Save the Dates...A Little Late!

Haha. The joke’s on me!

When I sat down and started working on the posts for my lovely invitations, I realized that I never revealed my Save the Dates! Yes, I showed you the magnets that I made and even provided some instructions for making them...and I even went so far as to show you a mistake that I made on one of the envelopes...but I never showed you the actual Save the Date! The shame...and horror...so, better late than never right? Hope so!

Without further ado, here is our Save the Date:

Outer envelope
Postcard – front Postcard – back That’s it. Easy, simple and to the point.

I designed the postcard using Adobe Photoshop, but looking back at it now, I can see that it was obvious that I was just learning what Photoshop was all about...it was a very simple design. Nothing too complicated. I know how to do soooo much more now, six months later. Oh well.

Let’s see. I used the pictures that B had used during his proposal to me (missed out on that? here you go!) so that all of our friends and family could re-experience a little of his thoughtfulness. And really, who doesn’t want to show off their cute kids? We do!

I also included a picture of the two of us on the front with the date and a little cutesy saying that he and I came up with and agreed on, that continued onto the back design. The back was left clean and simple so that it emphasized the magnet. I was in LOVE with the magnets, and didn’t want anything to detract from them!

I used a coupon that I found online and ordered the postcards from overnightprints.com for a steal. I’ve still got half a box of postcards that I don’t know what I’ll ever use them for...but the price was right, who was I to complain? I simply attached the magnet to the backside of the postcard in the ample space that I left open and viola! They were done.

I went the practical route and bought cheap envelopes from Office Depot. I knew that they would just end up in the trash, so I couldn’t justify spending too much on them. In hindsight, I wish they had been just a little bit better quality, with a little more thickness to them. But oh well, they went in the trash, right? Right.

I found a font that I liked here, joehand2 and used it to create a mail merge from my Excel address spreadsheet. Ironically, many people who know my handwriting thought that I actually addressed the envelopes, as the font was similar to my own writing. Bonus points for me!

Then I decided to practice with my new embossing tools and stamp set that I had bought specifically for the invitations. Yes, I know that these were just the Save the Dates, but I thought that it would be a nice tie in to the rest of the paper products, while also allowing me a practice run to see if I really wanted to tackle DIY-ing my own wedding invitations.

After a few small hiccups at first, I got the hang of embossing quickly. There’s not much to it...but a word of warning: you have to use EMBOSSING ink...archiving ink will NOT work. Just in case you’re like me and go the cheap route the first time around. You’re just creating more work for yourself, trust me!

All in all, I was VERY pleased with our Save the Dates, and received many, many compliments on them. I was proud to say that I made them, and they left me looking forward to working on my wedding invitation suite.

Here’s a cost breakdown:
Postcards from overnightprints.com – $30.94
Magnets – $20.95
Paper – $22.51
Adhesive – $5.40
Envelopes - $8.65
Postage - $34.60

Grand total: $123.05
Cost per STD: $1.23

I mailed our Save the Dates out somewhere around the six month mark. We were not getting married on a holiday weekend, and there were just a handful of out-of-state guests, but a lot of guests that would be driving in for the event. I know that it wasn’t really necessary to do them, but I really wanted to. There were just so many cute ones out there to follow, and I thought that it would be a good practice run before attempting the actual invites. Doing them stretched the Stationary portion of our overall budget, but I’m happy that I did them and satisfied with the end product!

Did you choose to do Save the Dates, even if you didn’t technically need to do them? Why did you make that choice?

The Word is in...They're a BIG Hit!

I’m SO excited….word is slowly trickling in from various sources that people are receiving their STDs…and they LOVE them!

If you could see me now, you’d see that I am currently doing a happy dance in my cubicle…

I’m thrilled that my hard work and slight obsession with details paid off in such a big way! It’s a big relief when something that you so lovingly create is appreciated so well…just makes all the stress and worry worth it somehow. Since I want to wait another day or so before I post the actual Save the Date images, here’s something to hold you over.

I did a boo boo….

Can anyone spot it?

Did you get it yet?

Here…let me help a little bit…

Yep, ladies and gents, that’s an actual addressed and embossed STD from my pile set out to mail. Am I lucky that I caught this one BEFORE I put the stamp on the envelope and mailed it or what?

How funny might it be to the recipients if I DIDN’T catch it? SHE might get a good laugh…HE might not laugh so much…

I can’t even tell you how this happened or what I was thinking when it happened – it’s just a typo. Yes ma’am, as much as my favorite font from dafont.com LOOKS like handwriting, it’s actually printed through my computer, which means that this was a typo on my Excel spreadsheet, which transferred to the mail merge and onto my envelope.

The really sad thing might be that I didn’t even catch this when I was doing the stamping and embossing…and I REALLY thought that I had stared at each of the envelopes pretty hard while doing that whole process! Just goes to show how much TV you can really watch while doing wedding DIY projects!

So, even though I think that this would be hilarious to send out, for the sake of Mr. CC I’m going to correct my mistake and redo this particular envelope. But maybe I should go over that Excel file ONE MORE TIME before I close the door on STDs…

It might be worth the extra 5 minutes it would take me.

Please tell me that I’m not the only person to do this when addressing formal invitations? Surely this happens to other brides/organizers…

Was it as simple as mine to correct or did you happen to send it out and the recipient corrected you? Now THAT would be funny!

The Check's in the Mail...

Or the Save the Date to be more exact!

YEAH!!

They all went in the mail this morning, and I couldn't be happier that they are mailed. I took a picture of them sitting in my car waiting to go to the Post office...

A lot of work, worry and stress (mostly my own making) went into these babies, and I couldn't be prouder. I'm like a mom sending off her 5 year-old to the first day of kindergarten...

I've already given you a sneak peek of them here, but you'll have to wait to see what I attached those magnets too. For some reason, I want to know that some of the recipients have a chance to see them in person before showing them off on line. So, SOON, I promise!

I just feel so much better having dropped them in the mail - like a huge weight is off of my shoulders. At the same time, it's one step closer to having all of this be REAL...which is cool too.

We had a GREAT Easter weekend camping out with the kiddos, so I'll have more to write about those things another day this week, and I'll be sure to include some pictures. I hope that everyone had a great holiday, and I'll talk to you soon!

Something You MIGHT Not Think About...

All right. I’ve never tried to deny that I might be just a LITTLE bit, just the teeny-weeny-est little bit, obsessive. Or Type A personality – whatever you want to call it. I don’t deny it, instead I wear it proudly like a badge of honor. Yes, I’m obsessive over the tiniest of details that most people will NEVER even notice…but it makes ME feel better. And let’s be honest…isn’t it all about me? It’s my big day after all…if it makes me feel better to do things a certain way, even though it’s more difficult to do them that way, isn’t it ok?

Well, keeping in mind that it’s ALSO Mr. CC’s big day too…he plays a major role as well. (slap my hand for going off and forgetting that there are TWO people getting married in October…)

Anyway, back to my obsessive tendencies. I think that I threw Mr. CC for a loop the other day when I casually happened to mention that I had found some really cool stamp options for us to use on our STDs and wedding invitations. I didn’t really expect that he would comment, but as always, he keeps me on my toes, and caught my brief mention of stamp options and drug me back to that comment. I was already on to the next thing that happened in my day…The conversation went something like this:

“What do you mean stamps?”

“You know, stamps. For the Save the Dates. There were some really cool ones that I’m thinking about using – if I can find them. If not, I can always order them online.”

“Wait, wait, wait. You mean that we have to have special STAMPS?”

I have to be honest here and admit that I really didn’t get why this was a shock to him. OF COURSE there are special stamps! You don’t just want to use regular-jane-doe-everyday-use stamps for your wedding stationary! Oh, the horrors!

After he finished laughing at me with me, he quickly got on the special stamp train, especially since there’s no outrageous extra cost to getting these stamps. Other than a little frustration to finding them at your local postal store. Check out the options that I found. Aren’t they cool?

So cute for weddings...

For the Walt Disney lover inside us all...

Woudln't these be perfect for a destination wedding somewhere tropical?

My sentiments exactly...CELEBRATE!

Very pretty.

What wedding invitation wouldn’t be “dressed up” a little bit with these?
Now, I’ll admit to having a few scruples in this Cotton Candy head of mine. I saved the best for last. I had already seen these stamps when Mr. CC mentioned them, and I sort of figured that these would be a shoe in choice for him. What are they you ask?
I’ll show you…
Yep, Purple Heart stamps. These were PERFECT for our Save the Dates. As soon as I saw them, I thought about how neat it would be to use them. You see, Mr. CCC is a Marine, and he actually was awarded a Purple Heart for his service/sacrifice for our great country. He will tell you that it was no big deal, that he was just doing “his job,” but to me, a Purple Heart is a really big deal. He has it on our desk shelf, along with other pictures from his service that he’s proud to show off, and he also carried Purple Heart plates on his truck. So what better way to “dress” our STDs than with something that honors the veterans that we know and love? There’s nothing more perfect in my mind.

Then came the problem of finding them. I guess that I was mistaken in thinking that purchasing these stamps would be a simple matter of stopping at my local USPS office to pick them up. Mr. CC asked that I get a few extra for him to keep, so I was looking to buy 4 sheets of stamps from the post office. Unfortunately, after standing in line for well over 20 minutes, I got up the counter to discover that they were all out of the Purple Heart stamps at that particular location.

Yep, 20 minutes…

So I was a little smarter than the USPS…I went home and got online to their store, which can be found here and bought the stamps online. It seems a little odd to do things that way, but I got the exact ones that I wanted to get, I didn’t have to wait in any other lines just to find out that they didn’t have them, and I only had to pay $1 for the processing/shipping. Easy, breezy. That’s Miss CC’s style!

So there you have it. We picked out our stamps for our STDs that mean something to us personally, and I feel (obsess much, I know) that they dress up the envelope a bit and make it more special. As soon as the stamps come in and the STDs go out in the mail, I promise that I’ll show off my finished STDs….obsessive me just wants to wait until they’re actually in the mail before showing them off on my blog!

Did you choose special stamps for your STDs/invitations too? Did you have to jump through hoops to find them, or was it relatively easy?

Oops! Did I Do That?!?!?

Sorry, ladies, but I couldn’t resist that title when I thought about writing this post…images of Steve Erkel just came running to the forefront of my mind…

You see, I ALMOST made a mistake with my STD envelopes. Well, in actuality, I DID make a mistake, but since it’s correctable, it turns into an almost mistake…you like the way that my mind works? I thought it worked out nicely for me! Anyway, back to what I did. Or didn’t do.

When I first started thinking about what I wanted for our Save the Dates, I fell in LOVE with embossing. Being a scrapper (like I’ve mentioned previously) you would think that this is something that I would be familiar with. Turns out, I’ve never even thought about it before. But I love the finish that it can give to your paper goods. Love…love…love the wedding invitations and STD stationary that I’ve seen where brides have added a touch of embossing to their project and saw what a change that little step can make. I knew immediately that our wedding stationary would be embossed in some way.

I’ve also been very good at reading what they did right and wrong and trying to learn from their mistakes. So in that frame of mind, let me share with you what I think that I did WRONG…and how I found that I could correct it!

I wanted something embossed on my STD, but with the postcard ordered and the magnet small enough that my stamp of choice for our stationary set was too large to use, I was bummed thinking that I would not be embossing anything on our STDs. Then I came up with the idea to emboss the envelopes with the scroll that I wanted to use. Cool! Back in business.

I read all that I could, and bought my supplies. I already had some stamping stuff, for my scrapbooking, but not an embossing gun or any powders. I followed the advice of other bloggers and went with colored ink and clear embossing powder, and picked up the gun at Hobby Lobby for a cool $20.

I thought that a “test drive” was in order for my new toy, and proceeded to stamp some scrolls and stuff on some test paper…dumped the powder on…shook off the excess…turned on the gun. Low and behold, that stuff works! And it’s easy! Cool. Miss CC is ready to do some embossing.

But I also noticed that my stamp was bigger than my ink pad. Hmmm…when I bought the embossing tools, I seem to remember a large black ink pad…maybe I could get a new one of those…since my black ink pad is old…kind of drying out…yeah, I can talk myself into anything! Off to Hobby Lobby for the BIG ink pad and back home again.

I worry about running the envelopes through my printer after the embossing process, so I proceed to print out the return address and all mailing addresses onto the envelopes first. The envelopes were just cheap cream envelopes that I picked up at Office Depot for about $8, so they ran through my printer like a charm, and I loved the font that I chose to do all of the addresses in.

I take out my new toys again and get to stamping and layering on that embossing powder. But to my surprise when I shake off the excess, almost no powder stays on the envelope…hmmm…scratch my head. Chalk it up to me not being fast enough. Try another two or three envelopes…same result.

The first thing that I decide was that the envelopes were such a cheap quality that the ink was just drying too fast. They were thin, after all. And they weren’t specifically an invitation weight paper or anything. Could be….but since it worked on regular computer paper, I think not.

I decided to live with it. The envelopes looked fine as they were.

But then, the other day while “killing time” at Hobby Lobby, I notice my big mistake. Embossing apparently requires embossing ink. Guess what I bought? Archiving ink. Yep, that’s right. My big black SUPER stamp pad was the wrong. kind. of. ink.

Boy do I feel dumb…

Luckily for me, I remember from my previous research that another way to do embossing is to use clear embossing ink and colored powder. Hmmm…since I’ve already stamped the scrolls in black, I wonder if I can stamp over it in clear embossing ink and cover with clear powder and get close enough that you won’t be able to tell the difference. Since all embossing supplies were on sale this week for 50% off at Hobby Lobby, I gave it a whirl.

Did another “test drive” last night with the already stamped envelopes and clear ink and powder…works like a charm. So now I know what I’ll be doing this weekend…fixing the other 70 envelopes…oh well. Live and learn, right? At least it’s fixable.

See? You can't even tell that I did this in two steps...

And don’t get me wrong. There’s not a thing wrong with leaving my envelopes just stamped. They look great. But I think that they look BETTER with the stamp being embossed! Yeah, Type A personality…bridezilla…whatever you want to call it…it’s peeking its head out right about now!

Did anyone else run into a little snag during a DIY project that you were also able to fix? Better yet, did anyone else realize that there were like 5 types of ink on the stamping aisle at your local craft store? And that it mattered which one you used? I didn’t!

Save the Date Magnets...

I gave you the sneak peek at my Save the Date magnets the other day, so I figured that I could share a little DIY Instructions for those that might be interested. These were SUPER easy to make and they turned out REALLY well!

The first thing that I did was come up with the concept. I knew that I wanted to do either a card or postcard and since I was still working that part of the STD up, I moved on to the magnets. I knew that I wanted to incorporate a magnet into the STD somehow, but didn’t want the whole thing to be a magnet. I came up with the idea of just attaching the magent to the STD via glue strips (like the ones that you see gift cards attached to the little envelope with).

So the first thing that I did was the mock design in Photoshop. Since I knew that I didn’t want the whole thing to be a magnet, I set the size for my new file around 2x3 inches (the size of a standard business card). Then I played around with fonts until I came up with the one that I loved:
Ignore the typo on October – I fixed that before the final draft, but can’t find it at the moment…

Once I had that done and was satisfied with it (minus the typo!) I saved it as a pdf file and imported it into Word. From Word, I was able to copy the image onto a standard size of paper 8 times. This was important to me, and I had to play around with the margins a bit to make them all fit, but I wanted to get the most out of the paper that I was purchasing.

Since the design was fairly simplistic on the magnet, I wanted a little punch on the paper! I don’t think that I’m a paper “snob” but I did want to see it in person and touch and feel it before buying it…so I went to my favorite local scrapbooking store, Memory Depot. I had looked online at some paper sources, but really needed to see it…

I found just what I was looking for there. A nice, plain cream paper that was pearlized, so that there was some gleam to it in just the right light. I spoke with the salesperson about printing onto the paper and she said that it shouldn’t be a problem. Just in case, I only bought one sheet as a trial, knowing that if it worked she had plenty more. While there, I also picked up some textured Bazzill black cardstock (my favorite cardstock) to use as a mounting for the design.

I tested my sheet of paper back at home and it printed beautifully. One more trip back to Memory Depot and I had the paper that I needed to complete the project for a mere $13! Score!

I found the magnets that I needed for the project here at a very reasonable price, and they came in the mail within three days. Once I had all of the materials needed, the rest was pretty simple.

I printed out the pages of images on the pearly paper and then used a straight edge blade cutter (I own this one from Creative Memories) to cut the individual images out, and then used my Personal Trimmer (also from Creative Memories) to do the more detailed size cropping on the images. Once I had the first one sized down, the rest were all easy to follow the same final size cuts. After that, I took my large blade cutter again and cut the cardstock into strips the width that I wanted to frame out the STD image in. once again, once I figured out the first one, the rest cut smoothly. From there, I used my PT again to make the smaller cuts and followed the sizing of the first one on that also.

I used Creative Memories double-sided scrapbooking tape to attach the STD image to the cardstock, being sure to put some tape on all four corners. Once I finished those, I was ready to attach the magnets.

I had purchased business card sized magnets that already came with adhesive on one side, to make the whole process smoother. The only surprise that I got was when I went to attach the first magnet and realized that I had never compared the size of the full STD (with the mounting on it) to the size of the magnet. There was a little more magnet than STD, but it was no problem for my personal trimmer (that sounds SO funny to say!) to take a ¼” off of the magnets. I didn’t have to actually take off that much, but I wanted to be sure that the cardstock hung over each side of the magnet. Then it was just a matter of peeling off the paper covering the adhesive and centering the STD on the magnet. Press hard, and viola – you have a magnet STD! Little CC even got in on the action and she became my official paper peeler for the magnets. She went a little faster that I could center and press, but we found a rhythm that worked for us…a nice little mother/daughter project.

Here’s a breakdown:

Paper (from Memory Depot) – $13.29

Magnets (from ) – $20.95

Glue Strips (from Michael’s) - $5.40 (I haven’t used these yet)

Total cost - $39.64 for 80 magnets - they come out to $.495/a piece – a VERY good deal!
The tape and cutters I already owned, so there was no extra expense for me on that one…
A cheap and really cute project! I apologize for the lack of step-by-step pictures, but since it was pretty self-explanatory, I didn’t think to take them. As soon as the STD postcards get here, I’ll show them off and show the final product with the magnets attached!

Did anyone else have a DIY project that ran smooth with no major bumps in the road? This was is hopefully the first of many for me… J