As I sit down to type the directions as to how I made my own pocketfold invitations, I realize that to describe this is going to be much like trying to establish written directions for tying one’s shoes: it’s not easy to describe! But – here goes nothing!

Before you begin… – I purchased most of my supplies at various scrapbook stores. Scrapbooking stores mainly sell paper that is 12x12 inches in area. These pocketfold invites would have been much simpler to make if only I could have found 12x15 inch cardstock, but alas, this is what I had to work with. I used a quilting ruler (clear, about 5x7inches with coloured lines demarcating each square inch – available in the fabric department of WalMart) and a hobby/exacto knife (like a scalpel) to make most of my cuts and a Fiskars paper trimmer (picture 2, below) to make some of the longer straightforward cuts. We bought a Fiskars “scoring” blade (picture 1, below) at Michael’s Craft store to help make the folds on the invite look more professional, this is nice to have, but not need to have.. Find the envelopes you plan to use first. The size of your envelope will ultimately affect the dimensions of your invite. Don’t design an invitation first and then try to find a good envelope to fit it later!

Step 1 – We purchased 5 x 7 inch envelopes for the main invite and smaller 3.5 x 5.5 envelopes for the reply cards.

Step 2 – I made a mockup of the overall invite design in powerpoint and made a template using a scrap piece of white cardstock. The dimensions of the template were determined by the size of the envelope. The design is based on a 12 x 7 rectangle with a separate piece added on to make the pocketfold. To fit the envelope, we had to fold the rectangle so that the end size was approximately 5 x 7 inches. To do this, our fold lines were at 4.125 inches from the bottom and 9.25 inches from the bottom. You also want to keep in mind that once folded, you want the bottom (folded-up) part of the invite and the top (pointed edge) part of the invite to overlap nicely.

Step 3 – Cut your main cardstock: Again, I used 12 x12 solid sage cardstock. First cut was to make the 12 x 7 inch rectangle. This formed the main invite. The angle of the pointy bit was determined from what we thought looked nicest. It ended up being about a 70 degree angle, I think. The residual 5 x 12 inch piece of sage cardstock was cut into a 3.125 x 7 inch rectangle. From that 3.125 x 7 inch rectangle, I cut the pocketfold to be added on to the main invite. The triangular “cut out” on the pocketfold was the mirror image of the pointy bit on the main invite.

Step 4 – Fold the main 12 x 7 invite into 3 folds. We scored the invite first and then folded it in on itself.

Step 5 – Cut slits for the ribbon. I used the exacto knife here and wouldn’t recommend trying to do this with scissors if you want it to look professional and clean. The cuts were made on the two fold lines of the main invite in the centre of the invite and were 1 inch long each. This is difficult to describe, but when you cut, err on the side of the invite where the text will be. This is so that the ribbon doesn’t pull on the invitation when the invite is shut.

Step 6 – Cut the background “mat” paper. I used 12 x 12 inch patterned scrapbook paper, not cardstock. I couldn’t decide which background I wanted to use – so I ended up buying several different patterns! Although all the invites coordinate with one another – they are not all identical. You can get 3 mat pieces from each 12 x 12 sheet (so you need 1/3 as much patterned paper as you did cardstock). The mats I made were 4.75 x 6 and 5/8 inches in size.

Step 7 - Cut the ribbon. I used ribbon that was about 5 eighths of an inch wide. Each invite needs a piece of ribbon that is 0.75 metres long. After cutting the ribbon, I fed it through the two slits I had cut. I adhered it in the middle of the invite with a double-sided photo tab (available at scrapbook stores and photo developing stores). See pic 1, below:

Step 8 - Adhere the mat. The key to professional looking DIY invites is to use good adhesive. I used double-stick photo tabs and glue stick. I put the adhesive tabs in each of the four corners of the mat and in the middle of the long edge with glue stick in between the tabs and along the edges.

Step 9 - Turn the extra piece of paper into your pocketfold. I used double-sided tape for this. I can’t remember where I purchased it…but I have heard that a good source is framing supply stores. The first two pics below show me tracing the pocketfold template and cutting it out using the exacto knife (don’t forget to put a self-healing cutting mat down onto your table!). Picture 3 shows how I adhered the double-stick tape to the pocketfold on the inside of the invite. Picture 4 is the finished pocketfold holding an envelope:

Step 10 - Print the invite text using a colour printer onto 8.5 x 11 inch light coloured cardstock (in my case, a creamy/ivory colour). You should be able to get at least 2 pieces of invite text from one sheet of 8.5 x 11 inch cardstock. Our invite text pieces are 4 x 6.125 inches in dimension. Adhere the invite text the same way that you adhered the mat.

Step 11 - Add inserts (reception cards, reply cards, maps). Make sure that any of these items you make will fit comfortably into the little pocket.

The invites will end up having cost about $3.25 per invitation. This doesn't include buying the scoring blade from Fiskars and stamping and embellishing products, which actually tend to be the more expesive items, but since I scrapbook, I can re-use those things later! Here's a breakdown:

12 x 12 inch sage cardstock is about $0.95 per sheet – you need one per invite.
12 x 12 inch sage patterned paper is also about $1 per sheet – you need one per every 3 invites.
Ivory ribbon is about $0.50 per metre – you need 0.75 metres per invite.
8.5 x 11 inch cream/ivory cardstock for invite text is about $0.65 per sheet – you need one for every 2 invites.
Envelopes - I bought mine at "Essence du Papier" which is a little specialty paper section in Sears - they were $0.65 per 5x7 envelope and $0.60 for the RSVP envelope.
You will need additional cardstock for any reply cards, reception cards etc.

Add-ons – embellishments, stamps and stamping pads etc...all are at extra cost but add a nice touch to the invite too.

I decided to emboss clear snowflakes onto each invite at the top corner of the pocketfold on the inside of the invite...and then decided to dress up the backside of the invite a bit too, by heat embossing a larger clear snowflake.

Heat embossing is really easy. You need a stamp pad (pigment based only - not dye-based. You need a pigment-based pad because the ink dries a bit slower and gives you more time to work. I used a sage coloured stamp pad and clear embossing powder, this gave the snowflakes a clear, wet look. You can buy embossing powder in numerous colours though and some are pearlized or glittery. Step 1 (see pic below) - stamp the desired image in your pad and apply to the paper. Step 2 - apply the embossing powder. I find the easiest way to do this is to put the powder in a little bowl and then scoop it on with a disposable plastic spoon. Tap off the excess powder back into your bowl. Step 3 - melt the embossing powder with a heat gun. Mine is a Marvy Uchida heat embossing gun (about $40 at Michael's Crafts). It only takes a couple of seconds to melt the powder...be careful here because it is possible to "over-emboss" (e.g. melt the powder into a gooey mass).

Our inserts: reply card and (our version) of the Big Day time-line. Some may view the timeline as a bit too casual and informal to include with the invites themselves but we don't mind breaking away from the formality a little bit:

By the way: our font is called "Blackjack" and was downloaded from www.fontfreak.com. Another great site for downloading free fonts is www.dafont.com. I actually prefer dafont.com: more user-friendly.