Welcome to Thursday and today with the help of FWS Vendor La Tartine, we are getting our DIY wedding skills on as they show us how to create some fun and colourful DIY Inked Wedding Envelopes. These envelopes were actually created by La Tartine members Casey Jayne and Cyril Roger for their own wedding.

DIY Inked Wedding Envelopes

For our wedding, Cyril and I decided to go all out on the invitations. We wanted to make our mark on the envelopes, and so these babies were born. They are unique, totally beautiful, and so easy that it ended up being a fun family day when we made them - nieces included!

What you'll need:

-Drawing gum (available at your local craft store, or order online)
-Thin, pointed, wooden rods (think s'mores sticks or vegetable kebobs)
-Envelopes
-Various colors of ink (or whatever you choose to use : watercolor paint, coffee, etc...)
-Paint brushes (They don't need to be a good quality, but we suggest allotting one brush to each color, as the ink never really comes out no matter how much you rinse)
-something to cover your work surface

Start by using the wooden rod like an ink pen - dip it in the drawing gum (Cyril prefers to make a small well of liquid gum on his work surface while I just dip right into jar) and write directly on your paper. Make sure your lines are relatively thick because if they are too thin, they won't appear well on the final stage. Don't panic if you make a mistake! You can just wait for the gum to dry and rub it off before starting over.

Things to note : Eventually, the gum will dry a little on the point of the wooden rod. To keep a consistent look, you should clear off the dried gum every once in awhile. Also, don't leave the jar open for too long- your gum will start to harden right in the jar!

Wait for the gum to dry COMPLETELY before moving on to the next step - it should only take a few minutes.

Now it's time for color and creativity! There are many techniques for adding color, but we'll show you a few we loved :

For a "stained" look, first wet the envelope with a clean brush. Add just a little ink to the wet paper. As long as the paper is wet, the ink will bleed, giving a really cool effect. If you wish, you can add a second color, letting the two mix together.

You can let the ink dry as is, or experiment with blotting the ink with a paper towel to get another effect.

Another tip : avoid using colors that are too light directly over your lettering (like pale pinks or yellow). The contrast may not be enough to make it easy to read what you've written.

Mixing your ink with different amounts of water opens up an entirely new scale of color possibilities. Here, Cyril mixed a little bit of red with some water to get a nice, light pink. Starting with dry paper, and not too much water on his brush, he was able to control his colors, the ink drying almost instantly on the paper. He then mixed the pink with a watered-down black, to make sure the final product would be easily readable.

When the ink is completely dry, you can start lightly rubbing off the gum.

And voilà! Like magic, your lettering is pure white, in the center of your inked work. We used this for our envelopes, but it could of course be used for anything : place cards, favors, menus, decoration... the list is endless!

Thank you to Casey Jayne and Cyril Roger are two members of the trio La Tartine, specializing in wedding and event music. To hear a little of what they do, visit their site at www.latartinemusique.com