Sneak Peek!!

So I posted this post the other day about being worried that my envelopes were a little, shall we say...plain? Unadorned. Undecorative. And ugly also work. Well, ugly is a little to the extreme side of things, but you get my drift – I wasn’t quite happy with them. But then I thought that maybe, just maybe, I was being a little too much about the whole situation. So I snapped a quick picture with my crack-berry...and sent it off to MOH to peruse.

Sure enough, she wrote back and was PC about it all and just said that the envelope was a little plain. Leave it to her to find the right words! Plain is ok – plain is fine. Plain is not acceptable, but I can work with plain and even had a plan in mind. Don’t just take our word for it...see for yourself. It just lacks...something. Panache, maybe. I don’t know. And yes, that was a messed up one that I used to find the exact right placement for the printing, but then I didn’t have to blur the image, which I just hate to do. So that night, I set to work to make the outer envelopes prettier and I had my favorite helper there to lend a hand.

When I sent out our Save the Dates, I had bought plain cream envelopes, which also needed a little “dressing up” in my opinion, so I had the materials all available that I would need to dress up the invitation envelopes as well. I used an acrylic stamp (the same stamp that adorned the invite) and some black embossing powder and my handy embossing gun and set to work. (I found on the Stardream paper line that the colored embossing powder actually worked better than the clear, just FYI!)

Of course, when I started pulling everything out, J was VERY interested to see what I was going to be working on. Her interest was followed by an immediate “Can I help, Mommy?” with the saddest big brown eyes that have ever been turned on a Mom. Of course you can. Here’s some shots of her in action...

I didn't blur this picture, she wouldn't stay still once she figured out that I was taking pictures of her! And PLEASE ignore the mess in the background...wedding central!

She really, really, really wanted to be the one pouring the powder onto the stamped image but she settled for inking the stamp and lining up the powdered envelopes in a row on the floor while they awaited our heat gun. She tried to convince me more than once that she COULD do it...but I’m a meanie and I held firm.

Once all the envelopes were stamped and powdered, I used the heat gun all at one time. It just seemed easier that way to me, to do them in assembly line fashion. Plus, by this time in the evening it was bathtime for J and she didn’t bug me about using the heat gun, which DOES get a little warm.

Laid out overnight to set and dry (even though it’s probably not necessary) and this is what I had the next morning...Aren’t they beautiful? *sigh*

Now it was just a waiting game on the post office to get me those stamps...because you HAVE to admit...the stamp just MAKES it!

Was it worth the evening that I spent doing this? I think so. What do you think? Did you "dress up" your outer envelopes too?