Cordially Invited Part 1

My brain is like wedding soup. Ideas tend to float around quicker than I can pick them up and shovel them into my mouth. But here and there I manage to pick out one of the larger pieces. We can start with one of the more well-formed potato chunks.

The invitation.

Sak and I were milling around San Francisco again this morning, on our quest for $350 dollars worth of black canvas. We'll be ready for that giant carrot later on, though. Across the ways we eyed a dangerous word: paper.

Kelly Paper Store, to be exact. Now, we had seen the mecca that is Paper Source earlier, and filtered through the paltry offerings at the local Office Depot's and Max's, but this - this was what we were looking for all along. A warehouse.

We eagerly threw in a few bucks to feed the outrageous SF parking meter (only to find the free lot across the street...), and walked into the store. The clerk greeted us, and asked if we needed help.

"THIS IS OUR FIRST TIME HERE." I boldy stated. He smiled, and motioned that we should take a look around. Paper everywhere! We went through each aisle, and under each ream of paper was an open stack of samples. You could buy the ream, or just a few sheets, your choice. They even had an invitation center where you could custom order pre-made sets, or cuts of your own choosing.

I drooled around the store greedily, and Sak followed, happily eyeing the reasonable prices.

We came out with a 250-sheet ream of 80 lb., 8.5x11"-sized black linen cardstock.

On the way out the door, I noted to Sak, "We will be back."

"For all our paper needs." He agreed, sounding much like a commercial.

Of course, we then went home to experiment.

Here's the "schematic":


And here's our mockup:
(Names have been smudged out to hide the anonymous.) Now, I'll get into the details in another post, but I'm proud to present the papery breakdown (not including inserts):

1 1/3 sheets of black linen = 21 cents
1/2 sheet of white linen = 10 cents
1"x11" strip of leftover washi paper = ~10 cents

So far our invite comes to a total of 41 cents! Yay! I wonder how much more envelopes, stamps and inserts will cost?

A Fresh Page to Turn

Before I post about my secret new toy, I think we should spend a moment to discuss a detail so minute that probably no one but an obsessive planner would care about: paper.

After seeing all the luscious, rich papery goodness Paper-Source had to offer, I decided to get some testing-paper of my own. Sak dutifully steered me away from luxe paper stores and towards the local Michaels and Office Depot.

Browsing the scrapbook paper selections can be drool-inducing, but all-in-all too expensive to use for mass productions. I left the craft store with four sheets of shiny pearl-white card stock, four for a dollar.

Next was the office supply store.

Sak: "Now, don't get your hopes up. Remember they didn't have that red paper you wanted last time."

Mic: "Ohh. Re-Entry Red..." *cringes*

Luckily, however, their selection of normal, bleached papers was much better. They had a little booklet attached to the shelf, with samples of the different paper types. I stood there rubbing the little things with my mouth hanging open.

Mic: "Ohh, this one feels nice. Sak, come feel this."

Sak did his best to ignore me as a store clerk looked over at the crazy lady feeling up the paper samples.

I grabbed a ream of the 67 pound white bristol vellum card stock. Now to be honest, I didn't know what the whole poundage thing was about. It was good that I didn't order online, cause I probably would have ended up with something a lot flimsier or thicker than needed. Sak gave me a basic rundown - the poundage is how much a specified number of sheets of a certain size weigh. So 500 8.5 x 11" printer sheets will have a lower poundage than 500 8.5 x 11" card stock sheets. This turns out to be a really simplified explanation though - so for more depth you can check out the crowd favorite Wikipedia (here).

Next we walked to the resume paper aisle. I remember the first batch of resume paper I bought, a beautiful stony cream color. That paper helped me get my job, so I have a fondness for the stuff. After once again touching all the samples, I grabbed a stack of 65 pound white linen paper. Not as durable as the card stock, but the texture is to die for.

Now that I have some materials to play with, time to crank up the idea-o-meter!

What kind of paper are you using? Do you have a favorite?