Brainstorming is better done in two.
Posted by craftyangie on August 13th, 2007 in crafts, paper crafts
After looking at a few pictures of invitations (you can use Flickr.com, Knot.com or WeddingChannel.com to find images that inspire you) I found one that we both liked. It was square, it had a ribbon holding the “extra” paper inserts and a pretty little contrasting-color square in the front of the invitation…beautiful, simple and practical! It was perfect!
Of course, we’d have to change everything to our liking and translate accordingly (since my family is from Mexico, I wanted to have them in Spanish) so far we just had a basic idea for the shape.
The next things to be decided were: Colors; obviously red (we like darker shades of red quite a bit, so a burgundy was our winning color) and cream.
Personalization: we were originally going the mainstream way: to use our initials in the front of the invitation and then just add the details inside…Then a light bulb lit up! We’re in Philly! Why not incorporate that?
And the shopping got started! We raided a few Joann’s for the ribbon we chose, wiping two stores clean in the process, and bought a lot of card stock in the color we liked.
In addition to that, the personalization items: a LOVE embossing stencil (hand made by me as such a thing does not exist according to countless google searches) and a skyline outline later (done by Boombadeus) we were on our way to wedding invitation adventureland!
NOTE: all this “invitation brainstorming” didn’t go that smoothly. A few trial invitations were made, playing with card stock colors and ribbons.
The use of the LOVE embossing template was a pure chance too: I had just recently discovered the world of hand embossing and had played around with a cardboard template I had made just for fun.
Only after him saying “hey, this looks good” did I even think of using it seriously in the invitations…had he not mentioned he liked the template, the gate that opened the idea to Philadelphia centric invitations, the invitations would probably have been a little more mainstream…
Lesson learned for that day: Play around with what you know!
3 Responses to “Brainstorming is better done in two.”
By Steve on Aug 14, 2007
Your invitation is, by far, one of the nicest and most personal I have ever received! Love the back story
By craftyangie on Aug 20, 2007
Thanks Steve! We tried to make sense of all the ideas we had…i’m glad they came out nice
By Lois & Bill on Sep 5, 2007
We are happy recipients of your wedding invitation. It is a work of art! It was almost too hard to send back the response card since it would “ruin the set”. Of course I have a fond affection for burgundy and other fall colors (no pink please!) since those were my wedding colors too.
When we got married in the stone-age we photocopied directions on a sheet of paper and hand colored the route on the maps. You managed to cram, yet make readable, the maps/directions on a small, fan folded insert. Bravo!
Dare I say we look forward to seeing your creativity at the wedding and with your thank you notes?
Best wishes!