Chewing Paper - Confessions of a Paper Addict

Project #1 Gatefold Indian Cotton Booklet with Calla Lillies

Well hello.  I'm back after a short hiatus to move house, go on holiday to Cornwall and now return with the first project for the blog!  Our aim is to make this a "Really Useful" blog, so hopefully this helps us get one step closer to that :)

This project is to show you how to make the wedding invitation below - one of our most popular and original invitations.  It's called the Gatefold Indian Cotton Invitation with Calla Lillies and it uses some beautiful Indian Cotton Rag Papers, made with leftovers from the Indian Rag Trade in a fair-trade mill, raffia and miniature paper calla lillies.Below are step by step instructions to make the invite with lots of pictures to guide you as well.  We sell this invitation in a readymade kit to purchase, or you can buy items individually to make it up.  The links below are all for our UK site . To purchase this kit for Ireland - Click HERE.  This invitation would retail for at least 2 or 3 times the price if made by a professional invitation maker. 

Materials

• 1 Indian Cotton Calla Lilly Kit 
• OR
• 1 Sheet A4 Indian Cotton Paper + 1 C5 Indian Cotton Envelope
• 1 Sheet Ivory/Cream A4 Tracing Paper or Vellum
• 1 sheet A5 textured Ivory Card
• 1 metre-length of natural raffia
• 2 miniature paper Calla Lillies
• Tools:
• Paper Trimmer or Paper Knife and Cutting Mat
• Invisible Glue Tape

Instructions

• Download the template for this invite. The one we have linked is for the template with no border lines on the page - allowing you to choose the width of your own borders.  If you'd like pre-printed cutting lines for cutting out and layering the invitation wording paper on top of the backing card, download the A5 Template with Cutting Lines instead.  Similar free wedding invitation templates are available on our Irish DIYWedding Site also.
• Print out the template (2 per A4 page) onto the ivory tracing paper provided with the kit.  Tracing paper is less porous than normal paper so you may need to set the paper aside to dry for a few minutes (of if having problems, overnight) before getting ready to use it in your invite.  When ready, cut it into two A5 sheets using a Paper Trimmer, scissors (with steady hand) or Paper Knife and Cutting Board.  Below are pictures of the printed out A4 sheet with two A5 inserts on it, and cutting it with a paper trimmer.  
• Next, trim approximately 1cm from each of the four sides of the A5 Insert.   You want to do this so that when you put it on the backing card it has a "frame" of card around it.  You can do this manually by measuring using a trimmer or knife and board, or use the Template with Cutting Lines instead if you need a line to follow when cutting.
• Next you need to trim the Ivory A5 textured card. As the card is A5, when you fold an A4 page around it - which is exactly twice the width of the A5 card, there won't be enough paper left for the booklet cover pages to meet in the middle.If you want to have the A4 Cotton Cover close with the two edges overlapping, you will need to trim the edges of the A5 card down a little.  Just 0.5cm all round will work fine, or even easier - 1 cm from one side and 1 cm from the top before you stick the tracing paper down.   
• Now get out your Glue Roller- we use a great invisible tape roller that doesn't show through tracing paper or vellum and just makes life easier :).  Run the tape about an inch in from the edge of the A5 textured card. You don't necessarily have to have a continuous run of the tape - you can stop and start to save the tape and make it go a little further :)  Just be sure there's enough so that the edges of the paper are secured and you're happy with the finished effect.  If the tape won't run properly, it's probably because the tip doesn't have any glue on it (this happens sometimes).  Just pull the tape out with your fingers and help to further the roller on to the next sticky bit which will give it the friction it needs to run again properly when rolled.
• Now you're ready to place the written insert on the tracing paper onto the ivory A5 backing card.  Do this with care - it can be hard to get it really centred and straight.  If you don't press it down when you first place it tentatively on the backing card, you can sometimes lift if up again to re-centre.  If you're having problems, you can try using a Glue Stick to stick it down instead.  This has the advantage of allowing you to move the paper after it's been placed down to fix it into place, but they can be messy and don't provide as permanent sticking power as the glue tapes. When you're happy with its position, use a ruler or bone folder to run it across the paper with the edge down, to get rid of any bubbles or bumps.  You now have your insert finished and ready to go.  Next is the Indian Cotton Booklet Cover.
• Where you choose to have the two sides of the Indian Cotton sheet meet is totally up to you.  You can have it closing in the middle in a traditional gatefold design, or do what we do and have it over to one of the sides instead. 

• Place the backing card on to the Indian Cotton A4 paper. If you want it over to the side, leave approximately twice as much space on one side of the card as do on the other (pictured).  When you're happy with the position, gently fold the two sides of the Booklet to create a gentle indent (you can check it now to see how it will look too by gently folding the edges over without creasing the edges too much).
• If you're making the invite to send immediately, don't forget to write it at this point before you close over the booklet cover if you haven't already :).  Allow a few extra minutes for pens to dry on the tracing paper - as with printer ink, it takes a little longer to dry on the less porous paper. 

• 
• When happy with the position of the insert on the Indian Cotton Booklet Cover, fold the two sides of the booklets in to meet in the middle and press down to make a clean fold line.  Your booklet is now nearly made - all that's left is to to tie the raffia and insert the flowers!!

• The second last step is to take your length of raffia and wind it around your booklet until you have two lengths left long enough to tie a knot comfortably with (see below). Raffia strips are usually about a metre longh and go around the booklet about three times.  Tie a simple knot in the raffia at the join of the paper.  Tie the knot tight enough so the raffia is secure on the book and won't fall off, but don't pull the knot too tight just yet.   Now trim the raffia, leaving just a few inches of length on both ends.

• Lastly, take the two calla lillies and insert into the raffia knot.  Do this one at a time, pushing the stem through the the gap in the knot of the raffia.  When happy with the position of the lillies (they should be running along the edge of the paper where it overlaps), pull the raffia tightly so that the calla lillies are secure.  If after doing this you're still not happy that they are secure enough, try putting a glue dot in behing the knot of the raffia or the heads of the flowers.

That's it!!  You're done!!  And well done!!  Sit back and admire your creation :)

I hope this was clear - but if you have any questions, drop us a line at info@weddingdiy.co.uk and we'll be happy to help!! 

Tim the Toolman Taylor's Top Tools

When it comes to any kind of papercrafting - be it scrapbooking, card making or making your own invitations, there's a few tools that we simply cannot live without.  They make your life easier, make papercrafting more fun and help you end up with (even) more professional looking creations.  Once you have them, you'll wonder how you ever lived without.  We're going to do a Top 5 in reverse order, with our favourite tool at no. 1.  :)  The tools are linked to our UK Wedding Stationery Site, but you can also purchase them on our Irish Crafts site - www.craftsupplies.ie.

Number 5

At number 5 in our Top Tools is the humble Single Hole Punch.  This is particularly useful for invite makers for punching holes at the top or side of invitations and then threading the ribbon through.  Scrappers make great use of it also for making tags or making holes for eyelets.  Once you have it, you find a million ways to use it.  Not expensive either, but definitely worth the money.  This little guy is also a long reach punch, so it can reach far up the spines of invitations or cards to punch the hole out for ribbon.  I've tried doing the same thing with normal office punches.  Trust me.  It doesn't work!!  I ended up with uneven punched holes no matter what I did.

Number 4

Coming in at number 4 is the trusty pair of bent tweezers.  These are just like normal tweezers but with a bent end.  They're brilliant for picking up little gems or even eyelets or brads and placing them in *just* the right place.  They're also great for lifting and placing tricky peel offs.  I don't know how many time I've either ripped a peel off while taking it from the backing sheet or put it in the wrong place on an invite or card.  These remove all that frustration for you.

Number 3

Only when you're making invitations, cards or scrapbook layouts do you truly understand the importance of GLUE.  There's so many different types.  In general you want to avoid wet glue when working with paper as it will cause it to buckle.  We love Glue Dots.  No mess, quick to use and super-sticky.  They come in lots of different types and we use the Mini Glue dots and Craft ones the most.  The Craft ones we use for sticking on any embellishments larger than your thumb - wooden ones, plastic ones, metal ones, toppers, natural flowers - the works.  We also use them for sealing envelopes and sticking down miniature bunches of flowers.  Try rolling them up or tearing them apart into two pieces to make smaller ones to stick behind flower stems or heads.  The Mini Glue Dots are fantastic for smaller embellishments like gems, buttons, behind the head of a miniature flower - basically anything at all. We highly recommend.  Great for children's crafts too - no mess!

Number 2

And just short of the top spot but still deserving accolades is...the invisible Glue Tape.  When we found this we were ecstatic.  Of course, this is the same group of people who squeal when lovely new paper comes in from France or the USA.  We know no shame.  This tape doesn't show through vellum/tracing paper.  How cool is that!!  It's also really handy as a glue runner in general - but this is a fantastic plus.  We use it on all of our invite designs.  If sticking a sheet of A4 down - you don't necessarily have to run the runner around the entire outside.  We tend to do it in patches - enough tape so there's no bubbles or flapping edges, but not so much so that we use too much up :)  A great find.

Number 1

THE PAPER TRIMMER!!!  Ok.  It's not exciting.  But it is a brilliant staple.  Requires a little investment (usually around 30 euros or £20) but is worth every single penny.  I don't think I've used a scissors to cut card since I got mine.  I use it for cutting card for matting and layering, making frames, borders, making card blanks, making tags, cutting out shapes...the list is endless.  Whenever I sit down to make something, it's the first thing I pull out.  2nd is the glue roller.  3rd is the...ok I think you can see where I'm going here :)

Other runners up included the paper knife and cutting mat - great for scrapbooking and also works really well for other paper crafts. Double Sided Sticky tape - another great glue but you have to cut it - and we're lazy so we like the runners better :) Bone Folders - for scoring card so it folds perfectly.  Also handy for running across paper that's been stuck down to remove bubbles. The multi-purpose Crop A Dile.  Does everything from setting eyelets to making the dinner.  The Silent Setter for setting eyelets without the whack of a hammer. The Magic Anti Static Bag for removing static before embossing on card and making sure there aren't all those annoying little bits of embossing powder where they shouldn't be.  We could go on ...but have you got the time? Or budget :D