Two little love birds

by Allison Jarnagin
(Blacksburg, Virginia, USA)

How I turned plain white invitations into a handmade work of art.

1.) I purchased a packet of postcard paper from Office Max. This paper was perforated so that all I had to do was layout my invitation text four to a page and run this paper through my home printer and tear apart. I used a matte paper that was textured for a little added detail.

2.) To decorate the invitation. I sketched out two birds sitting on a branch with two flowers above them. I copied this to the top of a linoleum wood block and carved out the reverse of what I wanted the final image to be. I used a Speedball carving tool to carve out my drawing.
I did the same with two smaller rubber block stamps. I drew a large and small flower on two different rubber stamps and carved out the reverse.

3.) I used a large flat plastic surface to roll out some yellow and blue printmaking paint. With two rollers I applied both blue and yellow paint to my stamp. The birds blue and the flowers above them yellow.

4.) With a thin layer of paint on the stamp, I then lined up the back of my invitation with the edge of the stamp and applied pressure evenly to the surface to make sure all the paint transferred equally from the stamp to the paper.
(you don't want too much paint or when you stamp it paint will gush out and create a messy image)

5.) I peeled back the invitation and my design was printed on the back! Then I hung up to dry. With the help of my lovely bridesmaids we repeated the process on all 110 invitations.

6.) Once the back side was dry I flipped the invitation over and using my separate flower stamps that I carved, put one blue and one yellow flower on the front of the invitation.

7.) What was great about creating my own stamp for the wedding invitations was that I could now use those stamps on everything. Again with the help of my bridesmaids we stamped blue and yellow flowers on table cards, table numbers, RSVP cards, programs and various other things that will be set up around the reception.

Not every card is perfect and there are definitely ones with smudges but they are all hand-stamped and made with love :)