Now, not sure if most of you know, but I am somewhat of a ‘overachiever’ I suppose you could say. Lets take for instance ny school days. My poster boards were always the biggest and the flashiest. My projects were always over the top. I would cram in every little detail I could until I could cram no longer. If I could make it better, I would. No settling for the ho-hum. I am a big believer in the ‘whole experience’ theory. People may not remember every last detail, but they WILL remember that there was something that made it special and just different enough to actually remember. This is how I live most of my life. I just like things the way I like them. If it’s coming from me (and I had the time) nothing is half-assed! I want everything perfect down to the last detail. I suppose it’s somewhat anal or OCD, but I promise, this is the only aspect of my life this way. Just ask my fam. (especially my sis who just helped me throw our open house/Mike’s bday party!)
Anyho, down to the point. I found an idea for some address labels (another small detail most would just over look, but of course not me) for our Save the Dates that I feel in love with. They were just awesome….and different than anything I had seen before.
Wrap Around Address Labels!
Check these out courtesy of MadeByAPrincess on Etsy
Super cute right? They are one solid strip and you wrap them around the envelope so the send to address is on the front and your return address ends up on the back.
Well, I loved them and just HAD to have it. SO, I contacted the Etsy seller to purchase a PDF file so I could use the bad boys! But of course, I needed coordinating colors to match my STD’s. The yellow worked, but I wanted a grey damask instead of black. Apparently, this was harder to do than I thought. It took a few days and a few extra bucks but she finally got back to me with the finished product.
I was very pleased
The damask was a little different from what I had planned, but overall, I they were perfect!
So, as you can see it came with five labels to the page. NOW the question was….do I go somewhere to get them printed and cut? Do I use regular paper? How will I attach them to the envelopes? and is this the right size I need for the envelopes I had? Yeesh! Soooo, I did some research online. Well folks, this must be a pretty new thing cause there ain’t much out there on what to do with wrap around address labels. Eventually I found some good info….Some just printed them out at home on full sticker sheets, cut them out and stuck ’em on. Others wanted them printed on cardstock for a more luxurious feel and either made them into stickers or used spray adhesive.
My first move was to go to Office Depot (or one of those places) and find out some costs. Too much! Well, I thought at least to have to go somewhere, take a file then either wait forever or come back to pick them up. I’d rather spend the money on some stuff to cut them out and stick them so I have it for later use…so off to Michael’s I went. I purchased a paper cutter (with an extra blade that perforates for the fold), a Xyron which makes things into a sticker (they come in all sizes!) and some white cardstock. I had decided to DIY these suckers!
That Sunday I got to work. Printing them was a breeze. Addressing them wasn’t hard but not pleasent. I decided to actually address them by hand because I heard that was the ‘right’ thing to do for something of this nature. Anyway….the cutting was stressful, gave me cramps in my hands and was oh so time consuming! After all were cut, I ran them all back through with the perforating blade where I was going to ‘wrap’ them around the envelope. Then it was time for the Xyron which is actually pretty cool! You just crank it through this contraption and it makes it into a sticker! So after I had done only 20, I realized that the cartridge doesn’t go on forever…apparently only long enough for 20. GREAT! Now I had to venture back to the store for like 4 more refills. I eventually got all of them done but I will say it was more of a headache than I ever imagined!
If I do say so myself, they turned out great. Just as I envisioned! The only thing I would have changed was to use a nice silver envelope. Or maybe yellow.
I got some fun new gadgets to use on all my other wedding projects I have swimming around in my head. Let me tell you….it’s a lot!! So stay tuned! I have already used the paper cutter many times since.
We Met in a Bar 