DIY Tutorial: FREE Printable – Vintage Iron Wedding Invitation and Pocket PLUS Enter to Win 250 Doilies Featured in the Tutorial.

This Competition is now Closed

Today I am delighted to welcome back Anna from Download and Print to the blog with this rather gorgeous Vintage Iron Wedding Invitation and Pocket. Anna’s tutorials have proven to be incredibly popular on the blog, so today not only ar we giving you this FREE printable but also the chance to win 250 of the Doilies featured, so you can make your own invitations.  All the details of the competition are at the end of the post.

• You can download the FREE Printable HERE

I’ll pass you over to Anna……….

Hi there Boho brides. I’m a little excited about today’s DIY invitation project and I want to dive right in, but feel I should set the scene first and make a couple of announcements. Vintage chic is so on point at the moment, a couple of my vintage designs are big downloads over at Download & Print, and I’ve been wanting to try making a pocket from a doily for ages to go with the vintage style. I envisioned an aged lace look doily housing a gorgeous vintage invitation and stocked up on paper doilies to start experimenting. Well, all my brilliant ideas to stain the doily took too darn long or just looked drab. I sponged on cold tea, I baked the doilies, I tried wet coffee grounds (believe me, there are plenty of coffee grounds around D&P HQ to experiment with!), I tried lemon juice, orange juice and any combination of the above that you can think of. It was all just blah. So the doilies have been sitting in my office for months, doing nothing to inspire me, unless inspiring a little resentment counts.

Until now! I took a can of black spray paint to the doilies and ended up with a vintage wrought iron look. I love it. And it pairs wonderfully with any vintage design. For today’s tutorial I created an invitation and RSVP inspired by the doilies I had on hand for a perfectly coordinated look. As always, the template downloads are free to Boho brides. I used doilies from Papermart, and you can find similar doilies at Party at Lewis and Amazon.

• To get you started on this project I’m giving you the chance to win 250 doilies! See the bottom of the post for entry details. 

And speaking of prizes, if this vintage design isn’t perfect for your wedding, enter to win a 10-piece custom invitation template suite designed by yours truly. I have a little competition called #PinToPaper running through the end of this month on every bride’s favorite pastime, Pinterest. You simply pin items you LOVE to win invitations you LOVE. I’ll be using the winning pinboard as inspiration when designing the stationery. Get all the juicy details here.

So now, lets dive into the vintage iron invitation and pocket. If you prefer to follow along with a video tutorial you are in luck, as you can view all the steps right here. Or keep reading for the written instructions.

• FREE printable template HERE
• 10” square paper doilies (see notes above for vendors)
• 160 mm square envelope for invitation (as seen here)
• 13 mm square envelope for RSVP (as seen here)
• Spray paint – MUST BE COMPATIBLE WITH PAPER

STEP 1) Prepare the Wrought Iron Pocket – First up is to prepare the wrought iron pocket. This requires nothing more than a can of spray paint and your 10” square doilies. I used Krylon paint in flat black but you can use any colour that you like. Spray paint comes in various metallic sheens like copper, gold and silver, which would all look lovely with the vintage themed invitation.  Just make sure the paint can be used on paper.

Set up in a well ventilated area covering anything that you don’t want sprayed black (including pets, Conan the office wiener dog was the victim of my wayward spraying). Spray both sides of each doily using long sweeping motions across the doily. Don’t spray too close, but don’t worry too much about perfection. I experimented a little and decided I liked a light covering with imperfections best. A little white showing through gave a mottled effect, which added to the character of the piece.

It took me about one minute to spray each doily. The paint dries fast and I was able to flip the doily over and spray the reverse immediately. Allow 10 minutes for the paint to completely dry before you handle the doily too much.

STEP 2) Download, Print & Trim – Download the template file and open in MS Word or Mac pages. Each page contains an invitation, RSVP, and the name badge. Add your wedding details and print on A4 paper. I chose the fonts Engravers MT and Old Script which can be downloaded for free at the links provided. Make sure you have these fonts installed on your computer before opening Word. You can use any fonts that you like however.

Trim each piece along the cut lines using a straight edge cutter or scissors.

STEP 3) Assemble – Now for the smoke and mirrors in this amazingly simple yet effective technique. Place a couple of strips of double sided tape on the back of an invitation and adhere it to the center of a doily on the diagonal. The doilies I used had a solid square in the center for me to line up with but if yours don’t just eyeball the placement. Sit an RSVP and RSVP envelope on top.

Fold each doily side in, creasing it along the edge of the invitation.

Fold the bottom of the doily up, and finally fold down the top flap to make a square pocket.

STEP 4) Finish with a Belly Band – Cut a length of ribbon long enough to wrap around the invitation pocket and overlap slightly. Use a strip of double sided tape to secure the ribbon overlap together and trim the ribbon tail if need be. Place a piece of double sided tape on the back of the name tag and stick this to the center of the ribbon.

And there you have it, a faux wrought iron vintage invitation that is sure to stand out and be a fun package for your guests to receive in the mail.

How to win the 250 doilies

If you love this invitation and want to try it for your own wedding, I’m giving away 250 of the doilies that I used in this project to get you started on your DIY masterpiece.

• Simply leave a comment on this post telling me that you want to win! I’ll pick a name at random in two weeks and will be in touch to get your shipping information. Good luck!

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