Nautical Thermography Invitation Suite

I have been very busy lately putting the finishing touches on invitation suites — which I love! It’s a great feeling to assemble a suite, tuck it safely in its beautifully calligraphed envelope, and know that someone is going to be pleasantly surprised to receive it.

I recently finished creating this fantastic thermography invitation suite. I am so pleased with the way it turned out and, more importantly, so is my client!

{The personal information in this photo has been modified for web publication.}

In today’s blog post, I want to describe the process we went through to make these invitations. The time and care it takes will make you look at custom invitations in a whole new way!

This particular client was “on the ball” with her event, so back in November, she talked to her event planner {Melanie Hobert of Sweet Meadow Farms}, who referred her to me. What the client wanted was simple: a logo of the family boat to include on all the reception materials.

I got started by creating a pencil sketch. This was what the first one looked like:

… and with feedback, this is what the last incarnation of the sketch looked like:

Once the pencil sketch was correct, I went over it with ink, then I used Illustrator to make it into a vector logo. Logos should always be vector so they are crisp, clear, and can be re-sized.

Now the boat was ready to be used on the materials! Once the client knew her event details, I created a few invitation samples and sent them to her. I started off by printing digitally; just a simple sample created at Fed-Ex Office.

{Notice the blue is much brighter in these samples; we ended up going with a more muted shade.}

When I sent the samples, the client loved them — but she really liked the idea of having thermography invitations. Thermography is a raised printing technique; the process is very similar to heat embossing {like what you do at home with a stamp and embossing powder}, but it’s more streamlined. Words/graphics are printed in a slow-drying ink which is then coated with thermographic powder and heated. This results in a raised surface that’s fun to run your fingers over! Luckily, I was able to find a local thermographer, and I had the invitations printed here in Boulder.

All invitations were printed at a little less than their intended dimensions because I intended to use card stock as a backer. I love the subtle shine of Bazzill Basics card stock, so I ordered card stock in Tootsie for the backing; and Typhoon for the sash. Then, I spent many hours cutting the card stock to size! 5″x7″ for the invitation, 3.5″x5″ for the info card, and 1.25″x1.25″ for the tag. When I received the materials from the thermographer, they were cut about a quarter of an inch smaller than my card stock, as instructed.

The next week was spent gluing invitations to card stock, which took longer than I thought {as do most things I do!} — but everything turned out looking great! I used Elmer’s Craft Bond rubber cement in order to avoid the paper bubbling or drying with inconsistencies, as it tends to do with regular glue.

Next, I created the envelopes, which were sumptuously thick 80 lb. envelopes by Royal Sundance.

Normally, my styles are probably a little more feminine, but the client wanted a style that truly fit the suite. So, we worked together to develop this style. The script corresponds with the script on the invitation; and the print echoes the invitation’s mix of script and text. It ended up being a visually stimulating no-nonsense style; and we enhanced the look with a custom stamp from Zazzle.

Once all the envelopes were created, I embossed the return address on using a hand-held paper embosser. From start to finish, the invitations took about three months to design — but all that time was worth it! Everything turned out lovely and I’m so excited to hear what the invitees have to say about the invitations. You can see more photos of the suite in my portfolio.

Next up: a stunning foil-stamped suite for an Atlanta couple. I’m so excited to share it with you once everything is assembled and ready to go!

Thanks for reading! I hope that you are inspired by this post — perhaps to make your own thermography invitations! If you have any questions, of course don’t hesitate to comment or email me.

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