Make Palm Tree Wedding Invitations

These palm tree wedding invitations could make a great destination wedding invitation or even go great with a beach wedding theme. The use of blank cards made this project quick and easy. The most tedious part is actually adding the palm tree decoration.

Materials and Tools needed to make Palm Tree Wedding Invitations:
blank cards or card stock
decorative background paper
tan or sand colored card stock or mulberry paper
palm tree rubber stamp
blending chalk
raffia
adhesive or glue runner

palm tree wedding invitations The base of this invitation should be either a blank card or some card stock folded in half. I used a blank card sized at 4.5 by 6.25. Really you can make this card any size you want and just adjust the size of the papers to accommodate. If you choose to use card stock as the base of the invitation, it may be easiest to cut it in half and make 2 cards sized at 4.25 by 5.5.

Start by printing the wording to your invitations onto the inside of the card. Need help with this? I offer printable wedding text templates for $10.00.

Once the text is printed you are ready to simply decorate the outside of the card. Start by choosing a decorative background paper for the front of the card. I used a scrapbooking paper that had an almost cloth like texture. I chose to go with the color green to keep an organic feel to the card, plus it matched great with the leaves of the palm tree.
Measure the outside of your card. This is the size you want to cut your decorative paper to, to make the palm tree wedding invitations. cutting scrapbook paper for wedding invitations Many scrapbooking papers have a grid printed onto the back to make this sort of task easy. Mine did not, of course. I used a ruler and pencil, along with my cutting mat, to mark out where my paper should be cut. Essentially it will work best to make a kind of grid of your own. A super easy way to execute this step quickly and easily, with minimal aggravation, is to take you papers to a print or copy shop with cutting services. If you have a large number of invitations to make, trust me, you'll be glad you did. It's generally pretty cheap, but you'll relieve yourself of A LOT of tedious work.

Once the background papers are cut to size, you just need to attach them to the card. I like to use a permanent adhesive glue runner to do this. A glue runner works best for me since it is super easy to use and there is NO MESS. All you do is drag the tool over your paper and viola! A strip of glue will appear. It keeps the object in place very securely and there is not warping or wrinkling to worry about.

make palm tree wedding invitations

Now on to the palm tree decoration. I used some simple colored card stock, a palm tree rubber stamp, and some blending chalk to get this effect. Start by using a ruler to tear out little squares of card stock. These do not have to be super perfect. If you are picky and want them to making wedding invitations

be perfect go back to drawing a grid on the paper with a pencil and ruler, and use the grid to tear straight lines. The tearing helps to give it that little bit of extra texture, and a little bit of a handmade paper kind of feel. Using a really good ink pad, stamp the palm tree image into the center of the card stock, as straight as you can possibly make it. I find that it helps to really ink up the stamp good, then stamp it lightly onto a separate surface before you stamp onto your card stock. It seems to come out the nicest this way.
I used the blending chalk to add color to the palm tree. I love the effect of blending chalk. It is very soft and almost gives the effect of what watercolor paints might look like, but much easier to do and less messy. You can purchase a set of blending chalks usually, that will come with little tools that are basically the same thing as an eye shadow applying pad. If you want to cut costs, you might be able to get away with buying some sidewalk chalk and some eye makeup applying swabs.

handmade wedding invitations

Next go back and use the glue runner, once again, to attach the palm tree ornament to the front of the card. Try centering it to the middle of the card as straight and centered as you can. To finish the whole entire palm tree wedding invitation off, just tie a bit of raffia around the outside of the card and into a knot. Trim the ends of the knot to make them even. Done!

More tips and ideas to make palm tree wedding invitations...

* Try experimenting with background papers to get the best effect and match your wedding colors

* Instead of raffia try using some satin ribbon. You can even find some palm tree scrapbook paper and make little enclosure by cutting them in rectangles and securing them wrapped around the invite. Then tie a ribbon on top of it.

Materials and Papers I used to make these palm tree wedding invitations:
green background paper: The Paper Company, "Seersucker Stripe On Fern"
palm tree stamp: Stampcraft, #44OH130
chalks: Nicole Classic, Blending Chalks I "Rainbow Palette"

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