Homemade Wedding Invites

So I promised to post pictures of the wedding invites after the wedding. I will also show how I did it.

First, here is what the finished invite and response card looked like:

I purchased the paper from GoodWill in Amarillo, Texas last July for about $9. The raised printing I did all on my own at home. I did it through a process called Thermography. 

I stamped the image onto the paper using custom stamps and special ink. 

The three stamps I used: Invite, Response, Cute Bride & Groom

Underside of stamp

Embossing Inks

The special ink keeps the image moist longer so that the embossing powder will stick to it. You heavily apply the powder -- then shake off all the excess. Only the stamped image should appear with the powder stuck to it. I found that using clear ink with the colored powder worked best for the look I wanted. 

The next step is to take an embossing gun (not pictured) and heat the powder to the melting point. Over heating causes the powder to burn. Practice a bit before attempting on actual invites. The color powder I used actually changed colors a bit when heated, which made it easier to tell when it was done. Over heating will also cause powder to melt flat resulting in shiny but not raised print. Because you continuously reuse the powder by shaking off the excess, you do not need to buy more than one powder jar. The picture of the powder is how much is left after doing 50 invites and 50 response cards (Maybe a fifth of the jar was used). 

That's how I created the invites. I might post a video of using the powder in another blog post for a different project. For now, keep crafting and thanks for reading.