Invitation Creation

Well, another week of wedding planning has passed, and I have worked hard to complete all our homemade invitations, with great help from my mom, sisters, and Mailboxes Etc's awesome card stock paper cutter! Here is a snapshot of the supplies:

• Heavy weight chocolate card stock
• Light weight ivory card stock
• Light weight fall colored card stock
• Leaf hole punch
• Firefly ribbon
• Double-sided tape
• Regular tape
• Scrapbooking adhesive
• Scissors
• Stencil
• Envelopes
• Ruler
• Printable mailing labels
• Exacto knife

Here is a preview of the creation process: 

Taking over the kitchen table

The beginnings

Looks like fall!

Now, I had been warned by many people to avoid making anything ala Martha Stewart when I could buy it for less hassle and stress. I was bound and determined to make my own invites, however. I know that I have scrapbook experience, and I could do it with the help of my family. We succeeded, but not without a few snafus.
              First, the hole puncher seen above in the picture was great, but some of the colored card stock we bought was too thick to punch through easily, so we had to experiment. Amanda would step on the puncher, but often it would then stick in the pressed-in position and the paper and the leaf cutout would get caught.
             After dealing with that issue, we realized that the envelopes were the wrong size. Oops, I ordered the largest size available in the color I had chosen, and it wasn't until we got them in the mail that we realized we had the wrong ones! Apparently, OTHER colors came in the right size, but the color I had chosen maxed out at A7 (2 sizes too small) and I didn't even read the size when ordering. Luckily we could return them and ordered new ones.
             There were a few other minor "oops" moments (breaking off the tip of the Exacto knife...) but we survived, no cuts, no major set backs, and ready to send out invitations as soon as we compile an updated and accurate address list.