Here are 5 Hot Tips and Trends for Wedding Invitations for the last half of 2008 and 2009:

1) Unusual materials – Embellishments up the wow factor for your invites. Think unconventional materials to accent your invites such as bamboo, sinamay envelopes, raffia ties. It’s all about the “au natural” feeling this year due to the increase in eco-chic weddings.

2) Fresh Font Styles – Forget the traditional fonts and the traditional font sizes. Switch things up with unusual font design, unexpected text placement (such as a vertical date), and eye-catching colors.

3) Ethnic Details – Celebrate your heritage! If you are of Indian decent, how about a sari inspired print design for your wedding invitations in modern colors such as hot pink and gold? Or if you are of Irish decent, why not have a custom die cast letterpress invitation with a Celtic-inspired monogram?

4) Combined Colors – gone are the days of white invitations with standard ink colors. Invitations now can be matted such as matting a picture in a frame, with several different colors and materials behind the actual invitation, giving your invite an almost 3-D touch. Cool color combinations such as pink and orange, blue and greens, ivory and black, turquoise and tan spice up the traditional color scheme.

5) New Shapes – for a stylish alternative to the traditional rectangle, try an oversized square or a round invitation. Be careful though, alternate shape invitations can cost more to mail.

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From the discovery of the 1898 International Dictionary to linotyping the entries to printing the last print on the vandercook to cutting the fingertabs of the deluxe edition, this video gives a quick overview of the process of creating the Pictorial Webster’s fine press edition.

One of the major parts of any grand or simple wedding is the wedding invitations. It is important that the couple comes up with unique wedding invitations so that they will all be encouraged to attend your wedding. The more appealing they turn out to be, the more number of people would be attending the event.

In the past, wedding invitations are made with a very formal design. The conventional wedding invitation design is using a special paper with the names of the entourage. At the same time, it is also secured by strings that have the same color as their motif. These invitations are also placed in envelopes before being distributed to the guests.

But nowadays, there are lots of couples who are using new designs and ideas for wedding invitations. They are now trying out unique wedding invitations as the traditional invitations are something that is being used for a number of years now.

To get unique wedding invitation ideas, one can simply sit in front of their computer and surf the internet for websites that cater to this need. Couples can even opt to do the designs themselves.

Putting your pictures on the wedding invitation is one of the ideas to choose from. For example, if you have a pre-nuptial photo, you can place it on a half or full invitation page. And for a more classic look, putting in a black and white picture will definitely make up the full image of invitation.

Another design to come up with unique wedding invitations is to apply a sketch or a drawing. They can also use symbols that will signify a certain message that only the couple understands. This is a sure stand out above the rest.

Finally, you may want to add an element of humor to your wedding invitations. Examples of these are caricatures of you and your spouse-to-be, stickers, or even confetti. You can choose anything as long as it will make your wedding invitations humorous.

Unique wedding invitations will not only make your wedding stand out among the other weddings but will also get people to attend your wedding. This is because your wedding invitation is eye-catching and will definitely leave a very positive impression to your guests.

One of the major parts of any grand or simple wedding is the wedding invitations. It is important that the couple comes up with unique wedding invitations so that they will all be encouraged to attend your wedding. The more appealing they turn out to be, the more number of people would be attending the event.

Traditionally, these wedding invitations are done with an orthodox design. The traditional kind if usually composed of the entourage names and made out of special paper. It is then tied up securely by strings that carry the same color as the overall motif. They are placed inside envelopes before given out to the guests.

But through time, there are now lots of wedding couples who give out unique wedding invitations with innovative designs. Since the most usual designs are already turning too dull and boring, then the couples of today are opting for the more modern ones.

These days, there are a number of websites that are offering unique wedding invitation ideas. Aside from this, even couples can make their own design out of their own creativity. Unique wedding invitations can use the following design ideas.

Putting your pictures on the wedding invitation is one of the ideas to choose from. For example, if you have a pre-nuptial photo, you can place it on a half or full invitation page. And for a more classic look, putting in a black and white picture will definitely make up the full image of invitation.

Aside from pictures, another design that would make the unique wedding invitations interesting is to use a drawing or a sketch. They would have their picture sketch or other things that can symbolize their wedding. These symbols can be the things that the couple likes or other conventional wedding symbols. This design will definitely make your wedding invitation stand out among the rest.

If you want to make your wedding invitation humorous, it is very much easy for you to do that by adding in some caricatures. Tickets and even several cutouts are also good wedding invitation options for you as long as you design it in a way that it will be very humorous and interesting.

Unique wedding invitations are not only made to make your wedding event an impressive one to attend but also to encourage guests to push through with attending and make it a memorable event for them as well. Since the wedding invitations are good means of introducing the wedding and the couple, then it should definitely be attractive, appealing and worth-remembering.

As you’re gathering names and addresses for your guest list, I’m sure you’re carefully copying the spellings, as well as the numbers, from your mom’s and your MIL-to-be’s address book, and the campus phone directory, and all the other places you’re using as source material.

But what if those sources are wrong? My MIL grew up in Yugoslavia, so she sometimes spells names with a phonetic spelling (but I can totally trust her on family names). And some people (like me!) have unusual or easily misspelled names (people always leave out the “e” before the “y” in my name).

Keep an eagle eye out for how people sign their own names on the cards with your shower gifts or the reply cards for your wedding itself. If they sign their full name when only a first name might be more expected, that’s an indicator you should compare the name to your list carefully.

And last, don’t feel in the least hesitant to call those of us whose names are a bit unusual, and ask us how to spell our names, now in the early days of pulling your list together. We’ve had people butcher it left and right, and we’re flattered that you care about us enough to spell us properly.

What’s the toughest name on your list? And do you trust the sources you’re pulling the addresses from?

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So you have to send out your mailing and you go to where you keep your stamps reach in there and pick out the flag stamp from the drawer , put it on the envelope and away it goes….. STOP!! Think about this you have spent the time and money to make something special, lets take it one step further. You can go the route of custom stamps with your picture on it or any other misc. image or design, or you can do what I do – Old Stamps. If you have the time, you can have fun picking out stamps and you rdont really pay any more then you would for a regular boring stamp. You can find many old stamps on ebay in bulk.

Its fun its inexpensive, and the person getting the crd or invite as something else to look at and enjoy, and I bet the envelope gets added to the card on the fridge

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Im having a contest to give away 200 custom designed letterpressed Business cards. I will pick the winner in a couple weeks. All you have to do is comment on this post about why you love letterpress, and how it might help your business. Here is a link to some good letterpess business cards.

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After some research of what very little of is out there, I jumped right in and gave it a go.

Here is how I do it.

Preparation

First I make a negative on transparency paper, I have found that its best to double up the print so that the black on the page is dark enough so that the light doesn’t pass through. I use double sided removable tape just in case I need to align the images better. I cut the image out and position the negative on top of the polymer plate material (Side note I purchase my plates from Boxcar). I again position the negative with the same double sided tape. I tried to use just that to expose the plate but found that the light would seep under the negative. During my research I found that the expensive plate makers used suction to keep it all into place, or at least thats what I gathered. So I purchased the least expensive food saver I could find, called a seal a meal.

Exposing

I then put together a temporary box together with a couple black lights from Lowes and a power strip to turn it on and off. When I get more time I will make one out of wood. The first thing I did was a test strip to find out how much time was needed to expose the plate properly. I found that around 5 minutes worked pretty good from me. Im still working on the best time but I know that 2 minutes when washed out would break down to easily. With the boxed closed and the plate in I turned on the strips on and exposed it for 5 minutes.

Washout

Using a car wash brush I scrubbed the plate under warm water until I reached the plastic backing. Be careful not to scrub to hard or you will ruin any fine lines. If you expose your plate to little the fine lines will scrub off easily, expose it to much and the lines will be to thick. The image will start to form as you scrub the unexposed polymer away.

I then wiped the plate with a sponge and dry it with a hair drier. Finally I expose both sides of the plate to cure it, not to long a couple minutes on both sides. Thats about it, I will post some pictures of this plate once I print it.