Eileen

Make Keepsake Wedding Invitations

You can emboss or stencil your own wedding invitations and save “beaucoup dinero”. The fact that they were hand made makes them even more precious and collectible.

Fiskars ShapeBoss system features many stencil sets that would be suitable for embossing or coloring your invitations.

There are elegant borders and flourishes, flowers, Victorian designs and alphabets. Stenciled letters have their limitations because of the need to hold the plastic template together. Fiskars has the only alphabet stencils that I feel would be formal enough for a wedding invitation.

Heritage Handcrafts makes brass stencils that are suitable for embossing. The brass allows for more finely detailed designs than plastic. I found a good selection by clicking here or here.

eBay also has some offers for Heritage Handcraft stencils and specifically a stencil called “Wedding”. However there are no photos so you would have to take a chance.

Thinking “outside the box”, I have a couple of other ideas you might want to look into. WeddingClipArt.com sells ready-made and editable card templates using popular file formats, like Microsoft Word. Just one click will download the template to your local hard drive for editing.

By combining images and templates, you can create a personalized, highly coordinated and sophisticated look for all your wedding artwork, from invitations to thank you’s, and from photo albums to business cards. WeddingClipArt.com’s templates are designed for you to print your cards using your computer printer. But I don’t see why you couldn’t use the design to cut your own stencil template. You need a cutting mat (link), a very sharp craft knife (link), a stencil blank and a steady hand.

If you lack the steady hand or the self-confidence to tackle cutting your own stencil, SCM Engraving Company has a product that can do this for you. They sell 8 ½ by 11 inch adhesive backed sheets that use a copy machine or laser printer to reproduce artwork to a stencil for engraving.

The company says, “Simply copy or print your design onto the stencil film sheet, peel off the backing to expose the adhesive and place on the surface you wish to engrave.”

Now since you do not want to do a single engraving but rather multiple copies using a stencil, you would copy your invitation onto two of the adhesive backed sheets with one of them in reverse. Rather than sticking the top sheet onto a “surface you wish to engrave”, you would very very carefully line it up and stick it onto the reverse version of your design.

You would have to deal with pieces that “fall out”. There are two ways to do that. You can eliminate them in the design itself before having it copied. If that results in too stenciled (cut-up) a look, you can deal with the “fall out” by creating stencils within stencils.

For example, if the interior of your rose falls out of the main stencil, make a mini-stencil of the rose’s interior. Obviously, it will be easier to keep your design simple – simply elegant. The engraving sheets are 75 cents each or $60 for 100. See this clever product by clicking here.

Reader’s Letter of the Month

I have a question about polymer clay glosses. I have seen people write in their descriptions of their beads that a non-toxic gloss was used. What brands of glosses/glazes are non-toxic? Thank you!!

Tina

It’s not the brand but rather the specific formula that counts. Most manufacturers offer several variations of waxes, glazes and glosses. Further, clay artists use finishes “off-brand”, that is they use products not specifically intended for use with polymer clay. Some contain toxic ingredients and others don’t.

You need to look for any cautions on the package. With materials of this type, the most common toxic ingredients are volatile solvents. The package will warn to avoid contact with skin, to use only in a well-ventilated area and to avoid breathing the fumes.

I don’t understand the necessity of noting that a non-toxic gloss was used on beads because, once cured, the volatile solvents have evaporated. Unless the artist is concerned a buyer may try to eat the beads? Or maybe it’s just a marketing gimmick.

Examples of glazes which contain toxic ingredients are Golden UVLS and most crackle finishes. If you have any concerns, ask for the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) when you are trying a new glaze. Law requires that the MSDS be provided upon request. If you are concerned about preserving the color of your clay pieces, be sure your glaze has UV protection (like Golden UVLS).

The most popular products used to glaze polymer clay seem to be: finishes designed specifically for polymer clay like Fimo’s or Sculpey’s; clear liquid clays like Translucent Liquid Sculpey applied in thin layers; Rustoleum’s Varathane acrylic polyurethane (previously sold as Flecto); Future floor polish or other acrylic floor polishes; Aristocrat’s Liquid Glass; UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Powder); or diluted PVA white glue.

On a Sadder Note

It pains me to tell you that my dear friend and contributor to this site, Kay Davies, passed away May 15 after a brief illness.

Kay was a devout Christian and a very intelligent and gifted artist. She authored a Christian website in the 90s before retiring.

When she heard we were building a website, she jumped right in with suggestions, guidance and encouragement. Some of our first pages featured her decoupage and collage work.

Next I started referring our readers’ decoupage questions to her and she kindly answered them all, often throwing in little extra tidbits like her recipe for bread dough clay and then, of course, her recipe for bread pudding to be made with the leftover crusts.

Kay was charming, gracious and generous to a fault.

Our condolences go to Peter, Kay’s devoted husband of 20 years, and to their children, Mark and Chris. They were especially blessed to have Kay in their lives; but that must make their loss that much harder to bear.