding invites for a fellow bride - well she sent me one, and today it arrived!

Check out the detail on the cascading pocketfold inserts - when lined up they make one fluid image, yet it still appears on the individual cards in full as well.
I was so happy to be able to make these invites, and it's so rewarding to see how well they turned out as a final product. I'm proud to have been a part of this part of her big day!

4 Months Left - Panic Alert *HIGH*

Too late - I'm Bride-zilla today!

I have yet to print and assemble the invites, still waiting on my step dad to help me with that one. There are only 37 days left until they have to start being mailed out.....and that, I have officially decided, is not enough time for my control freak self to complete the task - WHILE still enjoying myself.

That simple factor is the whole reason I'm on Panic High Alert. 37 days!? My step dad won't even be home until Friday, not back to the office until Monday, that means the soonest I could even hope to begin printing is 33 days before they are due to go out.....

And, sure I can rush through stuffing them, hand out things for people to do for me on this invite thing but I don't want to and I shouldn't have to either. Since we started planning this wedding I have been looking forward to putting these together, taking my time and making sure each one was just right. Know that each one was made from the ground up by me and mailed with love.

I'm only having one wedding, I'm only doing this once and I REFUSE to be rushed through the one process I've been dreaming of. If I wanted to hand out and delegate invite assembly - I would have bought them from a catalog!

I would scream, but Paige is sleeping and I don't want to wake her!

Crazy.....about designing

Because I'm a total nut case I decided to take on a huge task during my own wedding planning - create and design from scratch someone else's wedding invites and stationary. Someone I didn't know, never met other then on the computer.....

Luckily I got to work with a really fun, and understanding girl, who wasn't one of those demanding Bride-Zillas! Phew! Seriously, if I had to deal with a bride...like me for instance, I would have flipped!

My Bride had a very specific design in mind, one that I couldn't find a graphic anything even close to use for her design - so I had to draw it from hand, by looking at some sample invites she sent me for inspiration. That was one of the most time consuming parts of all this.

Here's a little sample of what her dream and my designing came up with.

She's making a type of pocket fold invite, something similar to mine. And since she decided she wanted the same script font as me, and the same RSVP - they look similar in a few way! But it kept at least a few things easy for me!

The Main Invite

The Thank You Card

Inserts, as they will appear once printed and stacked

The Menu

I had a great time making these for her! I can't wait to see what they look like printed on Opal Star Dream paper and accented with the champange and blue!


Credits:
*Design Idea sent to me by Bride,
*Thank you Mrs Lemon again for your Awesome RSVP - it goes onto please even more!!!
*All other design created by myself using PhotoShop CS2

Finally, Final and Finalized.

Argh! No more! I have been pouring over these pocket fold inserts for days and I am done. The longer I look the more I can find and say "Oh I should move that a bit to the right..." but it's never an easy move, nooooooo it's a "hafta move the whole freakin' set up and realign everything" task.

So after mush deliberation, rearranging and renaming 2 of the cards, and adding some loving touches to all of them - I have the final finalized versions of the pocket fold inserts for my invites.

Tah Dah!

The smallest of the cascading inserts - RSVP. I added in some little animals, because nothing says "fancy dinner" like circling the image of what you intended to eat! I also added in the final food options. (PS - I have changed this up now...moved the "menu selection" tot he left a bit...it was really driving me nuts!)



The middle sized insert is now called Reception & Accommodations. It was simply "Reception" but really, it had like NO info on that was of much use so I moved the hotel info onto this one. Info has been blurred out to keep those crazy people from showing up uninvited....lol


The final insert, is also the biggest: Directions & Information.

I'm limiting the directions I give and instead of over crowding the card, which was my first choice...lol - I have listed my wedding web site for further info.

When all is said and done, they will look a little something like this (minus the black borders I added so you could actually see them on here) in the envelope:


Now if I can just get them printed, we'll be good to go.

Making My Pocketfold Invites -Part 1-

I finally got to start the invitation process *Scream with joy!* The instruction process is going to be done in installments, so if you have question between them - feel free to ask.

I started last night doing the one thing I knew I could with out needing to print anything, cut the pink paper to size. I bought 2 packs of Rose Quarts Stardream text weight paper from www.envelopemall.com. When pricing out the paper, we did find a place that sold 12x12 sheets but it was cheaper still to buy it 8.5x11 from Envelope Mall, especially since the scrap will not go to waste.

I needed 2 different sized pieces, a 6x6 square for the main backing to the invite, and a 2.25x2.25 square for the backing to the monogram on the band that wraps around the closed invitation.


I started with the larger of the two pieces. Setting the two separate sized pieces of scrap off to the side in individual piles, for use later. No scrap here!

I used a stack cutter because in my years of scrabooking I have leaned the Fiskars trimmers do not produce straight lines consistently, and I was not taking any chances with my beautiful wedding invitations.
The one used here is an Exacto brand and is even equiped with a laser light to show you where you're cutting. I borrowed it from my step-dad, but I would think you could pick it up for about $50 at an office supply store.


I placed each finished 6x6 sheet into piles of ten so I could keep track of how many I had cut. Since I ordered more pink paper then needed just for the invites, I didn't want to cut too much and not have any left for other stuff later.


Next I moved onto the smallest of the scrap pieces, which was about 2.25 x 5.

From it I got (2) 2.25x2.25 pieces for use in the band wrap

I set those off tot he side as well and then decided to use up the last of the scrap before bed as well. So I grabbed the larger of the two pieces of scrap and cut 22 pieces down to a 4x6 size and decided to give my table names a shot. As my printer isn't a big fan of any paper smaller then a 8.5x11 it was a real risk, but - better I tired it with scrap then with a full sheet.

It worked out really well, and I got out about 15 before the ink started to run low.

When all is said and done these table names will be placed on a black cover card stock backing and decorated with a clear jewel on the main loop(s) of the first and last letter. BLING!

More to come.....next I hope to print and assemble the actual invite, and finish the table name cards. We may even start on the construction of the wedding program itself!

Until next time!

Need Help With Save The Dates,Thank Yous, Any Wedding Stationary!?

Well, let me help!

It completely escaped me until today that (ohmygosh!) I create and sell photo cards! I have a home business that I put on the back burner to plan the wedding and care for my daughter, but I have the great talent that I can hand over to your guys for a fraction of what you would pay elsewhere.

So here's my offer to my fellow Hive members and my blog readers:

I'll create you a personalized Save The Date, Thank You Cards, hang tags for your favors, EVEN Wedding Invite for you to print as you wish, where you wish - for the low low price of $35.00!

So instead of paying per card at other places for up to $1.75 -$2.00 each you pay a flat rate with me and print it where you want - saving HUNDREDS!

EXAMPLE:
-So say you buy Save The Dates at Lil' Duck Duck on line and you get 100 - You would spend $220.00 for 5x7 cardstock Save The Dates. (NOT including shipping)

Me Design it for you, with Kinkos printing and paper cost you would spend about $90 total!

OR

Me Design it for you and you order from a photo printer (like a photo card in a 5x7) www.mpix does them for .89 - for 100 that's $89.00!

That's a saving of $130 either way!!!


Here's a few of my samples, remember everything is 100% customizable, change color, font, wording - whatever! And I'll send more samples by request.

I can do anything you like, so find me samples of what you want and we'll talk! E-mail me at acgrundman@gmail.com

*Please note that prices quoted are approximate. Kinkos prices and mpix prices are located on their web site. I am not responsible for price changed made by them.

Holiday Card shown here but this is an awesome layout for Thank Yous as well!

Change any wording to suit your needs! Need a Thank you, but like this lay out - you got it!

Babies, Parties, Bridal Showers, Thank You Cards - ANYTHING!

Please e-mail me with questions.
Note that the $35.00 does not include custom designs from scratch (meaning no layout to look at or design I already have), or elements I do not already have (i.e trees, blossoms - things of that nature)

Stamps for Sale!

Since the post office will not take back my stamps...I have been left with no choice but to sell them to someone mailing out before the price increase on May 1st.

Follow the links to classifieds of my sales, and if you're not a Wedding Bee member and can not PM me on there, feel free to contact me by commenting on this post.

.41 Wedding Heart Stamps 220 for the price of 200

.58 Wedding Heart Stamps 120 for the price of 100

Thanks gals, I should add that I will pay for shipping with insurance on these shipments!

EXTRA EXTRA! This Just In, USPS Causes Nervous Breakdown Among Young Brides..

Does the Post Office not understand how delicate a balance the stamp on your wedding invitation really is? Why must they continue to change postage 4 times a year? Why don't they just jack the price once, the total amount they will in those 4 times and leave it at that.

I have enough to do, and now on top of it all I have to figure out what to do before this monstrosity of a one cent stamp invades the beauty of my RSVP envelope and main invitation envelope.

I mean it's not even ok, it's not even reasonable - it's just plain....ugly. I don't care if thats a Tiffany Lamp on it, unless the thing is made BY Tiffany it ain't touching my precious pink invitation carriers with it's mean sticky backing!

I swear they have some horrible little old man who lives in a dungeon of a room who reaches into a basket of muck and worms and pulls out the new design as randomly as a Secret Santa drawing in Hell.

What have I done to you, Oh USPS to deserve this horrible fate?

And you know Mr S. just doesn't get it. I explained this to him in the most dramatic way possible and his reaction was "So? It's only like $2 more in stamps?"

Does no one feel my pain!?

Ugh!

You're Invited...

...To check out the official mock up invitation for my wedding! I printed it off at home today and carefully cut it with my CRAPPY trimmer. I will definitely be using a stack cutter for the actual invites once everything is printed!

Those little Fiskars trimmers cut things in lines as straight as George Michael!

Try not to notice that I seriously need to vacuum my carpet - and here it is:

This is the invite closed, with the wrap that is made totally from scrap!


Here's the invite open:


And with the inserts taken out:


I used pre-made pocketfold invites from LCI Paper

The paper is Stardream brand which I had to get from two different places because only one place I could find sold the Crystal (bright white) at a decent price.

I got the Crystal Stardream at Paper Depot Inc in Minneapolis MN. They do online orders now and they ship faster then anyone I've seen before! It was very well priced at .17 each.

The Rose Quartz (pink) paper I got at Envelope Mall along with the 2 sizes of envelopes I required for this project as well. Envelope Mall has by far the best priced Star Dream products online! Both the papers I bought in the text weight, as the heavier cardstock (or cover as it's called) doens't work too well with ink jet printers.

The envelopes are in 6.5 x 6.5 for the entire invite and the 4 Bar size for the RSVP, which you can see sticking up in the open invite picture, just slightly.

The two fonts are Feel Script by Veer which is not something you can get for free, it's $99.. And the plain font is BellMT which I used in all caps.

The flourishs are from two sets of "brushes" called Hipster Plumes (number 5 and 6). You can pick up these items at www.designerdigitals.com here The kits are well priced at $3.75 each and you will need a photo shop program to use them.

Please note that all pocket folds are different, if you buy yours from LCI Paper and need dimensions I'm happy to share mine with you - if you did not buy from them or do not plan to my dimensions will not work for you and you'll just have to do the trial and error game like we did to get the right dimensions.

The new and imporoved "The One" Invite

My beautiful invite, which I declared "The One" has been modified and bumped off the top of the list...LOL. I just couldn't stop tweaking it and making it better!

The general lay out is the same, I just changed the pocketfold inserts to all white and made the flourish on the right connect, so it looks like one fluid photo no matter if all or 1 of the cards in in it's place. I also, with the help of my awesome cousin tracked down a font I REALLY had to have, and changed that a bit.

NOW - it's "The One" - in it's "mock" version, as I'm waiting on the Stardream paper to arrive as well as all the envelopes. And as my printer has a hissy fit every 10 minutes (not unlike me) the print job looks a little crappy - but you get the idea!

Suddenly Stationary

I've been designing our stationary for the past few days. It's been a lot of fun, and much cheaper then ordering it from high priced catalogs!

I started by searching for fun, thank you cards and found nothing I liked. Well, nothing I liked that I would shell out $45 a set for! Sheesh!

So I started up my trusty Photo Shop CS2 and started creating. A bit later I had the card to the left.

It matches our invites, and every other aspect of the wedding and it's both simple and elegant!

I am ordering 2 sets of 10 from Vista Print to see if I like the matte or linen finish better. I can get 100 of them for under $100 which, from what I found price wise - is a steal!

I also took advantage of their free return address lables, designed up some to match and ordered away! I probably won't use them for the invites, but Alex and I don't have any return address labels, so for the low, low price of FREE - why not?! Check it out:



Lastly, I've run into the issue of getting the return address on to the wedding invite envelope. My printer has a temper and I don't like dealing with it. Envelopes come out with the printing not straight and sometimes with streaks and such. And since I'm planning to use Stardream brand metallic envelopes - I am not going to even attempt it more then likely. My issue was that I wanted the font to match the invite and custom rubber stamps with script fonts on them can be tricky and hard to read.

To help solve the problem I created this label and ordered 250 for $24 from www.uprinting.com, if it doesn't look right, then I have some more great post wedding address labels!! I have a feeling it will be more then fine however.

These particular labels are 2x2 inches. They do all custom
shapes and sizes and their prices are unbelievable!

Now my last issue is getting the address on the front of the envelope with out using my printer. Looks like I'll be either buying a new printer (not an option! LOL) or spending a lot of time at my step dad's office and my future MIL's house running things off!

And lastly I'll show off my RSVP card I am IN LOVE with. I can't take all the credit for it though, Mrs Lemon on Wedding Bee was the original creator and I used her layout and made it work for me. THANK YOU MRS LEMON!

We had some issues to cover with the RSVP, I needed to know specific names and what food choice they were having because our hall requires us to label the place setting for the waiters sanity! However I also needed to make sure that I didn't get back those "I'll be bringing my entire extended family" response. So, thankfully Mrs Lemon spent a lot of time studying the success rate of questionnaires based on how easy they were to understand and follow. She had a good success rate with her version of this and I hope to as well.
Of course the food choices are not complete yet as we've not done the tasting, but this give the idea. And now when I do have the final menu items all I have to do is input them and I'll be done with the design process!!!