I know it has been seven months since my last post, but today I had the perfect opportunity to post about the next step in this three-part saga of making my wedding invitations. Excuse the horrible lighting of these pictures. Our work carried on from sunrise to sundown.


STEP 1: Popping out the excess. Can you guess what these are? My awesome now-husband then-fiance poked each and every one of these hexagon shapes out of our invitations with a pair of chopsticks (for maximum efficiency). The laser cutter that we used was not the strongest and thus these little buggers remained on the covers of our invitations.


Here are our invitation covers--lasercut chipboard with a honeycomb hexagonal pattern consistent with the logo that was created (refer to the last post!).


STEP 2: Stamping like there's no tomorrow. Using a custom stamp ordered from a local stamp shop, I stamped the RSVP cards as well as the peach cardstock inside the invitation, which acted as a backdrop to the main body of text. I used a light tracer so that the placement of the stamp would be precise and consistent for each invitation.


STEP 3: Making it rain. I like using clear embossing powder because it allows me to use it for other future projects. If I want to create embossing in a different color, all I need to switch up is the color of the stamp pad. Alternatively, you can use a clear stamp with colored embossing powder, but after experimenting, I feel the color is bolder when you have the color come from the stamp, rather than the powder. It's also less expensive that way! After pouring the powder on top of the stamp, the ink of the stamp holds the powder in the stamp's shape. Make sure to give the paper a flick or two so that the excess powder is dusted off.


These are the RSVP cards pre-heat. To be super efficient, I laid out all the cards first and then mass-blew them with the heat gun. The only con would be that you have to be super careful for the powder to not rub off when handling them a bunch at a time.


STEP 4: Melting the powder away. What am I holding in my hand? I gave my brother a wedding errand to buy me a heat gun. What I expected was a cute little craft heat gun from Michaels and what I got was a large utility heat gun from Home Depot. Oh well, whatever gets the job done. What the heat gun essentially does is melt the powder in its held form of the stamp. The melted powder gives the stamp a raised (or embossed) look. What am I watching? Well, that would be Celebrity Apprentice.


FINISHED PRODUCT: Okay, I know I skipped a bunch of steps... In between Step 4 and this picture was a lot of cutting of paper (which I got done at Kinko's), cutting by myself with more complicated shapes like the oval that had the main text (using an oval cutter that I bought at JoAnn), cutting and attaching ribbon, and a lot of gluing. I think I was very focused and rushed on time that I didn't think to take more pictures, but when we were finally done I had to document the fruit of our labor!

Next up.... Part III showing the final product. Let's hope it doesn't take another half a year for me to post.