Good evening everyone! Well, today has been a special day here in the UK - we celebrated the royal wedding of HRH Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Whilst I'm not a devoted Royal watcher, I do think the Monarchy has an important role to play and one thing's for sure: I love a wedding, royal or otherwise! I enjoyed watching the wedding from my office as I was crafting this morning and ooh'ed and ahh'ed at the flowers, the dresses and those adorable and so well-behaved bridesmaids and page boys. Such a glorious day for it too and the bride was truly stunning.

Since weddings are the order of the day, I thought it would make a great topic for today's blog post too so I'm sharing with you the invites I designed recently for a bride who was keen to create her own stationery for the big day.

Making your own wedding stationery is a great way to create something individual and personal to you - take a look at the design we agreed upon:

The key things to remember when designing your own wedding stationery are as follows:

Make It Your Own - When you make your own wedding stationery, you are able to create something unique and personal to you in a way that off-the-shelf invitations will never be able to deliver. You can choose colours that co-ordinate with your scheme for the day and flowers or emblems that tie in with your chosen theme. For this wedding, the bride was keen to incorporate pale pink, but otherwise had no fixed views on design. This is one of the things I love about being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator - I love to design cards and projects, so working to a bride-to-be's brief is always an exciting prospect. It's great for the bride too - often they are keen to make their own stationery but have never done this (or sometimes any papercrafting) before, so they are keen to work with someone who can take their ideas and make them into a workable, reproductable, design. 

Keep It Simple - The key to good wedding stationery design is to keep it simple. Sometimes you may only have to make 20 invitations, but sometimes it is 120! For any kind of mass production, it's important to have a design that can be easily reproduced many times, each time as good as the last, so keeping it simple is key. For this invitation, we used the Detailed Floral Thinlits to create a gatefold-style card, with a Powder Pink Fresh Florals Designer Series Paper insert that was adhered on one side. When opened, the invitation wording was then on the inside.

Finishing Touches - Whilst the design is simple and easy to reproduce, the finishing touches are all-important to add that of luxury: the outer gatefold was cut from Shimmery White cardstock, with the addition of Powder Pink Shimmer Ribbon to create the tied closure that co-ordinates with the DSP lining. We also added a small round punched tag, with the words 'Mr & Mrs' from the 'Beautiful Bouquet' set stamped on it in pink, using a length of silver thread.  

These invitations were really not too tricky at all to make, armed with the right tools and a few pairs of hands. The most important thing to consider when making your own wedding stationery is to plan ahead - don't underestimate the time it takes to mass produce invitations and other stationery items and be sure to allow enough time to actually put it all together. This is the perfect activity to involve friends and bridesmaids in - after all, many hands make light work!

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

If you are reading this and thinking you would like some help in designing your own wedding invitations, please don't hesitate to get in touch - I'd love to discuss your requirements and help you create the unique, bespoke stationery of your dreams.

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Detailed Floral Thinlits Dies (£26.00)	Fresh Florals Designer Series Paper Stack (£20.00)	Powder Pink 3/8" Shimmer Ribbon (£6.25)	Shimmery White A4 Cardstock (£7.25)	Beautiful Bouquet Photopolymer Stamp Set (£24.00)
Powder Pink Classic Stampin' Pad (£6.00)	1" (2.5 Cm) Circle Punch (£11.50)	Silver Metallic Thread (£2.75)

Today I'm sharing a card from this month's technique class which featured the So In Love bundle and the beautiful Falling In Love designer series paper - take a look:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

So Detailed Thinlits - The main feature on the front of these cards is the pair of diecut panels cut using the Big Shot and the largest of the So Detailed Dies. They really are so beautiful! I backed them with some of the Falling In Love designer series paper - these papers have some lovely subtle images, some of them photographic, that make a perfect background for these detailed diecuts. Unfortunately both of these items are now sold out here in the UK - I love this card though and just had to share it so hopefully for those of you who already have these items this will still serve as useful inspiration.

So In Love - I used the So In Love stamp set to stamp my greeting on my label wrap and to decorate the inside of my card. This card is larger than usual at 6" square and opens in a concertina style - this really shows the diecuts off to full advantage. 

A New Favourite - Yes, it's here again - I used the Pretty Label Punch for my sentiment panel on the front of my card, backed with a pinched circle - can you tell how much I LOVE this new punch?!

This card is subtle in colour, using only Very Vanilla and Sahara Sand - perfect for a wedding that doesn't have a strong colour scheme. It would work well and could be adapted as an invitation too, so lots of creative possibilities and it really is the Big Shot that does all the work on this one (a die brush is essential to poke all those little pieces out cleanly!)

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

So In Love Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Sahara Sand A4 Cardstock	Sahara Sand Classic Stampin' Pad	Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock	Pretty Label Punch
2" (5.1 Cm) Circle Punch	Very Vanilla 1/4" (6.4 Mm) Satin Ribbon	Falling In Love Embellishments

Good evening lovely blog readers - I hope you have all enjoyed a lovely weekend. Mine seems to have revolved around cooking for a change, with more time in the kitchen trying out new things. I blame Gordon Ramsey - I caught the last few episodes of his recent home cooking series on Channel 4 and just had to buy the accompanying book. The whole family pored over it yesterday morning and are now in a race to work our way through the delicious recipes within! Coupled with the fact that I seem to have passed my recent ailments to my daughter, such that she couldn't manage her swim squad training today as usual, it has felt like a less frantic weekend than is usually the case in the James household.

Anyway, today I thought I would share something different with you: wedding stationery. I recently wrote an article for the Winter Edition of a local wedding magazine called 'Local Wedding Connections' on just how easy it is to create the wedding stationery of your dreams, at a fraction of the cost of purchasing ready-made. You can read my article in full here, but I wanted to share more of the samples I created for this shoot in my post today. So here is the entire collection: 

Creating your own wedding stationery can be not only cost-effective, but also means you can produce something that is unique and personal to you. I created the above range using the 'Hearts-A-Flutter' stamp set and matching framelits - here are some additional images that show some of the close-up design detail:

Wedding favour 'crackers' made using the Envelope Punch Board:

A dinner menu for the Reception dinner, where you can see the subtle layering of the design:

A place card, to denote the bride's place setting:

The inside of one of the 'Save The Date' cards:

You can go to my own website, www.thecraftyowl.co.uk for more information on the services I provide. As customers of mine that have made their own stationery will attest, if you choose a simple yet elegant design it is easier to produce large volumes of perfectly co-ordinating stationery than you might think. Best of all, Stampin' Up!'s extensive range of co-ordinating inks, papers, ribbons, embellishments and cardstock, alongside an extensive range of stamp designs, mean that pretty much anything is possible. That said, if making your own wedding stationery really isn't for you, I also offer a bespoke 'make to order' service - just contact me to discuss your requirements.

Christmas time is popular for engagements and many people will be making wedding plans at this time of year, so if you know someone who fits the bill do share my details with them - I can make a huge chunk of their wedding preparations easier! In addition, point them in the direction of the Local Wedding Connections website at www.localweddingconnections.co.uk; it contains lots of useful information, supplier details and general useful bits and pieces for anyone in the market for a wedding.

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Magnetic Platform	Standard Cutting Pads	Hearts A Flutter Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Hearts A Flutter Framelits Dies
Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock	Primrose Petals Classic Stampin' Pad	Basic Pearls Jewel Accents	Very Vanilla C6 Envelopes	Primrose Petals 3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon

Before I share more of my 'Feeling Sentimental' notelets with you, today I thought I'd let you know about the wedding fair I'm attending at the weekend and give you a sneak peak of the 'make and take' wedding invitation you could try your hand at if you come along.

I've been busy all week preparing samples for the Budget Bride Live Wedding Fair at Diana's Health Club in Wellingborough this Sunday (click here for more information). If you're a bride-to-be and would like to know how to make your own wedding stationery, then do come along and discover how easy it can be with a little help from me and some Stampin' Up! supplies. You can enjoy making everything from invititations to place settings, guest favours to room decorations - all colour-coordinated to tie in to your chosen theme.

If you are attending on Sunday, you will also have the opportunity to have a go and discover just how easy making your own stationery can be - just take a look:

This invitation in classic white allows you to have a go at a number of basic techniques: embossing the raised flower design with the Big Shot, a simple sentiment stamped in black, along with two punched butterflies to add interest. I'm sure you'll agree it looks great as it is, but with the addition of some pearls or colour, can be easily tied in to your theme or given even more of a 'wow' factor.

You may also be surprised at how easy on the purse-strings making such beautiful wedding stationery can be: you could make 40 invitations like the one above for just £67.90 including envelopes and still have ink, stamps, punch and an embossing folder to make co-ordinating items too. When you consider that the average UK bride and groom spend £465 on wedding stationery alone*, then this is nothing short of a bargain and definitely something to think about if you're getting married on a budget.

If you would like to discuss your wedding stationery needs, do come along on Sunday or contact me for further information on how I can help make your day as special and individual as you are.

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Paper: Whisper White

Inks: Black Stazon

Stamps: Loving Thoughts

Tools: Elegant Bouquet Embossing Folder, Bitty Butterfly Punch, Big Shot

*Source: Weddingsday.co.uk