DIY Escort Cards

I've had this photo of escort cards in my Inspiration Folder since probably before Christmas

As soon as I saw it, I fell madly in love with the embossed birds and the romantic swirls.

I had to have this.
I know zilch about embossing, but you know how I roll- I'm going to figure out how to do it my damn self.

So I sent and e-mail to the all-things-paper-oracle, Shannanigans, and she hooked it up. She told me the materials I would need, where to get them (for cheap) and general instructions. I hit the ground running.
After purchasing the correct embossing folder and my very own Cuddlebug Machine I began with the tented part of the card



This part was super easy, albeit time consuming. I cut 4x5 sections of cardstock and ran them through the machine with the folder to produce this pattern. Like I said- it wasn't hard, just took a long time. I was so happy with the outcome though!

The next part was a little frustrating. The inspiration picture has the names printed on brightly colored paper with a matching ribbon. I purchased some blue and orange cardstock, but had a hell of a time finding any kind of die or stencil to reproduce the original look. I tried some other options (including these), but nothing was giving the look I wanted- and to be completely honest, I didn't love the look of printing on the colored paper.

With one last ditch trip to Michael's I found a die I could live with, and started from scratch. I printed the names and table assignment on white card stock and cut them...

After running the colored paper and new die, I was much happier

I think it created a much cleaner look and I LOVE the overall outcome

I think the simplicity of the tags doesn't distract from the beautiful swirls in the background, and the names are still easily identified. The alternating colors keeps things from being too monotonous.

These bad boys were a labor of love, and took me the better part of a week to finish them, but I think it wast totally worth it. I love love LOVE them!

One more thing to check off the list! We are almost there!

Always & Forever,

ME