Hello, there! I wanted to show you one last detail of Julie's wedding invitations that we are quite proud of and then I promise to move on. This was definitely a product of a brainstorming session between Julie and I. The problem? How to include the hotel information with the invitations without it looking ugly/ghetto/cheap. The solution? Make something awesome. What else did you expect??
Julie's mind is a spreadsheet. That's how she thinks. That is how she works. That is how she stays organized. She asked me if including a spreadsheet of all the hotel info would look ugly. I bluntly told her yes. So she challenged me to come up with a better way to present the information. I accepted the challenge. Only, when I saw the information, the best way to present it was with a spreadsheet. Boo for it having to be functional. So, I kept thinking about it and then came up with this idea. Kelly and I did something similar for her wedding programs, so I just adapted it to Julie's spreadsheet and voila! Pure genius. OK, maybe I'm going overboard with the genius stuff, but I think it is pretty clever. Yay for it being able to be functional and pretty!
We entered the spreadsheet onto an 8 1/2 x 11 paper so we'd get two to a page.
We then used a score board and scored the paper.
Cut it in half and patted ourselves on the back that it actually worked. I was pretty particular that all the folds coincided with the beginning of a column so there was no folds over text. Functional? Check.
Then it came down to the making it pretty part. I bought cardstock that matched the outer and inner envelopes.
I then used my Silhouette to write "Hotel Information"on them in the same font we used on the invites.
Now, I realize the Silhouette has it's own sketch pens. And now they have come out with metallic sketch pens, but I didn't want to pay the price of those sketch pens and to have to wait for them to be shipped to me. Especially because I didn't know how far the ink on one sketch pen will go, so I didn't want to get into the guessing game of how many sketch pens I needed. I am also OCD and didn't know if the gold sketch pen would match the gold in the invitations, so I bought gold pens that best matched the invites, and used my own pens.
I also realize that the Silhouette has a pen holder. But, for the price, again, I didn't want to have to pay for it and then have to wait for it to be shipped to me. So. This is what I did...
If you see a sketch pen, it looks like a short, fat pen. That is because the carrier that holds it only holds things that are about 1/2" wide. So, I basically took some thick cardstock and rolled it around my pen until it fit the carrier snugly. Then I taped it pretty well together.
When I put it inside the carrier, I taped it to the carrier as well. I've used a sketch pen before, and the cap of the pen always pops off or loosens a bit as the Silhouette is working, which makes Pintobean very angry. So I've become accustomed to taping pens to the carrier just to prevent it from messing up whatever it is I am working on.
The only trick is to get the pressure of the pen right since you are not using a pen holder. This is probably where it is smart to have the pen holder, but I'm not really known for taking short cuts. Yes, I can admit that, Anita. ;) However, the pen pressure isn't an issue unless you find that the pen is not actually touching the page -- in that case just tap the pen down before you tape it to the carrier -- or unless you are working with really thick cardstock because it has some give to it when the pen hits the paper -- you will know you have it too low when you see the ink blotching.
The time sucking aspect of this is....the Silhouette is not designed to "print" fonts. It "outlines". Meaning, it simply just traces the outline of the letters you are working on. So, basically when you are using the Silhouette to write or "sketch" words/letters, it traces the outline of the font. Translation: You get empty gaps between the lines that you will need to fill in - unless you like that look.
I enlarged the lettering on the previous pic so you could see what I am talking about.
So, once they were all printed, I cut them down and used the same gold pen to fill in the gaps. Then let them sit overnight to dry.
Then I cut just solid cardstock the same size. So, essentially I had the front and back of what would be little hotel info booklets. I then pasted the cards to the spreadsheets.
For some added cuteness, Julie was trying to figure out where we could use these paper clips she found.
I made sure we found a place to use them.
And that, my friends, is the story of how the cutest hotel info booklets ever were made. Oh, and do I need to mention that I rounded all the corners? Because that's kind of my thing. Rounded corners.
Are you not entertained?!? That quote is a family fave. Had to use it.
I have another really fun post in the making. Just be patient with me. I'm going to really lay this one on thick...
Julie's mind is a spreadsheet. That's how she thinks. That is how she works. That is how she stays organized. She asked me if including a spreadsheet of all the hotel info would look ugly. I bluntly told her yes. So she challenged me to come up with a better way to present the information. I accepted the challenge. Only, when I saw the information, the best way to present it was with a spreadsheet. Boo for it having to be functional. So, I kept thinking about it and then came up with this idea. Kelly and I did something similar for her wedding programs, so I just adapted it to Julie's spreadsheet and voila! Pure genius. OK, maybe I'm going overboard with the genius stuff, but I think it is pretty clever. Yay for it being able to be functional and pretty!
We entered the spreadsheet onto an 8 1/2 x 11 paper so we'd get two to a page.
We then used a score board and scored the paper.
Cut it in half and patted ourselves on the back that it actually worked. I was pretty particular that all the folds coincided with the beginning of a column so there was no folds over text. Functional? Check.
Then it came down to the making it pretty part. I bought cardstock that matched the outer and inner envelopes.
I then used my Silhouette to write "Hotel Information"on them in the same font we used on the invites.
Now, I realize the Silhouette has it's own sketch pens. And now they have come out with metallic sketch pens, but I didn't want to pay the price of those sketch pens and to have to wait for them to be shipped to me. Especially because I didn't know how far the ink on one sketch pen will go, so I didn't want to get into the guessing game of how many sketch pens I needed. I am also OCD and didn't know if the gold sketch pen would match the gold in the invitations, so I bought gold pens that best matched the invites, and used my own pens.
I also realize that the Silhouette has a pen holder. But, for the price, again, I didn't want to have to pay for it and then have to wait for it to be shipped to me. So. This is what I did...
If you see a sketch pen, it looks like a short, fat pen. That is because the carrier that holds it only holds things that are about 1/2" wide. So, I basically took some thick cardstock and rolled it around my pen until it fit the carrier snugly. Then I taped it pretty well together.
When I put it inside the carrier, I taped it to the carrier as well. I've used a sketch pen before, and the cap of the pen always pops off or loosens a bit as the Silhouette is working, which makes Pintobean very angry. So I've become accustomed to taping pens to the carrier just to prevent it from messing up whatever it is I am working on.
The only trick is to get the pressure of the pen right since you are not using a pen holder. This is probably where it is smart to have the pen holder, but I'm not really known for taking short cuts. Yes, I can admit that, Anita. ;) However, the pen pressure isn't an issue unless you find that the pen is not actually touching the page -- in that case just tap the pen down before you tape it to the carrier -- or unless you are working with really thick cardstock because it has some give to it when the pen hits the paper -- you will know you have it too low when you see the ink blotching.
The time sucking aspect of this is....the Silhouette is not designed to "print" fonts. It "outlines". Meaning, it simply just traces the outline of the letters you are working on. So, basically when you are using the Silhouette to write or "sketch" words/letters, it traces the outline of the font. Translation: You get empty gaps between the lines that you will need to fill in - unless you like that look.
I enlarged the lettering on the previous pic so you could see what I am talking about.
So, once they were all printed, I cut them down and used the same gold pen to fill in the gaps. Then let them sit overnight to dry.
Then I cut just solid cardstock the same size. So, essentially I had the front and back of what would be little hotel info booklets. I then pasted the cards to the spreadsheets.
For some added cuteness, Julie was trying to figure out where we could use these paper clips she found.
I made sure we found a place to use them.
And that, my friends, is the story of how the cutest hotel info booklets ever were made. Oh, and do I need to mention that I rounded all the corners? Because that's kind of my thing. Rounded corners.
Are you not entertained?!? That quote is a family fave. Had to use it.
I have another really fun post in the making. Just be patient with me. I'm going to really lay this one on thick...
2 comments:
Very impressive!! I didn't really put it together that you might have done that in-house since it looked so professionally done. Even as I opened my personalized envelope in the mail, it didn't quite click for me.
Then, when I was home, my sister mentioned you rigging up the pen to the Silhouette, and my mind was blown. You KILLED it. I was highly entertained.
Entertained indeed.
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