What's been keeping me busy...

 ... my first ever wedding invites for my baby sis. Girls, if you haven't done this and are thinking about it BEWARE it is a ton of work!! I worked about 10/12 hrs a day for two weeks on these puppies. You're probably thinking they must be really extravagant, they're not. Pretty, yes(well at least I think so), but it's a very tedious process cutting out all the pieces and taping them and it's vintage themed so they're all distressed and inked...think about the time it takes you to do that to 1 card and mulitply that times 100...now you know what I'm dealing with. Ok, so I'm guessing you wanna see what I'm talking about, so here they are...

This is a tri-fold pocket card with a wrap around band to hold it closed. My sister is having antique keys throughout her wedding so I've placed a key hole on the outside and...

 ...the key on the inside. Please forgive the little hands...this is not the easiest of cards to photograph. 

Here's a closer view of the actual invitation part. My sis sent me the wording she wanted and the little decorative thing and I got the other image from two peas and it's by Rohnna Fahrer...it's acually 12" long, so I just took out he part I liked and made it fit the invite. Sorry, I've whited out their names and wedding info cause I'm not sure she'd want me to broadcast that.

Here's a closer view of the RSVP again designed by myself with a little help from R.F.

Wanted to show you the backside to so I could show off my new personalized stamp from Whimsy. I'm now thinking my web address is a little long, lol, but not much I can do about it now. I didn't think when I began all this that I would actually be selling my stuff...though these were a labour of love...and she better really know I love her now doing all that work for free!!

Lastly, I wanted to mention that as a money saver we purchased paper pads instead of individual sheets of paper and so there are about six different designs to the invitations all using the same basic colors. I think this worked out really well and makes them that much more unique.

Ok, well, sorry for all the pics, but it was kind of necessary. I did want to pass along a few pointers I learned:

1.  Do NOT do all this distressing by hand...purchasing the Zutter distressor was totally worth it!!

2. The distressor can only take so much b4 it gets to hot and shuts itself off...learn your limit and plan accordingly

3. Ink your edges b4 distressing them...maybe you already do this(smart move) I completely destroyed my inkpads.

4. Order a good tape I got Sookwang tape...same people that make the score-pal stuff except you can get it cheaper at 7kids 

5. you will probably need way more tape than you think I went thru six rolls and had to order more!

Oh' and my Whimsey stamp worked way better off the spongey backing stuff...my brain is fried right now and I can't think of what to call it,lol.

Alright, I will leave you with that. I hope you've enjoyed my invites and I'll be back here for sure on Wednesday...I'm alredy working on that and it's looking good. It's my birthday tomorrow so I wouldn't expect to see me, but maybe I'll get a little time to do some extra crafting!

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

xxAutumn