our new & improved calligraphy business!

favorite blogs

11.06.2008

We've Got STDs!!!

.....and of course by STDs I mean Save The Dates. Did you think I meant the other kind of STDs? Come on....get your mind out of the gutter! Anyway, I can finally post about our Save The Dates because they went out in the mail earlier this week and I am getting reports that most of them have been delivered! I got the basic idea for our STDs (sorry, I really can't write out the whole thing every time!) from some Knottie bio that I looked at months ago, but I really don't remember the specific Knottie's name. She had written a little mini bio of her relationship and I loved the personalization aspect. I wanted to do something similar, so without further ado, here is what I came up with:


You should be able to click on the picture to make it bigger and read the paragraph if you want to. And please don't hold the "he votes left" part against me. I swear I would have never "said yes" had I known that part beforehand. haha :)

I made the whole design in Microsoft Publisher and it only took about 20 minutes to do, once I knew what I wanted to write. Then I took the design to Kinko's and had them all printed and cut on some heavyweight cardstock. I also bought the envelopes that matched the cardstock. For the outside, I embossed "Save the Date" in the upper left-hand corner with my latest obsession, my heat gun. I also made a quick envelope seal program in Publisher, and printed them out on colorful cardstock, because I was too excited to send them out to wait on an order of labels to arrive! I ran them through my Xyron 510 machine to make them into stickers, and convinced Ryan to help me put them on. Here he is in action, along with a picture of the finished labels (minus my address... in case any serial killers are reading):




Naturally, I had to DIY my STDs because I am so weird about having the same stuff as other people. And honestly, I couldn't really find any pre-made ones out there that I was really in love with. I think I made a good decision because this was a really inexpensive and fairly painless task, minus the envelope licking that Ryan is still complaining about to this day. Here is the cost breakdown:

Kinko's: $71 for the cardstock, printing & cutting for 140 cards as well as 140 envelopes
Michael's: $13.00 for cardstock for labels and new Xyron cartridge
USPS: $50.40 for 120 stamps (we made extra cards)
Grand Total: $134.40!!

I think $134 for the whole project, including shipping, is pretty good! I am really, really happy about how they turned out. What do you think??

15 comments:

Pam said...

Love, Love, Love it! Esp the paragraph. Totally personal. Yea you!

KLC said...

OMG THOSE ARE SOOO CUTE!!! Best save the dates I've seen by far. I love what you wrote. If you STD's are this cute I can't wait to see what you pick out for your actual invitations!

Anonymous said...

love the personal aspect! very cute!! great job!

Lauren @ Adventures of a Southern Newlywed said...

These are adorable! You did such a great job!

Always Organizing said...

I think they are terrific. The note you wrote on them is so sweet and special. Great work!

ps. I think I need a Xyron!!!

Melanie said...

These are awesome! I've always thought when my day comes I'll go the DIY route on stuff like this. It seems so easy and turns out so well!

Legal Preppy said...

awww! those are adorable!

JennyLee said...

These are fantastic! You all did a great job!

Mackensie said...

Those are great!

Kate said...

The little "blub" is so sweet and they look great!

Dana said...

Those are cute. I can not wait to post about ours. I just order ours from Vistaprint.com.

starfish said...

Great idea, I am in lvoe with details and personalization, such a cute idea to include your story!

said...

Like you, I loved that STD too {!} the first time I saw it. I even blogged about it:

http://jessicaralph.blogspot.com/2008/09/just-too-cute.html

Jessie@FitnessFamilyAndMore said...

They are great! I like them with the personal paragraph.

formerly known as the Queen.. now I'm the Empress said...

I love love you STD's! What font did you as I wanst something similar

V