11 down, 119 to go - Invitations in progress

I've finally started the pocketfolds for the invitations. I did a whopping 11 of them tonight. It took me probably a little more than an hour. I started getting more speedy with them at the end because I got into the groove and became more comfortable with them, but I know now that I am definitely in for a long haul. I'm going to try to do at least 10 of them a night, which will mean I'll have them done in 12 days or less. We'll see how that goes. I'm sure I'll keep you updated. That is... if I'm not committed to an institution in the middle of the process.

On to how the invitations now look... this afternoon, I made an updated mock-up of the entire invitation.

My original mock-up can be seen here. I was not happy with the color of the Stardream Lagoon. It was a little too green, while I was looking for a true blue aqua.

I refused to give up in my search for the perfect color paper, and eventually found it in Astrobright Glisten Lunar Blue. I found it online through my numerous google searches, and then went back to Tom at Anchor Paper to ask if, by any chance, they carry it (it wasn't listed on their website). To my surprise (and relief!), he e-mailed me back and said that they did, in fact, carry it. I ordered samples, and when it came to me, I knew it was exactly what i had been searching for! It is the perfect color. For more information on what I ordered, and how much, click here.

Another time-consuming obsession was finding the perfect stamp. After my original mock-up, I was convinced that it was too "plain." I saw knottie b2blewis's invitations in her bio and saw that she had made good use of a floral stamp. I went on the hunt for that particular stamp, but ultimately came up empty-handed. So instead, I started searching for something else that I liked. There are so many floral stamps, but I wasn't fond of any of them. After a lot of searching, I finally found my stamp on ebay.


Here is my updated "mock-up" (I'm thisclose to finalizing everything):

Here is the outside. It's hard to take photos of paper without washing out the colors. I might try to take better pics in daylight some day, without a flash. Anyway, the pocketfold is that Lunar Blue, the ribbon is a light aquamarine (satin edges, sheer center--purchased at Save on Crafts), and then the seal itself is made of the linen cardstock and the Stardream Aquamarine cardstock that I am using for the invitation backing (inside of the pocketfold). I'm still undecided whether I will include our monogram on the seal (as pictured), or if I'll instead include the names of the people invited, essentially using it as our inner envelope.

This is one of our Stardream Quartz A7 envelopes, which we'll address with an aqua pen.

Here is the pocketfold when its opened. I'm still playing around and finalizing fonts.

Here is a close-up of the invitation. Our names are in the font "Majestic," and the rest is in "Californian" in small caps. I screwed up the stamp on the left of the invitation, but I was too lazy to redo it for the mock-up. I embossed the stamp (which you can't really see in the photo) using sparkly metallic clear embossing powder. For the actual invitations, I might do away with the sparkly metallic and just use regular clear embossing powder. The sparkles are really obvious when they are where they're not supposed to be. It looks like stray glitter, which annoys me. Plus, with the metallic paper, it might be just a little too much sparkle.

These are all of our inserts--Accommodations and Directions, Reception, and Sunday Brunch. The font for the headings is "Ambiance BT Swash," and the rest is Californian again. I alslo screwed up the stamp on the Sunday Brunch card for the mock-up.

Finally, here is our response card, with its Stardream Aquamarine envelope.

I can't wait until this whole project can be checked off of my list!

Stay tuned for that. But don't hold your breath.