I was recently put in charge of creating the invitations for an event at my church...

My church is fairly non-traditional - and there are two graphic designers on staff (who function in different roles, but still possess all the knowledge and that funky g.d. vibe...) so I was feeling the pressure to come up with something really cool. Something fresh. Stylish. Leading edge.

   
 
I decided to go with a rich color scheme instead of traditional Christmas colors... I chose the Soiree papers Truffle and Opal, and Dill as the main color I was going to print and stamp on. I LOVE this color combination. It's just gorgeous. Christmassy in a 'pinecone and bough' sort of way without being in your face red and green. Elegant. Soft. Perfect. And then I went way off the Christmas radar and decided to use the Seed Stems clear set in my design. Oh - how I love Seed Stems. It's probably my favorite Memory Box clear set of all time. It totally has the potential for that fresh, funky vibe I was going for... the question was, could I pull it off on a Christmas invitation?

Now, I don't know how often you've been tasked with creating large amounts of cards... but in my experience - it is often an opportunity for Murphy's law to rear it's ugly head and create havoc. And in my case with these invitations, it was in full force.

My original design was the invite you see here on the left. It required that I print the text directly onto the Dill paper, then cut it out and stamp onto it.

However, my printer, after printing exactly nine of the twenty three pages I needed, decided to stop accepting cardstock. I coaxed and pleaded, but it would not budge. It's only response was "error - paper jam". Oh dear. Now what?

Since I knew I could no longer print the details of the invitation directly onto the cardstock, I had to figure out a way to get the information onto the invite without changing the funky, fresh feel I was going for.

I resorted to the old invitation standby - vellum. My fear was that it would feel tired and so 'last year' instead of giving off that daring, smart quality I was hoping for. I cut the vellum a quarter inch smaller than the green so there would still be that bold green as a border around the more muted green that showed through the vellum. In the end, I think it worked. I still stamped the Seed Stems onto the dill paper, printed the invitation text onto the vellum and layered it all, holding it together with square copper brads. My husband and kids, in their effort to calm my frazzled nerves, all declared that they liked the second design even better than the first.

  
 
(Click on any photo to make it larger.)

So there you have my creative solution and two invitation designs that will both serve their purpose - getting people to come to a party... because in the end, most people will look once or twice at the invite, get the pertinent information down, and toss it in the trash. (Shudder! While I try not to think about that when I'm pouring my heart and soul into a card, it helps me keep a healthy perspective when I feel like any kind of difficulty is the end of the world!)

Comments

[Ruth]

Very classy look.