First DIY Project: Invitations!

My first attempt at breaking the robot in me was to get back in touch with my crafty/artsy side by practicing how to emboss for my future invitations. Sad as it may sound, I haven't felt this excited since high school when things like going to art lessonsand making home-made cards were what I looked forward to doing most after school.

Sitting in my parent's dining room, I opened up all the goodies I purchased right before the snow storm, which included some plain invitations, stamps, clear ink, embossing powder, and an embossing heating tool.

My goal was to at least learn how to emboss so that sometime next year, I can make my invitations to look somewhat like these (from the weddingbee):

At first attempt, I practiced embossing initials because I wanted to incorporate our initials on the outside of our pocketfolds. I got a little excited and actually ended up embossing these upside down on the first two cards. Really, I was THAT excited! At the third attempt, I finally got this:

For the inside, I practiced embossing a pattern with some of the stamps I found. For the actual invite, I'm having a pretty hard time finding a stamp with a pattern that I really like (i.e. the exact ones from the weddingbee inspiration). At least for practice, I ended up with this:

So you're probably wondering - Is it really worth all the effort to do your own invitations? As I expressed frustration in messing up my first two trials, I could see my family (who thought I was crazy for doing all this), ask themselves this very question. Through online research, I actually found that I could probably have invitations (which would I be perfectly happy with) professionally made for fairly cheap - maybe even cheaper than what it would cost for me to do it myself.

What makes it worth it for me is the prospect of creating again - to experience that joy and sense of accomplishment of starting from scratch and then see your final product come to life. I'm sure my patience will be tested. I'm sure that at some point during this process, I'll want to give up and just order the invites online. Still, I have a smile on my face just thinking about the work it will take to get all of this done and that's just something you can't put a price tag on.

The mess I made at my parent's house:

To my neat freak fiance - "I'm sorry" in advance!