Friday, October 23, 2009

Mission Accomplished: Pocketfold Invitations

Invitation making is in full swing now, and I'm already about halfway through!
I have about three weeks to finish the rest of the invitations, but I hardly think that will be a problem now that I've got my system down! :) Here's a little rundown on my invitation assembly line...

1. Take an 8.5" x 11" sheet of cardstock (I'd recommend at least 100 lb. cover cardstock for optimal strength) and measure 4" from one side and 2" from the other.

2. Fold the cardstock along the lines you've marked off. (I used this laminated math formula cheat sheet to help me fold in a straight line!)

3. Trim 1.5" from the top of the piece of cardstock. This will create a 5" x 7" invitation when folded (11" x 7" when fully open), which will fit perfectly in an A7 envelope (more on those later).

4. Don't just throw this little strip away though! Trim another 0.5" off of it (so it's 1" thick), and set it aside to use as a belly band for the orange invitations.

5. Next, take another 8.5" x 11" sheet of cardstock and cut out two 5" x 4.75" pieces. These will be used to make the pocket of the pocketfold invitations. I saved the rest of the cardstock to use for the placecards I will be making later on.

6. The next step is to make the flaps of the pocket so it can be attached to the invitation. So, measure 0.5" from all sides except the top.

7. Then, fold the flaps over where marked. Again, I used my handy-dandy math formula cheat sheet to fold them.

8. To make the corners of the pocket, it's necessary to snip of the excess cardstock. So, fold the corners and snip away!

9. Then, to attach the pocket to the invitation, I used glue dots on the corners and a glue stick on the edges.

Here's what the pocketfold invitation looks like without any of the text or inserts added yet. Pretty fabulous, eh?

10. Next I glue-stuck the invitation and reception cards to the invitation.

11. Then I inserted the direction and response cards into the pocket.

12. For our out-of-town guests, I added a "Travel Information" card. I actually like the look of the invitation with the third card in the pocket, but I figured it was unnecessary for the local guests.

13. Next up were the belly bands! Remember the strip cut off from the top of the invitations? Well, here they are in action! After affixing the monogram with a glue dot, the belly bands were slipped into place.

14. The invitations were then placed in an envelope of the opposite color. Then, envelope wraps were glue-stuck (new favorite verb!) on.

Here's a view of the back of the envelope. That's our return address on the back. :)

15. This is my favorite step - adding the completed invitation to the "done" box! :) I'm trying to keep them separated - the stacks on the left are those with the "travel information" insert and the stacks on the right are those without. I'm not sure if there will be a difference in postage, but it'll be so much easier if there is!

Ciao,

6 comments:

Jen said...

You're so talented! I love how they came out and LOVE the colors together! Just gorgeous!

My Dream Ring said...

WOWZA!! Those are great!

Louise said...

Hey! These turned out GREAT! Did you print yourself? Love the damask print. Where'd you get it???

A. Marigold said...

Wow, these are amazing! I can't believe you made the pockets yourself, too!

Shell said...

thanks for all your feedback! i did print out the invitations at home on our printer. the damask print was actually a stamp i purchased awhile back to do our save the dates. i believe it was purchased at amazon here - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001685DPM/ref=asc_df_B001685DPM766663?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&tag=dealt329413-20&linkCode=asn

Born to be Mrs. Beever said...

Those truly are fabulous. I can't believe you did them yourself! Must have took a great deal of time and patience. I am having my sister design some envelope wraps for our own invites. Check out my blog post tomorrow all about our custom invites which are almost done with the design process! So glad to have found your blog to follow along with :)