Invitations

I realize that I still have about 10 months until the invitations need to be mailed, but I just can't help myself... I've been working on them. However, I may end up needing a lot of that time to get them finished!

That is because I have decided to do my own pocketfold invitations. Phew! I am exhausted just thinking about it! For those of you who do not know what I'm talking about, I mean this:

Mine will be similar to this because I will be doing the vertical pockets. I do really like the look of the horizontal pockets like this:

...but I feel like that pocket is just going to be a lot of work. It looks like more hassle than it's worth. So, vertical pocketfolds it is!

Our wedding colors are navy and ivory. So, I wanted to do a navy

colored pocketfold with ivory invitations and inserts. I had a heck of a time finding navy colored cardstock in a large size. And, when I did, it was outrageously expensive.

Eventually, I did find some dark blue cardstock that I thought would work. I found it at Paper-Source. The exact paper I used is here. I thought text paper would be fine... it's 80# paper, so it should be sturdy enough to hold up, but not so hard that I have difficulty folding it into the pocketfold. I used the color Night. It's not exactly what I had in mind, but it's pretty close.

The paper is 20x26... so, enormous. I will cut it down into the sizes that I need (I'm excited because I finally get to get the cutter I've wanted for a while -- I'm a scrapbooker!). The paper is $0.60 per sheet. It's pretty reasonable as it is, but if you buy 10 sheets, you get 10% off; if you buy 25 sheets, you get 20% off; and, if you buy 50 sheets, you get 30% off. I didn't really need all 25 sheets, but I bought them anyway. I figured I could use the extra for programs. I also signed up for email from Paper-Source and I got a 10% off coupon. So, I ended up paying about $0.43 per sheet. Including shipping, my total was $17.80. I don't think that's unreasonable. Especially since pocketfolds can be as much as several dollars a piece!

The paper shipped out last night, so I should have it in a few days and I can see exactly what I'm working with.

In the meantime, I have been working up some mock-ups of how I want to do the pocketfolds. I had to glue two sheets of paper together since I didn't have any paper long enough at home, but I think I've got the idea.

This is what I've come up with:

The original that I made is to scale, but I shrunk this one so that it wouldn't be enormous for the blog page. So, I have a 20x26 inch piece of cardstock. Since the measurements of my pocketfold are 5x20, I can make 5 pocketfolds out of 1 piece of cardstock! I'll have to cut 1" off the edge of the paper, but then I can just cut the paper into 5 strips and, voila!

Then I will be ready to measure, cut, score, and fold! It's going to be an absolute pain, but I hope that it will be worth it when I see the finished result. They are going to be beautiful! :)