Wedding Inspired Wednesday {No 12}: Creating Pocket Invites

         We recently began the DIY project of creating all the wedding stationary. First on the agenda, wedding invitations! A few family members and I all got together at a local place here in Fort Worth called, Paper Planet to start assembling. We thought 2 hours would be plenty of time, buuuut we were wrong.

  First, there was some analyzing of our template invite.

         Then, we began the cutting.

         Next, we did some boning. haha Joke of the day.

         Then, there was some more cutting.

         After, there was some hot-gluing.

         Finally, there was inspecting of the double pocket invite, and cutting off excess hot-glue.

        The Template:
        Our invite was a 5x7, double-pocket invitation. Invitation goes in the middle, pockets on either side for inserts. Since we used custom made paper, measurements were a little hard at first, but eventually mastered! Each invite = 19 inches long x 7.5 inches tall. [From top left, to bottom right] I first made tick marks every 7.5 inches, down the length of the paper. We were able to get 5 invitations per sheet of custom made paper. I then made two straight edges at a 90 degree angle to ensure more consistent invites. 
          I cut every 7.5 inches where I had marked the paper, creating the 5 individual invite outlines. I then measured the length of the paper, making a tick mark at 19 inches, then cutting. *Some invites were 21 inches long, some 20 inches, some perfect - each one was checked to create a more consistent invite outline for the boning process.

         Boning:
         The correct thing to say is "Bone Folder". The bone folding, or boning, was done by my future-mother-in-law, Blondie, and my future-cousin-in-law, Megan. Shown in the top two photos, they started down the length of the paper, they measured 2 inches from the bottom and created the first boning crease - this created the pockets. Then they measured 6.5 inches from one end of the invitation to create the first side pocket. Shown bottom left. From that boning crease they measured 7 inches (for the 5x7 invite) and made a bone crease. Now you can fold!

         Cutting 1:
         Since we are making double-pockets you have to make sure when you fold the invitation, it isn't too bulky. How do you prevent this? You cut an upside down trapezoid out of the middle, where you will be hot-gluing on top of anyway, so no one needs to see. :-)

        Hot-Gluing:
        You will be hot-gluing four edges total. Begin hot-gluing the edges closest to the 7 inch middle. You will actually glue on the 7 inch part since it will be covered. Then, you want to glue the outer edge of each pocket. Create the smallest line of glue possible, as close to the edge as possible. Then, using a ruler or a straight edge, press the glue down outward, away from the center of the invitation. This is to ensure you don't seal your pockets, which would make adding your inserts rather difficult.

        Cutting 2:
        All that hot-glue you pushed out through the edge to prevent sealing your pockets? Just cut it off! :-]

          This is the sample invite we made! It gives a basic idea of how the finished project will look. You can check out the blog post with details on how we made this, and other invitations HERE

        We hope to all get together soon so we can finish adding all the final pieces. I will be sure to blog the final product once finished!