Laser Cut Wedding Invitations

[Laura Zaruba]

I posted this on the EE forum and thought I'd share here as well.

* * *

Being the crafty person I am, and having such a great toy, er, um I mean, machine, ;-) I'm strongly considering making my own wedding invitations using the laser. I thought I'd share my "concept cards" with you all.

http://www.themeckleys.com/images/invitations.jpg

The black cardstock backing is laser cut and the white cardstock piece slides underneath the banner with our names. Add a little adhesive to secure it, attach some sparkly rhinestones on the corners and *voila!* A very cute and unique invitation! (IMHO) :)

I need to make just a few minor adjustment in the layout but for the most part, as long as I can get my printing & cutting lined up nice and neat I should be pretty well set.

~Laura

[Skip Weiser]

Very nice, Laura. You probably wouldn't want to use this heart design I have, but I thought I'd post it anyhow. Maybe someone can use it on an invitation or Valentine card etc. sometime.

The (poor quality) pic is what it looks like cut out of some manila folder paper. It's kind of a neat design.

Skip

[Rodne Gold]

I got married 17 years ago , I used a rotary engraver to do mine on Rowmark. Currently my business card is out of rowmark flexibrass.
However , I have done some really nice invitations for other folk on the laser.
Amongst them are thin wooden plaques filled with gold , laser engraved and vector cut formicas , veneers, cardstock but the best we did was on Faux suede , they were laser engraved and vector cut with "deckled" type edges (irregular edges) rolled into a scroll and bound with a thong (also cut on the laser) and thad a small laser cut charm (out of red perspex) dangling off the thong. One thing you might consider with your card is perhaps develop some sort of "pop up" , IE when you open the card , something pops up . Ps , reading your card ,I would change the date format to 2008 and not spell it out.

I watch some of the wedding shows on Satellite TV (Whos wedding is it anyway) and see the lengths ppl go to to be "different"
I did the same in terms of my invitation , however for the rest , we concentrated on the food , music and obviously booze , cos that's the only real thing I remember about weddings
Whether the food was good , whether the booze was flowing and what the spirit was like (generally the band can make or break it)
All the other stuff like the table decor , the freebie gifts , the place cards , the size of the cake etc are mere fripperies and soon forgotten ;)

[Laura Zaruba]

Skip - Thanks for sharing the file, it's really cute. If we can't use it now maybe another time.

Rodne - I'm still playing with the design so who knows what we'll end up with. For now it's flat, so no pop up, but that would be fun. I think I'll put slits in the corner to secure the white piece instead of using adhesive. I considered using other materials but as far as cost and colors are concerned, paper seemed to be our best option.

My fiance is promising friends and family the best party in 2008 but we'll have to see how far the budget will take us just trying to have a "nice" event. Personally, I would've been fine eloping on a beach in Jamaica. ;)

[William Johanson]

Sorry I am kinda new to the creek. Can someone tell me what the EE forum is? I have heard it reffered to several times. Thanks

[Brian Conklin]

engravingetc.org

[Gary Gilbert]

My Legend 24 can't do those nice curves - they are too jagged. I'm disappointed in that, but sure having fun.

We have "printed" on color coated paper, and the color comes off to the white paper below, and looks very interesting. People have asked how we have "printed in white" on color paper. . .

[Kim Vellore]

Gary,
Have you tried to turn off smoothing in the Legend 24 . I always turn off Smoothing each time I power up the machine. The power and speed will change with it off but you have way better control for cutting.

Kim


My Legend 24 can't do those nice curves - they are too jagged. I'm disappointed in that, but sure having fun.

We have "printed" on color coated paper, and the color comes off to the white paper below, and looks very interesting. People have asked how we have "printed in white" on color paper. . .

[Chris DeGerolamo]

So other than tweaking the power/speed/dpi/frequency, are there any other things I can do or avoid doing to minimize burn on card stock? I cut a sample for a potential client this morning that looked pretty good and we agreed that we are on the right track but I want to finished product to be flawless. Any suggestions or thoughts are appreciated.

[Dan Hintz]

Air can help to a small degree, but you'll get the most bang for your buck from the proper settings. It doesn't have to be perfect, and I can cut 70-lb cardstock with perfect cut-through and no charring (though I occasionally get a blip of soot where a path crosses over a grid in the table).

[Gary and Jessica Houghton]

A VERY clean vector table helps a tremendous bit! - Noted from experience...

[Dan Hintz]

G & J,

You're right, my table could use a serious cleaning at this point... I smell the thick accent of plastic whenever I get near it.