invitations are on the brain... again

sarack

Ok. Thanks in advance for helping. I know I've been a little stressed lately but I can't get over invites. I mean, we'll have to send them out in like 2 months which means I have to print and assemble them... which means I'll have to finalize them...

So here it goes. If you look in my bio you can see my first draft. The only thing that has changed is wording. I looked over the design and decided the the invites are just TOO matchy matchy. I want the actual invitation to have all the flourishes.. but i want to minimize the other flourishes on the other pages.

Any one have any ideas on what to do? A certain corner to put them in on the other page?? Do away with them altogether?

THANK YOU. You girls are really my life savors. No one else understands....

carrieoz_76

I love the idea of using a more minimal version of what's on your invite for your insert cards.  Is there any way to take a smaller piece of the flourish and use that in the opposite corners (top right, bottom left?).  I don't know what you can do in PowerPoint, but even if you just opened the flourish in Paint you could crop out a smaller part of the flourish, then paste that back into your insert cards.

Actually, it looks like your flourish has 3 distinct parts.  When looking at the invite straight on, the one in the top corner has the piece across the top with the dots next to it, the big one in the corner, then a separate piece that's along the left side of the page.  Could you cut out either the smaller top one along with the dots, or the one along just smaller left side one, and use only those on your insert cards?

MacPanda

Maybe a faded version, not quite as bold?   Or you could do the same flourish in a different color - one of your accent colors...or even fade that.  Kind of like a shadow flourish. If that makes sense.

sarack

so there are actually like 5 or 6 flourishes. And for some reason I can't figure out how to change the color of them. But I'll try just something in the bottom left corner or something.. see how that looks.

i agree that a minimal version of the invite would be best.. its the making decisions part that is hard for me.

hfbellefille

I really love your invites!  Can I ask what program you used to design them and where you got your flourish images?  I'm hoping to use pocketfolds as well, but getting a little overwhelmed by all the different ideas out there. 

I agree with maybe just using an element or two of your flourish on the inserts.  This is probably going to be a crazy amount of work, but what about the following:
Enlarge the top-left corner flourish (the one that is really up against that corner)
Print your whole enlarged flourish onto your "extras" insert (which seems to be the biggest one)
Then get the other two inserts to line up with the design on the "extras," and design/print them so that you have one cohesive design down your inserts when they are stacked in your pocket. 

Does that make sense?

Anyway, to reiterate, I love them the way they are, but fewer flourishes might be nice too! 

amandasw

I like all the suggests and the overall idea of making it a little simpler. For hfbellefille's idea, it wouldn't be too bad to do and might be kind of cool. 

I also liked the idea of changing the color - maybe a faint version of the blue you're using. I've been able to change the color of images in powerpoint (I have vista, so I guess I don't know if it works with older versions). To do that, you go under format, then "re-color". Under there first click "set transparent" which would be the background of the image that you DON'T want to change color. Then you can just choose what you want the new color of the design to be.  I'll try to do a mock-up for you.

In general, I do think there's a lot going on and it would be nice to have a more simple design on the inserts. They look great though!

amandasw

ok, here's an example (I just saved one of the ones from your bio, but you can imagine just doing it for the flourish):


I also think grey might be pretty:



I also should have specified you need to choose one of the "light variations"

sarack

so the flourishes are just from clipart actually. I have vista as well... I'm going to try to change the color of the flourish and i LOVE the idea you mentioned of having the same flourish lining up for all of the inserts. Only problem is that I bought the rectangalo pocketfolds from cardsandpockets.com and so the inserts will go sideways. I'm not sure why the extras one looks so big, its actually the smallest one..

either way, i'll play around with it. Thank you for the advice.

I'm really thinking of doing the stamp thing though. :0)

carrieoz_76

Sara - I went to Impress today (which is AWESOME!), and I came home and have been testing them out.  I adore the look that I'm getting from them - it's really handmade and personal.  I had no idea this was even possible - thanks for turning me on to it!

sarack

you're welcome. i love it too. i think i'm still gonna try the stamp idea...