{DIY} Calligraphy

calligraphy is a beautiful skill that I should try to acquire. however, i'm sure my perfectionism would cause me great heartache when I saw my finished product. as promised, I have a very nice, elegant solution to using a calligraphy and creating the looks below for your wedding invitations or your next event.

not only do I have one, but THREE solutions for you! any of these could be accomplished my anyone.

1. Fake Calligraphy


this fantastic step by step tutorial shows you how to do calligraphy the old fashioned way. it seems so easy, and at first I didn't believe it could be that easy. I grabbed a gel pen and gave it a go, and wouldn't you know, I had a decent looking product!

 2. Trace your heart out!


if only I had an old Lite-Brite, I could just start zipping through these envelopes. this great tutorial shows your how to use a trace table, and a computer print out to create your look. this project lends itself to using so many different fonts, and definitely offers consistency of the lettering and sizing that may not be accomplished with free-hand calligraphy.


3. Print & Trace


hopefully your screen can allow you to see the clever way to achieve that calligraphy look, without needing the tracing table. by printing onto the envelope, or other paper, in a color just slightly lighter, you can see the font, and trace. this even works on white/ivory paper. choose a really light version of the ink color that you are going to use. since this requires you to use a printer, it is very similar to the option above, but cuts out a step.



-OR-
if your are still feeling like calligraphy is more than  you can tackle

as I mentioned in my last blog post, I had dreamed of having a wrap around address label for my wedding invitations. there were so many beautiful examples that I had seen, and I was really hoping to pull this off for my own invitations. this solution is a great way to step away from the look of a simple Avery address label, and into a more classy way of easily address so many envelopes. of course Martha has a great tutorial on how to accomplish this on your own! even as I write this blog, i'm drawn back into the loveliness of these designs.


photo courtesy of Etsy Shop: DigitalBunnyDesigns



Belletristics



photo: Seeing Designs  from  Blush Printables





signed, sealed, delivered

wow, have I been a slacker! I haven't posted since last Thursday! I have been in full force gathering all my supplies for all the wedding crafts I have signed myself up for! as the summer winds down, I realize that there are only a few months before the holidays when the real wedding coordination will take place. so I've decided to bite the bullet and start hoarding these projects. more blog posts will come with some of the final products! I can't wait to share, hopefully they turn out great.

over the weekend, I had a chance to catch up with a friend of mine who is getting married too. as we ran through the lists of things we need to accomplish, compared notes, and organized our thoughts, we started talking stationary. stationary has been on my mind since I got engaged. of course there are the invitations, but there is always so much more to think about: save-the-dates, thank yous, rehearsal invites, shower invites, monograms & such to tie it all together.

I've purchased all of my thank-yous already, and used Vistaprint. I had a Groupon to use with them, and I had never used them before. Considering the amount of products they offer, I was a little skeptical of how the cards would turn out, but they looked great! The great thing about Vistaprint is that they are fast, and very affordable, and we know I'm always looking for a deal! Below are a few cute cards I like, but didn't use myself.

among some of my other purchases, I also managed to an adorable self-inking stamp from Wedding Paper Divas. I had dreamed of doing a wrap around label on the wedding invitations, but decided that is may not be practical for me. I still wanted something personal, and have been looking at monogrammed/custom stamps for quite some time. luckily WPD had a sale, and I snagged this beauty below. I will use this on my outer and inner envelopes for the invitations. best part is that I decided to not put our last name so that we can use this before and after the wedding!

 

  even if you aren't getting married, there are many adorable return address stamps that you can snatch up for a little added flavor to that birthday card, or mortgage payment envelope:

there will definitely be more to come involving this topic. stay tuned for a DIY solution to addressing all those envelopes!