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After searching and searching for cute lavender and chocolate invitations, I was unimpressed. I liked having information organized on different cards, so naturally, pocketfold enclosures stood out to me. We decided we’d have these as invitations almost as soon as we were engaged. However, still unimpressed by the designs and colors, I decided it would be more cost-effective and original to design and make them myself.

Tools:

• Paint Shop Pro or Adobe Photoshop
• Microsoft Word
• Metallic lavender paper from paperandmore.com
• Top-loading printer (Epson is AWESOME)
• Paper cutter (I used a Fiskers large paper cutter with rotary blades)
• Straight rotary blade
• Perforation rotary blade
• Corner punch
• Spray fixative or cheap hairspray

The graphics we chose to sew through the ceremonies and reception were the traditional symbols of the dragon and phoenix. I designed a modern vector motif of their tails on Paint Shop Pro (seen at the top of this website) and chose to have it running up the side of the enclosure cards without break, meaning, the same image would flow throughout the cards. We also had two different versions of invitations to send out: reception only and ceremony+reception so I had to be careful coordinating. It took patience to paste and align the graphic such that it "flowed" to the next card, but when it FINALLY worked, it looked awesome… at least to us.

Here is the plan in Word. I created a table template to the size of each card and aligned the graphics.

I printed EVERYTHING on a top loading Epson printer. The printer was GREAT with cardstock. DO NOT use a bottom feed printer – they tend to jam, ultimately leading to profanity and a stiff drink. I tested on simple white paper first. The graphic lined up perfectly!!! After each page is printed, I recommend spray a fixative that you can purchase at a craft store or cheap hairspray on any inkjet printed items, otherwise the ink will bleed if it gets wet post-printing. I used to spray hairspray on all of my charcoal artwork to prevent smearing or smudging.

I ordered extra cardstock (which was a fantastic idea since I started running out of ink or some would come out smudgey) and tested printing. Then, off we go!

After printing all of the enclosures, I used the Fiskars rotary cutter and did more work. After cutting all of them, I had to punch out all of the corners. It was tiresome. Cardstock is very difficult to punch so I placed a cutting board on the floor with a dampening magazine, a coaster, and used my entire body weight for each corner. I definitely had to make up reasons for breaks. This was my messy work area:

Here are each of the cards I made:

RSVP Card

Reception Card

Accommodations Card w/ VIP Parking Pass

Directions Card

Back of Directions Card

FINALLY! It took a couple weeks on and off to finish these. The most time consuming part was waiting for the ink to dry properly. The painful part was corner-punching.

This is how it looks inside the pocketfold.

Tips

Now that I’ve printed way too many enclosures to count, I do have some tips.

• Do: Order extra materials. You never know when you add more guests or mess up so the best thing I did for myself was order extra. I added 10% additional materials to any order I made.
• Do: Make several mock-ups of your enclosure design to ensure they fit in the envelope or pocket fold.
• Do: Understand that it is very time consuming before you jump into this. You WILL become sick of doing the same task over and over again.
• Do: Take breaks!
• Do: Use a top loading printer. Anything that bends or wraps your paper will be a pain.
• Do: Use a spray fixative or hair spray on th paper after printing, if you’re printing with an ink jet. The ink will run if it comes in contact with water.
• Don’t: Hasten the process. You’ll get sloppy. Allow time for the things to dry, etc.
• Don’t: Think that this can be done in a day.

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Filed under: Paper Stuff.

Tags: enclosure, invitations