I was really excited about how our DIY wedding stationary turned out! Because we did it ourselves, it was exactly what we wanted.
Well, when it came time for thank you notes, I was used to getting exactly the stationary I wanted! I was pretty burned out after the wedding, so first I looked online for thank you notes. While there are numerous cute options out there, nothing was quite right.
My Requirements:
- Affordable. Sorry, but I can't pay $2+ per thank you note. That's just crazy.
- 4"x6" size (or A6). We want to write nice messages to our guests, and didn't feel like we could do it on a 3.5"x5" tiny card. (This is what really started limiting the selection)
- Cute! I didn't want to send out just any old card!
While endlessly browsing for cards, I began to get inspired. I loved the blowflowers. I loved the fireworks ones. The ones with our photo would be cute. But I really really liked the ones with pennants on them. Besides, we had about a mile of pennants (or bunting? I don't know) at the wedding, and maybe it would remind our guests of the night!
I mean, how cute are these?!? They start at about $1 per card and go up from there.
So even though I finally found some cute options, they either weren't quite right or were out of my price range. Cue the projects!
I started by ordering A6 blank notecards and envelopes online. I wanted to be sure they were pre-scored for easy folding, but weren't already folded! That way I could put them through my printer, and would avoid scoring them myself. I found just the thing, affordably and using recycled paper, at
Desktop Publishing Supplies. I was also super smart and ordered self-sealing envelopes. No more licking glue!!!
I initially tried using Powerpoint to make these because I'm really comfortable with the program. I managed to make the string and some triangles, but all the angles looked too harsh somehow.
 |
| making the image in Powerpoint just wasn't quite right... |
So then I went to Photoshop. I will say right now, for the record, that there is an insane learning curve with Photoshop!!! I couldn't even draw a line for the first hour! About four hours later, I had the image I wanted, but it was super pixelated and I didn't know why. I looked at some advice online, and it turns out I didn't have the image quality set properly. Not that changing it would change any of the shapes you've already made...
 |
| messing around with image quality |
So then I started over from scratch, but in higher image quality. This gave me ample opportunity to practice all the line and triangle drawing skills I had just learned. Another hour later, and I had the finished image!
Then I had to fight with my satanic printer for about half an hour.
 |
| wrestling with the printer to get a quality print job! |
Finally got them printed out all pretty. Now we just have to write in them!
 |
| Pennant thank you cards |
 |
| pennant thank you cards |
In the end, this project took about six hours and cost about $26 for 100 thank you cards (not counting ink) - bargain! Wayyy more time than I had imagined, but I did pick up new Photoshop skills, and created exactly the cards I'd been dreaming of.
And if you want some for yourself, they're available in
my etsy shop!
